What race and profession would make the ultimate hacker?

1. Zolazin Spy
2. Zolazin Explorer
3. Zolazin Hacker

Race would obviously be Zolazin, since it gives a cloak bonus. There is no race that gives a scan bonus. But as for profession, what's best? Spy, explorer, and hacker would all help in hacking. I'd say a 20% cloak bonus as spy wouldn't be necessary with a 40% cloak bonus as zolazin and two 8% bonuses with coalition databases. Hacker? You've already got three 7% bonuses from cipherbots and a 25% bonus from a sha'din algorithm. So, explorer? I don't know.

Without knowing the exact formula there is no real way to answer this, but if I had to guess I would say hacker.
For two reasons:
1 it is more focus, similar to drannik versus konqul, drannik is only NPC thus the % is higher.
2 scan MIGHT help with critical hacks, but not the ability to actually perform hacks, so explore is automatically out.

I believe you're wrong there. Put your cursor over the question mark next to the word scan on your ship tab and a description of its benefits pops up. Among them, it says it increases your hacking potential and defense.

been awhile since I could actually scroll over and see thosee, all i see is the +% from titan proxies

I know why. I have permanent defense bonuses from velox thrusters and permanent cloak bonuses from coalition databases. Before I had any, putting my cursor over those question marks would make something pop up describing its benefits. Now that there are permanent bonuses, that's all it'll show now. Before you installed your titan proxy's, putting your cursor over it would have shown you.

The key here is like Fluffy said... We don't know the math involved. We don't know the formula and we don't know the set points for successful vs unsuccessful (and the associated criticals). We assume that Scan+Cloak is one of the factors, so without doing all the math, I think Explorer vs Spy is going to end up being a wash. You have higher cloak as a Zolazin, but scan is much higher by modules so I think they'll end up roughly even before factoring in the profession.

We think the formula is some form of RND(x1 to x2)*(MyScan+MyCloak)/(HisScan+HisCloak)+Bonus where x1 is less that 1 and x2 is greater than 1. Any result from that formula greater than 1 would then result in a successful hack. A second roll then occurs for critical success/failure, maybe 1 to 100 with crit being 95+ (5% critical chance). Following that, a % bonus at the end I think is going to have a greater effect on the overall result.

My opinion therefore is Zolazin Hacker would be the best choice.

I mentioned in another post how to get the maximum cloak bonus and maximum hack bonus. It would be Zolazin Hacker with all possible cloak and hack buffs, both permanent and temporary.

Let's take into account the service terminal. It can give you a 15% cloak bonus, whereas the scan bonus from it is 6%. Other % bonuses would be 15% cloak from stealth optimizer, 10% scan from stryll seeker, and 15% scan from continuum beacon. Let's also consider the limit to which players can get their scan and cloak up to. With the most advanced researchable scan and cloak mods installed and a 20% scan bonus as an explorer, I have 9360 scan and 5352 cloak without temporary buffs. I have both coalition databases, but no titan proxy's. Without the 20% scan bonus, it would be 7680. Which is still more than 2000 higher than my cloak. At high ranks, scan is considerably higher than cloak. So I'm thinking that between explorer and spy, spy would be better. Spy or hacker?

I don't plan on being one of these race/profession combinations anytime because I can hack easily enough as it is. I'm just wondering what would make the ultimate hacker. But I will at some point be a Zolazin Saboteur to get the Silent but Deadly medal. When I'm a sab, I'll take advantage of my 40% cloak bonus by going on hacking frenzies.

I cant give you a mathematical answer but I can give you a logical answer, all would make good hackers, but to find an 'ultimate' hacker would be more to what you want out of it.

1 Zolazin spy - GREAT for staying off of BT high cloak bonus, + enough scanners you could hack probably anyone you wanted. If your looking for hacking potential this is your option, however the amount you get from someone - if that is what you are after - will be on average, the lowest of the 3.

2 zolazin explorer - most well rounded. Good bonus helps to keep you off BT, high scan means wider range of targets, and more RP stolen. Note that having a high scan DOES NOT affect how often you crit, it helps prevent counterhacks and hacks from others. It has some part to play in how much RP you take, but the main determinant - that I have found from my personal notes - appears to be level.

3. zolazin hacker - most hack centered. racial helps keep you off BT, but your player range is limited to what you would typically see, however you would on average gain the most RP of the 3 choices.

NOTICE* the downside to playing a hacker centered person instead of a well rounded person is that if you get alerted, your screwed unless your ship is REAL good. Point 2 is that regardless you'll need a healthy set of nulls to counteract the firewalls - gauging the 'actions left' of others ships is not a garunteed way to avoid them, I blew threw 10 yesterday before giving up.

Things to keep in mind though:

1. zolazin while a good legion support race should really only be played for a couple of reasons. 1. to be a sab, 2. if you are ONLY interested in missions, and want to stay as far away from the BT as possible. 3. if your going for the hacker vs. hacker medal ( though if this is your reason, your doing it wrong ).

2. From personal notes the amount that you can steal in RP generally ranges from 5-10%, normallity reaching ~ 7.36% of what they have holding. Previous numbers indicated ~5%, but after some re-calculating over a set level range, I found that the level of the person matters more than what they have iin RP holding.

3. range of players - Im not saying that you will see people outside your badging range I am merely speaking of finding higher level targets, and of course other highly cloaked ships.

If it were me, of the 3 I would choose zolazin explorer for your choice, as it is the most well rounded, but honestly I wouldnt be a zolazin unless I was a sab

<- Mylarai fixer