HOW 2 PROTEUS

 PROTEUS IS AWESOME

FC how do?

The last couple of years have been rough for all of us who love the big, green, lumpy space pickle. A few changes have been nice (such as it no longer HAVING to be green), but the sub rebalance left it in kind of a sad place til recently. With the newfound teeth and tools CCP blessed it with, however, it's in a great place, so let me show you how 2 Proteus!

First, I'm not Ashy, so I'll assume you know what the sub and hull bonuses do; this is "how do", not "what be." Second, I'll put a TL;DR here in case you just want a fit, and to hell with how to fly it. Not advised, but convenient.

TL;DR

Bling is for fitting, or because it's cheap. Cost of ~500m, 900dps, 500dps tank minimum, cap stable with MWD off. Use of Exile drugs or Asklepian implants is highly recommended, and will about double the tank. Decloak at 7500m, approach, MWD, preactivate scram and guns, start lock, launch drones, watch stuff melt. 

[Proteus, VULKAN LIVES]

Coreli A-Type Explosive Coating

Medium Armor Repairer II

True Sansha Multispectrum Energized Membrane

Shadow Serpentis Medium Armor Repairer

Damage Control II

Drone Damage Amplifier II

50MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive

Warp Scrambler II

Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery

Heavy Ion Blaster II

Heavy Ion Blaster II

Heavy Ion Blaster II

Heavy Ion Blaster II

Heavy Ion Blaster II

Small Energy Neutralizer II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints II

Medium Targeting System Subcontroller II

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II

Proteus Core - Augmented Fusion Reactor

Proteus Defensive - Covert Reconfiguration

Proteus Offensive - Drone Synthesis Projector

Proteus Propulsion - Hyperspatial Optimization

Valkyrie II x5

Ogre II x5

Warrior II x4

Hobgoblin II x5

Hornet EC-300 x5

Acolyte II x1

Infiltrator II x5

Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M x1096

Null M x1585

Void M x3612

Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x16

Sisters Core Scanner Probe x32

Shadow Iron Charge S x1000

Nanite Repair Paste x224

Relic Analyzer II x1

Data Analyzer II x1

Expanded Probe Launcher II x1

THE FIT GUIDE

Okay, now that you have the fit, lets talk about the why. This is intended to stay around 500m, so you won't see a load of green and blue on here. I PvP a lot with it, and losses happen. I can lose 3 of these for the cost of a lot of the fits I find on zkill. Also, being a battery fit, it works great for a lot of PvE, hunting Clones and Mordus, and not being down on charges after a fight. 

Highs: Ions for fitting sake, and you can easily swap out the 5th if you want a probe launcher. Don't lose the neut for ALL THE DPS, because it will help a lot more than you realize at breaking an active tank. Look at your fits and see how many can handle -10GJ/S while tanking nearly 900dps and sustaining cap. Even on a cap injected fit, a neut will make them chew through their charges faster, and you can tank for days. 

Mids and Lows: Very self explanatory, If you're going to bling anything out, the scram is the best item, because it opens up a lot of options for slingshotting into a kiter, keeping range on other turret boats, as well as catching people committing heresy using warp core stabilizers. For the LOVE OF BOB, don't throw A-type reps on it. You WILL die, eventually, and if you're smart you can get your pod out. A set of Asklepians will cost you less than the A-types, and with a bit of luck you can reuse them. 

Rigs: I get questions on this a lot, since there aren't tank rigs.  The Low-Friction II gets you under 4 seconds align time, which will help a lot in getting around and evading gatecamps, as well as landing faster on a fast target. The Targeting rig is where I get the most comments regarding my sanity. Short version, it makes your targeting speed the same as a cruiser instead of a battlecruiser. Small change, big difference in catching stuff. I'll lose 1k ehp in trade for getting fights. The CCC II keeps you cap stable enough to shrug off some neuting, but you can trade it out for a T1 rig and swap your targeting rig for a cloak delay one if you like. Difference is small but can be noticeable on larger targets.

Subs: 

Offensive: Drone sub is THE best option for cloaky lowsec PvP. Yes, blasters do crazy dps. They are also Eve's equivalent of melee weapons, and YOU. WILL. GET. KITED. If you have the Hybrid sub, all you will be able to do is sit there and play the minigame of "how many hitpoints can I have on my lossmail when they kill me." The drone sub allows you to apply up to 600dps to said kiter, which will make him either run, or make mistakes, giving you the opportunity to turn the tables. And with the drone speed and tracking bonus, they apply astoundingly well. That 25% is equivalent to having an ODTL and DNC baked in to your hull. 

