Exploration & Drones

Greetings, I am busy in the Exploration career and am looking for recommendations on drones.

1 - I am generally running data/relic in 0.6, limited jumps into WH’s till my experience and expertise improves. When I get attacked I generally freeze up, panic and die miserably, just putting that out there.

2 - I am using Hornet EC-300 set to aggressive

3 - I have died, quickly due to not understanding the various relic sites, that issue has been solved using Uni-Wiki. Lesson learned.

4 - I have been killed by NPC and it seemed my drones were swept aside easily. This may also have been a problem with me as PVP is not my skill and I am poor at targeting.

I would like drones that will protect me when attacked with minimal to zero input from myself, similar to drones in High Sec Mining. These set to agressive will jump on NPC when they get in range.
I would like drones that will at the least last long enough to allow escape, I fly an Astero.
I would like drones that will provide this in WH space whether it’s NPC’s or other players.
Would sentry drones work for me.
I wold like to run some of the combat sites but that is a real stretch for me.
Cost effective would be a bonus, though you can say the price of losing my Astero vrs drone cost needs to be considered. But ISK is always a factor.

I have the necessary skills for pretty much all drones, amplification, scanning etc. I don’t have a slot for amplification in my current fit.

I have the skills to use basically all drones, do not have any slots for amplification.

I have tried to include as much information as possible here, I have seen other posts that limit the recommendations due to not enough information.

Thanks

EP

For what you are doing your drone’s mostly are not going to matter.

The astero is not a great combat platform for anoms, especially when setup for exploration/hacking.

Your best defense is your agility to GTFO. Practicing not freezing up is key. Being aware of your surroundings while hacking is also key. For ghost sites (the only sites I can think of that have NPC’s warp in) you need to be able to just get out fast. They will pop an astero easily. Basically ghost sites you want to be gone before they arrive.

For wormholes, the sleeper data/relic sites are essentially combat sites. You will not survive them in a frigate.

Against players you want to stay aware. In WH"s that would be staying on dscan. Orbiting the can so you aren’t stuck on anything when you try to warp. Having warpouts at the ready to punch out quickly. Things like that.

ECM drones can be helpful if you get pointed by a player, but they are not a guarantee. Sentry drones would be epic levels of bad.

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I think the ghost sites pop the site “instantly” - there is no opportunity to do anything before they destroy you.

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You’re not going to find what you’re asking for because that would be broken and overpowered in EVE Online.

The drones you have currently already do what you want, they’re not just that strong.

Light Drones in general are very weak. Their strength comes in their speed, low bandwidth, and ability to track fast moving small ships like hostile Frigates. On the flip side, they’re fairly weak and have low HP pools, so they die easily.

There aren’t really any drones that will help you do this in a practical sense. Most people who go out to hunt explorers like you will have already fit their ships to account for this. Astero drones are incredibly weak and will not be enough of a threat to chase off aggressive attackers. The Astero is better suited to attacking weaker explorers, like Covops Ships and T1 Explorer ships.

Again, it really wouldn’t matter. You could go out of your way to buy Augmented Hobgoblins at 25m each, and they still won’t save you.

Agreed! I was the same way when I started. Spam D-scan and stay aligned, anything looks or smells fishy I hit warp without a second thought. Better to live to hack another day.

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What you need is a Magnate with four stabs.

Forget countermeasures. Be sensible and drop your cargo at a station or safe when you hit an amount you’ll be upset about losing. Yes, it’s a pain to go and collect it all but better than losing a day’s work.

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