Missions & Complexes

I played for a few months a couple years ago and got myself stuck in the mission grind which burnt me out.

I think one of my biggest problems was worrying about getting enough ISK for PLEX so I focused on the best way I knew which was lvl 4's and it just took the fun out of it.

Now I have a new mindset with the first step being to pay for a subscription so I can just focus on what I want to do without worrying if I made enough ISK each month.

Anyway enough of my life story: EXPLORATION

First things first.

This is a new character (3 days old) but I don't mind looking in the long term. Also having two accounts is not a problem.

I do have some starting money (1.2b) thanks to my aforementioned character.

I am looking to do some high sec exploration to start off with until I can skill up for low sec and I just want some advice on what kind of ships to start working on. I'm not asking for detailed setups or skill plans (though I certainly would appreciate it!) but more of a...general goal, like what frigates / cruisers / BC etc are best for pure exploration. As I said before, even if it takes months to just use a really good ship I don't mind (assault frigates, T3 cruisers).

Keep in mind I am able to use up to two accounts for this purpose (maybe a prober dedicated alt and then eventually it can support in bigger ways).

I do know the Ishtar is a fantastic exploration vessel but I am curious to know how the drone changes affect it?

I apologise if these are silly questions to you but I really know very little about EVE except mission running (ugh).

Ishtar with sentries is good, and is particularly so with the ewar in plexes. I've used mine in blood and serp space. Since DDA II has been released, I've been using CPU rigs instead of sentry rigs, which transforms the fits, and allows me to ghetto travel fit for lowsec by removing the rigs and stuffing it into a viator. You'd think a lot about removing a pair of 7mil sentry rigs, but cpu rigs are currently disposables.

I still see lots of other ishtars doing plexes, last 5/10 I found, unfortunately had another ishtar just killed the sarpati overseer right as I got the sig.

The ranged tengu got a bit of a nerf, but its self able to travel fit, and its still very good overall - in highsec I compete against them all the time, perhaps people a bit less willing to risk the more expensive ship in low, hence me seeing more ishtars in low.

I prefer exploration because as much as skinnerbox is oldhatwow, its better than grind. Drops are fun.

Drone aggro has no practical effect in combat sites in highsec for an ishtar, I don't even bother to fire rails first in frigate pockets, because I'm mowing them backwards anyway (shoot closest trackable to ensure I can kill most or all with the gardes), and has sufficient projection to kill overseers from the beacon before anything gets close. You can generally leave the drones at the beacon in the last pocket if there is someone else nearby on d-scan or entering the gate with you when it unlocks. You can relocate to the last gate before clearing if needs be too.

I have had drone aggro in lowsec, but thus far hasn't been serious - only after being damped, and my drones had accounted for 2 ships after I lost lock too. Possibly other races encounters trickier.

I'd get some post patch tengu opinions though if you aren't trained gallente yet though.

Loki alt is pretty useful/desirable even if you stop exploring with it in the future.

I do high-sec exploration in an Ishkur. It really is a fantastic ship. I have done all the rated sites in Gallente/Caldari space including 4/10's and haven't had a problem. The Gallente 4/10 boss guy has a stupid tank and it takes me about 7 minutes to kill him, but I have never came close to dying anywhere.

I am still training for an Ishtar but in the meantime it's the AF for me.

High sec is really competitive and minutes mean the difference between finding shiny loot or yellow triangles. If you have 2 accounts, I would recommend a scanning alt. You can spend months perfecting scanning skills. Plus your scanner can find new sites while your combat pilot clears others.

I plexed my account since trial via exploration but it wasn't fun. I like exploration and felt discouraged when I didn't get anything expensive to sell. Now I just pay for a sub and explore for fun and streaks of bad luck don't bother me.

Good luck.

I would suggest training for a Gila. You will need to train 2 races and get T2 drones (lights mostly), but it well worth it. Even T1 sentry drones can do a lot of damage. I active tank mine. Fit 3 done damage mods in the low, 2 omni's in the mids and a Drone link in the high. You will still have enough space to fit a tank and a analyzed or code breaker prop mod and a decent tank. Highs will need a probe, tractor an salvage. Not an very low skill ship, but being able to field 5 sentries in a cruiser that is an all in one fit is great. Even though I have tengu's and other ships, i always find myself in my gila when I do HS exploration. It works in LS also, just fit a cloak and use the mwd cloak trick.

It depends how you use them. I haven't lost any yet.
I warp in drop sentries and orbit them and shoot. Start with frigs and work my way up. I leave anything that gets close to last and then put my lights onto them. That means they close enough to quickly scoop if they get shot. I also have a medium s95 to rep my sentries if they take fire.
Drone boats are nice as it leave you lots of space for utility., you don't need to carry ammo and they put out a lot of dps.
T3's work quit well too, but that is a long train. Essentially you could use anything that you can fit a probe, salvager, and at least an analyzer.

Gila has more drone space, 400m3 and is quicker to train for. and like all pirate ships gets 2 role bonuses.

Hi Daniel,

Just important to know is that the Orca is really a huge benefit when its working as a mobile station or hisec carrier. the 400.000 ship hangar provides enough space to have a scanning frig, assault frig, heavy assault cruiser and even a mining barque with you.

- use scanning frig to pin down sites
Combat sites ->
- change to desired ship for firepower (frig/hac)
- when site is clear warp orca in
- tractor 70km+ on orca all wrecks to close to orca while salvaging drones eat the wrecks
Radar/Mag ->
- warp with scanning frig and Orca in
- Orca launches combat drones to protect scanning frig
- clear site and salvage
Grav sites ->
Warp in with Orca and change into Mining vessel and eat roids

With the bay of orca, his fleet hangar, ore store and ship hangar you can nearly avoid to use any station and literally live out of your hangars. When you have enough treasures in your tummy head to civilisation and sell it there, refresh ammo and whatever you need and go back to your locust life :) I did that very long and will most probably do it again soon. But now my secondary toon is flying an hac instead of the Orca.

This combination of T3 and HAC is also very nice, allthough it lacks bay m³. But even 5/10s in losec are not a big issue anymore :)

Ok so going with the Gila, what sort of loadout should I use? I see a few different on battleclinic with the main difference being what missile launcher to use.