Drones again (fuse)

Discussion
1

I remember a time long ago, a specific battle, i still remember where… Founder’s Canyon ( the old one).
where fuses stream across the map and they could bite hard.
I remember thinking i can’t shoot’em all.
Short time after i was dead as others in my team.

a few years later here am i in the drone apocalypse, i tried them.
I was aware of the fact they would be slower to respond, so i position myself ahead of the target with some distance to compensate, i released them and there they were… lobotomized, oblivion to everything.
My rough calculations were spot on, the target was in reach, they wake up… and did dumb things, not what i had planned.

I don’t have fuses, so, i don’t have any “horse in the race”.
I do have a sidekick and it’s not that dumb.

the thing is, IMO, special drones are way better than epic ones, it makes no sense.
I’m not seeing myself switching from Hawks to Owls
From what i’ve seen, Fuses are no match for Sidekicks
Granadiers? I don’t know, after i saw the cousins…
Anacondas? No, Python everyday.

Annihilator it’s not what it used to be.

we need new drones

3 Likes
2

Agreed +1

Buff fuze drone and anaconda please.

3

Those are my favorites for sure. I like the Owl too though.

I think to buff drones they should fix the call if they mess with it. Both the Dusk and the Call have crappy perks that don’t support their specialty very well.

I’m not sure what they did with the special cabs really works, so I’m not very optimistic about how they go about things enough to ask for anything, but if I did ask for something it would be for something else.

I like my drone-boats, and I’d be content to see some buffs, but I don’t think their under-performance is what’s wrong with this game, and buffing them won’t fix it. Might make my game more fun though.

4

Dont underestimate the power of the Call cabin. That damn thing can SHOVE builds twice its weight. Lean into the perk. Find a teammate engaging one or two enemies and debilitate them by pinning, rotating, wedging, etc. Teammate gets the easy work, you do the heavy lifting by making it an unfair fight while adding DPS.

5

But what PS do you play both at?

I only ask because they should work up to a certain level, just because something works well at 5k does not mean it is balanced.

6

My best score with drones since Polar Lights was somewhere just above 7K with this build.
Misfit_006
I think it’s all Fuzes, but it might have one Anaconda, or one Grenadier in there. I swap one out often.
Initially I thought this build was closer to 9K, but it’s not. Even though it did well, I don’t ever use it. I’m not even sure it’s still in my rotation, but you’re right, I tend to play them at around 5K.

I don’t understand the issue with that. Hovers work better at 14K and don’t tend to play well at 6K and lower. I see no problem with that dynamic. People can play what they want, and do, but why do people feel like they must play at 10K and up? I don’t get that at all.

You can play drones, they just don’t work very well at 10K. Play them at 5K then. No problem? If kids want to play with the big boys, get Hovers and learn how to aim, maybe.

I get pwnd at 5K way too often to feel sorry for kids at 10K and up that still can’t make it work. They could play something else. At 10K there are lots of options, but Fuzes maybe aren’t one of them. So what? Get missiles? IDK. IMO, there is more wrong with 10K and up than just that you can’t play drones there. I don’t even know if that’s true, but I do think the game gets worse the higher up you go…and I’m constantly astounded that people really want to play that. I think it’s miserable, but whatever.

Clearly, in PVP it isn’t just drone users that are having a bad time with hovers everywhere from 6K on up. Sorry to turn this thread towards Hovers, but they’ve always been the center of the storm, and right now it’s that and a whole bunch of other 2.0 issues working together. It’s not just drones, and it’s not just hovers, but I’m not surprised to see drones taking a hit from the sheer variety of dysfunctions this game is inflicted with presently.

Suppose they created another drone that worked well in the conditions at 10K and up. Then I have to wonder what will happen when kids at 5K are faced with these same aim-free weapons designed to survive at 10K. I tend to think that is why they don’t exist.

Lately, I get my arse beat a lot when using drones (and everything else but shotguns, frankly), and I wouldn’t mind a little push, but I think that should be done by rolling back the speed nerf on the Call.

I don’t recognize this logic. What does that mean?

7

@3736931

i can refute this.

