Let's Discuss Drones!

[wolverine848 13,097]

2 hours ago, Rutgers said:

Just played on the test server with this new drones update. BIG yikes for anyone who does not have a maxed Brutus by legend or even before. The disparity in power between people who have fully maxed drones and people who do not just got a whole lot bigger

Why do you specifically mention Brutus?  What about say... maxed Defender?

[FrozenRailgun 1,771]

Those are what I had tested so far on Test Server: They both have Mk8 Hornet-Striker except Sakura was using 20/20 Brutus. 

Double Power without it increase turret's damage by around 33%.

With drone, you can get Double Power's pre-nerfed effect back.

 

No more passive damage/protection bonus.

Double Armor without any Drones grants 25% damage reduction.

Just like the Double Power + any drones, you will have Double Armor's effect back fully.

I have yet to test the changes using Defender/Booster but I do expect the "drone gives pre-nerfed supply effect back" will also happen to them. Mainly because I tried Trickster and had the full supply effect back.

In overall, this possible update will widen the F2P-P2W gap even further especially in lower ranks and to players who refuse to use Drones.

IK this is just Testing and changes will be made before it comes by but pray to god that Alternativa keep the current supply effect and the buffed Brutus (with its current 10% protection/damage). Oh, and remove the 5% passive protection/damage bonuses from other Drones as well. 

Edited April 28, 2021 by FrozenRailgun

[FrozenRailgun 1,771]

23 hours ago, wolverine848 said:

Why do you specifically mention Brutus?  What about say... maxed Defender?

Good news, Defender will still be the same as before, at least based on what I tested it. Don't know if there will be any changes to it or not when the update comes by though.

test_Miku is using Mk8 Titan-Smoky + 50% Eagle/Falcon/Owl + 20/20 Defender +  AP Immunity. Almost identical to your main setup.

 

test_Sakura was using Mk8 Titan-HC + 20/20 Brutus + Double Power, allowing to deal full 8,250 damage against unprotected target. The Double Power itself is only strong enough to penetrate through that Eagle module but not Defender. 

This means that Defender will still give the equivalent of 3x HP boost when it is active (even though it's 66.66% damage reduction).

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by FrozenRailgun

[fghjkl54 1,520]

5 minutes ago, FrozenRailgun said:

 

may i ask about booster (i didn't noticed any change on it but no 100% sure)

[FrozenRailgun 1,771]

10 minutes ago, fghjkl54 said:

may i ask about booster (i didn't noticed any change on it but no 100% sure)

Here it is:

20/20 Booster + Mk8 HC.

Basically: 4125 *4 ->  16,500 damage

But with the reworked drones, it deals 1 damage less LOL.

Edited April 28, 2021 by FrozenRailgun

[LambSauce 1,893]

Was doing some research on drones and have a couple of points to make:

1. I thought Miner would be a cool drone to maybe upgrade, but then I realised it would be near useless in a 7 minute long battle.

2. Never knew Engineer activated supplies for everyone in your team when you collect the relevant supply box, no matter how far away they are. Idk why more people don't use this drone.

Thoughts?

[TheCongoSpider 8,962]

23 minutes ago, AK2801 said:

2. Never knew Engineer activated supplies for everyone in your team when you collect the relevant supply box, no matter how far away they are. Idk why more people don't use this drone.

It's a team drone. Most players would prefer something that helps them solo. And even when you are a team player, you often have to fight your allies to take the box becuase they don't know about the drone. 

 

25 minutes ago, AK2801 said:

1. I thought Miner would be a cool drone to maybe upgrade, but then I realised it would be near useless in a 7 minute long battle.

You would be right if you said this before November, 2019. It was the only drone that was impractical to use in MM. The only thing that was worth using the drone with was a Mortar Magnum. After the change in November 2019, it became practical to use. It won't get as much mileage as a Saboteur drone, but Miner is fun to use imo. Due to its niche in MM, it does not require many upgrades. 

 

Miner needs an incentive to be used over Saboteur. They need to let Miner's mines have a higher chance to be a critical hit. 

