Enemy AI's (Slaves, AI, Bases, etc) often use Shield Bank relative to one target to another to decide what to shoot. Things with tons of shield bank but very little (or even negative) resistances are less likely to be shot than things with very little shield bank, but near invincible resistances.

This is why the Ares Aegis Drone is an aggro magnet and why the big fat FC is the last one to take aggro.

So the proposal is to make blatantly obvious "Tank" Drones have lower shield bank and more resistances than "Non-Tank" Drones; "Non-Tank" Drones have higher shield bank and less resistances than "Tank Drones". Obviously a passive defense, as a Deathblossom will just shred through DPS Drones like nobody's business, but when an AI has to choose between a Non-Tank Drone and a Tank Drone/Engineer/Actual Tank Player, the AI won't instantly rush the Non-Tank Drone and kill it.

wut?


i find no issue to tank damage with my engi rather than making drones tank unless they are chidz. . . did you know that when the drone plating explodes your drone resistance go incredibly low? thats why you have bubble drone and superior protection drone and forcefield drones. . .

and i dont think you want your tank drones to have low shields. . . i give you best example of tank drone chidz. . . use em. . . if you dont got em armada inferno with sup protect drone and bubble drone is your friend. . .

also your theory about more and less shield being a target is kinda off. . .
every ai has a unique targeting pattern and dont forget hostility, tanking heavily relys on it. . .

ps. i have a ship with 50k shields and 90% resists vs my drones with 300k shields and sometimes 0 resist cuz plating exploded. . . and im still the targer of ai. . . so yea argument is kinda invalid. . . sorry

Bubble drone is actually very bad at tanking, it has very low resists and the drone plating seems to have a high failure rate. Also doesn't stop ethereal, and makes it hard to scoop & redeploy your drones.

The forcefield drones have only one use, in the Brute Force fight. Other than that stopping a single shot every 10s is rarely useful.

Superior Protection Drone ftw though.


Paladin,

well teh + 25% resist of bubble drone aura is kinda usefull. i just heal my bubble cuz it has like the same characteristics of cap ships that boost your heal on it and it tanks well on me, also helps the squad to live longer if they stay on it on runs

As an Engineer, you do virtually zero dps on your own. I'm not talking about your slaves, your missiles, or any fighters you have lying about. Just your ship and your ship only, like Berserker.

Your drones will tend to have lower shields than you, and all of them that actually have a weapon on them will do more damage than you. Meaning, they'll take aggro if a tank (that Berserker) isn't there to cover them.

As Paladin said, Bubble drones are hard to utilize well and Forcefield drones cannot protect from a barrage of weapon fire. Both of them cannot stop or weaken Ethereal weapons.

To coax an enemy into attacking the drones you want to be tanks, rather than your fragile damage, support, or healer drones .. you want the tanking drones to have less shields, but more resistance. They'll take aggro more often and be easier to heal up. This is why Berserkers do the exact same thing. Your non-tank drones would always be less EHP (Effective Hitpoints) than your tanking drones, but the point is for them to have a passive anti-aggro system without giving all non-tank drones Hostility -75%.