Drone Guide : EVE Online General Discussions

Here are some of the basic skills you need to be really effective at using drones:
Drones to Level 5
Scout Drones to Level 4 or 5 (I suggest 5 so you can use t2 drones)
Drone Interfacing to Level 4(20% more dmg per lvl)
Combat drones to Level 3 or 4(5%dmg a lvl)
Heavy drones to 3 or 4 (useful for taking out battleships)
Sentry drones to 3 ( basically a heavy drone with more damage, range, but can't move)

PVE or missions- Once you warp in, let the npc's lock onto you so that way the pirates don't go after your precious drones. Once all the pirates in the curret pocket, asteroid belt, etc. have locked onto you, release your piranas, I mean drones and let them engage the target. They tend to wander around and start randomly shooting things, so you may have to recall them often.
PVP- Drones can mean the difference between life and death. Stay away from people who use smart bombs, as they can seriously damage your drones. If the attack choses to go after you just shoot with you guns and drones. But, Id he decides to go after your drones, reacall them frequently, as he will have a hard time relocking them and get frustrated.

Some of the great drone ships are mostly gallante but there are some more.
Arbitrator and it's t2 variants is one of the only non- gallante effective drone carrier.


Drone guide Part 2- Carebear drones.

So you're interested in mining and need a boost in the isk flow. Well I got your answer! Mining dones! Basically they orbit the targeted asteroid and mine it. After a minute, it will return to your ship and dump the ore into your cargo hold.
Skillz you will need to be efficent-
Drones to 5 (hey 5 mining drones=$$)
Drone Interfacing to 4 (20% extra mining yield a lvl and that means $$)
Mining Drone Operation to 5 (5% extra yield a lvl and you can use t2 drones at lvl 5)

Basically you just lock a roid, release your drones and tell them to mine repeatedly. Word of warning, if any rats appear, call them back, they have only 1 amour hp.

Mining drones to buy-
Civillian Mining Drone-10m3 a trip, skip these, they aren't worth buying
t1 Mining drone- 15m3 a trip, these are the drones to use if you don't have mining drone operation to 5
t2 mining drone- 25m3 a trip, these are the best ones on the market
Harvester drone- 30m3 a trip, STAY AWAY FROM THESE!! sure 30m3 is good, but the speed sucks! only 200m a sec, while te t1 drone goes 400m a sec. Also, look at the volume! 10m3 instead on 5 m3! If that doesn't convince you, look at the dam price!! 15 mil a drone. And mining drone go pop in less than a second if they are under attack, so unless you're dumb don't buy them!

Nice nice

Some other things:

PvP - If engaged by someone using drones whilst at gates/stations attacking the drones will cause them to maintain agression. This will stop your target from being able to de-agress and jump out of system or dock up.

Drones work like FoF missiles. If you are engaged whilst they are in space they will automatically attack the agressor - this is handy when facing enemies that have EW.

If you use sentry drones then fitting omnidirectional tracking computers to your mid slots will increase their range and tracking giving a greater chance of hitting smaller ships such as frigates - it also has the added benefit of increasing the accuracy of shots so damage is also incresaed.

PvE if you have a good tank then agress the entire spawn, wait till they are 'red box' agressed ie actually shooting at you - npcs never cycle targets, you are then safe to launch your drones safe in the knowledge they wont be shot at.

'Return drone to drone bay' will instantly fully recharge a drones shield to 100% when it docks, drones that are taking damage should be returned and relaunched to restore their hitpoints. VERY effective when engaging a target who's only chance to live is to destroy your drones.

Damage Types

Minmatar Spec - Explosive
Gallente Spec - Thermal
Amarr Spec - EM
Caldari Spec - Kinetic

I personally use Minmatar/Amarr drones mostly. EM damage is good against shield tanked ships, Explosive is good against most Armor tanked ships.

Dont underestimate the power of EW drones. They have to potential to decide they outcome of PvP battles.