Ships & Modules

I'm bringing an Orca into a C3 Wormhole in an alt to base my main out of. Due to the limited ship maintenance array on the Orca, I can fit only 1 pvp cruiser in there in addition to everything else. I'm trying to decide between Stratios and Proteus.

Proteus

The Proteus fit I would use is a Tech II dual rep blaster boat. Full rack of Neutrons plus cloak and medium NOS. Scram, cap booster and MWD in the mids, MAR and MAAR + tank mods in the lows. Notable subsystems include friction extension (longer scram).

Please note I am quoting my skills. We aren't talking theory here, simply what is best for me at this particular time.

Its omni tank is 953 before heat and exile (391 while AAR on reload)
The DPS is 525 before heat, which includes 5 light drones.
Speed is 1377m/s
Capacitor is stable at 58% with everything running, 86% stable without MWD.
Enough Navy Cap Booster 800s in the cargo to last 4 minutes.

75m3 extra dronebay for ecm drones/web drones/whatever
The utility high comes from not having enough turret hardpoints. Getting another one on there sacrifices the drone bay for a marginal DPS increase and uses more cap. I think I am a little concerned about the lack of web too.

Stratios - Cloak and Ion blasters in highs, scram, dual web, mwd and cap booster in meds, MAAR and MAR in lows plus other tank mods. I am not concerned about the range bonus. Regardless, you will need to fight at least in disruptor range. You also can't fit 4 heavy pulses on there, thus downgrading the guns, range and dps even further.

Firstly. it's cheaper :) Again, T2 fit and quoting my skills.

608 DPS omni tank (226 while AAR on reaload)
567 DPS before heat with Ogre IIs
Speed is 1474 m/s
Capacitor 1m 26s everything running / 7m 54s without MWD

Just from reading that you might say the Proteus is the clear winner. The cap looks like crap, but it's actually better than the Proteus. You can fit enough cap boosters for 8 minutes, compared to 4 minutes of the Proteus. It should also not be necessary to run the MWD as much as you have dual webs. They aren't going anywhere. It also does slightly more DPS and has 300m3 more drone bay to play with after Ogre IIs.

So the way I see it, it has more DPS, more reliable cap, less chance of enemy escape, and more flexibility in drone use. The only weakness is the tank which is still decent but not as much as the Proteus.

One other thing to consider is ditching the MAARs completely and going for 2 reps. The tank would be 150-200 less and the cap about 20% worse in both cases, but the tank is sustained for the duration of the fight (I think realistically with the site runner beating on you plus sleepers, as soon as the AAR runs you are dead.

Would appreciate comments and feedback, thanks.

That would be a net DPS loss, and the same could be done for the proteus without losing DPS. But yes, removing the NOS would allow a prober on there, but the point would be shorter also.

I guess you haven't done this before...

Cloak delay is 5 seconds, even if the enemy reacted instantly there are ways of getting around it (mwd bump them as you decloak). You want to gank them while they are occupied with something preferably.

i'm thinking that you bring the probes and launcher and use the sma on your orca to refit when you want to use them, not go out to actually pvp with them :X and yes, you could do the same with your proteus, but you'd have to carry at least one spare subsystem with you then, right? further increasing the cost difference.

Both armorstratios and proteus are pretty terrible for that.

Really, get a tengu or fit a shieldstratios for ganking.

Edit: Also don't listen to the chromestalker guy, he's wrong.

Proteus is generally considered to be the best offensive cloaky ship, but the way you're describing the fit you came up with sounds kind of off/non-optimal.

That goes without saying mate haha. Don't worry, I know how not to die in my orca.

There are some good comments here and I will try to respond after work. One quick note about the Proteus fit though, it is pretty much the cookie cutter/standard fit for a cloaky probe proteus except I took the probe sub and prober off for the longer point sub and the utility high (NOS could be swapped for neut though).

I like the idea of swapping covops out entirely for a probing proteus though because I will be able to fit a destroyer or below in the SMA with a bit of fiddling.

A buffer fit might be a viable option, and there is always the option of refitting to a armour/hull repairer at a depot after fights. However, even with the Proteus' excellent EHP I think if you compared the time you were on field the buffer fit would likely be dead before the cap boosters ran out on the active fit. It would also allow a web to be fit though, which would be a great addition. What do you think?

This is a pretty good setup. It cloaks, it scans, it has a three point scram as well as 15km web and 100mn AB for GTFO. 430 DPS and 42-54k eHP (buffer fits). You can swap tank mods around, Invul+LSE gives the biggest buffer, 2x LSE gives you a tank you don't have to mess with and can't be neuted out, 2x LASBs gives you a nice active tank but really reduces your buffer, LASB and invul gives a nice balance etc etc.