Drones which one to go for?

[Babuskae]

I don’t know nothing about drones and this video just shattered my pre- conceived ideas.

Being an annoying fly in the new Helicopter Brawl OFF WE GO • Annihilators • Drones • Crossout

There’s a lot more than meets the eyes regarding drones.
I started with turrets… not my style. But i want to leave personal preferences aside it’s not about it.

So i switch to falcons after the turrets and they were it, hawks were a natural evolution and still save choice regarding PS.
I heard/saw opinions and Owls…I’m not feeling that, easy to dodge equally as fragile as Hawks for a much higher PS.
Wheeled drones are dumb and slow to react but i like sidekicks, sidekicks should be a blue weapon as falcon are and the devs should make a wheeled version of the hawk for the Special tier.
Where i want to go is.
Seeing this vid think i can compare Hawks with annihilators.
Despite knowing that the annihilator was nerfed in the past, i was so surprised How low damage they make and how high PS they are at.
I know he used 3 annihilators vs 5 Hawks.
I myself use 4 hawks in that same mode or for PVE and i did try 4 hawks + 1 falcon and i prefer 4 hawks with cheetah + BFs.
But at the same time i can say 4 hawks can kill a tanky build in one charge and apparently annihilators don’t.
In a 1 vs 1, annihilators crap on hawks every time ( as all others things)
What i took from this vid.
annihilators seem to have more “jurisdiction” working at longer distances , are they harder to be shootdown?
Hawks seem to be much easier to be shootdown and clearly work at much shorter distances but have more DOT.
if we add the PS cost of each one.
It will be worth or not switch from one to another?

[Roopull]

All of this is going to be just for the helicopter mode…

The HUGE disadvantage to both is that bots kill them pretty easily. Considering that’s where the points come in the copter mode, that’s not a small thing.

Annihilators have advantages and disadvantages. Advantage is that once you’ve targeted an enemy, most of them (bots aside) are going to have a hard time shooting them down. It’s not easy with a wheeled build & much more challenging with copters. That’s the advantage.

The disadvantage is that the range kinda’ sucks before they stop hitting your selected target & fly back to you. It’s also not obvious when this happens. So, they’re definitely a weapon you have to really pay attention to when using.

Hawks & Falcons are pretty much the same thing & PS will dictate which you use.

The absolutely huge advantage to these is that when they’re deployed they act as armor as they follow along behind you. If you place them carefully, when deployed, they’ll cover your rear 100%. They also act as false targets for rockets & the caucus. It’s harder for them to target your actual helicopter because they’ll keep targeting your drones.

The disadvantage, of course, is that you can’t target specific enemies.

When I play either falcons or drones, I find the best tactic is to stay lower than the enemies & jump behind cover when targeted.

Deploy the drones BEFORE you cloak up (and you’ll want a cloak). Hovering around bots that are already engaged with other enemies makes quick work of them & can net repeated MVPs.

I don’t play them that much, anymore. I just find the pyres funnier to play. Watching people panic & plummet into the ground to avoid ONE pyre, and then repeatedly nailing them with the others is hilarious… flopping about, trying to run away… And yes, I pulled the wings off flies when I was a kid.

The copter drones require a good bit of paying attention to the whole map & timing your deployment, cloak & hiding carefully. Like I’ve said elsewhere… They’re only easy to play poorly. To play them well takes a good bit of effort.

[DocSavage]

I don’t use a cloak, because I use passive melee to help the drones along. In addition to softening their targets, it also helps them find their targets, and I think you get a damage buff while in close proximity too.

I like Fuzes, when they work, but since the nerf, they aren’t that great. Presently, I’m using a combo of wheeled drones and turrets, including a Fuze. Mostly because it’s fun, but also they all act differently, can be confusing for the enemy, and allows me to take advantage of more diverse situations.

I don’t think they are intended to be used as a primary weapon, and I often like to use them as support, or at least have some melee to engage the enemy, and personally pick targets. All that action tends to make a cloak useless, though.

The Harpy perk works with some drones like Fuzes, and I think the Anaconda and the Owl…and it’s fast.

Everything Roopull said about flying drones is true. They do try to have your back.

[Babuskae]

This is for PVP.

In this mode or in PVP I rather prefer they would shoot or target my mothership and not my drones, it is why i stay close to the enemy and have a sidekick, to protect my drones.
I built my mothership to soak up as much damage as possible, pyres, trombones are just annoying nothing more, it can withstand several volleys of those.
The true danger (for me) is nest that tend to go for my drones all the time and Avalanches, pyres only when they blow up my drones, if pyres or nest hit my build, i can surely live with that.
I also noticed that bots with lasers/drills (in this mode) only go for the drones if the build is behind cover or a bit more distance, so i often stay close to them and let them shoot my mothership while my drones are killing them.
I’m happy to report that i often joust with regular cannons builds, despite my armour’s meant for ground vehicles it also works against flying cannon builds.

BTW
I don’t use cloak for 3 reasons.

