Drone Rigger advice

[CyberBatty7]

How should I build my drone rigger? I am thinking of a pure drone rigger. what are some great ways to build a drone rigger and play them? I have read that you keep them close to your enemy's and treat them as expendable's.

[Lord Of Dorkness]

Pretty much.

You might want to consider skipping the support drones, however.

They do have some nice tricks to 'em, but I personally found that the extra fire-power from two attack drones just ends the fights far quicker. Especially once you reach so you can have a S and A drone fight side by side.

[CyberBatty7]

What cybernetics are best?

[Lord Of Dorkness]

Wait untill you unlock the bioware.

On avarage far better bonuses AND less essence costs, in exchange for higher monetery cost.

You might want to consider switching out the standard head datajack for one of the alternatives, though. If you consider the eye or arm slot less worthwhile is up to you, but there's some really juicy gear to stuff in that head slot.

[di eshor ribly]

Personally I'd use the induction jack (the arm variant), since this frees up the head slot for an Encephalon, and the eye slot for the laser targetting system. The other (mandatory!) cyberware I would suggest should be put on every character class... and that is the Adrenal Pump (0 essence, +1 AP for a few turns on activation) since it is free. I would also suggest getting the leg cyberware that increases movement range, but can't remember what it's called off the top of my head. The extra AP from the adrenal pump comes in handy no matter who you are, and the (hydraulic jack?) leg's increased movement helps offset the AP loss from using drones.

Other than those, you should really only worry about Intelligence, Drone Control, Drone Combat, Body, and 'your' combat skills. I'd recommend a pistoleer build so you don't have to worry about losing a turn reloading. For a rigger, you don't need to worry about essence as much, so feel free to drop it down to the minimum 1 essence. When I played my rigger, I carried 1 bumona kit, 2 medkits, and 3 of the biggest repair kits I could carry. There is nothing worse than going into a long mission (Harfeld Manor #2) and having a drone blow up because you couldn't repair it.

Edit: This is of course for Dragonfall. Some of these cyberware implants are not available in DMS (adrenal pump, laser designator, encephalon, variable datajacks). There aren't as many options in DMS, but there are still a variety of cyber that can augment your characters effectiveness.