On the Prevalence of Drakes in Alliance Tournaments

I have noticed that on more than one occasion, the commentators for the Alliance Tournament VIII and in previous year lament the presence of Drakes on combat teams. Reasoning varies from low DPS to just extending the inevitable. Over the years, one thing that has held fairly consistent is the appearance and usage of Drakes by teams in the Alliance Tournaments. There are always multiple teams that field multiple Drakes. They are in fact, one of the most often fielded ships and account for a whopping 44% of all battlecruisers and more isk was spent on Drakes than battleships. Whatever else they might be, they are certainly present on a large number of teams. In the Alliance Tournament VII they were the third most popular ship behind the Rook and Ishkur.

Dead Duck

As the general consensus is that Drakes are poorly suited for PVP combat, why then do they show up so much? The certainly aren’t a requirement for victory as multiple teams have finished well and strongly without any Drakes on the field. Losing teams that fielded Drakes lost every one of them. Winning teams that fielded them lost 2 with a 87.5% survival rate and those were lost in the first match of the tournament. There is a lot of Drake-hate across the board.

This animosity towards the Drake extends far beyond the tournament. If you show up in a Drake for non-Drake fleet roams, you likely face ridicule. If you post a fitting on Battleclinic for a Drake you will get flamed and the fitting locked [more of an endemic problem with using Battleclinic in the first place] and posting to Scrapheap Challenge often results in cries of “Ban 09′s” and now “Ban 10′s” [referring to the registration date of the poster]. People associate the Drake with low-skill, new players who want to run missions and without worrying about anything other than F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7 [though now with grouping it has become even easier] and with Caldari Carebears who can’t be arsed to train for a real ship.

Maybe some of the FC’s with tournament experience can shed some light on this. I fully acknowledge the tournament doesn’t accurately reflect normal EVE PVP play. There are rules, there are boundaries, there are no Caps, there are relatively even numbers, there are no poddings…. Thus the expectations for what to bring may very well differ significantly than for a PVP conflict outside the tourney. In spite of all this, I think there are some valid reasons for their inclusion of the much maligned duck:

• Tank
  • It will likely take more than one opponent shooting at it to be taken down.
  • It can often stay on the field for a long, long time.
  • It is not as cap unfriendly as the other tank options.
• 

  Incoming!

  Damage

  • It can still produce a fair amount of damage:
    • Heavy Missiles can generate between 330 [EM/Exp/Therm]-400 [kinetic] DPS
    • Heavy Assault Missiles can generate between 450 [EM/Exp/Therm]- 570 [kinetic] DPS
  • It can apply it’s damage over +70 km range for the Heavy Missiles
  • Alpha strikes exceed 2,500.
  • Drones can add another 80-100 dps with good skills.

Combined, this tank/damage combination causes two things to happen.

1. Opponent FC’s hesitate to primary Drakes for the relative difficulty in removing them.
2. Drakes are able to apply their damage over a longer period of time than similar ships.

Unless something changes significantly to affect the Drake’s tank or its bonuses, we will continue to see a lot of them fielded in the Alliance Tournaments.