Ships & Modules

Sure, it fits more base boosts and boosts a tiny bit better and has a lot more cargo and has an sma and has stronger drones. But at 10 times the cost of the much more agile porpoise... does it really have a role?

Its boosts are only minimally better. An extra booster or two for mining crystal life and shields is pretty pointless. More cargo doesn't matter cause you still can't use it effectively as a hauler cause of how slow it accelerates and warps, and boosts don't last long enough to keep them up while also hauling, and mining with drones is out of the question when trying to haul and boost. Better drones means very little since the porpoise drones already handle null rats just fine and mining drones aren't very good even with rigs and skills regardless of the hull's bonuses. It is tougher... but so what? If you get caught by gankers or by lowsec pirates or by a roaming wh gang or nyx hotdroppers in null, you're dead regardless of how tough you are; at least the porpoise can align in only a few seconds to get out before there's even anything to tank and is an insignificant loss if it does get caught.

Does the SMA allow for some great strat I am unaware of? Or are a handful of minimal improvements over the porpoise actually enough reason to risk a much more expensive and more vulnerable ship?

I can align in 8 secs, scrub!! (same as i can do in my DST+AB btw)

Jokes aside, using MWD on an Orca is a great way of going from 45+ secs align to under 10 secs align. The orca is also the perfect transport ship for people living in wormholes. It fits all holes (except c1), can carry alot of stuff (including alot of fitted ships!) and can have about 500k buffer tank, which will buy you lots of time to get reinforcements in, if you get caught.

As far as mining goes, i havent tried tbh. CCP did state with the mining changes that the Orca can harvest as much ore as an Exhumer (dont ask me about what fit though).
On top of that, you got 3 command burst modules (stackable!) and 500+ dps with drones.

I think the main difference is Porpoise is better for solo, while orca provides great support for a mining fleet.
The "new" orca is a beast to be reckoned with, littlebrother (porpoise) does the same things, just worse.

Eh. I take back what I was concerned about.

I just expected its role was supposed to be a direct stepping stone between porpoise and rorq. The porpoise is fast and cheap while providing decent boosts and adequate support. The rorqual is immobile and hideously expensive while providing amazing boosts, support, and mining. So I figured the orca was supposed to be slow (but not immobile) and expensive (but not insanely so like the rorq with excavators) but while also providing significantly better (but not amazingly better) boosts+support+mining than the porpoise has.

Just seems like the orca is more of a jack-of-all-trades than a real mid-point between porpoise and rorq. It's useful by sometimes being able to act as miner+booster+support or as booster+support+hauler (seems like you need shorter warps and/or hauling to a POS so you don't get stuck waiting on weapons timers to dock in a station/citadel), having an SMA that fits combat ships, having a lot of cargo capacity but without capital-ship mass, etc... not by being a pure, direct upgrade from the porpoise.


And yeah, when I tested a 100mn AB (and a 50mn mwd) on an orca recently I was still a few seconds from entering warp after the cycle, whereas a 500mwd put me into warp instantly after the cycle.

I used to use mine as a mobile base, it would fit my t3c and a blockade runner along with refits and various other supplies. however haven't moved it in a long time, abandoned it along with a whole bunch of other stuff at some out of the way system.

I wouldn't use it in low/null, but see them often in highsec. 3% boost is nicer than 2%, 15% vs 10% at level 5. Also orca can use more stuff as it has more slots, an extra shield transporter just might save your barge in a gank attempt.

The Orca has a very great role for mining operations.
I use my Orca for the following tasks:
1) Boosting
2) Mining
3) Hauling

Another very important role that most people overlook is that an Orca can make you gank proof in High Sec for the most part.
Try fitting a cloak on the orca and storing a cloaky frigate in the ship maintenance bay.
When CODE or any other known ganker corp comes into system, store your mining barge and board the frigate and then cloak both ships. (Just keep the barge between 2,001 and 2,499 meters from the Orca so you can transfer ore and still cloak)

With a little practice, this process can be done in a matter of seconds.

So yeah, the Orca has plenty of roles that benefit a mining operation.