Ships & Modules

Hi there. Despite being terribly fun and cheap, eventually a man needs a break from Battlecruisers and Assault ships and seeks an expensive toy every now and then.

My intention is to get my first T3 cruiser. A Proteus, for PvP. Something flashy but not stupidly expensive. 2 billions or so sounds nice. 7 billions does not. As all my ships, it's doomed (the only question is when) and I know it, but it's OK if I can get some fun out of it.

I will put T2 rigs worth a few hundred millions in total, but not officer stuff that costs billions per module, for instance.

What I'd like: able to scan, covert ops cloak, blasters, scrambler and web. A decent armor tank and drones would be nice.

The thing is that I am particularly ignorant in all things T3. Never got into them.

I want this ship to get into wormholes by myself and see what I can pick up, and for some 0.0 maybe. Being able to cloak and scan is the bread and butter of what I have in mind.

Would you be so kind as to propose fits? I don't know if it's even possible to fit a Proteus with cloak, probes, decent DPS, decent tank, maybe drones, full tackle and make it expensive but affordable.

Into your expert hands I commend my future toy.

Thanks in advance.

Here is one idea:

[Proteus, CovBlasterMWD DPS probes]

Proteus Defensive - Augmented Plating
Proteus Engineering - Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Proteus Offensive - Covert Reconfiguration
Proteus Propulsion - Localized Injectors
Proteus Electronics - Friction Extension Processor

Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Sisters Core Probe Launcher, Sisters Core Scanner Probe
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

10MN MicroWarpdrive II
Shadow Serpentis Warp Scrambler
Federation Navy Stasis Webifier

1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Centum A-Type Energized Reactive Membrane
True Sansha Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer

Medium Hybrid Burst Aerator II
Medium Anti-EM Pump I
Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I


Hobgoblin II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Warrior II x5

638dps / 94.1K EHP, 1276m/s, cap stable with everything running. Adjust for more tank, less gank by swapping a magstab to an EANM. Vulnerable to neuts. Needs a grid implant, or another MWD.

Unfortunately that is only a bit over 1 bil :( but maybe you can find an A-type MWD to add more cost with little benefit?

Regarding probes: the scan bonus subsystem (Emergent Locus Analyzer, essentially same bonuses as covops ships have) occupies the same slot as the extended tackle range one (Friction Extension Processor), forcing you choose between +18km heated tackle range, or Expanded probe launcher. Extended tackle range is nice. In Empire, maybe bonused scanning, ymmv?

In wh space combat probes are redundant imo, and mostly just used to scare people off. Most common sites are anomalies, and you have much better chance to catch people from the other sites by probing them with normal probes. Most sigs in w-space are pretty easy to scan, some mag sites and holes to high-class w-space can be tricky... but if you suspect that lonely Tengu is in a mag site, you can't break his tank anyway (not sure if Tengu is the priority target for solo Prot anyway, I have never come even close to breaking my corpie's Tanku). And I personally try to avoid jumping blindly into C6s solo, the guys living in those are not entirely carebears.

If a ship on dscan is not in an anom or cosmic sig, it's either in warp, at POS or at a wormhole, about to jump thru or cloak- making combat probes nearly useless outside fleet combat context in w-space.

I would suggest the loki or tengu for the role you are looking for, you can shield tank it and therefor your agility is not gimped by armor plates and rigs, and are less likely to get caught on warp out (which is the only time you should ever be vulnerable).

Unless ofc you have a scout, in which case you dont need to be able to probe at the same time...

np :) it's a very nice ship imho.

All of the cloaky T3s are somewhat limited in their engagement envelope solo, and all of them have their advantages. I personally think dps is more important than agility- if it takes 60 seconds for a Loki to take down a target, Proteus finished it already 20 seconds ago. Effectually reducing your exposure by 20 seconds. But, this is super situational and it's just cool that the ships are different- choose what you like to fly. They complement each others nicely in a small gang anyway :)

About agility: I tried to snag an FCFTW Noctis yesterday, after their T3+Gila squad cleaned our hole of sites. I knew they were still present in system, and probably not stupid. However, we have a tradition of not giving up our assets for free, and I didn't want to break the chain of successful asymmetric warfare. As predicted, a Tengu uncloaked as soon as I locked the "lone" Noctis, and the Tengu managed to point me before I could warp out- yes, slow align time.

I gave him a few complimentary rounds of Neutron love, and then promptly threw ECMs on him and warped away before the rest of their gang was on me. It's the Gallente way of GTFO, has worked for me for countless of times.