They’re all in dead last place when it comes to range, tracking, speed, and survivability.
They do the most damage, but it’s only 6.6% more than what the Caldari drones do. Said Caldari drones having double the eHP value of their Gallente equivalents while also having more range, better accuracy, and being faster.
What am I missing? Why are Gallente drones built out of rusty tin cans? Someone please enlighten me.
Because a while ago CCP finally realised that “always bring Gallente drones” was a bit terrible and they rebalanced them.
If that were an implant you’d pay billions for it. And that is then how it’s balanced because, being Gallente, they DO have the highest damage but it’s not a simple and clear win all the time every time.
I’ve been suggesting new players to use Caldari drones for most situations for a while now, if only because they are easier to use due to high shield giving players more time to realise they got aggro and pull them in, while the majority of their HP also regens on its own. Almost every time that gets backlash from people who are clueless or still living in the pre-rebalanced past.
Yep, it is definitely way easier to use Caldari drones…
Everything in the game is built out of rusty tin cans. Did you see the ships? One thorn and they explode like party baloons. Hundreds of years in the future but the empires haven’t figured out how to work with titanium. The drones must be made out of Coca-Cola cans.
Unless you’re fighting against T2 Caldari no one ever exclusively tanks for thermal dmg, hobgoblins and hammerheads will always be ahead of the drone pack.
I figured it had to have been some kind of poor rebalancing power creep/nerf.
No it actually made good sense.
Gallente drones could probably stand a slight balance pass so that they’re not quite as bad as they currently are.
I honestly wish they’d remove drones from most ships. Not sure why virtually every ship has a drone bay.
Yes it did.
But still… it totally sucked to have to train the other drone specializations on all my Gallente and Guristas characters.
Mr Epeen 
They serve a twofold purpose: combat and utility. So it’s hard to scrap them just from a utility standpoint.
Not really just create a combat drone bay and a utility drone bay.
Then it comes down to what’s defined as a “utility” vs. “combat” drone. Seems like more trouble than its worth…
Not really?
Yes, in the grand scheme of “things that need to be fixed” - this wouldn’t rate a very high priority…
I assume most of the larger ships that have some drone space are intended to field a minor Light Drone defensive screen agaisnt Frigates. Otherwise these smaller targets would rush in past their guns with impunity. Also Salvage Drones.
That’s not really a thing anymore with the buff to things like target painters and webs.
It’s pretty much a requirement on anything larger than a cruiser. To hit close-range or orbiting NPC frigates on a battleship, you need short-range weapons and a stasis web+grappler.
No reason you can’t use web with the Drones. :>
Small Drones are also good at killing other Drones as well thanks to their high tracking rates.
Not sure why the Catalyst doesn’t have one. A Gallente destroyer without drones is like a Farragut-class destroyer without torpedoes.