EVE General Discussion

Hello all.

Im new to eve, but already decided to use drones as a offensive and defensive approach. I created a Gallente char and reached drones and drone light operation IV (will hit V in 4 days for both).

The problem is, my main interest is mining/pve. After 2 week of mining with my venture (almost went mental), i was able to buy a procurer fitted with a strip miner and 2 mining laser upgrades II. My strategy is to carry 4 hobgoblins I to defense, and this works fine in 0.8 sec, because hostiles will be, in most cases, 2 or 3 small ships, and my drones just eat them for breakfast.

But now i am making my first incursion in 0.5 sec, and notice that, in most cases, hostiles will be 2 or 3 frigates, and sometimes, 5 hostiles (one battleship, one cruiser, one frigate and two smalls). Since i dont want to loose my procurer, and i want more isk per trip, my questions are:

1) Can i defend myself against these hostiles with 5 hobgoblins I? My idea is not become too involved with battle itself, leaving the drones to make the dirt work.

2) If answer to 1 is negative, can i defend myself with 5 hobgoblins II? (I dont have the medium and heavy drone skills trained [yet])

3) Since my shields are all T1 (because my skills still dont support T2), if some of the hostiles approach my ship, will i be able to withstand some dmg until my drones can engage? (im using kinectic deflection shield and adaptive invulnerability field x 2)

4) I read in a forum that, for attack battleships and battlecruisers, we should use heavy drones. Is this true? What is the correlation between drone/target? (ex: light drones for small, medium drones for cruiser, heavy for bs)

5) it is possible to make a drone boat to solo lvl 4 missions? I saw this fit in osmium --> https://o.smium.org/loadout/59530 , but i dont want to invest my isk unless it is true u can solo lvl 4 with drones

Tks in advance.

1) Yes
2) -
3) Yes, if you fit the ship correctly with shield extenders and resist mods, like your kinetic shild deflection. Pick the type for the damage the npcs do in your area.
4) In hisec (0.5-1.0) space you only need light drones for the npcs in belts.
5) Yes. Dominex, Ishtar , Gila, Rattlesnake are all very good drone based ships that can do level 4 missions.
6) As Doc points out the new player forums are friendlier and you will get more useful help there.

Your procurer is just fine in 0.5 sec.

It is not worth a Battleship, cruiser , etc. to gank your Procurer.

If you want defense, build your Procurer correctly. A properly built Procurer with a skilled pilot can successfully tank 3 GANK CATALYSTS in 0.5 space long enough for Concord to arrive and erase them from the universe. 3 Gank Catalysts cost as much as the Procurer does and you can only hold about 2 Mil in HiSec ore in your cargo. So ISK wise, you won't be ganked for money in .5 space in a Procurer, the risk of a failed gank is very high. If you're really nervous about this skill up to get into a Skiff, however, those aren't cheap and they can still be taken down by massed attack.

Now, as an occasional HiSec miner myself, I have come to realize that the ships are disposable. A Retriever can pay for itself in 5 full holds of ORE. Mine has long since paid for itself. Now all the money mine makes is just gravy. I mine with my retriever solo in 0.7 and higher, and in corp fleet in 0.5 and higher. I only have 1 combat drone to deal with the RATs, 1 salvage drone to clean up the mess, and a pair of Shield rep drones. When in fleet, the shield reppers assist fleet ships, and they buff my shields. By myself, I use them to rep the shields on my combat drone.

I only take out my Procurer when I am doing Mining missions or need a quick run of ore for something (it's faster than my retriever at grabbing stuff fast).

Beyond that stuff I don't worry about gankers. You can't successfully fight them with a PvE ship, your resources are best spent on tanking the best the ship can be tanked and letting Concord be your defense, THAT's why you're in HiSec.

Skill up, fly smart, and you can mine about anywhere you want.

for 5) you can do that only with drones. Just be VERY careful when deploying them because most times they will be targeted and shot at. So always carry a few more with you and get used to swap drones as soon as they are being shot at.
Otherwise your have to use the reward for these missions to buy new drones and nothing will be left of it - especially if you use T2 ones.

One thing to note, during the current Serpentis event, fleets of NPC guard ships can be found at belts and gates. These typically include 2 frigates, 2 cruisers, and a battleship. These guards do not represent normal asteroid belt rats. Also, if you do not attack the guards (guards appear in their name), they do not attack you.

So you may be worrying over NPCs that will be gone in about 20 days and are not a threat to you unless you attack them.

Thanks for the replies, now i have a better idea of what to do!!

LOL, i like to mine, and i understand that some people consider it boring, but, for me, its very relaxing and i make some decent isk. Ofc i have other interests (pve mainly), but mining will always have a special place in my heart.