EVE New Citizens Q&A

In security 0.8 and below (which includes a good deal of high-sec), you need some weapons to defend against rats.
Usually, your high-slots will use mining equipment and you'll use Drones to kill those rats.
(Rats = NPC ships.)

Now, against players, you will run away.

A Venture or a mining barge simply won't hold its own against a dedicated PvP ship. A well-tanked Procurer with T2 drones might surprise some wannabe pirates and even drive some off, but will still die to someone hunting for them.

If you REALLY want to mine in low-sec...

- avoid conflict in the first place. Find a "backwater" system that sees very little traffic and be ready to warp (i.e. be aligned at at 75%+ max speed) when you see someone you don't know in Local chat. Use your directional scanner a lot.

- Use ships that are fast and/or more trouble than they are worth.
For example; A Venture can get in and out of trouble very fast, making it a perferred option for avoiding conflict. A Procurer can be set up to tank and deal damage in a way that can kill most random frigates and destroyers.

- make friends... specifically people who PvP a lot. If you learn some basic PvP from them you will learn how "hunters" operate and how to better avoid them. Plus, if you are able to pin down a juicy ship near where they operate then they will kill it for you (just don't make a habit out of this... low-sec PvPers tend to value self-reliance).

Well, I'd say this pilot went a bit extreme for "safe mining" but it worked at the time - lowsec mining.

http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/corp/OTHER/2009.02.08.08.54.16.jpg

*snicker*

Do not dismiss the "make friends" thing. Mining ships are great bait. Miners that report intel and provide warp-ins on those that prey upon them are even greater.

Yes.

Titans can fit strip miners? Huh. Never knew that.

Role of Caldari caps in mining fleet? Ongrid fleet boosting? Mining drones & cargo-bay? Utility?

People will tell you that the best "solo" mining barge (the next step up from the Venture) is the Retriever; however, this ship has woefully bad defenses and it is a favorite target of gankers. Go to eve-kill.net and do a search on this ship and the you'll see that the amount of kills in high sec per day is pretty sad.

A decently-tanked Procurer is the way to go, IMO. It doesn't have the large ore hold or bonuses that the Retriever does, but it has nearly the same yield, and it can be tanked up to near-battlecruiser levels if you want to.

Whatever ship you go with, from Venture on up, train drone skills aggressively - Drones, Scout Drone Operation, then Combat Drone Operation (I think that's what the skills are called, forgive me, I am not in-game) once you get Drones to 4; because drones will always be your only source of damage to enemies be it rats or other players.

I know you just started playing, and it would take a while for you to learn the required skills and ISK to fly one, but the Skiff is the best "solo" mining ship you can get. Some will argue that the Mackinaw is, due to the higher yield and ore capacity, but the Skiff has the best tank by far. The Skiff also has enough drone bay space for a full set of combat drones and a full set of mining drones.

You can easily tank the Skiff to 130k + EHP and most gankers in high sec won't even bother giving you a second look if you are flying one. Even if they did, it would take at least 4 to 6 well-fit T2 destroyers at once to even have a chance of ganking you before Concord nukes them. But if you are paying attention to local and d-scan, you are going to notice that many gankers in the system at once and you can make the decision to stay put or warp out.

Having said that, the ore hold on the Skiff isn't very big and you would have to make multiple trips to a station during the course of mining, but you are going to have to do that no matter what ship you mine in if you are doing it solo.

[Skiff Active Tank]

Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II

Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Medium Shield Extender II

Modulated Strip Miner II

Medium Core Defense Field Extender II
Medium Core Defense Field Extender II

5 x Hornet II
5 x Mining Drone II

[Skiff Semi-Active Tank]

Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II

Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Amplifier II
Thermic Dissipation Amplifier II
Medium Shield Extender II

Modulated Strip Miner II

Medium Core Defense Field Extender II
Medium Core Defense Field Extender II

5 x Hornet II
5 x Mining Drone II

When used in a fleet with a well-skilled fleet booster, the Skiff gains even more EHP and shield resists can get up to 85% or more across the board.

Make yourself unattractive to kill, the relativity cheap Procurer, and its more expensive T2 cousin the Skiff, offer maximum survivability at the expense of a minor amount of potential yield, and the inconvenience of a smaller ore hold resulting in more time flying back and forth. They will however discourage most gankers because there's easier targets in abundance.