Guide to PvP Droning *Expertz Only*

[gizmojack]

Lets face it, playing droner in PvP is not easy.
So I thought a PvP guide will be handy for droners who dun have much PvP experience yet. Veteran droners are welcome to add their own strategies. I suppose this thread can be moved over to Newbie help after enough ideas have been passed around.

FAQ
1) Is the atk rating of drone impt?
Testing out 125% vs 168%(maxed) drone damage on a lvl 50+ tank. The difference in damage was less than 20.
Not really worth the point investment, so dun pump into WPW purely. Go get research/construct tradeskill as well. RCL however, is VERY impt.

2) Should I get stealth?
Yes. Constituition sucks for spies, without stealth you will die trying to run away. At LEAST have a hovertech if you u dun have stealth yet.

BASIC KNOWLEDGE
3) Drones you can use ->
Only 2 worth using for serious PvP. (KAMI) Revenge and (Particle Drone) Particle Nemesis.

4) How to hide ->
Uneven terrain and trees are your friends.
When you enter a sector look at your mini-map for hills(light patch) & valleys(dark patch). Head for those areas, find a nice spot and drone away.
Do not stand ON TOP of the hill. You will be spotted easily. Instead hide behind the ridge of the hill. Also try to hide behind trees.

5) How to atk ->
Launch drone from far. Fly high and come vertically down on the enemy so he has no idea from which direction the drone came from, and since your shooting downwards, all shots count as headshots and deal more damage. Always keep moving, the advantage of drones is that they dun need time to aim. Remember you are a freaking small target in the sky, if you keep moving you will be hard to aim. Ever tried killing a black roach? Same concept.

6) How to run ->
If you get hit while droning. Immediately drop your drone and stealth. While stealthed, use medkits in quickbelt to heal.
And if you are stunned, eat an antistun pill (always have one in qb). If you survive, relocate and relaunch. Most of the time you die though ;)

PVP TACTICS

A) Killing stealth units:
When a PE/Spy stealths, fly up so you can have an aerial view. When they reappear, swoop down and atk.

Sometimes you can drop your PN and use it as bait.
If your PN dissappears from the floor, it means the stealth unit picked it up, so swoop in with your Revenge and explode.

B) Killing PPUs:
Extremely Hard.
The only thing that deals enough damage is the Revenge drone.

Kami the ppu when he is rezing his teamates. That way he is not moving, and he can't heal cause he is casting his rez spell.

Alternatively, you can get him when his buffs run out.

That said theres not much point in atking a PPU. Most of the time i ignore them and go for other targets.

[Lafiel]

experts only?

[Serpent]

WOW very nice :)

MORE MORE MORE......

[Ormy]

1 droner = good advantage in a team fight

2 droners = teh pwn

With two droners, you can make sure you always have a drone in the sky, which both confuses and frustrates your opponents, and you can both kami a ppu and the same time, which should at least leave him a sitting duck for your main attackers.

If possible, hide near the zone's edge, so you can quickly zone and lose whoever may be chasing you easily.

As said drones are very small, and if you hide in a tree, behind a building etc it can be very difficult to spot, let alone target the drone.

Happy droning :)

[Bob Monkhouse]

Use 3rd person view when attacking from above, this way you can fire almost straight down vertically.

If you are fighting a lone stealther, get in close and follow the blue haze, then shoot from close range. This takes a LOT of practice and an element of luck. (no 1cm high "Mighty anti drone molehills" in the terrain to stop your drone)

After launching, climb as high as you can, preferably keeping your drone behind cover, fly over the top of your enemy (drones are invisible at max height) and attack from a random vector. This confuses the enemy. When disengaging, always lead the enemy AWAY from your meatsack. A drone is worth less than your life. You can always drop it if it becomes impractical to recover a drone.

Never fear a lone tank. A lone tank is already dead if a clever droner catches them in the open.

If you attack an APU, attack from right on top of them, and make a sustained attack from this position. If you manouvere away from directly overhead they will get an easy bead on you and using their ludicrous HL spell fry your little drone.

Change position often, and if you see an enemy drone of a PvP capable nature, be prepared to drop and scoot.

Remember, that lovely niche you have found may not be the best place to hide. If your enemy is familiar with the terrain they will run to check out the most likely hiding places. Sometimes it is better to find a less obvious spot to hide. As long as it provides protection from LoS from most angles, you can often survive longer than if you chose that "perfect" little place you saw earlier. (As I found out by hiding in a tunnel in a_06 early in my droning days, OUCH).

If attacking multiple opponents, go for monks, then stealthers then tanks. Monks are the only class (apart from other drones) that threaten your drone. Stealthers, if you lose track of them, can search a sector with impunity and find YOU. Tanks and other non stealthers are easy to kill, and if they get to close to you, drop and run.

That about all I can think of, I dont do OP wars so I can't offer much specific advice for those.

Edit. One point about WPW. If you pump all points into WPW, you can achieve a sickening range with your PN. Range allows you more combat options, so if you have access to good tradeskillers, I would invest heavily in WPW. I also seem to be faster and more agile with more WPW, though this may be wishful thinking.

[Archeus]

Local list is cone based. You can be as high as you like but if you get too close on the X/Y axis the enemy will spot you.

2 good Droners are more lethal then an APU/PPU combo.

[Bob Monkhouse]

If you are high enough, your drone will not appear on Local AFAIK.
A PN can easily get enough height to drift unseen across a zone.

[craio]

Not much of a tip but, whatever you do try to keep enough distance from stun turrets,those things kill drones faster then the gatling ones.

[G.0.D.]

Arnt PB-20's good for pvp?

