23 réponses à ce sujet

[MadCat221]

The combat drone, at least for Tali, to put it frankly... sucks.  Just now, I witnessed Tali deploy hers, and it lasted all of five seconds, maybe.  The cool-down for this power is absurdly long, and Tali has a habit of using it automatically when squadmate auto-power-usage is active, thus precluding the use of any of her other potentially more useful powers.

I haven't really looked to see how much damage it inflicts before it gets mowed down.  Does it actually do any useful damage in its short life?  Tali's is currently skill level 3 in my game.

Also, if I upgrade it to explosive drone, will the explosion actually be of consequence, or will it just be a few singed hairs on the enemies caught in the blast?

I haven't acquired Legion yet, and haven't played as any player class that would have it, so I wouldn't know of any other usage of it.

As much as I adore Tali story-wise, Tali frankly sucks gameplay-wise this time around IMO, mainly because of the combat drone being seemingly pointless and time-consuming to use.

Could the Bioware folks maybe give a bit of a de-nerf to at least Tali's?  Maybe replace it with a custom uprated combat drone power called "Deploy Chikkita"? 


EDIT: Okay, something strange is going on.  In-game, the recharge time for the power is listed at 30 seconds.  Absurdly long, no?  Now, on the Mass Effect Wiki, the power is listed as having a recharge time of 3 seconds.

So which is right?  If it's any help, I'm on Steam Version 1.01.  Is this a bug?

Modifié par MadCat221, 07 mars 2010 - 02:24 .

[bjdbwea]

If you use it yourself, it's extremely useful. Not because of the damage, but because it distracts enemies from you. Even if that behaviour of the enemies is of course highly unrealistic.

Modifié par bjdbwea, 07 mars 2010 - 02:31 .

[Louis deGuerre]

The drone is extremely useful to keep dangerous enemies occupied.

Set powers to defensive only and manage your squad's offensive powers or you won't last long on high difficulties.

[MadCat221]

How exactly is "dying in 3 seconds" useful to keep enemies occupied?  Literally: BANG BANG BANG *Bzzzzt* Down goes the drone.  And Tali's powers are unavailable because of a 30-second cooldown (or however long due to upgrades).

I think this is now more a question of whether or not the 30-second cooldown is a bug or if Mass Effect WIki is wrong.

Modifié par MadCat221, 07 mars 2010 - 02:38 .

[Deflagratio]

Evolve Tali's to attack drone, evolve Legion's to Explosive drone.



Tali has longer recasts, but longer duration, so actually with the fast stun attacks of the evolved Attack drone, that little ball can actually cause quite a load of havoc.



Legion's emphasis is on cooldowns, so essentially you turn the Drone into a super-powered time delay grenade. Since Legion can summon faster, this means a better solution than the attack drone.

[Stabby McGoodstab]

Squadmates have longer cooldowns for almost all powers than Shepard, all else equal. An Engineer's Combat Drone has a base 3 second cooldown, whereas Tali's has a base 30 second cooldown.

[addiction21]

Deflagratio wrote...

Evolve Tali's to attack drone, evolve Legion's to Explosive drone.

Tali has longer recasts, but longer duration, so actually with the fast stun attacks of the evolved Attack drone, that little ball can actually cause quite a load of havoc.

Legion's emphasis is on cooldowns, so essentially you turn the Drone into a super-powered time delay grenade. Since Legion can summon faster, this means a better solution than the attack drone.

What he said. I have had Talis keep GethPrimes attention while I either tore them or every other mob around to shreds. Thats on insanity by the way.

[MadCat221]

Not seeing the Longer Duration at all. As I said, five seconds and *POP* It's not like there was a huge horde hammering on it either, just two Blue Suns guys. Does the statement that Tali's lasts longer mean Legion's lasts 3 seconds?



Unless the durability of the drone goes up with difficulty level, I'm not seeing how you can make that claim about it being useful in Insanity from what I've seen.

[GiroX-]

My combat drone from my Engineer lasts forever, and distracts 1-3 enemies at a time, and its only level 2.

