Ships & Modules

I'd like to support some mining ops in Low Sec Gallente space.

First, has anyone had any success with this?

Next, if so, what sentry drones did you use?

Can you tell me what went wrong?

If you want to mine in low sec might I suggest a Skiff.

You can get around 90k EHP with it and close to 250 dps with a decent yield fit (including point and web in the mids) and you can get better EHP than that if you change those to something more tanky, if you want to go a bit of a troll fit use DDAs instead of mining laser upgrades and deal over 350 dps with 90k EHP and full tackle plus enough drone bay to carry spares. That is a legit threat to kill things, only your very poor mobility keeps you from being a combat ship at that stage. IIRC your scan res is also absurdly high so you might even be able to pod your victims as well if they aren't quick.

People will go for it too because it's a barge, I guarantee you will send some very sad gankers home as that thing will be threatening to anything up to and including cruisers.

Failing that if you don't want to risk the exhumer you can still get decent stats out of a Procuror working to a similar philosophy. A cruiser will probably kill your Procuror but a couple of frigates/destroyers might well be in for a shock.

Setting up to guard mining ops is notoriously boring and does little more than cut into the profit margin, aside from that sitting in a belt gives people ample time to figure out what they need to take you down and round it up to come back pop your ships and take what you've mined. Meanwhile the Skiff can fight off a decent number of attackers you will often come across in low sec and doesn't require a security guard for it. It won't really matter what ship you use to defend miners, people will bring what it takes to kill it and probably sooner rather than later. With the reputation of sentry drones almost defining the meta game right now you will probably attract more attention than you would like if you use an Ishtar or Dominix for example. Your best bet I feel is to look as harmless as possible ie.) several barges. Most people will find it hard to pass up going for a couple of barges and probably whoever dies to it will be too embarrassed to ask for help coming back to get revenge. Instead they will hope that no one ever checks that loss mail, they will certainly not want to draw attention to it by trying to get help. Dying to an Ishtar on the other hand...fully explicable. Probably.

Thank you for your help.