[zonk]

They are, only this thread is called Experts only :)

Gonna try to use mah droner with revenge drones @ big OP balltes, defending.

[gizmojack]

Originally posted by Ormy
1 droner = good advantage in a team fight

2 droners = teh pwn

If possible, hide near the zone's edge, so you can quickly zone and lose whoever may be chasing you easily.


Forgot to mention that standing near zone edge is good for retreating. Thx Ormy for mentioning ;)

And 2 droners make a BIG differance instead of 1. 2 PNs are only scared of PPUs. Anything else is in big trouble.
And double KAMI will kill/ heavily damage any target, even PPUs.

Another tactic:
Forgot to mention this one ->
When atking, after u lock and click on an enemy you do not need to keep looking at him to maintain the lock. So its good to turn left /right after u shoot so that its hard for the target to get a lock on you. Your fire will still come out from the side (or even the back!) of your drone.

On another experiment:
Whats the difference in damage btw a KK-400 and Revenge drone?
On a spy with 100+ resistance in force, the revenge drone does about 20 more damage than a KK-400 drone.

[Spectra260]

is attack really to big that you need to abv. it?:p

[Heavyporker]

I really like the advice put down so far.


any special advice about using scout drones since they're non-combat drones... with their zoom and long range, would they be better at surviellance/first warning system than the combat drones? some droner friends of mine stand fast on using combat drones to scout around on the grounds of being able to shoot too with the drones.

and can a midleveler drone wishing to help his clan (or whatever) be able to be a formidable threat with gatling laser or assault gatling drones?

and would raycannon/fusion cannon drones work well as anti-vehicular weaponry (energy damage) - hell, would they be of any use in PvP? because I've been hearing so much about how drone AoE sucks against runners.

[gizmojack]

Originally posted by Heavyporker
I really like the advice put down so far.


any special advice about using scout drones since they're non-combat drones... with their zoom and long range, would they be better at surviellance/first warning system than the combat drones? some droner friends of mine stand fast on using combat drones to scout around on the grounds of being able to shoot too with the drones.

and can a midleveler drone wishing to help his clan (or whatever) be able to be a formidable threat with gatling laser or assault gatling drones?

and would raycannon/fusion cannon drones work well as anti-vehicular weaponry (energy damage) - hell, would they be of any use in PvP? because I've been hearing so much about how drone AoE sucks against runners.

@point 1
I usually use my kami drone to scout because of its speed.
Plus, the fact if i find an enemy i can blow up in his face :D and not bother about flying back.

WHEN TO USE SCOUT DRONES
However, the scout drone has one redeeming quality ->
if u "zoom" onto an enemy you can see his "combat rank" from far away!! With any other drone, you need to get close to see the combat rank, and that blows your cover. Thus, i suggest u use a scout drone to scout OPs if you are waiting for backup. It helps your team to know not only who is defending an OP, but what rank they are is just as important. Once I spent half an hour updating my team on the enemies at an OP before they atked. And when they did, they knew exactly what to expect, where the enemies were standing, and that there was only 1 enemy ppu in the sector.

@point 2
Unfortunately, NO. I suggest u juz concentrate on power lvling in the graves until you can at least use a PB drone.

@point 3
Dun bother with AoE drones for PvP. Not because of their damage, but because AoE drones have a very short flying range. Which makes it REALLY easy for the enemy to find you once he sees your drone. They are really great for power lvling in the graves though.

[Sanctioner]

The PLC-1000 drone has the best take off and speed and can easily travel an entire zone its range is just crazy ( i use this for recon and to warm up my targets)

As for AoE they all suck PvP, they are to slow and have no flight distance, but if i was going to use one i would say the MR-1000 would be my choice as its a seeking rocket.

Tactics can test the best droner to come up with a way to be safe, one idea me and my fellow droners use is to invest enough into Veh to use hovertech they can get you up onto sheer cliffs that runners cant climb then place yourself so the hovertech is shielding you ( not for every situation).

Invest into Stealth this imo will be your best recon advantage, i dont use drones to recon anymore as they tell people before i am ready to attack i am there. I often will stealth in and out of local box area to watch my soon to be victoms for when they are most vunerable...(ie. standing around talking or who knows) i have followed people for lengths at time waiting for them to make a mistake and get stupid.
Another tactic is to know your enemy (certain mobs are KoS to certain factions) use the mobs to your advantage, when you stealth you can get pretty close to them and launch a drone before the mob registers you as a target and the mobs can offer some protection albit not alot but its something, i use DoY bots all the time as a shield.

I solo alot as a droner and i have learned that time is not on your side when attacking a op. after taking down a turret runners come pouring out of the underground, once they are aware you are a droner they do a search and destroy mission for your meat stick. a good tactic is to immediatly leave once they come out and get drone back to saftey, use stealth to move about confusing the runners and making them think you are long gone, then launch another attack.
Hit and move tactics are your best offence (unless you like to die alot)

[zonk]

Woud be nice for droners not to appear in local box when droning, but still being visible. (radar-cloaked)

[gizmojack]

Originally posted by zonk
Woud be nice for droners not to appear in local box when droning, but still being visible. (radar-cloaked)

I actually suggested a "camo suit" as a droner PA before.

You still appear in the local list, but your body is camoflauged with the terrain while droning, making it harder to spot u. You'll see a distortion in the background instead, somewhat like a shimmer.

Right now you can only use Stealth as a way to remove yourself from local list.

@PLC-1000
Longest freakin flying range. Covers an entire sector. (More actually but drones can't zone o_O )
Wouldn't use it to atk a high ranking target because the damage is not good enough. Good for taking out targets below lvl 50 though, because this drone can chase them ANYWHERE ;)