Defensive: Covert, since you're a covert proteus. Can't be covert without a covert cloak, yo. You can trade this fit over to Nanobot Injectors, lose the cloak, and find something to cram into the extra Mid. Probably a compact sebo, since CPU is a joke.

Core: You can make the Friction Extension work, with a medium cap injector instead of battery, and ACR instead of CCC rig, but at that point, you're on the clock with charges. It has its pros and cons both are viable. Reactor sub looks better, and allows you to roam farther, since you don't need to resupply.

Propulsion: Hyperspatial. End of story. This is another point where people look at me and say "huh?" The appeal of a 4th mid is huge, since everyone and their cousin wants a web, and the only way to get that is with the Injector sub. You DO NOT want to do this. It increases your align time to that of a plated battlecruiser, gives you a slow warp speed and deceleration, and makes you turn like a pig on ice. The biggest place you'll notice is when you try and slingshot a kiter. The Hyperspatial sub will let you spin on a dime and charge, while the Injector won't. 

HOW TO FLY IT

OR, WTF IS A FLYING TACKLE

Okay, so you have the fit, you have the reasons behind them, now how do you add sexy rows of killmarks to this glorious green hull? Largely, it has to do with positioning. A lot of what I get are explorers, and there is some subtlety to how. Two of my biggest tactics are on-grid perches and the Flying Tackle. 

Perches: If you are hunting someone in an ungated location, get your warp-in to where they are. As you engage warp, start to create a bookmark but don't hit enter yet. Watch your distance to the location tick down below the big "WARP DRIVE ACTIVE" in the bottom center of your screen. When it reads less than 20,000km, but more than 4,000km create your bookmark. It will leave you a location between 4,000km and 500km, which is on-grid with your target, but will allow you to warp to whatever is closest to them. Warp back to that bookmark, and then to whatever is closest to your target. I usually make one for every data/relic site in the nearby systems, so I never have to use probes to find someone in a site.

Flying Tackle: When you warp to whatever is closest to your target, try to get within 7500m of them before decloaking. You want to be going in a straight line towards them, and as soon as you decloak, turn on your MWD and click approach. The aim is to hit them as you wait out your decloaking delay, thus knocking them off alignment to warp, and giving you time to recalibrate and lock them. It works well on slow or stationary targets, and not as well on anyone at speed, unless you are good at Newtonian mechanics. I catch plenty of exploration frigates this way that should be able to escape, but can't because I'm doing a good impression of a CODE Machariel on them. Once that's lined up, preheat scram (shift left click on it), preactivate scram and guns, and as you get tackle, launch drones. I wait til I have tackle to launch, because a lot of people will see the big ball of droney doom pop out and it can be enough to give them that little bit of warning and escape. 

Targets: I'll go for any Stratios, explorer, or T1 Cruiser I can get a scram on. Some Battleships are fair game, just not drone boats or anything with a tracking bonus. 

Avoid: Anything with lots of neuts, heavy neuts, long range neuts, or neut-adjacent ideology. You aren't AS vulnerable as a blaster proteus, but you still are a dual rep battery fit. The exception is if you have something like a Curse or Stratios at solid scram range. You will last long enough to tear them up, since the Curse has bad dps, and the Stratios can't tank your damage output. T1 Battlecruisers can be iffy, since they have a lot of tank, and good application, and Brutix Navy Issue is a HELL NO. Too much EHP and damage. 

CONCLUSION

The cloaky Proteus is an apex predator in lowsec. As a covert hunter, you will be able to take on a very wide range of targets, and avoid most fights you don't want to take, while being able to explore, make isk, and see the beautiful worlds of New Eden. It has been my favorite ship for years, is currently responsible for 30% of my solo kills, and I am happy to see it's enjoying a new lease on life thanks to CCP's changes. I'd like to thank them for listening to the player feedback on the changes they implemented, it's very encouraging to see the alterations being made with the input of the people who will be flying them. Thank you for reading my guide, and I hope to see you in space soon!

Fly Chaotically!