Science & Industry

Hi,

Im relatively new to mining and have just gotten the skills to fly a mining barge.

I was wondering which to get out of the procurer or the Retriever.

I realise that the retreiver has better ore mining becuase it can fit two strip miners against the procurers 1, but the procurer has a better tank.

I've been told by people in game that the procurer is better becuase of suicide gankers. Just wondering what the general thoughts amongst the community are?

Ill be mining in high sec only for the time being.

so procurer definetly not worth it then?

i have opened the ship info before but i cant now as im at work.

I remeber seeing something along the lines of procurer getting 5% shield strength bonus and 200% to ore yield while the retreiver got 50% ore yield bonus or something.

Ok, here an explanation:

All Mining Barges have effectively 3 Strip Miners. Covetor hast 3, Retriever has 2 + 50% role Bonus (so 3) and Procurer has 1 +200% Role Bonus (Again 3). The Retriever has the bigger hold (full can), the Covetor another yield Bonus and Procurer has Tank.
If you are short on money and are just able to afford a Barge, take a procurer. You wont lose it to a suicide gank that easily. If you have some money: Retriever. If you have buddys and mine in a group: Covetor. But always fit some tank.

@Dave Stark: Stop trolling around, before the Mining Barge rebalancing you always claimed that Retriever "will never be worth it". You have no idea.

before any stats were announced, i said that, you are correct. i did also add the caveat that it would only hold if the yields weren't extremely close which, oh look, they are.

however i fail to see how my speculation based on vague statements from ccp pre stat announcements have any bearing on this discussion.

Advice from a seasoned investor.

Start with procurer, first ship.

then move to a retriever.

then move to a Mackinaw

and then, finally move to a Skiff and take it to nulsec for the biggest ISK from mining.

My reasoning,

Why a procurer as the first ship, because your almost guaranteed not to get ganked, therefore you start your game safe and on solid ground, especially when you KEEP the procurer around for a year, you always have a ready mining ship in case you lose the retriever.


Why mack then skiff, because mackinaw is the uncontested mining champ for solo mining while the skiff, is perfect for nulsec and lowsec, procurer can also be used switching from skiff to proc, depending on situation, so that first proc you buy will be usefull througout your entire mining career untill it gets blown up or finally trashed or sold.

the Hulk and Skiff are endgame ships for miners, before they move onto difrent intresting things in the game.


Proc>retriever>mack>skiff>4Xhunks+orca>4Xskiff+orca

I have one of each of the barges and I use them for their intended purposes, the Retriever when alone in hi-sec, the Covetor in a fleet and the Procurer when I decide to try my hand at lo-sec mining by myself. In a few days when I get into exhumers I'll probably only buy a Mackinaw since I'm in the retriever most often now.

because the procurer is a terrible ship designed to fill a niche that simply doesn't exist.

i'll tell you exactly how many times i've encountered them in belts and give you a detailed description of what happened:






aaand, we're done.

to be fair, if you lose a mining ship you're either completely stupid or you're antagonising people.

so i guess the procurer does have a use, but i wasn't going to insult the OP by implying he was stupid. guess other people aren't as kind as me *shrug*

With low skills there is actually very little difference in yield.

The procurer fits 1 strip with 200% bonus to yield so equal to 3 strips
The retriever fits 2 strips with 50% bonus to yield so equal to 3 strips
The covetor fits 3 strips with no bonus to yield so equal to 3 strips

Where the difference comes in is the additional bonus per level of mining barge, and the number of mining upgrades you can fit. With max skills mining barge 5/mining upgrades 4 or 5. There is a big difference, but at low skills it is marginal. The large ore hold of the retriever is a huge bonus though, less trips back and fourth from station means more m3 of ore you will mine.

Procurer has a bonus to shield hit points and 4 medium slots for tank. two low slots for MLU's
Retriever has a bonus to ore hold with only one medium slot, 3 low slots for MLU's (you may need to fit a CPU over clock rig to fit 3 MLU's)
Covetor has a bonus to yield with 1 medium slot and two low slots.

With low skills the retriever can actually out mine the covetor by 30-50 m3 per minute. While the procurer Will actually slightly out mine them both with 2 MLU's at very low skill levels.(at least according to Dedaf's tool)

Mind you at low skills all three are between 800-900m3 per minute without any boosts. With good (near max) skills, good boosts, and a full flight on mining drones, a covetor can pull in about 2600m3 per minute. While the retriever will do about 2400m3, and the procurer will do about 2200m3.

A well skilled and boosted HULK can pull over 2800m3 This is not even max skills or boosts, but based on the skills of my miners. With mining foreman implant in the fleet booster. I believe with maxed out skills, maxed boosts with all the best implants, and a full flight of mining drone II's with T2 drone mining rigs you can hit over 3000m3/min

As you can see even with the same ships yield can vary greatly depending on skills and fleet boosts. Even with good skills, without boosts my 2800m3/min HULK is down to about 1800m3/min.

With maxed skills using mining drone II's and mining rigs, even the Venture mining frigate can hit 960m3/min