Fitting the Astero – or any exploration ship – is not as easy and simple as it might initially appear, or as formulaic as fitting a dedicated combat ship (which I may cover in a later blog post). There are a lot of variables to consider: Do you want to sacrifice speed for capacity? Do you want to sacrifice tank for align time? Should you fit stabs?
The answer to these and many more questions is, as always, that it depends on how you want to play. However, the Astero is a very nuanced ship when it comes to when and how you should use it. As I mentioned in my previous post, it sits in an interesting position in the balance between efficiency and combat capacity; there are better ships to use if you want higher efficiency or bigger teeth.
Anyway, here is my fit. (Link opens o.smium.org, an online fitting tool for EVE, in a new tab)
Yes, it is shiny. No, you do not have to fit it as shiny, but I strongly recommend it. It’s only about 200 million in total — you should be hauling back at least that much in loot with every expedition.
This fit is specialized for relic sites. This means I only need to carry one analyzer, which frees up a mid slot. I also do not use scanning upgrades, simply because one would take up that extra mid slot. Instead, I opt for a scram and a dualprop (both an afterburner and a microwarpdrive). These give me control of the speed of any fight I might find myself in.
It means that if I am scrammed by something I can’t kill, I can scram back defensively and use the afterburner to get out of scram range, then engage the microwarpdrive to get away. It also means that I can keep up with anything I want to chase. 2,500m/s (3700m/s overheated) isn’t a particularly high speed for a frigate with a microwarpdrive, but remember I’ll only disengage my cloak when I am already at scram range, and will only really need it to maintain range if you try to run. It is also useful for getting between distant cans faster.
In the low slots there is an armor rep, a damage control, an energized adaptive nano membrane and a drone damage amplifier. This gives me a decent active tank, where I’ll pulse the rep every once in a while, but generally rely on my armor buffer to sustain me in combat.
I certainly do not fit stabs, nanofiber structures or cargohold expanders. The first penalizes scan resolution. The second penalizes hull hitpoints a.k.a. tank. The third penalizes speed. All three take up a low slot that could be used for something more useful. (However, these three modules are very useful on non-combat fits.)
The drone damage amplifier gives the acolytes and hobgoblins that little extra punch, but arguably it would be better to use an omnidirectional tracking enhancer to improve damage application. I haven’t compared the two yet, but the damage amplifier has served me well, so I don’t see a pressing need.
Some would frown upon using acolytes instead of warriors, since warriors have better speed and tracking. However, I’ve found that acolytes actually have better damage application – they seem to have better balance between their speed and tracking, so they can actually track high velocity targets while they themselves are going fast. I don’t know. This is a topic for another post, perhaps.
For the rigs, I use a small emission scope sharpener (t1, because the t2 variant uses 300 calibration which would mean I almost can’t use any other rig) to give me a little more coherency in the mini-game, an anti-explosive pump to plug that explo hole in my armor resists, and finally a small targeting systems stabilizer so I can target just a little bit quicker after decloaking.
Works wonders.
Regardless of how you intend to fly it, there are a few rules you should follow:
-DO NOT UNDOCK without a Covert Ops Cloaking Device II. This is non-negotiable; this ship should not be in space if it can’t warp cloaked.
-Always fit Sisters probe launchers and use Sisters probes. The bonus to scan strength these gives is indispensable, unless your scanning skills are high. Even then, the bonus is quite nice.
-Do not fit guns on it. See the two points above. If, for some reason, you’re not flying a scan probe launcher, a single gun isn’t gonna do you any good. If you want to fly guns, fly another ship. The Confessor, perhaps.
-If you don’t intend to use the combat capacity of this ship, move on to a t2 covops frigate as soon as you can. There is no fit for an Astero that is not inferior to a similar fit for a t2 frigate in terms of efficiency.
-Always carry a flight of ECM drones if you can fly them. They can save your ship (and your loot) if you find yourself pointed and/or scrammed.
The Omnisphere 