Missions & Complexes

If you're going to focus on lowsec or nullsec exploration (which is what I'm guessing since you mentioned 5/10 and 6/10 complexes) Neither the drake nor the raven is really a great choice.

The drake isn't a good idea because while it should be able to tank the tougher plexes you'll find, the dps won't be sufficient to break the tank on the final overseers in the combat sites. I believe the magic number is something like 550 dps to kill the overseers in 5/10s and 6/10s.

The raven on the other hand should be able to tank the sites and do enough dps to do them quickly and kill the final boss, but transporting a raven through lowsec is going to be a dangerous and slow ordeal, even if you're using an alt to scout with.

Since you said you have good skills for the drake, i would highly recommend a tengu since it boasts a fantastic tank along with about 700 dps with good missile skills and no hardwirings while also being maneuverable enough to get through lowsec just fine (especially with a travel fit!)

Here's the tengu fit i use for highsec exploration (except with the resistance sub so I can fit probes on there too). What you'll want to do is carry around the covert ops sub and a cov ops cloak, as well as the interdiction nullifier sub if you're going through null and use those to travel with and probe. Once you've found the sites you want to run, switch into combat fit and be on your merry way!

Couple notes about the fit: The faction shield booster is really a must, and the one i have on there is really only like 60m. The faction BCUs however are more expensive, but necessary because you won't be able to get a proper fit unless you have a cpu implant. Carry around an analyzer, codebreaker, and salvager with you for the mag and radar sites, and just put them on instead of the TP.

I have really loved flying the tengu, it is an incredibly versatile ship and as long as you use a travel fit and maybe a scout alt it's incredibly safe to fly around in which makes up for the lofty price a bit. Hope you found this useful.

[Tengu, PVE]

Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System

Gistii B-Type Small Shield Booster
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
10MN Afterburner II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile

Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Medium Warhead Flare Catalyst I

Tengu Offensive - Accelerated Ejection Bay
Tengu Defensive - Amplification Node
Tengu Engineering - Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Tengu Electronics - Dissolution Sequencer
Tengu Propulsion - Fuel Catalyst

EDIT: If the price tag is giving you trouble, you can make that fit work with one CN BCU, 3 T2 ones, and switch the boost amplifier II to the meta 4 one.

A lot of people are considering the tengu to be the premier pve ship these days, mostly because of it's huge versatility. In most cases there's always a ship that will do the job slightly better than the tengu, but the tengu can do almost every job at least almost as well as the master ships!

Another thing that in my experience has been extremely important to my exploration success is carefully choosing where you explore (applies double for lowsec and null). With caldari ships, gurista and serpentis space will be your best bets, especially if you choose a tengu as a huge portion of its dps comes from the bonus to kinetic missile damage, which will be a wash if you're shooting EM weak rats or something. You'll also want to do some research of the area before you dive into it, such as checking out the star map statistics of how many pilots in space, ships destroyed, etc. to get a feel for how active the region is.

I currently explore in sansha space in a munnin on my main since I can't afford to risk my alts tengu just yet. Some of the loot is not quite as valuable as those tasty pith shield mods, but I picked the region to take advantage of the munnin's massive EM armor resist, as well as the relative emptiness of ammar lowsec. Make sure you pick an area that suits your ship and your comfort level with avoiding swashbuckling pixel pirates.

As a last note, a lot of people will have different and usually very strong opinions on what types of sites you should run while exploring. When I first started doing it, I went along with the more popular theory that combat sites and some radar sites are really the only ones worth doing, and you shouldn't waste your time on the others. I've come to realize however that exploration can have a lot of down times spent scanning and traveling system after system in search of that one signal band for the combat plex, and that can get boring pretty quick. I started bringing along salvagers and codebreakers and just running all the sites except ladar and have had considerably more fun. Hell last night I scored 60m off a lowsec mag site in 5 minutes, and I don't even have T2 salvagers. Sure that's not a huge source of income, but it certainly helps you feel like you're accomplishing more than hunting for days for one good combat site and then having the overseer not drop anything =(

Happy hunting

I've never gone ninja exploring in hostile null space, but it's definitely something I'd like to try at some point, probably with an ishtar though. I don't think the drone regions are very lucrative in terms of combat sites, but I could be wrong as I've never gone there before. If you live out in null with your alliance, you may find it easier to run forsaken hubs with some allies, as you will get some escalations that will take you to the big time sites to do with a group for huge rewards.

Wormholes are a whole different ballgame, and require significantly more setup and planning, and when you encounter angry locals, they're usually a lot more entrenched and crafty. If you're new to scanning it may also be wiser to wait until you're more comfortable with it. You may easily find yourself in a situation in a WH where you need to scan down your exit pronto to GTFO!

I might just add, in wormholes you dont encounter angry locals. They encounter you, on their terms. It's heaven for cloaky pvp due to lack of local. You can never know that there is no any stealth bombers looking funny at you just right now...
...wait, do i sound paranoid?.. <_<