Even if i have no experience with the DDroid as i have not unlocked the ship i have heared that in PvP the Droid should be "decend enough" but it really lacks any sort of "real deflection" as the name implies.
Quite some time ago i made already a post about "revisiting the TC items"
>>>Making TC Ships "more attractive" again (Changing TC Item Effects)<<<
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Deflection Droid - Kodiak
From what i have seen in Chat the DDroid seems to be pretty lame in it´s "counter" when hit + it only can take 1 hit and then explodes instandly. My Idea here would be to make it so that the DDroid "absorbs" the dmg 1st during the runtime and when the time ends the DDroid selfdestructs with an AoE like an Aggro Bomb and the more dmg it absorbed the higher the "counter" damage. If the Pilot receives the hit the DDroid absorbs less dmg while it absorbs more if it gets hit directly. I have no idea about the current runtime but i would say 10 seconds runtime should be enough for it.
Over this way it still would work to some degree and also "justify" the reason why we have to get hit while in return the units in range get then damaged. As we have seen it on the QL already changes are possible on the items they just need to be made.
Of course the drawback would be if PvE Units (Hators atm) would receive this benefit as well cus i then assume that a group of Hators or Pilots can be real troublesome with the possibility to 1-hit Kill pilots even with the best armor available if enough damage is accumulated and it gives no "hardcap" to prevent such a thing.
As example let´s assume that the most units at Calon have an HP pool of 1.000.000 before they explode.
In order to set an "Hardcap" we would need to determine the possible "reflection damage" each DDroid has and for the sake of keeping it simple let´s say that the Symbolic DDroid can reflect up to 10% (100.000) and the DR DDroid can reflect up to 20% (200.000) of the damage.
Cointinuing the "simplicity" let´s also assume that the highest units of TC deal with a blaster 20.000 dmg/hit. This would mean 5 Shots are needed to "fully charge the Symbolic DDRoid while 10 shots are needed for the DR DDroid to fully charge it (without counting possible additional hits like AoE, SB, Mines, etc.). I think that over this way the DDRoid can be made more attractive for many when it can dish out more damage...
As always with all my examples in numbers - They are only examples cus in theory no one has the real values of how much HP each unit and ship has if not using some 3rd party tool.