EVE General Discussion

Depends, as many things do, on how dedicated and organized you are. I know some folks who PLEX off of piracy. Can't say how *common* it is, but it's certainly possible.

Edit:
I do OK by it, but no great shakes. Then again, I'm solo and not terribly ambitious.

Depends on how broadly you define piracy. Ganking and ransoming ships is generally not very profitable. Robbing corporations can be profitable if you can lie well and pick good targets.

For most pirates though, their goal is tears, not money. Money is a bonus, but they have a lot more fun/hour pirating than they would mining.

There are two ways to get pirate income. Slow and steady or roll the dice.

The first is locking poor losers in low sec for ransom and the other is hanging out in the Amarr Jita pipe and hoping you hit the big one before one of the other twenty guys on the gate who are there for the same reason.

Either one can pay the bills but there are many better options for income, in my opinion. The bonus with piracy is that the Iskies usually come well lubricated in eye juice if that's your thing.

Mr Epeen

It is comparable fishing. Is fishing boring? Most of the time it is, but when you reel in the big one or a couple of decent sized ones, it makes it all worth it.

so just like a sniper, 99% scouting/scanning the area etc. 1% shoot.
heh can be pretty fun, and no, nothing is more boring than mining repeatedly.

Lol. Thanks all. What prompted the line of thought is that the more I'm playing and inquiring the more it seems ( or is conveyed to me ) that with each successive patch the game seems to be getting nerfed to make it lean more and more to a pay to play game. ( insert plex for one month of make time please ) . All my inquiries of players about there chosen profession inevitably has the response of " It WAS profitable till ------- patch. Course it could just be disinformation to steer me away from there hustle.

I found a hulk the other day mining at a low sec ice belt. He jetted as soon as I had him scrammed so I got in the hulk and sold it. Made 210 mil and got back in time to nab my hunter buzzard.

Just got to know where to look and what to do

I live as a pirate when all the chores are done.

Although I do piracy in EVE like people did back in the day with water ships. You wait or find someone that you can kill in a one sided fight and just hope they have something.

This mainly involves trolling lowsec for long periods of time. it is also the reason the majority of our kills are haulers belonging to new players. Some times you make some OK money, but most of the time you dont. Although its for the fun of it not for making isk. I like to refer to camping lowsec to "going fishing". You just sit there and relax and snag what ever comes along.

Although that is just me. Its not all camping though.. there is scanning and stalking involved. if done right it can be a lot of fun. But rarely do I make isk at it.

Im one of those guys that has a rule though. I do not suigank or screw with people in highsec. The recent MTU 'exploit" being the only exception however. Im somewhat of an honorable pirate and generally only take exploit when someone screws up.

If you are not like me and Pirate in highsec (aka suigank) there is a crap ton of potential isk to be made if done right. I just choose not to do that, although I could if I wanted.

That right there...

You can make billions if you know what your doing. Or is able to just fast on a moments notice when it presents itself.

I remember when lowsec piracy was profitable, you'd find a weak target, engage it, usually solo and sift the loot for high value items. It don't seem to work like that any more though.

I haven't heard of anyone being ransomed in a long time, at least not in low sec.