[MadCat221]

Apparently Tali's sucks then.

How long is the cooldown for yours?  What game/patch version are you running?  (IE: Retail / v1.01, Steam / v1.0)

Modifié par MadCat221, 07 mars 2010 - 04:17 .

[Xanfaus]

The drone will sometimes get insta-killed, but its impossible to overstate how good they are as a distraction. Scions, heavy weapon mercs, biotics, Harbringer, and Ymir mechs all get distracted by the drones.

Yeah, an AI partner's drone is best used alongside's Shephard's, but its still very useful by itself even accounting for the long cooldown.

edit: "over" not "under"

Modifié par Xanfaus, 07 mars 2010 - 04:59 .

[GiroX-]

Xanfaus wrote...

The drone will sometimes get insta-killed, but its impossible to understate how good they are as a distraction. Scions, heavy weapon mercs, biotics, Harbringer, and Ymir mechs all get distracted by the drones.

Yeah, an AI partner's drone is best used alongside's Shephard's, but its still very useful by itself even accounting for the long cooldown.

I play on Xbox :/.

But my cooldown is only around 3 seconds and as soon as mine is destroyed, I can instantly spawn another.

Create an Engineer yourself and see how it is.

[Xanfaus]

 I also play on Xbox, and my current character is an engineer.
Which is why I had to defend the drone's usefulness. 

[ccconda]

how much difference is there between legion's and tali's?

[xedgorex]

It's the same ability so i figure legion and talis drone are the exact same, whereas your own drown is infinitely more useful.

[Arde5643]

Sigh....I really wish search function is actually available in this board - a lot of threads created refer to the exact same thing.



@MadCat:

Tali's drone isn't as effective as yours or even Legion's.

(Assuming cooldown upgrades) Whereas your drone can be recast less than every 2 seconds, Tali's can only be recasted every 24 seconds.

Legion's, if you max his passive skills, can be recasted every 18 seconds.



This means, if you're using Tali, you should max out her Energy drain skill first, followed by AI hack, and then passive skill, and finally combat drone. Combat drone is Tali's least useful skill.

If you're using Legion, however, combat drone is much more important since Legion is more dependent on either Drone or AI hack to be useful - you want to max out passive skill first, combat drone, AI hack, and finally GSB.

[baller7345]

I've had a completely opposite experiences with Tali's drone. Yes the cooldown sucks but with attack drone her drone usually lasts at least 10 seconds or pretty much the entire duration against slow attacking enemies such as scions.  There have been many cases in which her drone + my fists equal a dead scion.  Scions actually become a joke for an engineer seeing as I've meleed the majority of them in the game.

It works great for the party I run through insanity with which is Engineer Shepard, Tali with max passive and drone (spread of other abilities), and Garrus with max passive and overlaod (spread of other abilities). Yes I know this combination doesn't cover barriers or armor well but I like it and with two drones I can go techserker quite often.

Legions drone may very well be superior I haven't had any experience with it outside of his loyalty quest.

Modifié par baller7345, 07 mars 2010 - 06:38 .

[Arde5643]

Man, you're a braver man for doing tech-serker in insanity (Engineer with shotguns, right?) - toughest build in the game by far.

[swk3000]

OP: Do yourself a favor. At the top of this forum is a sticky with several Engineer Gameplay Videos. Inside, you'll find a video by sinosleep. Watch it. He uses the Drone to allow him to run around and kill everything at point-blank range with few problems. At one point, he's roughly 6 feet from a Collector using a Particle Beam, and about one shot away from dying, but he's got a Drone out, so everyone's concentrating on it. This allows him to run around almost unmolested by the entire Collector force while he kills them.



If Shepard is using the Combat Drone, it's amazing. If anyone else is using it, then it's going to suck because your sqadmates are all idiots. That's just how the game works.

