Watch your enemies from in the skies with these drones!
GARLIC DRONE
Garlic Drone for the Cactus is an ability that allows you to control a drone that can fly and attack enemies from the air. While in this mode, you are unable to control or move your Cactus, although you can cancel this ability at any time, and you can be attacked and vanquished by enemies, so you need to be careful of where you are positioned when you use this ability. Try hiding behind cover or near your team so your enemies are less likely to find you and vanquish you. Your drone has a unique attack, an overheat meter instead of an ammo count, is able to fly and move around, and is small and hard to hit, however your drone is very fragile and can be destroyed by a single enemy attack most of the time. Your drone will be cancelled immediately if your Cactus takes damage during this ability, or if you run out of fuel as it only lasts for a limited time. Your drone has a powerful ability that can also be used sometimes, it summons an exploding corn airstrike that damages any enemy caught in it, with direct and splash damage involved. I think that this ability is cool, being able to surprise your enemies from the skies and your drone serving as a good distraction can help your team in a fight as well.
GW Alternate Abilities
Artichoke Drone: This ability gives you a different type of drone to control and attack with. It has a health boost, although it does not deal as much damage as the regular Garlic Drone. The powerful ability only drops a single exploding corn at a time which can deal direct or splash damage, although this ability can be much more frequently. The health boost can allow it to survive weaker attacks, but there are still plenty of enemy attacks that, if they successfully make contact with the drone, will still destroy it in a single hit without fail. The lower damage may make the drone less worthwhile, but if you can get it to survive longer with the increased health, then it can really become useful. The ability can be used more often but at the cost of it being much less powerful, so it could be very ideal to keep using it whenever you get the chance to make the most out of it. I do not mind this ability, it has more health which can allow it to survive some weaker attacks, although the less damage and it still being possible to destroy the drone in a single hit may make it less useful than the regular variant in some situations.
Dark Garlic Drone: This ability is exclusive to GW2 and only sometimes sold by Rux, so look at his stock frequently if you wish to get this ability. This ability gives you another different type of drone for you to control. It deals more damage compared to the Garlic Drone, and unlike it, it can deal splash damage as well, meaning that this drone can really be effective against enemy groups due to the splash damage, and accuracy does not matter as much. The drone shoots much slower, with a slower fire rate and projectile speed, however it never overheats so it can be shot continuously without requiring concern of overheat, meaning that you can continue to shoot into groups of enemies for lots of damage potential. The powerful ability deals less damage, however this airstrike launches faster and it affects a bigger area, making it easier to damage enemies with it. I enjoy this ability quite a bit, being able to constantly shoot without needing to be concerned about overheat and being able to become more effective against grouped enemies can be really useful.
Red Artichoke: This ability is only available in GW2 and only occassionally from Rux, so check his wares often if you want to obtain it. This ability gives you yet another different variant of drone for you to control. It has a faster movement speed, fire rate, is more accurate and takes longer to overheat compared to the regular Garlic Drone, however it deals significantly less damage and the airstrike is generally not as powerful. This can be great for many reasons such as being able to avoid enemy attacks more easily, landing your attacks more often, dealing more rapid damage and being able to fire continuously for a long time, however the much less damage means you may have trouble vanquishing an enemy or your enemy will have more time to notice your drone before you are able to destroy them. Your airstrike only fires three shots of exploding corn at once with some decent damage, although you can use this ability more often compared to the Garli Drone. I quite enjoy this ability, having a lot of benefits over the regular variant, although having a sizeable cost as well, is cool and this also opens up more options to getting use out of these drones.
BFN Alternate Upgrades
Spotlight (2 upgrade points): Dealing damage to your enemies with your Garlic Drone reveals the location of those enemies, as well as their health, to you and your team, even behind cover. This is really useful as you can easily deal damage to enemies from the air, without being spotted hopefully as well, and you can reveal the location and health of your enemies to you and your whole team this way. You can even track enemies that are at low health and get some easy vanquishes as well. I think this upgrade is useful, being able to show your whole team the health of the enemies can be useful in tracking enemies that are low on health or that are hiding, especially since you can attack in a stealthy fashion from the air.
Sustenance (4 upgrade points): You gain fuel for your Garlic Drone if you vanquish an enemy with it, allowing you to continue using your Garlic Drone for longer without it expiring on its own. You can attack enemies who have limited range or that do not perform as well at range for easier vanquishes, or attack enemies that are quite low on health to gain more fuel more easily and continue to use the drone for longer. I reckon this upgrade is great, this gives you an option to use your drone for basically as long as you like as a reward for vanquishing your enemies with your useful air drone, it really rewards you for being able to vanquish your enemies.
Conclusion
This ability can be quite useful, as if used well and in a good location, you are able to keep your Cactus safe and attack with little risk of actually getting vanquished as Cactus. The drones can be used for sneak attacks, scouting out the locations of your enemies, or distracting your enemies into trying to shoot your small drone down while your team attacks your enemies. I think this ability is great, there are many ways in this ability can be used, and with little risk to your Cactus being vanquished if you activate it in a safer place.
