Strategic cruiser is the best for everything except highsec. DED sites in HS won't allow them anymore, so they're increasingly useless there. Keep in mind, that most highsec combat sites also won't allow battlecruisers to enter, so the ship choice is largely determined by what sites you're willing to ignore. A BC isn't a bad choice though, since the best sites do allow them(DED 4/10, vigils and watches) and a downgrade to a cruiser will only add the 3/10 DED sites to that list. They're nice, but worse then 4/10s and many of them won't allow MWDs to work, so ship fitted for them is often less competitive compared to ships which ignore 3/10s. The other worthwhile combat sites are meant for frigates or destroyers, which aren't suited to be all-in-one ships and the sites are inferior anyway.

As for actual ship recommendation besides T3s. In highsec almost everything, that can access the sites can work. A gnosis would probably be good, as would most battlecruiser-class ships and the Ishtar is very good almost anywhere in K-space. Most HACs and pirate cruisers make for good highsec explorers in general. The thing I hate about Ishtar is the drones though. Herding them can grow to be very annoying because their AI is suspect at best and the drone interface is ancient and it wasn't good to begin with. Doing the same sites with a turret based ship is just so much more convenient and enjoyable.

Trying to do all in one ship always leads to compromises. You need two med-slots for the analyzers and a high-slot for the probe launcher, if not a second high-slot for the cloak when you leave high-sec.

I prefer drone boats, because they end up having the most DPS.

[Vexor, Exploration]

You can`t do any lowsec combat sites in this fit.

Vexor/Navy Vexor/Ishtar (IMO) are the very best of do it all ships.

If you want something that works stupidly well for HS combat sites (any and all of them), try this. For 90% of the sites you can split the missile launchers into 2 groups of 2 and just instapop everything two at a time.

It is rediciously good - swap Hardeners for rat types or drop one and and put in your anylizer of choice. You can run around at 30k, spam missiles and the signature is a paultry 115 so you speed/sig tank most all dps. I think the worst I have seen under 2 webs was my shields dropped about 25%.

[Scythe Fleet Issue, Explorer]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Dread Guristas Ballistic Control System
Dread Guristas Ballistic Control System
Dread Guristas Ballistic Control System

Republic Fleet 10MN Afterburner
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Large Shield Extender II

Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Sisters Core Probe Launcher, Core Scanner Probe I

Medium Auxiliary Thrusters I
Medium Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I


Hobgoblin II x5

If you want to give answers then do not give them to me but give them to the OP.

And by the way, you are wrong when you think you cannot use it in low-sec. Many high-sec escalations lead you into low-sec and the Vexor is just fine for doing exploration in high-sec and low-sec.

If you have a better suggestion, a fitting, a ship, etc. then please do post it.

And please do not tell me you cannot do everything with it or that it cannot fight a Ferox or that it cannot crash gate camps or that it cannot single-handedly wipe out 0.0 fleets. It get this kind of crap a lot lately.

Whitehound posted a Vexor fit above, which is similar to what I run with a few variabilities. Below are two fits I have tried that work ok. I do not profess to have this down and would change both fits for Low/Null substantailly. Hardeners are rat specific of course. The Navy Vexor can run the Repper/AB continually if needed, but it has a pretty small sig so you sluff off most incoming DPS and can run out at range. Typically I drop a flight of Sentrys in as well

The Ishtar fit works fine, but I am still refiniing it.

[Vexor Navy Issue, Explorer]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Shadow Serpentis Armor Thermic Hardener
Shadow Serpentis Armor EM Hardener
Corelum C-Type Medium Armor Repairer

10MN Afterburner II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Cap Recharger II
Large Capacitor Battery II

650mm Medium Prototype Siege Cannon, Titanium Sabot M
Drone Link Augmentor II
Medium 'Solace' Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Sisters Core Probe Launcher, Core Scanner Probe I

Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I


Hammerhead II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Warrior II x5

[Ishtar, Explorer B]
Corelum B-Type Medium Armor Repairer
Dark Blood Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Federation Navy 10MN Afterburner
Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link
Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Large Peroxide Capacitor Power Cell

Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
Sisters Core Probe Launcher, Core Scanner Probe I
Medium 'Solace' Remote Bulwark Reconstruction

Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Nanobot Accelerator I


Hammerhead II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Warden II x5
Garde II x4
Vespa EC-600 x4

OP wanted ship ...

Ok, I will post an observation from some extensive testing of late (with no quoted links _

It seems like the Vexor/Navy Vexor and Ishtar are really teh best cost value for exploration/DED combat.

Do the Strategic cruisers really even compete in this area now?