[implodinggoat]

I actually think the best build for Tali involves taking Combat Drone all the way to level 4 and opting for the Attack Drone which makes its attack effective against shields, barriers, armor, health, and synthetics. Unlike her other abilities once you upgrade it to an attack drone its effective against any type enemy not just synthetics and shields and once its upgraded a bit it will actually last for quite a while too. Enemies prioritize it even above too Shepard so it will instantly cause anything that's attacking you to shift its focus while you make a tactical retreat. The cooldown is a **** though so its best used in situations where Tali's other powers are ineffective or kept in reserve as a "Save My Ass" button when you're about to die.



For Tali I recommend.



Area Energy Drain- Level 4 (basically area overload except it boosts Tali's shields)



AI Hacking - Level 3 (I don't think Level 4 is worth it since by Level 3 your hacked target has enough shields that they almost always survive long enough to be rehacked and in so doing restore their shields, plus the duration exceeds the recharge time so you can do it continually. )



Attack Drone - Level 4 (see above.) and



Quarian Machinist - Level 2

[implodinggoat]

swk3000 wrote...

OP: Do yourself a favor. At the top of this forum is a sticky with several Engineer Gameplay Videos. Inside, you'll find a video by sinosleep. Watch it. He uses the Drone to allow him to run around and kill everything at point-blank range with few problems. At one point, he's roughly 6 feet from a Collector using a Particle Beam, and about one shot away from dying, but he's got a Drone out, so everyone's concentrating on it. This allows him to run around almost unmolested by the entire Collector force while he kills them.

If Shepard is using the Combat Drone, it's amazing. If anyone else is using it, then it's going to suck because your sqadmates are all idiots. That's just how the game works.

If you have their power useage set to active yeah; but thats for people with no game.

[baller7345]

Arde5643 wrote...

Man, you're a braver man for doing tech-serker in insanity (Engineer with shotguns, right?) - toughest build in the game by far.

Yeah thats my buildand its not as tough as everybody makes it out to be.  As long as you have made sure the drones are in place and you've frozen someone you normally can charge pretty safely.  It does make the 3 YMIR mech mission a pain for me because I refuse to use the collector beam (not techy enough for me).  However like I said scions become a joke I've even seen Tali's and Shepards drone take one out by themselves.

On a side not my roomate went Shotgun Adept with singularity/pull charges so maybe its just our personalities. I haven't played a vanguard yet...I'm too much of a tech junkie.

[sedrikhcain]

MadCat221 wrote...

How exactly is "dying in 3 seconds" useful to keep enemies occupied?  Literally: BANG BANG BANG *Bzzzzt* Down goes the drone.  And Tali's powers are unavailable because of a 30-second cooldown (or however long due to upgrades).

I think this is now more a question of whether or not the 30-second cooldown is a bug or if Mass Effect WIki is wrong.

30 seconds? No. It doesn't take that long.

Anyway, often 3 seconds is all you need to take down an enemy -- or at very least completely strip its defenses -- if you and your squadmates focus on that enemy for that time. drones are great for enemy vanguards, geth hunters, krogan mech leaders etc: Drop combat drone, order all squad members to attack, hear Tali "Want some more?"

rinse and repeat. nice.

[sedrikhcain]

implodinggoat wrote...

swk3000 wrote...

OP: Do yourself a favor. At the top of this forum is a sticky with several Engineer Gameplay Videos. Inside, you'll find a video by sinosleep. Watch it. He uses the Drone to allow him to run around and kill everything at point-blank range with few problems. At one point, he's roughly 6 feet from a Collector using a Particle Beam, and about one shot away from dying, but he's got a Drone out, so everyone's concentrating on it. This allows him to run around almost unmolested by the entire Collector force while he kills them.

If Shepard is using the Combat Drone, it's amazing. If anyone else is using it, then it's going to suck because your sqadmates are all idiots. That's just how the game works.

If you have their power useage set to active yeah; but thats for people with no game.

I don't claim to be any kind of great gamer, so I don't take the "no game" comment as an insult, but leave my squad powers on active and I'm not having major problems clearing things out on hardcore in ME2, or on insanity in ME1. I'm just starting insanity on ME2. I'm still at the Cerberus station. We'll see how that goes but it really doesn't appear that micromanaging all the squad powers is essential to survival.