Two Pilot Exploration Team

I really enjoyed attempting the two complexes this past week in spite of the failure to secure much besides a few million ISK and a nice module. I don't intend to make exploration my full time job when online (PvP is where it's at!) I do intend to continue it in lieu of ratting or missions.

So if I intend to keep at it, I sure as hell better get better!

There are three approaches:

- I go in with a semi-hard ship like the Cerberus and have Derranna in a Scimitar providing remote reps, then having her swap out to a Salvager/Hacker/Analyzer ship as need be once the danger is over.

- I go in with a hard tanking vessel like a Nighthawk or battleship and have Derranna sneak in and do the can-busting when all aggro is on the tank.

- I go in with hard tanking vessel and have Derranna support in her Scimitar until baddies are gone.

I'm not convinced the first approach will be able to handle some high end complex DPS, so I think I'll start with the second method and upgrade to the third if need be.

So I need a hard tanking vessel. My first inclination is the Nighthawk because it can passive tank a shitload of DPS fairly easily. The downside is that to get the passive tank you basically have to have the DPS of a tech I cruiser. Sitting there shooting a battleship rat for 20 minutes is not exactly my idea of fun. The Nighthawk lacks powergrid for Heavy Assault missile launchers which would have helped, and I'm concerned that sacrificing passive tank for more DPS would defeat the purpose.

Still, any Nighthawk experts that have a setup that can tank high end complexes and still get over 350 DPS (without drones) let me know.

So, that means battleship (or a Tengu but I think I'll save that for when I'm filthy rich as opposed to just rich). A Rokh or a Raven can boast pretty powerful active tanks, but would depend on cap boosters in order to maintain it. I'd prefer a cap stable active tanking setup.

I decided to look at Dominix setups because the hulls are cheap and I happen to have three of them in my hanger in High sec, including one that is unrigged and unassembled. This is the setup I'm looking at:



The defence rating is based on a Sansha attack profile of EM 60%, Thermal 32%, and Kinetic 8%. I'm assuming I'm mostly going to run into Sansha rats but should I encounter something else I'll have to be ready to refit.

The setup is cap stable, does a decent amount of DPS, and has some flexibility with the multiple flights of drones. Obviously not PvP capable.

So, am I crazy? Should I bite the bullet and buy a Raven so I can go with approach 3 (battleship and Scimitar)? Or do you think the Domi will be up to the task?