only devilites and silkwings respawn. everything else spawns once.

Prior to this event there was the Apocrean event, which brought us 3 powerful poison weapons (two of which are very useful here). Poison has the ability to reverse a healer's power, while lowering the enemy's attack and defense. Try using a poison weapon like an obsidian edge to beat the tortodrone.

Imagine if they addeed a bunch of respawning healers into the vanaduke fight
Blitz vs Plague argument not so one sided now eh

Honestly though plague needle beats the tortodrones fairly well. the damage-decreasing effect of the poison is great, especially if you're wearing ancient plate and have firends to take care of fiends.
That giant AOE slam only does 2 bars of damage to unheated ancient plate, with no bonuses such as poison or defence perks/trinkets.
IMO the overtimers are far more trouble than the greavers or silkwings. The shock, comboed with them being able to hit you as soon as you stop moving, is just ridiculous.
If you keep getting hit while cfharging then get ome MSI and CTR.

Fix missile attack status duping pls

As I have actually seen a tortodrone set ablaze, at this point, I think I would actually be interested in owning a volcanic pepperbox for everything now.

@Batabii: If or when you can charge, go with someone who has a seraphynx whose shield can allow you time enough to unload your charge early on in the fight. While idea of mine seemed to be in vain for me and two other comrades to charge our best available DPS weapons, I asked the fourth man to use his shield and pick either the slight left or right for where he was going to be. If my memory serves me right, we effectively took out about half of one drone's health before the party started since both of them actually charged forward at the start of the mission. However, if the drones did not charge, which I found that they do not always do so, then that opening idea of mine would have fell through harder than I would have liked. So that was a gamble.

@Drachronos: I am glad that someone else recognizes the benefit of the ancient plate gear here as the melee hits that I have taken are not as devastating when that plate gear is equipped. If only my frame rates would not drop then I could be of more use and know how to tango with the tortoises myself.

@Pyrogenesis: The new guns are like Winmillions that can actually reach the 5* category. See here. The normal attack is a lunge forward punch followed by a shard shot that phases only the scuttle bots, devilites, and silkwings; with a punch-shoot punch-shoot pattern, that is four hits total which is new among weapons with 2, 3, 5(10), 6, (however many the hammer dash adds), and 12 hits. The charged shard shot drops six shards from above and pushes you backward without knocking you off your feet unlike the Magnus lines and Punch/Pummel guns. The impact of the shards on the ground cause damage. Walking into the shards causes additional damage for the few seconds they are there and they act as a barrier against enemies. Some path-find their way around it if not through it. And I do not know what enemies are not obstructed by the shards yet; if Vana, the Trojans, and others are kept at bay, the mere sight of that would be too interesting to be honest. However, it cannot pass over solid, unbreakable barriers.

And look here for Spiral-Spy's guide on how to deal with the mission.