[Akame 4,585]

@AK2801, just as @TheCongoSpidersays, engineer, although very nice, the chances you get any drop is minimal, especially in smaller maps. Facing common drones like blaster and booster, you will feel generic pain.

Though miner lets you leave a few mines behind, and saboteur lets you place a huge amount at once, both are hurt a lot by the mine damage nerf.

I prefer to use camper drone over those two, though I have maxed drones, i can cycle all supplies like a bootleg hyperion and mine every 5 seconds where I want as long as I am full hp. This perfoms bad in cases where you may not have an isida or mech drone ally and if you don't hold an area and if you keep getting hit by a single vulcan shot, burn, or any splash for that matter. (this drone can also be used to speed run '90 mines mission' in 2 games if lucky.

If you want to invest in drones, it would be better to stick to booster/defender/mechanic/trickster(with the new buff coming)/driver. Other drones are not bad, but these are usual common ones that occasionally outdo other drones in terms of reliability etc. But I would suggest trying them out on test server so that you don't get disappointed.

[SporkZilla 1,775]

I like Engineer (but have only just started to use it after saving up thousands of batteries) because of the team boost, and having supplies activated for 60 seconds (all of my accounts have lvl 8 Engineer) is nice because I spend less time thinking about supplies instead of driving and aiming

I'm not a fan of garage supplies; in a recent CTF battle I just brute force won by spamming supplies and there wasn't much skill involved

I'm also very good at grabbing supply drops because my game has been based on that for hundreds of hours

Not sure what do with it after I have upgraded Brutus though; if I have to upgrade another drone to 20/20 eventually and can't afford to upgrade any more, then Engineer isn't a good choice

[LambSauce 1,893]

3 hours ago, TheCongoSpider said:

It's a team drone. Most players would prefer something that helps them solo. And even when you are a team player, you often have to fight your allies to take the box becuase they don't know about the drone. 

 

You would be right if you said this before November, 2019. It was the only drone that was impractical to use in MM. The only thing that was worth using the drone with was a Mortar Magnum. After the change in November 2019, it became practical to use. It won't get as much mileage as a Saboteur drone, but Miner is fun to use imo. Due to its niche in MM, it does not require many upgrades. 

 

Miner needs an incentive to be used over Saboteur. They need to let Miner's mines have a higher chance to be a critical hit. 

Which change?

2 hours ago, Akame said:

 

I'm curious how Hyperion fares compared to the current meta.

Sprinter also seems pretty strong for the capture modes.

Edited April 29, 2021 by AK2801

[TheCongoSpider 8,962]

1 hour ago, AK2801 said:

Which change?

This one.

 

[Akame 4,585]

2 hours ago, AK2801 said:

 

I'm curious how Hyperion fares compared to the current meta.

Sprinter also seems pretty strong for the capture modes.

Sprinter has a flaw that stops it from performing well in many game modes like ctf mainly. It does not allow to player to use a repair for 5 seconds of when you pick up a flag/ball, so imagine you're attacking and, do you waste a repair and then get the flag to get a lil extra repair, or do you wait and get a '5 second repair self emp' and risk it all.

As for Hyperion, it's my personal casual favourite, nothing special, but you get to use all of the supplies at once. Penalty is that it uses 2 additional supplies instead of 1. This also includes repairs and mines, which have no special effect or cd removal. It does take a good supply toll, so it's roughly on par with crisis level supply usage assuming average play. So you're still better off with other drones.

[FrozenRailgun 1,771]

5 hours ago, Akame said:

, i can cycle all supplies like a bootleg hyperion

LOL

[Okami 3,041]

What do you guys think of the new Trickster? I like both the old and new Trickster, but I prefer the old one tbh.

I'll miss how with the old version you could quickly get a full refresh of health and supplies just by taking a Speed Boost box. I also liked immediately starting out with Double Armor and Speed Boost so I can get to the CP points quickly but also stay safe while doing so (and not having to choose between one or the other ).

On the other hand, this new Trickster is fun and actually worth MUing.

