EVE General Discussion

Hello all...


I am currently active in low sec doing data/relic sites with my Imicus. The payout is good and its more stimulating then running L4 missions. The only sad thing is that I keep leaving behind all those interesting combat sites...


I am currently working on the skills to sit in a Helios for its cov-op cloak capabilities. But does it worth it? If I were to train directly for the Recon Cruisers, i could continue doing the data/relic sites, but now the combat sites would be accessible.


Anyone doing low sec exploration in a recon and how are they performing? My main concern is that they don't grant any scaning bonuses (or virus bonuses) and my scaning skills are at level 3 mostly. However I could alway double fit with a mobile depot (scaning and combat fits).


Please let me know how your story goes with Recon ships for low sec exploration. I was going Gallente so my training would get me sonmuch closer to the Ishtar but is the Arazu a good option compared to the other 3?


As always, many thanks for sharing your wisdom




Ps: i own a Stration but its soo expensive that i keep.him for high sec exploration. I don't have deep pockets yet to sacrifice 500 mil isk.

If you're just sticking to lowsec then go for the Ishtar, fit for travel and cloak-mwd trick through the gates. If you must fly a recon then the Pilgrim was always a popular exploration choice (Amarr Cruiser V will help the Stratios as well). Lowsec sites aren't that hard to scan down and you can always fit those scan array things while travel fit to make up for lack of bonuses.

You want to have a fast (to get around quick, more sites), ideally bonused (less failure, faster scan time) and cheap hull (don't regret losing) ... cov ops frigs (low skill) or ceptors (high skill). Your "end game" explorer vessel will be a T3 cruiser, though it suffers from not being cheap and fast.

Could the Astero generate enough DPS to get through 4/10 sites? I doubt it...

Stratios is able to handle many of the combat sites - I have a friend that runs the ded 5s (and maybe 6 I forget) in an active tanked version. A little pricy, but in low sec you should never lose it. Neither the covert ops frigs or the recons are going to be able to handle the better combat sites. For course you dont really need to do the hard ones to make isk. The hideaway anom takes maybe 2 mins to run and frequently has a faction spawn at the end or can turn into a lvl 3 ded escalation, both of which can result in decent isk for little effort.

I can't, cov-ops won't work for combat sites ... take a Hawk, Confessor, VNI, Ishtar, Stratios for combat exploration sites.

You might struggle to tank some sites, but a Navy Vexor is an okay choice. I know someone who did sites in Vexors, he'd use the basic T1 version because he didnt want to care about dying.. he'd jump gates and run sites unscouted, not caring about dying and just trying to run as many sites as he could. He ended up making a ton of ISK like that b/c when he did die it cost him only 20m-30m. So depending on how you fly, Id use Vexor if you YOLO, Navy Vexor if you're somewhat safe, Stratios if you're very safe.

Nestor + scout?

Indeed: ~260m ISK is the price to go for.

If you want to run relic/data sites, train up for cov ops frig, in low sec where you don't have to worry about bubbles that's the best ship to do relics and data sites.

If you want to run combat sites, a HAC or a Tech 3 cruiser is what you want (or maybe a gila). Stratios is OK but not optimal.

I guess if you want to do both you can try a Tech 3 and carry around a mobile depot, but I generally don't like to do both in one ship, as you end up sacrificing something.

Recon cruisers are not exploration ships at all. You gain nothing over a covert ops frig (except cargo space, but relic/data loot doesn't take a lot of space) and they don't have the tank or the dps to run combat sites.