Proposed Defender Drone Buff:

First of all, buff the damage reduction. 50% is simply too low and is almost half of what we had pre WONY. Bump it up to at least 80% with overcharge providing immunity.

Second, buff the uptime. Right now it doesn't gain duration with skill tier. ~20 seconds duration with ~18s CD means an uptime of a bit over 50%. Meanwhile a good shield never goes down. Artificer Hive could extend duration but then you lack the defensive core attributes if you try to extended the refresh amount. What if the drone just takes Damage Over Time and lasts as long as it has health? That way even a T1 Hive can repair 20% every 10s. This should be balanced for uptime that is good and useful.

Have Defender Drone scale off of defensive core attributes as well as skill tier. This would provide a defensive core build with a second skill.

Increase it's protection while moving. Right now anything beyond a walk can make you lose protection. Plus rapid movement can throw off the drone. It would be great if it stuck to the agent better.

This skill competes with the shield for one of only two defensive skills. (Technically one of three if you count the decoy but that is a distraction in my opinion) When comparing the defender drone to the shield it falls short in so many areas that it is a joke in comparison. And then when you compare the defender drone to enemy defender drones, it's even more of a joke since the enemy is immune to damage while their drone is up.