Edited April 30, 2021 by GrayWolf8733

[wolverine848 13,097]

16 minutes ago, GrayWolf8733 said:

What do you guys think of the new Trickster?

It's not what I paid for.

[wild001 1,424]

11 hours ago, TheCongoSpider said:

Miner needs an incentive to be used over Saboteur.

Miner is good for mine use mission,

also Miner is good when you are hard to survive long to keep your mine field when there are many sniper and magnum constant fire in.

Miner is good with Motar augment of magnum, which makes mine when a shot land on ground, it actually keep those mines after you die as well.

I can quickly fill 20+ mines around based without worry I been sniped to lose all effort,

I also have 20/20 saboteur, often or not I got killed right after lay 9 mines, and the cooldown for saboteur is 40s, quite long. unless you are titan with good camping, it is hard to maintain mine field. thus I often use saboteur as attack drone to block enemy base exit or leave as block after steal enemy flag.

Edited April 30, 2021 by wild001

[TWICE 798]

I only get a Trooper (10/20) and a Trickster (5/20).  I used Trooper in DMs back then and have to stick to it for a while after they tweaked Trickster.

 

Should have bought Driver or even Assault before Trickster.

[LambSauce 1,893]

12 hours ago, Akame said:

Sprinter has a flaw that stops it from performing well in many game modes like ctf mainly. It does not allow to player to use a repair for 5 seconds of when you pick up a flag/ball, so imagine you're attacking and, do you waste a repair and then get the flag to get a lil extra repair, or do you wait and get a '5 second repair self emp' and risk it all.

Now that's just stupid imo.

 

So what's the best drone overall for the pre-Lieutenant ranks?

[Akame 4,585]

4 hours ago, AK2801 said:

Now that's just stupid imo.

 

So what's the best drone overall for the pre-Lieutenant ranks?

tbh the best drone depends on your needs and combos, can't really say 1 is the best

[wild001 1,424]

22 hours ago, AK2801 said:

what's the best drone overall for the pre-Lieutenant ranks

I think you mean which drone good with no much MU.

I think

- brutus: it now not using battery

- defender: allow you to use DA after DA, good to camp with flag or steal flag

- miner: allow you to build mine field

- mechanic: only drone now can get you more battle score for mission

rest drone like booster, you need mu to max to get best benefit.

[LambSauce 1,893]

7 hours ago, wild001 said:

- defender: allow you to use DA after DA, good to camp with flag or steal flag

Defender isn't pre-Lieutenant tho.

 

7 hours ago, wild001 said:

- mechanic: only drone now can get you more battle score for mission

Is Mechanic really the best drone for score now?

[LambSauce 1,893]

On some of the Wiki pages for drones, such as for Mechanic (https://en.tankiwiki.com/Mechanic) it no longer says it uses multiple repairs, or at least I can't find it.

Also what is the meaning of the new Boosted Armor and Boosted Damage symbols, in the MU section at the bottom of the page, where it goes up to a total of +4? Could someone explain this, please?

Edited May 1, 2021 by AK2801

[Akame 4,585]

1 hour ago, AK2801 said:

On some of the Wiki pages for drones, such as for Mechanic (https://en.tankiwiki.com/Mechanic) it no longer says it uses multiple repairs, or at least I can't find it.

Also what is the meaning of the new Boosted Armor and Boosted Damage symbols, in the MU section at the bottom of the page, where it goes up to a total of +4? Could someone explain this, please?

The page isn't updated, those I believe show the old passive armor/damage values, as correlative to the +5% at max and 1% at min, as for whether it uses extra repairs, i am not sure, i don't really use it often.

[fghjkl54 1,520]

1 hour ago, AK2801 said:

 

1. mechanic never consumed additional supplies
2. the MU section is outdated 

[LambSauce 1,893]

2 hours ago, Akame said:

The page isn't updated, those I believe show the old passive armor/damage values, as correlative to the +5% at max and 1% at min, as for whether it uses extra repairs, i am not sure, i don't really use it often.

Btw I've seen your gif using the Camper drone, how good is it in your experience? Worth MU'ing to max or not?

Edited May 1, 2021 by AK2801
Typo