[TMA] Solo Plexing in 0.0

[Roime]

Dual MAR Proteus seems to get a massive tank (1600+) against serp/guristas, and can field 4 sentries+guns of your choice. I'm getting one in the hopes I'd actually find a juicy plex one day.

And the Ishtar will do much better effective damage than a 4-sentry 3-gun Proteus since it's not nearly as hobbled by range and travel. Heck, with an armor tank you can wedge 2x FN Omni Tracking Links to push Garde optimal to 50 km - this is the orbit radius of the far tier of Guristas BS ...

If you really want to hurl ammo downrange, get a Tengu - a 6 ML/4 BCU Tengu will do a lot of damage and actually tank well. It drinks ammo though ...

Yeah, Proteus has shorter range among other issues, but can fit 250mm rails, giving it equal damage out to about 40km. Worse tracking obviously, smaller cargo and most importantly smaller drone bay. You'd trade these for much better tank and higher utility, you can keep (bonused) probes and salvager online. It's a bit slower, but slightly more agile.

Dual rep Ishtar needs to offline quite a bit of the utility, and downgrade to Electrons to make it all fit, and you still need a lot of pimp.

For true solo all-in-one exploration Proteus is probably the overall winner, fwiw.

[Itiken]

For true solo all-in-one exploration Tengu is probably the overall winner, fwiw.

FYP.
Tengu's are absolute Boss for PvE.
Honestly.
they are so good it's embarrassing.

To be honest to the OP - running anything above 6/10#s solo is not worth the time or effort, as you can probably clear an entire constellation of 4-5/10#s and radar sites to boot in the time it takes a solo boat to do this stuff.
But.
Since many of these "solo" setups are Dual-Box types - you can happily use... 2 tengus.
1x 5 Launcher / Covert / Probing / Nullified setup and one 6 launcher / utility high (cloak or shield transporter) pure dps setup.

Sure you can figure it out from there

[Varcaus]

As long as your shoot low kinetic resist tengu is good anything else kinda loses its charm.

[Ezekiel Sulastin]

First off, before I go any farther I'm assuming you have a scout alt you can do probing/not shooting with - not having a scout for 0.0 exploration is an INCREDIBLY bad idea.

Yeah, Proteus has shorter range among other issues, but can fit 250mm rails, giving it equal damage out to about 40km. Worse tracking obviously, smaller cargo and most importantly smaller drone bay. You'd trade these for much better tank and higher utility, you can keep (bonused) probes and salvager online. It's a bit slower, but slightly more agile.

I must be doing something wrong to be seeing Antimatter optimal to only about 23 km with a tracking computer then >.>

Seriously, if you're going to be using an ammo based ship at all get a Tengu, especially vs Serpentis and Guristas as BOTH are weakest to Kinetic. If you're deadset on a Proteus, get a single-rep 6x250mm fit and prepare to spend isk (and for the love of cripes don't trust fleetmates who say that they'll knock off web frigs to allow a site to be blitzed - I only made that mistake once, but it was costly), but be aware that both the Tengu and Ishtar are pretty much more effective in every way. If neither of the above is true, get an Ishtar.

The Tengu has the same range advantage over the Proteus that the Ishtar has, but not only is this advantage greater (range = 100+ km, even with Fury missiles) but the DPS is high enough that you can't pull the "lookit my dps ignore range" card you've been pulling (6 HML, 2 faction/2 t2 BCU = 550 DPS with Trauma T1, 701 with Trauma Fury). If you're going to spend tons of money on a T3, at least get the right one for the job ...

Dual rep Ishtar needs to offline quite a bit of the utility, and downgrade to Electrons to make it all fit, and you still need a lot of pimp.

Irrelevant - your scout alt should have your utility mods, guns don't matter due to range, and you'll still spend less on just about any Ishtar fit than you would on a Proteus hull even with moderate pimp unless you do something completely insane like active-shield-tanking the Ishtar to go 3x250mm + 3x MFS + drones (the numbers for that look ok, but still ...).