1 - it’s for cowards
2 - Don’t fit my play style (it will make the enemy fire focus on my drones) and it’s pointless, because i have drones always marking my position.
3 - it’s a very exploding thing, it doesn’t do much for my survivability

[Babuskae]

@DocSavage

I don’t think they are intended to be used as a primary weapon

I think they are meant to be a primary weapon, just not in a build meant to be in a first line.

I’m not a fan of what you are showing, because that type of setup will not do much.
IMO
it’s a half way setup, you are sabotaging both worlds.
you will lose against all kinds of dedicate builds (in theory), to me that screenshot it’s as much of a support build as any other dedicated support build, cause it’s not capable of going 1 vs 1 against the large majority of assault builds

In my P.O.V. Or you go full drone or you go full whatever

[Roopull]

@Babuskae

I don’t use cloak for 3 reasons.

1 - it’s for cowards

Guess I’m a coward!

@Babuskae

That tend to go for my drones all the time

@Babuskae

I also noticed that bots with lasers/drills (in this mode) only go for the drones if the build is behind cover

It appears the AI considers a drone the exact same way it does a cab. I don’t think it differentiates at all. So a cab behind an obstacle will be ignored if there’s a viable target in view.

@DocSavage

All that action tends to make a cloak useless, though

The cloak wouldn’t work for the playstyle you’re talking about, for sure. If I’d change anything on your build, it’d be to put melee that does more damage on the front… Hatchets, blade wings etc. It’d make that a little more dangerous & maybe remove some wheels.

When running the copter mode, whether I have bots or not, I use a cloak. It’s the easiest way to get lazy pyre & nest players off your back. Good players, though, won’t be fazed.

I used to have a grenadier build I used a cloak with. It was the Beholder, but still. I had Hatchets, blade wings, and other high damage passive melee on it the way you do. I’d drop all three drones, cloak up, drive past the enemies, u-turn, then go full steam into something soft. They’re typically too distracted with the bots to realize their about to get hit.

That doesn’t work at that power score anymore, though.

[Babuskae]

@Roopull

It appears the AI considers a drone the exact same way it does a cab. I don’t think it differentiates at all. So a cab behind an obstacle will be ignored if there’s a viable target in view.

That’s news, my experience have been different, has been as i already told but at the same time… I do have my cab partially uncovered. might be that?

[RoughMonkey]

@Babuskae

I built my mothership to soak up as much damage as possible

Your going to love the new cabin.

[DocSavage]

@Babuskae

that type of setup will not do much.

Meh…I don’t expect it to do more than that ever.
To be fair, I was a little surprised by how well it did, myself.

[Babuskae]

Don’t be that certain, you will be surprised.

What i meant was, with that setup you don’t have the support for your MGs (rads/coolers) and you don’t have enough drones to make enough damage or spit’em out quick enough
Once one of the two type of weapons goes offline for whatever reason you are automatically in a disandvantage, you have half the weapons with no modules to complement them.
At least, this was the conclusion i arrived after i pounder this kind of setup.

Do you see this?

This is a shorter base version of my current drone build.
It has designs flaws.
I wanted to try out 2 sidekicks + 2 hawks, i discovered while having a more balanced setup it was weaker.
In PVP, 4 of the same type of drones can help the other guy to get rid of them faster.
and 2+2 don’t have the same punch. In the end i decided to stay with my current setup which is 3+1.
Other thing i was testing was a way to mount 5 drones (i was paving the way to do so) but not only the drone recycling was much slower (i had to give up the cheetah)
But having to give up a slimmer profile it was it’s major flaw.
Not only it’s easier to hit but also once the back armour caved in i would lose half of my fire power right there.
The survivability of my current design it’s much better and i feel the DOT is the best of all the setups i tried.

[dagobahbud]

i love watching fast and nimble Annihilators zip up and around terrain to get to a target. I also love when im chasing a target and i set the the little guys loose…the way they accelerate ahead of me to get to the target like little piranhas sensing the blood trail. They can zoom around really good.

[Roopull]

@dagobahbud

the way they accelerate ahead of me to get to the target like little piranhas sensing the blood trail.

yes, my little children… eat!

[RoughMonkey]

Let’s hope that the new cabin make drones deadly again.

[Poony4u]

This thread makes me want to try Annihilators again.

[Babuskae]

Your feedback about annihilators, pls

[Poony4u]

I only ever had the one from the first battlepass, and I eventually scrapped it (regret it now). Seems like you need to be running several for them to be very effective. But as a victim of them, three attacking you at the same time really slows you down, while doing decent damage. And they are hard to shoot down, especially while they’re slowing you down.
They might be a good anti-hover tool in the right hands.

[Babuskae]

I will acquire a special thing for hovers and other stuff

[RoughMonkey]

@Poony4u

This thread makes me want to try Annihilators again.

I just got 6 of them so I can fuse 2 more and we have the BP event one. I feel like drones price might go up during the BP even if the cabin sucks because people will want to try it out. Then they might go down after if the cabin is no good.

[Roopull]

Smart thinking… You’re probably right.

[Poony4u]

Looks like I have workpieces for a few, as well as workpieces for most of the ingredients. I think I’ll be able to craft a set pretty cheaply.