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Threetails Nov 20, 2018 @ 11:58pm
Is Driller any good?
Just wondering, engineer seems to have his functionality, scout is critical, and gunner is very good at what he does, but driller seems to really only speed up mining speed. Everything else he does is done better by someone else, and honestly, you only need mining to drill through walls to new areas. Maybe I'm missing something, if I am please tell me.
Last edited by Threetails; Nov 20, 2018 @ 11:58pm
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Originally posted by JShark13:
Originally posted by Threetails:
Let me actually break down why this is. In this game, I'd say that there are a total of 5 possible objectives. You've got four different quest objectives, and mining resources. The driller is not the best when it comes to completing any of these things. And that's the crux of my problem with driller.
No, but the driller is often the second best at completing the job. The thing to driller is that he's good at everything, but not the best.


Originally posted by Threetails:
Let's take the first gamemode, mining. Here, quite obviously, while driller would be the best solo, in actual practice on a four man comp, a scout/engi duo is vastly more efficient, the scout being able to light up the entire cavern so you can find all the resources quickly and the engi to provide platforms for the scout to jump on to mine the resources. This same idea can be extrapolated out to the other resources aside from just quest objective resources, making the driller not optimal in two categories.
Yeah, the scout and engineer are better, but a key thing to 4 man comp is distribution of tasks. While the scout and engineer get the more out of reach stuff, the driller can gather some of the lower but still out of reach materials. It means that the team spends less time in each cave, thus completing it faster.


Originally posted by Threetails:
As for CP/mule salvages, again the gunner way outclasses the driller when it comes to staying on the cp. A large part of this is the explosion resistance. Every once in a while, a explosive bug slips through and when it happens often when I'm playing gunner I'm literally left as the only one still standing on the point because I'm the only one that can soak up the damage. Everyone else gets blasted and needs to retreat to regen shields.
Sure, the gunner can tank an explosion, but anyone can do that with Iron Will. Besides, the driller is the best at area denial. Fire walls are absolutely amazing, as pretty much everything besides praetorians is either instantly killed by them or takes enough damage that killing them becomes trivial.


Originally posted by Threetails:
For the aquarc collection missions, again the scout and the gunner are vastly better than the driller. Yes someone is going to make the case that the driller can drill more paths than you can zipline, but it's a lop easier to just zipline the minerals back and since there will probably be 2-6 within walking distance, as long as you use the ziplines properly and the scout tells you where the aquarcs are there's really no point in having a driller.

In terms of egg collection missions, I would honestly say that there isn't really any difference between driller and scout. They get to them at about the same speed, and for more difficult to reach eggs scout can be far more useful.
These two are pretty similar, in that you have to realize that while the scout can get to the aquarc and eggs faster, the driller can get them out faster. Gems are always buried in terrain, and the driller is the absolute best at excating terrain. Besides, if any of the aquarcs are embeded high up in a wall, you'd also need an engineer, meaning it would take a gunner, scout and an engie to do the same job as a lone driller slightly faster. Not a really good comparison.


Originally posted by Threetails:
And for the boss killing missions, here the engi and gunner are definitely best. I'd say the engi is close for the highest single target damage, but he's additionally useful since he can simultaneously focus on clearing out other minions while you're getting swarmed. Meanwhile the gunner has higher single target damage, but can't keep it going consistently and doesn't really have many other great options in a boss fight. I guess that once satchel charge is removed it could be different though. Driller might actually find his niche killing bosses with satchel charges and drill to the butt.
Yeah, the driller is pretty bad at Elimination missions, but hey, so is scout so at least there's some consolation.


Originally posted by Threetails:
So basically, there's no gamemode in which driller is the optimal pick. Yes, driller can make things more convenient here and there in terms of drilling through walls, but a skilled gunner deals with a swarm just as easily as a driller does, and an engi deals with swarm bugs like they're nothing b/c of his sentries. An engi/scout gets to resources faster. And in terms of raw firepower, gunner and engi bring a lot more. There's really no point in having a driller.
Yes, the other characters are all better at their specific jobs, but the driller can do all these things decently enough that it doesn't really matter. And the thing is on higher difficulties, you need to have multiple people doing the same thing simultaneously, and duplicate characters are never an optimal pick.


Originally posted by Threetails:
I also feel that driller is severely limited because he has no effective ranged option, and no effective option to gapclose. His secondary gun deals next to no damage, his flamethrower is limited range, and everything else is short range. If his armor upgrade was something that granted him movement speed, the driller might actually be really useful. But right now he's just slow, short ranged, and unable to deal with anything in a wide open cavern, which is what a lot of higher level play is in.
The driller's pistol is a lot better than you give it credit for. Sure, it's still the weakest gun by far, but it's good enough to pick off the odd exploder, acidspitter and mactera here and there. Also, I'd say just as much of high level play occurs in cramped tunnels, where the driller excels.

