Ships & Modules

Hi all.

Just to introduce myself, I enjoy exploration and pvp, particularly small gang. I'm still relatively new, so feel free to criticize me to high hell. But I think some people might enjoy discussing the ship everyone has and no-one uses.

The Gnosis, that ship we were all gifted, has been kind of languishing in misuse. Jack of all trades, master of none, the critics say. It can be fitted for anything, but is it really good at anything? Sure, no one really knows what you've fitted it for, but you can't insure it, and it's going to be a primary target for all fleets if only due to its novelty. But I've been doing something dumb with it, and thus far it's been very successful. I've been using it for it's intended purpose. Exploration.

First off, the bonus towards probing helps. But it also has an insanely fast align time for a Battlecruiser. Throw some dad warp core stabilizers (blasphemy I know) on there, Inertia stabilizers, a cloak, the two analyzers, some large shield extenders to survive a bubble and you have one of the most survivable exploration ships out there. I've also thrown on a medium neut but I've never had to use it. And it can actually carry in it's hold all the loot you pick up! Add a medium emission scope sharpener and a medium memetic algorithm bank for hacking and it's a hell of a thing how fast you can roll through sites.

Just jump into each system, go to a safe or make one, drop probes, cloak, find sites, run them all, if someone comes align out or cloak, and repeat! You can make a boatload of isk and you can skip docking up after every site. Look, is it possible to lose it in a gatecamp if you don't know the area or respond quickly? Sure! Welcome to nullsec! But I haven't yet *knock on wood*. Is a covert ops frigate safer? Yes, but those tiny cargoholds suck for all the crap you get.

I get the impression this is rare setup because people are afraid to lose them. But seriously? They're not that expensive now that they all got dumped on the market, and you probably have one sitting around. Use it for its intended purpose! Explore!

Gnosis isn't as good as any other specialised ship in what it does, it's just good because it can literally do anything.

For combat, almost any other battlecruiser outperforms it and for pure exploration a covops frigate or even t1 scanning frigate is superior.

Not doing combat sites in it, that would be suicidal. Radar/archeology sites only. I understand the alternative is cov ops or scanning frigate, but a probe can hold 320 m3, a cheetah can only hold 200 m3. A Gnosis can hold 900 m3.

With the modules I suggested it's fairly hard to tackle if you're fast. The intention isn't to fight but to slip away to a safe, hense the dad stabs and inertia stabs. With good skills and adding rigs the lack of hacking bonuses don't matter. I think people are discounting how nice the extra cargo is for doing site after site.

Sure there are other ships with that cargo hold, but how many can align anywhere near as fast as a Gnosis? It can get away without getting tackled down.

If you hit a full on gate gamp you might be screwed, but maybe not. I've slipped through a few at this point.

I don't have specific numbers. Some of it is big and worthless and I eject that but even the small stuff adds up. I'm talking about never docking and going long distances and hitting every site though, and then bringing it all home. I definitely hit my max space at some point on the Gnosis.

Fair enough, although there goes all your lows and you're not going to get anywhere close to 900. Plus you have what, 2 mids? One for each analyzer and no MWD/AB? Do you actually do exploration in something like this? Because it sounds awful slowboating to each container, unless I'm missing something. The Gnosis has been working extremely well for what I'm doing and I think most people completely overlook it as an option.

Imicus has 4 mids, helios has 5

I think Gnosis is good ship for traveling in High sec. With this fit:

[Gnosis, Gnosis Solo Exploration Missile]
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Medium Ancillary Armor Repairer

Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Purloined Sansha Data Analyzer
10MN Microwarpdrive II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Relic Analyzer I

'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher
Sisters Core Probe Launcher

Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

5 x Hammerhead II // you can switch this to 10 x small scout drones like hobgoblins or warriors
4 x Hobgoblin II // defense against quick ships in close range
Salvage Drone I

you can just jump from one high sec system to another one, doing all anomalies and signatures. It can quickly scan signatures and it has enough combat capabilities to do serious combat anomalies.

[quote=erg cz]I think Gnosis is good ship for traveling in High sec. With this fit:

[Gnosis, Gnosis Solo Exploration Missile]/quote]


EFT warrior detected...

And a Gnosis with 900m3 full of Radar / Archeology stuff inside will be a very juicy target Even if you just do HiSec sites. For sure!

CovOps Scanfrig is the way to go for so many reasons, except one: You don't have the skills.

The Op was talking about low and null-sec though where the gonosis will die to any gate camp wheres as a covert ops frigate wont.

Shuttles are useless in null and low sec.

+ covert ops have bonuses for hacking and bigger bonuses for probing.

So gnosis vs cov ops:
Pro:
+ Bigger cargo
+ Stylish

Con:
- Cant cloak
- Draws extra attention from PVPers
- No hacking bonus
- Smaller scanning bonus
- Cant survive (bubbled) gate camps
- Takes longer to align
- Is slower