Missions & Complexes

Alright, I finally have enough isk to contemplate this seriously. Been using a sentry ishtar, but going t3 looks to give better flexibility in LS. Everyone has been saying I should go ahead and go t3. 3b gives me a bit of a cushion, maybe enough. We'll see.

Fighting Serpentis, should I stick with the Proteus for all the obvious reasons, or would a Legion be better inspite of everything? I run into more legions than proteuses in when exploring. So I was thinking maybe the proteus has an issue that makes the legion better.

Thanks

You see more legions because they don't need to carry ammo and they have better range projection than a Proteus. You will see even more tengu's doing exploration than any of the T3's.
I had a corp mate who went from an Ishtar to Proteus only to loose it in a plex site as he got webbed, scrammed and neuted.
Incursions for VG blitzing you used to see a lot of legions, not sure if that is still the case. I would say go with the Legion, probably as I have never used a proteus but have used the other 3.

In serpentis space, Proteus is great if not best, just use drones.

Something like this has minimal faction, it can be improved if you spend and if you do not worry about cap stability then more drone mods can be fitted, it can be easily chnaged to use heavies to be more mobile and if you want less tank then fit another DDA or make space for anylsers.



[Proteus, Drone Exploration]
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Federation Navy Armor Thermic Hardener
Medium Armor Repairer II
Centii A-Type Adaptive Nano Plating
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

10MN MicroWarpdrive II
Large Capacitor Battery II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II

Drone Link Augmentor II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Core Scanner Probe I
Salvager II
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Proteus Propulsion - Localized Injectors
Proteus Offensive - Drone Synthesis Projector
Proteus Engineering - Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Proteus Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer
Proteus Defensive - Nanobot Injector


Garde II x4
Hobgoblin II x5
Warden II x4

Hrm, I heard drones are laughable with the proteus. Did the drone mod update make 4 sentries with mods almost equivalent to 5 unmoded sentries?

Main reason I'm going t3 is to combine scanning and combat ship, since the CPU issues make it difficult to have an all-in-one ishtar.

Drone Proteus is a fine ship now with the damage amps. It does not outclass the Ishtar, which is the whole idea of T2 vs T3, first are specialist ships and latter modular swiss army knifes. Proteus tanks a lot better, and can scan with the best of them (you don't need the grav cap rigs to scan if you have decent skills, the Emergent Locus bonus is enough).

If PVP is even mentioned on the same page, you will definitely need a cap booster (and/or NOS) on an active tanked blaster ship, because of neuts. Cloak is also mandatory imho in low.

Main issue with drone Proteus for exploration sentry use is the lack of mids, I think two Omnidirectionals is the gold standard which makes sentries shine. Also lacks the room for profession modules. This is why I went for Ogres. This is a hybrid PVP/PVE fit to act as a heavy tackle in our team exploration project, but I can see it handling suitable opponents solo as well. Swap the scram for web, and neut for salvager if you plan to avoid pew pew (not recommended, for pure PVE the sentry Ishtar is better :) ).

[Proteus, Explorer 1rep]

Corpum B-Type Medium Armor Repairer
Federation Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Federation Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Armor EM Hardener II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 400
Warp Scrambler II

Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Sisters Combat Scanner Probe
Improved Cloaking Device II
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Medium Anti-Explosive Pump II
Medium Nanobot Accelerator I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Proteus Defensive - Nanobot Injector
Proteus Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer
Proteus Engineering - Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Proteus Offensive - Drone Synthesis Projector
Proteus Propulsion - Localized Injectors


Ogre II x4
Warrior SW-300 x5
Hammerhead II x5
Warrior II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5


Tested in C3 anomalies, worked surprisingly well and is fun to fly. Looking forward to running plexes in it soon.

Actually, let me revise my question a little.

Since I'm bordering Blood Territory and seriously considering moonlighting between the two regions. When one region is busy the one next door is usually slow. Would one ship, Legion or Proteus be good for both bloods and serpentis? Assuming I swap mods of course.

I have the web drone on there in case of suddenly pvp (note the scram and neut), but you can well replace them with Hobs.

I've recently gotten a bit disappointed with the light web drones, perhaps they aren't very useful and the space would be better spent on something else. Due to their low strength, they work only with catching up if your speed is very close to the opponent's.

A legion is decent in Serpentis space (keep 30k distance or so to stay out of their fall off), but not as good as the Proteus for many of the sites IMO. The many low slots you get makes you do good damage but keeping an awesome tank at the same time. Get a navy web so you can catch up with the rats fast and hit frigs.

Tengu is not optimal in Serpentis space since they sensor damp and you have to get in closer to get locks on.

Both the Legion and the Proteus will struggle with some Blood sites as they neut heavily in them. In the easier sites it doesn't really matter for Blood and a Tengu is awesome because of speed and long distance damage projection.