For true solo all-in-one exploration Proteus is probably the overall winner, fwiw.

Yeahno. 1) ~true solo~ is dumb and will get you killed, 2) Ishtar's better if you don't want to worry about ammo resupply, 3) Tengu's better if you want to do max damage.

[Roime]

Ok ok ok guys easy now. I fly an Ishtar, with a scout and sometimes an armor link alt on top of that. Sometimes with a Tengu corpie.

While this is very capable little crew and 3 specialized ships naturally gives better results than one, I don't exactly love tripleboxing and it's much chiller to fly ~true sololol~.

I must be doing something wrong to be seeing Antimatter optimal to only about 23 km with a tracking computer then >.>

Was with lead or some other longer range ammo. With AM you'd do a bit more dps than the Ishtar. Rails are terrible, and def the weakest link of the whole idea. Anyway, For min/maxing serp/guri exploration the obvious marching order is Tengu > Ishtar > rest, but I'm just interested in trying the Prot simply because neither of them does quite what it does, in one, small and ugly package. fwiw.

And this is how I roll:

[Ishtar, The fucker has Neutrons]

Core Probe Launcher I /OFFLINE
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Prototype Cloaking Device I

Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Imperial Navy Cap Recharger
10MN Afterburner II
Medium 'Gattotte' Capacitor Booster, Navy Cap Booster 400

Shadow Serpentis Medium Armor Repairer
Dark Blood Armor Kinetic Hardener
Dark Blood Armor Thermic Hardener
Centii A-Type Adaptive Nano Plating
Damage Control II

Medium Sentry Damage Augmentor I
Medium Sentry Damage Augmentor I


Hobgoblin II x5
Garde II x1
Hornet EC-300 x5
Garde II x5
Warden II x5

751 dps w/Gardes+Void
490 tank against Guristas, 1262 with all h4xbutans pushed

Some people like to tank, I like to pilot around in the sites with gank+links+drugs+heat.

[kyrieee]

Can you probe out the harder plexes in a non-bonused ship?

[Varcaus]

Can you probe out the harder plexes in a non-bonused ship?

Pretty sure you can't without (unless maybe you have virtues)

[Itiken]

Can you probe out the harder plexes in a non-bonused ship?

i've had 'issues' with 4/4/4 skills getting hold of anything above a 6/10. it's probably easier now you can spam 6+ probes, but meh.

Probey/tanky t3 + deeps is the way.

[Mfume]

Can you probe out the harder plexes in a non-bonused ship?

Yes, requires fairly good probing skills though.

[Lady Spank]

I haven't plexed in ages and when I did it was dual ishtars and lookout prober on the gates (or dual black-ops and lookout but that just proved to be too tedious).

I never payed that much attention to guides and used to just warp out when needed but uh...

Could you just throw a couple of guardian / basilisks in there to tank all incoming and then use a high dps ship or two to mop up or does that not work in practice?

I pretty much only ever took on Serpentis high-end DED plexes and its going back a couple of years now so I don't know how much has changed.

[Duckslayer]

I haven't plexed in ages and when I did it was dual ishtars and lookout prober on the gates (or dual black-ops and lookout but that just proved to be too tedious).

I never payed that much attention to guides and used to just warp out when needed but uh...

Could you just throw a couple of guardian / basilisks in there to tank all incoming and then use a high dps ship or two to mop up or does that not work in practice?

I pretty much only ever took on Serpentis high-end DED plexes and its going back a couple of years now so I don't know how much has changed.

thats the way to do it yes. Never going to need dual logi though for any of the DEDs. Scimi reps enough, no need for a basis extra repping power. In fact for serpentis, can just about get away with a passively mega-tanked drake and no logi. Not sure about those non rated escalations with the open sites, having siege batteries, neut and web towers is more of a ballache.



A maxed prober in a non bonussed ship can get DED 8/10s with spamming 8 probes on superclose range scan

[Cydo]

Ok ok ok guys easy now. I fly an Ishtar, with a scout and sometimes an armor link alt on top of that. Sometimes with a Tengu corpie.

