The Astero is, without doubt, my favorite ship in EVE Online. Many people dislike it, and have good reasons for disliking it. These include:
-As an exploration ship, it is inferior to t2 covops frigates, both in warp time and scan bonus
-As a combat ship, it is inferior to almost all other combat frigates
-It is expensive
These are very good reasons to dislike the Astero, or at least recommend aspiring explorers to use it only as a stepping stone to t2 covops frigates.
However, I disagree.
I agree that the Astero is (generally) not a viable dedicated PvP platform. I also agree that t2 covops frigates are more efficient at exploration. However, I still believe that the Astero is the best exploration frigate, and here is why: anything I can’t kill, I can outrun.
Let me clarify.
If you warp to a site in a t2 covops frigate and find my Astero already running it, you have no option but to warp off. If I warp to a site and find your frigate already running it, I will kill you and take your loot. You will not see me coming. You will not have time to react unless you get VERY lucky.
The same goes if I find you in another Astero, a t1 frigate or any inappropriate exploration ship (which will give you up as a newbie and a ripe target).
Of course, if I warp to a site and find a t3 cruiser or a Stratios running it (or a Nestor, Doge forbid), I also have no option but to warp off*. Furthermore, if a combat ship warps to my site, I will also be subject to various constraints to escape, including reaction time to the presence of a ship on my overview and warping off before being decloaked. This is no different for me.
I have to keep two eyes on dscan (and/or the local channel), three eyes on overview at all times, and a finger hovering over my f1 key (bound to my cloak). If I do this right, I will see a combat ship incoming on dscan, and will cloak before it lands on grid. If you have a cloaky combat ship I can usually cloak before you can get a lock if you are a cruiser, and fight you off if you are a frigate. Thus, anything I can’t kill, I can outrun.
To me, this is definitely worth the inflated price tag.
However, the Astero is certainly not foolproof. If I stop paying attention for even a second, I am vulnerable. But, again, this is no different for a t2 frigate. The difference is that for a bit more isk and a bit less hull scan-strength bonus, I get teeth.
At this point, you’re probably wondering why I don’t endorse t3 cruisers or the Stratios instead of the Astero, since I’m willing to sacrifice efficiency for combat capability (hopefully I don’t need to explain why I don’t endorse the Nestor, a billion-isk slowboat that can’t warp cloaked, for this purpose).
T3 cruisers and the Stratios certainly offer a lot of advantages. T3 cruisers can be nullified, well tanked (>100,000 EHP) and still have a lot of teeth. Stratioses can be fitted as to be able to kill t3 cruisers. If you want tasty killmails, this is the way to go (if you have the skills – do not try this if you’re a newbie seeking advice).
However, this will kill your efficiency, because of the lower warp and subwarp speeds, meaning you will spend more time warping to sites slowboating between cans than actually hacking (or killing) anything. Furthermore, these ships can’t go through frigate-sized wormholes. Not to mention that the price tags on these babies are magnitudes higher than any exploration frigate, and that you will lose skillpoints if you die in a t3 cruiser.
“But you just said you’re willing to sacrifice efficiency for combat capability!” I hear you say. Yes and no. There is a balance between efficiency and combat capability that must always be kept in mind. What I have tried to do in this post is not necessarily to justify always sacrificing efficiency for teeth; I have tried to justify my preference for the Astero within this balance. You may agree or disagree, and you may even be correct to disagree for your particular play style. This is just my perspective.
*I may, at times, attempt a bluff – warp in at a distance and decloak in an attempt to convince you that other combat ships are present in the system and incoming. This is especially effective if there are combat ships on dscan, and even more so when I do have combat support.
The Omnisphere 