Missions & Complexes

I've been dipping my toes into exploration recently and am finding it quite interesting. I use an Ishtar at the moment but probing is a bit slow and I'm struggling to find juicy DED sites.

I suspect that if I switch to a proteus and use an expanded probe launcher with deep space probes I'll be able to scan a lot faster and thus increase my chances. Unfortunately the cost of a proteus is a lot more than my ishtar and it would be nice to think that the exploration has a chance of actually paying it back in a reasonable time frame.

I live in WH space and so tend to get random opportunities to drop into null sec, low sec and high sec space but I probably end up in low sec more often than not and I only do exploration for a day or two each week. I know it's pretty random since I could go for weeks without finding anything and then stumble on a deadspace mod worth a billion isk but what is the general opinion? Should I stick with the ishtar or go for the proteus?

The ishtar and proteus are equal in performance, but the proteus has a lot of utility options. If you plan on using it for hi/low/null-sec systems i would say take the proteus, subsystem like covert cloak and interdiction nullifier are always nice to have.

You don't need to fit everything on the same ship, unless you are exploring in hi-sec. Using a covert ops for scanning and scouting, and a dedicated combat ship for clearing the sites is what most people do.

If that's the case them pick something you can afford to lose, flying around low/null without a scout is going to cost you ships. I am not sure if you can scan down all signatures in low and null, without a ship that has a bonus to probe scan strength, but if you can a battlecruiser might be a cheap option.

Get a second account with a dedicated prober. If you live in WH space you should be easily making enough isk to plex two accounts a month. You will also find that living in WH space becomes much easier with this second account and dedicated scanner.

Understood. For pvp solo ganking you can't go wrong with a cloaky proteus. Anything cloaked pve will have a harder time to do plexs and is better to use a standard t3 or BC. Stick with what you have until you feel isk comfortable to risk a t3.

Depends on what you are fighting. For small surprise attacks on miners/haulers they are awesome. I have a corp mate who regularly searches in WH space for covert ganking. He only uses a prot and has not lot a ship in a very long time.

It's all about picking the right fights and make sure you are not falling into a trap.

Good luck!

600dps, 130K EHP, neut, 18km scram and 4 flights of light drones is plenty enough for most engagements I have about 100 kills in a Proteus, vast majority of them in cloaky version. I rarely meet ships that I wouldn't engage in it.

For low/null PVE I've used a sentry fit with Improved cloak and dual prop, worked well.

If you want the dps to do sites fast and get the probing bonus, (not using the covert sub) then proteus might work for you. I would not bother attempting to run hard sites with the covops sub. It won't be simple though, you'll still be making some sacrifices, such as getting only 100m3 of bandwidth, or not having utility highs, or having to do without a cloak if you try to max guns w/ a probe launcher.

I'm fully trained for a proteus, and i like to do nullsec explo. But after looking at the proteus, I never ended up using it. When I was with one account, I probed in a helios and used a cloaked combat ishtar that did great dps and had lots of utility. When I wanted to do all-in-one explo (lowsec). I would use a covops tengu that could refit in a station to run sites (and switch from covert cloak to t2 if needing to jump gates, was very tight on cargo). Now I'm back in null, and I'm just not tempted to try and shoohorn and all-in-one setup that works without refits, and even though I have two accounts, I don't drag my combat ship around with me while I scan