It’s not a question of having to or liking, at least for me.
If i could i would be at 5k PS.
But i’m the opposite of you, i don’t play anymore my 5 k PS build.
I play with 8.4 K PS for some of the reasons.
1 - the cab for starters, allows me to have much better protection (more armour)
2 - a cheetah (to use the perk)
3 - Bf’s to complement the perk (Cinergy with the engine)

Unlike you i can’t stack my drones to saving space e.g.
And i selected the current design (4 in line) , i had another design with the two at the back side by side.
the thing is once i lost my back armour i would lose 50% of my fire power soon after.
with 4 in line i only lose 25% once the back armour is gone, and many battles after my current design has more survivability of the two.
due to all of that, it’s a 8 wheeler 225 PS x6 + 190 PS x2 (cause i only have 6 Bf’s)
It’s the most expensive "flywheel "i ever seen .
Onamory is Legendary with 400 PS
My “flywheel” is epic with 1730 PS

the rest are from parts.

Most probably we play very differently (i’m assuming that based from what i read so far), i also play support as much as i can but i’m always hunting .
I try to be close to the action as i can (i have to because my drones are always with me) my sidekick is more like a dog that goes in to bite what he can.

It would be cool if they made a Hawk with wheels or a faster sidekick with a Hawk like behaviour .

Hovers, if they have cannons i will take them down as long they keep targeting the mothership.

Hovers are not the problem for droners, everything else is even the white MG hornet. everything can neutralize a drone, any drone, 30 durability.

8

I believe the fuse doesn’t need to be buff, it can actually avoid contact with the opponent while dealing damage to them, and you can do this for a whole game，If you want to change it, you can increase the damage, then reduce the durability and detection range，It’s good to change or not to change

9

I haven’t tried the sidekick in a long while, but I just took that Grenadier out, and OMG is that thing is dumb. I got it to work in one match by driving around with it lodged in my grill shooting bad guys that way. Otherwise it doesn’t do hardly anything. Rarely engages enemies, and more than 50% of it’s duration is spent driving around in circles looking at the clouds, even when we are both sitting right in front of the enemy. It’s very frustrating…and it’s fused for activation time. Worst drone of my bunch, by leaps and bounds.

I’ll probably go get a Sidekick and try it, to understand what you’re dealing with, but I expect the same crummy lost-bot behavior.

My Fuzes work OK. Not great, but that’s fine. Those Grenadiers are terrible stupid though. When they hit, they hit hard, but they spend most of their time with their nose in a corner or simply off in la-la-land while I’m getting pummeled, unarmed.

I can’t wait to try a Sidekick. Maybe they’ll work better in their peer-group (low PS). IDK. I wouldn’t even think to try them above 7K though. They sure don’t strike me as a weapon that’s going to (or even should) work at 9K. If Grenadiers weren’t so dumb, they might do OK. As it is, wheeled drones, aside from the Fuze, seem to have seriously messed up A.I.

I would like to see improved A.I. on at least the Grenadier, and probably the Sidekick (but IDK, haven’t tried it yet). The flying drones, could maybe use better durability, but they sure activate and find targets well. I like my Owl, and the Anaconda seems to work good for me too. The others make me work pretty hard, and I’m fine with that as long as they are too, but that Grenadier is on my schit list. I’m tired of pushing it out of corners, and literally dragging it towards targets, and pushing it’s nose into the enemy.

Next stop: Sidekicks. Wish me luck.

10

Sidekicks take some time to wake up but not as long as fuse i think.

I don’t know where he is most of the times until he return to me or if i see him other times pushing into the foes.

I use him for two things.

To distract and to protect my hawks, I like it.
An alterative vector for damage come as a bonus

I started with turrets, then with 4 hawks, now in PVP is 3 hawks + 1 sidekick
But because they are 4 energy i can’t have 2 sidekicks.

A word of advice.

if and when you go for sidekicks put a squirt, plow, anything in front of your build or he will flip you when he’s returning .
Mine loves to get under my build

I’m mass building for a while and i will resume doing so, part of that revenue is for fusing my hawks and sidekick.

range for the two of them
activation time for the sidekick
I’m going to unlock r2d2 just for the sidekick
durability will be pointless i think

1 Like
11

Do you ever build for brackets?

