Re-examining the Exploration Loki and Proteus
I was reading over my old post today and generally looking at reader stats from while I had been gone when I noticed that two of my post still saw traffic on a daily basis. Both of those post were for exploration ship fittings of T3 cruisers: the Proteus and the Loki. I figured why not revisit those post and fittings to see what had changed. Lets look at what I am using now in comparison.
My first Loki posting can be found right here. The past two months, I have been using my Loki for lowsec exploration in Bloodraider space (combat and radar sites). This was its original purpose and it still performs admirably at doing so. My current fitting is the same as it used to be with an upgrade to a Caldari Invulnerability Field. I, once again, tried replacing the 220mm’s with 425mm’s, but I just didn’t like the loss of tracking. Replacing a Republic Gyro with a Tracking Enhancer II was an overall loss of dps when taking into account tracking disruption. Bloodraider frigs tracking disrupt constantly in the combat sites so it is a major concern for me. When fighting other factions be sure to take the specialized ECM of the faction into account for your fitting and do not only look at tank and dps. Just because EFT says you do 1337 dps doesn’t mean squat if you cannot actually hit anything.
Orbiting just outside of optimal by 500 or so meters with the AB running seemed to be the sweet spot for hitting everything while lessening just about all damage coming in from the target using the 220mm’s(result may very). One technique I did use was to just orbit the largest npc ship in the pocket and take out the frigs as they came within 12km. Remember folks, in lowsec spending less time completing a site not only increases your isk/hr ratio but also lessens the chance someone will “interrupt” you.
I was wary at first of being cap stable at less than 50%. This ends up not being a problem though unless you have more than one battleship neuting you. Often times it was remedied by turning off the afterburner or pulsing the shield booster. On the extremely rare occasion I still was not able to keep cap at a safe level (damn neuting towers), a quick warp out to rejuvenate the capacitor was all it took to continue on.
Final Build for the Loki:
[Loki, Trickster/ scan]
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Damage Control II
Corelum C-Type 10MN Afterburner
Pithi B-Type Small Shield Booster
Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
Large Shield Extender II
Codebreaker I
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Loki Electronics – Emergent Locus Analyzer
Loki Defensive – Adaptive Shielding
Loki Engineering – Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Loki Offensive – Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Propulsion – Fuel Catalyst
All lvl 5 skills:
DPS 414
Omni tank 292/ Bloodraiders 452
EHP: 56057 omni/ 87939 (Bloodraiders)
Cap Stable at 48%
Speed: 809 m/s
The Proteus build here underwent a major overhaul in comparison. I replaced the active hardeners with Darkblood Energized Membranes, upgraded to neutron blasters, dropped the mag site stuff completely, and redid the rigs. Getting rid of the mag site gear allowed me become cap stable and increase my overall dps while still using the cov-ops cloak. I was also able to add a Tracking Enhancer II to help the blasters out a bit. I now strictly do combat and radar sites with this ship in both Gurista and Serpentis lowsec. If for some reason I really want to do a mag site or two, I swap out the codebreaker or the probe launcher as needed.
The rigs can be played around with a bit. Cap stability with the MWD running is not a priority. The MWD is used to close distance to the target and then usually shut off. Leaving it on not only increases the amount of damage coming in, but reduces the dps of the blasters due to potential tracking issues. I just like being cap stable when possible and neuting is not usually an issue when dealing with Serps or Guristas. Unless you run into a neuting tower or two. I really hate those things. Really. Hate. Them.
I toyed around with using 250mm rails since the hybrid buff. Having the range was nice, but the dps left something to be desired and made completion times for most sites uncomfortably high. Not to mention, you almost have to downgrade to an afterburner or risk getting smacked around by any long to mid-range battleships that may be in the pocket due to MWD signature bloom.
You could also change out the Nanobot Injection subsystem for an Augmented Plating subsystem if you do not mind the loss off 100+ tank versus Serpentis and 150+ tank versus Guristas. This would give you another 18,00-24,000 EHP skills depending. I played around with both and just came to prefer the Nanobot Injection subsystem. Attribute it to my old missioning habits.
Final build for the Proteus:
[Proteus, Scanner]
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Dark Blood Energized Magnetic Membrane
Dark Blood Energized Thermic Membrane
Tracking Enhancer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Republic Fleet 10MN MicroWarpdrive
Codebreaker I
Large Capacitor Battery II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Proteus Defensive – Nanobot Injector
Proteus Electronics – Emergent Locus Analyzer
Proteus Propulsion – Localized Injectors
Proteus Engineering – Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Proteus Offensive – Covert Reconfiguration
Hobgoblin II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
All lvl 5 skills:
DPS 472
Omni tank 153/ Serpentis 498/ Gurista 677
EHP: 25373 omni/ 59685 Serpentis/ 81496 Gurista
Cap Stable at 43%
Speed: 1600 m/s
Next I’ll be looking at something I acquired since returning to EvE, a Tengu. And yes, I have a bit of a crush on it at the moment.
0geauxtiger0
