And yet, this is exactly the reason you keep losing to drone boats.
Why AB fit? Use MWD. Why pulse and not beam lasers? With beams you can easily reach targets at 110 km. There are no targets that far in highsec combat explo sites though, except Serpentis Watch. At 60 km you can even have decent 390 dps. If you start applying immediately as you land you can outdps drone boats before their drones reach the target. Its not last hit claims the can but most damage dealt.
BTW How do you scan sites? All skills at V or even some IVs let you go 4AU - 1 AU - 0.25AU skipping one step each time.
Unrated sites Watches and Vigils have their triggers and spawns at exact same spots every time and you can start burning for the spot as soon as you land on grid to be there when commander spawns.
Do you align and pre-accelerate on gates to instawarp on room clear?
Do you use Warp speed Rigs and modules, Ascendancy implants? I’d say warp speed is essential in combat exploration. You’re in warp more than clearing sites.
Come to Forge, Citadel, Black Rise or Lonetrek. Try to find uncontested Gurista Den. Then see how long before competition comes in. At least 1 visitor every time. If you came in first they will leave most of the time, but damn needy Tengus and Orthruses always try to steal it.
Here are some of my stats. Eight Pithum C-type Multispectrum Shield Hardeners (invulns) per month with 10-15% drop rate constituted 50% of my monthly income at the time. It’s something around 90 Gurista Scout Outpost 4/10 sites per month, or 3 per day, or 1 per hour on average.
The price of this module dropped significantly since, also Ghost and Drone sites loots went really-really meh, so it may not be 7-8 bil/month anymore for me.
You can dive in T5 Abyss from highsec, but it’s not really highsec content, is it? Also in this case high payouts imply much much higher risk and skill requirement, far from