Someone can correct me if I’m wrong but I think the community established low PS brackets are:

2499 - 4699 - 6499 - 8999

Something like that. I always have to look it up or ask because I don’t really build that low normally.

But when building low PS I only build exactly to the number of the bracket.

So even if you don’t min-max your build with meta you could give yourself the challenge to min-max your PS to “help” with the match maker. It is not a perfect science, because when you build on the edge sometime your the low man on the higher bracket and sometimes your the big boy on the lower bracket, but in my experience I “feel” like it gives me a better experience over all.

1 Like
12

I used to, but I was under the impression that brackets stopped being a thing…at least a year ago? As far as I can tell the new matchmaker is much more flexible than the old one…and it is indeed different than the old one. Hell, I think just since 2.0 the matchmaker operates under different parameters than it did just prior. I think they update that system just as regularly as they update the rest of the game.

Short answer; no. I haven’t noticed anybody else doing that on PC in long time either. I didn’t know it was still a thing.

13

…Oh-ya. I crafted a Sidekick, tossed it in with some cobras and that’s been going pretty good…way down under 4K. I haven’t been the big kid on campus, or gotten MVP or anything, but is been competitive, and fun. I’ve been surviving and making some good plays every now and then.

I can’t really tell if it is more responsive than my Grenadier that’s fused for activation (which is pathetic, IMO. I should be able to tell the difference), but I think it hits it’s targets more often because maybe that grenade launcher sucks for accuracy.

My first impressions were that it’s better than I thought it would be. I’ll definitely do that again…I think the Grenadier sucks for it’s class, but the Sidekick has been punching at it’s weight pretty well. I’m not sure that without fusing it that it would do that great above 5K. But IDK. It acts like a blue weapon still, I think.

14

that’s the point of this topic.
At least for now i wont change a thing until there are new drones or some kind of change for the positive.
If it’s not broken don’t fix it.

Hawks and sidekicks work at 8k, none of mine are fused…yet and I’ve been getting some MVPs and UNYIELDINGs with them.

At first i was suspicious about sidekicks given the reputation of the wheeled drones, but i decided to try, i wanted something that turrets would do but on the move. following me

Now , i’m sorry in those times where i have to dismount it like in the propeller event or in the radiance event. If only it was faster.
It really would be cool having a hawk with wheels.

Do you think sidekick deserves having 4 energy or 3 energy?

that’s another gripe of mine

15

If it works, I think it can be worth the 4 points. As it is? Maybe that’s too many drones on a boat if they drop it to 3 points. Most users would carry 4, right? That might be pandemonium. Maybe, it would be better to improve them and leave them at 4 points, just so there aren’t drones every where.

I see a lot of bots still use them the old fashioned way; along side a cannon. I don’t think that works very well for them. Maybe they should be tuned up a little, so they work more like they used too…Make’m 5 points, but badass?

Could be trouble. I hope they aren’t listening. They could do it. It’s a terrible idea. A 5-point beast-drone could devastate this player base, scar us for life.

1 Like
16

Not that I know of.

They work fine for me.

17

This is where that weapon should do well.

8k is below mid PS

Those weapons should be good there.

High PS is 16k - 20k - I know all you low PS player count 10k as high but that is mid at best.

18

Are you guys both on console? I don’t get it. You both say drones are under-performing, then describe doing amazing feats with them. It doesn’t sound like either of you need any help with drones. Sounds like you’re doing just fine.

19

I’m on PC.

It’s not drones are under performing, for me it’s two major things.

1 - every gun can suppress a drone, every gun . You are fine and dandy until you meet an opponent that can keep his wits under the smallest pressure. This is valid from hornets to whatever you want to talk about.
Lasers, sparkly weapons. Mgs, SGs.
You are fine if they shoot or try to shoot the mothership or they are completely oblivion to you or if they cracked under pressure.
If not, you can’t do nothing, literally nothing

2 - No mater what type of drone you run, the special tier is the best you can have.
epics are dumber and weaker specially if we take into account the superior PS values.
They can do more damage but they are less reliable.
And as far i am concerned i feel i don’t have anywhere to go from where i’m now.

1 Like
20

It used to be 3, they would just be reverting a nerf.