While this is very capable little crew and 3 specialized ships naturally gives better results than one, I don't exactly love tripleboxing and it's much chiller to fly ~true sololol~.

I must be doing something wrong to be seeing Antimatter optimal to only about 23 km with a tracking computer then >.>

Was with lead or some other longer range ammo. With AM you'd do a bit more dps than the Ishtar. Rails are terrible, and def the weakest link of the whole idea. Anyway, For min/maxing serp/guri exploration the obvious marching order is Tengu > Ishtar > rest, but I'm just interested in trying the Prot simply because neither of them does quite what it does, in one, small and ugly package. fwiw.

And this is how I roll:

[Ishtar, The fucker has Neutrons]

Core Probe Launcher I /OFFLINE
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Prototype Cloaking Device I

Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Imperial Navy Cap Recharger
10MN Afterburner II
Medium 'Gattotte' Capacitor Booster, Navy Cap Booster 400

Shadow Serpentis Medium Armor Repairer
Dark Blood Armor Kinetic Hardener
Dark Blood Armor Thermic Hardener
Centii A-Type Adaptive Nano Plating
Damage Control II

Medium Sentry Damage Augmentor I
Medium Sentry Damage Augmentor I


Hobgoblin II x5
Garde II x1
Hornet EC-300 x5
Garde II x5
Warden II x5

751 dps w/Gardes+Void
490 tank against Guristas, 1262 with all h4xbutans pushed

Some people like to tank, I like to pilot around in the sites with gank+links+drugs+heat.

Interesting fit, do you ever get issues with running low on cap charges?

[Roime]

Interesting fit, do you ever get issues with running low on cap charges?

I think it does all that an Ishtar is supposed to do. No issues with cap boosters, there's no need to keep the repper running all the time, and there is cargo bay for lots of charges. Cap recharge rate is very good, 2-4 repper cycles are quickly negated and most of the time that is enough.

It's only been to 6/10s and below, tho, but handles the unrated Serp Minor Annex with style as well.

[Duckslayer]

It's only been to 6/10s and below, tho, but handles the unrated Serp Minor Annex with style as well.

[TimNeilson]

Yeah, an ishtar is kind of overkill for 6/10s and below. Also tbh, if you've got a scim/oneiros buddy you can bring in pretty much whatever for dps on any of the serpentis DED/unrated sites, except maybe the FSP final.

[Roime]

Yeah, an ishtar is kind of overkill for 6/10s and below. Also tbh, if you've got a scim/oneiros buddy you can bring in pretty much whatever for dps on any of the serpentis DED/unrated sites, except maybe the FSP final.

So you suggest spending an hour clearing a Crimson Hand Supply Depot in a solo Myrm because a HAC is overkill?

Also true that solo plexing is much easier when you bring a friend in a logi.

[TimNeilson]

Yeah, an ishtar is kind of overkill for 6/10s and below. Also tbh, if you've got a scim/oneiros buddy you can bring in pretty much whatever for dps on any of the serpentis DED/unrated sites, except maybe the FSP final.

So you suggest spending an hour clearing a Crimson Hand Supply Depot in a solo Myrm because a HAC is overkill?

Also true that solo plexing is much easier when you bring a friend in a logi.

I never said it wasn't better to use an ishtar, just that you don't need one to be able to do lower level sites :v:

Also I'm usually 2-3boxing when I do these, so yes, I'll stick one of my characters in a logi and use a pair of tornadoes to nuke the rats.

[Roime]

I never said it wasn't better to use an ishtar, just that you don't need one to be able to do lower level sites :v:

Also I'm usually 2-3boxing when I do these, so yes, I'll stick one of my characters in a logi and use a pair of tornadoes to nuke the rats.

While obviously true, it's the only Gallente ship that makes any sense to use in solo plexing. With others it just takes too much time.

Myrm is great for plex baiting tho