Which drones do kinetic damage

Both Shields and Armor have reasonable resistances to Kinetic damage, but sheilds generally do slightly better than armor against it. These resistances may be increased with the appropriate active or passive Hardener modules. No Laser weapons are capable of Kinetic damage. Some types of Projectile ammunition can do Kinetic damage. All Hybrid weapons can do some degree of Kinetic damage.

Missiles and Drones can be chosen that do exclusivley Kinetic damage, such as the Hornet drone, or Scourge missile. If that's the case, then five Warriors and five Hornets is my choice. For something like a Harbinger that is going be brawling and is likely to engage tackling frigates, you need to consider EHP as a deterrent to enemies killing your drones and tracking to ensure you are able to apply damage to the frigates and destroyers.

As an example let's look at the Svipul As you can see the EM resists are very high. All resists are solid across shields with Thermal and Kinetic being the weakest. The lowest EHP and damage we would ideally do is Kinetic. In conclusion, my advice is to avoid Valkyries unless you MUST have the speed and only use Hammerheads when DPS output is the most important factor for tactics where you need to drop a target quickly and get out.

In all other cases I would suggest people make use of the Vespa or even the Infiltrator as all around drones to improve tracking against small targets and defend against people shooting your drones. Heavy Drones are least common of all the sizes.

That's the only factor worth considering. For PVP we need to look at what ship is using the drones and what the likely targets are. Battleships that are capable of using five Heavy Drones are likely to be engaging other large targets in fleets.

Finally, you must consider the Gecko, which is what you might call a Extra Heavy Drone since it takes 50m3 instead of 25m3. I didn't include the Gecko in the above comparison because it's price means it will only be used in rare cases. However from a brief look the Gecko is superior to all the heavy drones by two fold or better. In fact the Gecko does more damage than any two drones put together, has more EHP than any two, tracks as well as a Berserker and is as fast as a Berserker. Not to mention Gecko's do all damage types, making them effective across all targets, but never a perfect counter to exploit an enemies resist hole.

Conclusion, if you don't care about ISK or efficiency use Geckos. If you are using Heavies in a Fleet use Ogres or Wasps. Solo PVPers should use the Berserkers. Based on damage type, speed and damage output, they seemed to be a best compromise over slow, high damage Hobgoblins and fast, low damage Warriors. That they, and their larger counterparts, are more tanky as well is a bonus.

Good guide, overall — I have been using Caldari drones for quite some time for exactly the reasons you explained. I do have one edit, however, regarding your assessment of the Gecko.

A pair of T2 Ogres actually does deliver more total DPS than a single Gecko with max or close to max drones skills because the extra bonus from the racial specialties does NOT apply to the Gecko i. Your email address will not be published. The Ninja Pilgrim Guide. The Hull Tank Brutix Guide. Gallente Federation. All sentries are viable due to range and tracking. Amar drone of any size other than sentry are not viable. Caldari drones do the 2nd most dmg of all drones, tracks better than Gallante, and do more dps to kinetic rats.

This is significant, as Serp rats in Gallante space are weakest to kinetic, rather than heat. No major pirate faction rats are weakest to heat. Kodama Ikari. Garoun Investment Bank. Tsukino Stareine. Don't use any amarr drones apart from curators. Caldari drones do significantly more dps on rats weak to kinetic damage so are definitely worth it.

Art of Explosions. Tide Way Out Productions. Zhilia Mann. Sabre hit it perfectly. Except that Mercs are weakest to thermal, but that's not a major faction so whatever. Center for Advanced Studies. Marc Callan. Don't forget that the Gallente drones, while slower and shorter-ranged, have more of a raw damage bonus, so all resists being equal, they'd have the hardest punch.

I think someone worked out that Caldari drones had a slight edge against Serpentis and Guristas, but it wasn't night and day versus Gallente drones. For PVP, you'll find either Gallente or Minmatar drones for damage Minmatar for speed, Gallente for punch ; people filling their resistance holes generally don't put primary emphasis on thermal resistance. Sebiestor Tribe. Minmatar Republic. Verity Sovereign.

But the caldari drones are also faster, applying their damage sooner