One more thing I thought I'd mention because nobody's mentioned it yet, the driller makes extraction laughably easy. You just point towards the drop pod, and drill directly to it. 9 times of 10, you'll beat the mule there. None of the other characters can even think about doing something like that.
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Showing 1-15 of 46 comments
Dwarfurious Nov 21, 2018 @ 12:21am 
Flamethrower is more ammo efficient than any other weapon, especially at killing the little guys, and his drills are much more ammo efficient than platforms/ziplines. What can cost the Gunner a zipline or an Engineer 5 platforms, the driller can do in 4-5 fuel and its not any slower.
#1
gaming Nov 21, 2018 @ 12:42am 
In my opinion the Driller is the best class, as you can drill to minerals/the drop pod, and you're basically the best class at killing Swarmers and Warriors efficiently. The pistol might be the only downside, but it is somewhat useful when you spam it. Oh and Satchel Charges are always very handy.
#2
Swampi Nov 21, 2018 @ 12:47am 
The Driller's pistol is quiet decent to shoot Mactera Spawns (if out of ammo) and very good for killing Spitballers. He's the most complex class of the four, but also the most independent. He sucks at killing Dreadnoughts though, and needs at least one other char to be efficient. Driller also destroys the radioactice crystals in the Radioactive Exclusion Zone really fast by drilling into them and he can easily remove shock crystals by digging to their "root".
Last edited by Swampi; Nov 21, 2018 @ 12:53am
#3
Landor Nov 21, 2018 @ 1:52am 
The Driller has excellent manuverability over other classes in his own environment, which is solid rock. Other classes can slowly pick narrow tunnels, but the Driller can carve highways on his own at a walking pace.

The key aspect is having a little creativity in how you can apply this to solve problems. Remember the level is almost entirely solid, diggable rock, alternate paths are avalable.

Need to get up a cliff? Carve a ramp up the side.
Got seperated from the team after going down a different path? Pull out the ping tool to highlight them through walls, and dig a direct path to them.
Need to get to some minerals in the roof of a cave? Dig up and around, using the personal waypoint, the 3D map, and normal pings to navigate to the minerals and get at them from behind.
Have to fight off bugs in a crappy area? Carve out space from the surrounding walls to give you more area to manuver. Pair with an Engineer to plug holes and extend into empty space, and you can build an viable arena ANYWHERE.

As for his weapons, the flamethrower is hands down the best crowd control weapon, but it only really becomes effective with the sticky napalm upgrade, swarmers are killed instantly, and if you can set warriors on fire they'll probably die too.

The pistol is serviceable, not that great at much anything, but useful nonetheless, and it does have good accuracy.

And charges are of course the Praetorian Removal Tool.

Personally, I find the two classes that have the most freedom of movement are the Driller and Scout. Scout is obvious, but no other class can move through the terrain as well as the Driller. The only big drawback is that he basically can't do anything about empty space, if the drop pod lands on a floating island, and you don't have a zipline or platforms to get on it with, you're doomed.
#4
hotmatrixx Nov 21, 2018 @ 7:43am 
Originally posted by Swampi:
The Driller's pistol is quiet decent to shoot Mactera Spawns (if out of ammo) and very good for killing Spitballers. He's the most complex class of the four, but also the most independent. He sucks at killing Dreadnoughts though, and needs at least one other char to be efficient. Driller also destroys the radioactice crystals in the Radioactive Exclusion Zone really fast by drilling into them and he can easily remove shock crystals by digging to their "root".

Oh, really?> I gotta try this RIGHT NOW!!!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>Dies horribly.

You're not a very nice person, are you? Funny, but not very nice.
#5
hotmatrixx Nov 21, 2018 @ 7:45am 
Originally posted by Threetails:
Just wondering, engineer seems to have his functionality, scout is critical, and gunner is very good at what he does, but driller seems to really only speed up mining speed. Everything else he does is done better by someone else, and honestly, you only need mining to drill through walls to new areas. Maybe I'm missing something, if I am please tell me.
Driller is probably the top-tier do-all guy in higher level play. He's insanely helpful.

I main Engi, but I just love the utterly insane amount of stuff I can kill as an engi. I've (almost) always got close to 2x the next player's kills as engi... but the truth is that if I was to drop in, not knoing what the match was, or what others were picking for their classes, it would be Driller. every. time.

I have 500h in game, if that helps to validate my ramblings.
Last edited by hotmatrixx; Nov 21, 2018 @ 7:46am
#6
Liobuster Nov 21, 2018 @ 9:30am 
and now how many of those more than double the kills are actually not by yourself but your little robot friends?
#7
MrPurple33 Nov 21, 2018 @ 9:39am 
Originally posted by Liobuster:
and now how many of those more than double the kills are actually not by yourself but your little robot friends?
Yeah, as with the TF2 Engie-- sentries get Lots of kills-- good Little robots those
#8
JShark13 Nov 21, 2018 @ 10:06am 
As a driller main, I'm somewhat biased, but I'd say that driller is probably the second most, if not the most useful class. He's got a great arsenal that only really suffers at long range, but more than makes up for it with the best crowd control in the game. Remember, half the enemies have to close to melee range to deal damage. Not to mention, his drills are second only to the scout's grapple for mobility, as there isn't exactly a shortage of rock in most caves.

Another thing that surprisingly hasn't been mentioned yet: the driller is the best class for egg hunt and arguably the best for point extraction; As when your objective is the excavation of buried resources, being able to mine faster is amazingly good.

The main thing with driller is that you really need support from other players, more so than any other class. He's absolutely terrible at dealing with Brood Nexus's(Nexi?) and Spitballers, and if Mactera are present you might as well not bother shooting at them, as they're annoyingly good at dodging, and even fully upgraded the pistol takes around a full clip to knock em out. These issues are pretty easy to resolve by just having a scout with you, as they are excellent at hitting weakpoints and killing stuff at range.
#9
Chibbity Nov 21, 2018 @ 10:54am 
Another month, another "Is Driller any good?" thread.

Driller is the best class, hands down. It's a game about mining, and he's the best at mining.

Go figure.
#10
JShark13 Nov 21, 2018 @ 1:44pm 
Well, I'd say it depends. Yeah, the driller is pretty good in most modes, but he absolutely sucks on Elimination missions, though now that gunner is losing satchel charges that might change.

The thing with DRG is that no class is outright superior or inferior. They're all excel in certain situations, and suffer in others.

Gunners have the best personal firepower out of any class, but that's about it. Their personal mobility is atrocious. Sure, they have ziplines, but they get so few that they aren't feasible for normal usage, and they're more of a team support item than anything.

Drillers, as already discussed, are the kings of cqc, and have amazing versatility. Of course, they can't really touch anything beyond their flamethrowers range.

Scouts are the best at long range killing, and have excellent personal mobility with the grapple. However, they suck against large swarms of enemies, and to a lesser degree, against heavy targets.

Engineers have fairly poor personal firepower, but their sentries let them hold the line during swarms. Their platforms are also essential for getting high-up resources.
#11
Chibbity Nov 21, 2018 @ 1:56pm 
Originally posted by JShark13:
Well, I'd say it depends. Yeah, the driller is pretty good in most modes, but he absolutely sucks on Elimination missions

Ummm...because drilling directly to the Cacoons isn't an advantage? You can have the entire mission done in like 5 minutes.
#12
Landor Nov 21, 2018 @ 2:12pm 
Originally posted by JShark13:
Gunners have the best personal firepower out of any class, but that's about it. Their personal mobility is atrocious. Sure, they have ziplines, but they get so few that they aren't feasible for normal usage, and they're more of a team support item than anything.
Mostly true, though his mobility isn't really any worse then the Engineer.

Drillers, as already discussed, are the kings of cqc, and have amazing versatility. Of course, they can't really touch anything beyond their flamethrowers range.
The Driller's pistol is one of the most accurate weapons in the game, on par with the Scout's assualt rifle, and while it has poor damage per shot, it has a fairly generous magazine and total ammo capacity that makes up for it. Certainly not the best, but it's still a capable long-range option.

Scouts are the best at long range killing, and have excellent personal mobility with the grapple. However, they suck against large swarms of enemies, and to a lesser degree, against heavy targets.
Well, no, the Gunner has the best long-range damage. And as for dealing with heavy targets, the sawn-off shotgun.

Engineers have fairly poor personal firepower, but their sentries let them hold the line during swarms. Their platforms are also essential for getting high-up resources.
Engineers have steller firepower, but very little long-range options. Their shotgun does excellent damage, but it has wide spread so the damage is quickly lost the further you are from a target. The grenade launcher does work decently from a distance, but it's too specialized to be a dependable tool for dealing with long range threats.
#13
78pac7 Nov 21, 2018 @ 4:44pm 
His weapons feel mediocre or worse but drills are just such a useful and versatile tool that they immediately make him worth the pick. He's probably the second most mobile class after the Scout, but the whole team can make use of his mobility, unlike the Scout.
#14
Landor Nov 21, 2018 @ 4:55pm 
Originally posted by Squidbarrel:
His weapons feel mediocre or worse but drills are just such a useful and versatile tool that they immediately make him worth the pick. He's probably the second most mobile class after the Scout, but the whole team can make use of his mobility, unlike the Scout.
I will admit that, the Driller's weapons don't feel all that powerful. They are effective at what they do, but all the other classes have some good bangsticks, the driller doesn't really.
#15
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Date Posted: Nov 20, 2018 @ 11:58pm
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