EVE Fitting Guide: Venture, Barges and Exhumers

Communications Center My EVE
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In this episode, we take a look at HIGHSEC fittings for the (non fleet command) mining ships of New Eden; an easy rookie fit for the Venture and then more advanced fits for all of the Tech 1 Barges and Tech 2 Exhumers!

00:00 Intro
00:23 Low Slot Debate!
01:11 Gathering Intel
02:50 Identifying Threats
04:01 Rookie Venture
06:01 Retriever
08:15 Procurer
09:11 Covetor
10:04 Mackinaw
11:27 Skiff
12:09 Hulk
13:08 How much EHP is safe?
15:15 Roundup
16:10 Outro

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Thanks for video. You’re thorough in going ship-by-ship explaining the modules chosen and rationale for selecting the modules.

My main feedback is “this shows fits but doesn’t explain how they’re supposed to be flown”. Detailed feedback of this theme is as follows:

  • Your video shows you passively running hardeners in the background. Instead, they could be off but pre-heated. If a gang lands on you, you can instantly turn on the overheated hardeners, without the up-to-10s delay of not having overheat bonus. As a bonus, your Mackinaw criticism about cap stability is gone, which can push EHP of your Mack fit more, simply by flying differently. This connection between “style of flying” and “fit” is implied throughout the video, but not made explicit.
  • No discussion about Higgs fits & flying at all. Understandable, as such a topic requires more elaboration on “how to pilot a ship”: from scouting the belt to form bookmarks, understanding the geometry of alignment path and which rocks you want to mine, placing those bookmarks in a location that keeps you in range of the mineable asteroids at all times, calculations using 3/4 speed for warpout, and the benefits of friendly webbing in the case of support fleet ships being present. However, if the video had any explanation on flying strategy at all, it could have alluded to Higgs mining (“in a future video” for example :wink: )
  • You try to both balance EHP resists but also discuss how damage from gankers is mainly Therm/Kin from catalysts. If that’s the main threat, there is no discussion why you’re bothering to raise EM/Exp resists as well. That is potentially lowing your EHP and survivability against a gank, depending on which threats you’re fitting against (again, it is kind of implied “concretely: catalysts, and vaguely: other things”).

I don’t mean to discourage you. Opening early with “Gathering Intel” was a great decision to include early in the spirit of longer-term preparation & planning.

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Long term T2 mining frig pilot here, I’ve speed tanked them in 0.0 for minerals and filled the lows with upgrades in high sec for ice. People really shouldn’t discount the humble endurance for ice.

I have maxed out mining skills and it mines ice as hard as a retriever and skiff, (with a 19,000k hold) and for the low price of 20 million isk

“speed tanking” always makes people think they need the speed mods and rigs but agility agility agility is key in reality - your MWD can give you the straight line speed, but what it can’t give you is a high speed orbital with your distance set at 3000 (orbiting flings you outwards and this is the most comfortable distance for orbital speed and not losing lock).

Highs
Ice Miner II
Salvager 1
Improved cloaking device II

Mids
5mn MWD II
Survey Scanner II
Cap Recharger II X2

high sec Lows
Ice harvester upgrade II X 3

tank lows
Nanofibre internal structure II X2
Inertial stabillizers II

Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II
Small Pollycarbon Engine housing II

3 Hammerhead II drones

The aim here is not to withstand hits, but to be so fast that no one can hit you at all.

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Speed tanking is actually a combination of high speed and low signature. A MWD does not contribute to extra speed tank survivability, except for certain ships.

The heavy signature increase penalty of a MWD pretty much cancels all the survivability you get from the extra speed, unless you’re flying a ship which has reduced effect of the MWD signature increase (such as interceptors) in which case a MWD does help you speed tank better.

It’s better for speed tanking if you use an afterburner instead. Unless you need the extra speed in bursts from the MWD, the afterburner gives you more survivability because you keep your tiny signature radius. With afterburner running and orbiting a rock, the Endurance can speed tank pretty much any of the bigger NPCs that show up in belts, while killing the smaller ships with drones. Another benefit of afterburners: they’re easier to fit and less heavy on the capacitor.

I would put an afterburner on the mining frigates.

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Thanks for all the input!

My guides tend to be aimed at new-er players, so the more advanced concepts like higgs/bumping, perch bookmarks and other things are not included to avoid information overload.
I didn’t even mention Pirate Strongholds or Empire NPC mining fleets, for much the same reason.
I figured that zkill would show them chewing up mining ships and make players wary.

You’ve all made some great points, and those help to give more context to the video. :+1:

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I agree that those things are overkill for what this is.

Hateless did a video about fitting these a few months back that focused purely on how much tank you could get after the changes. So his video has all the lows and mids given over to tank and the EHP figures are insane.

I think your video is a perfect antithesis to that. In the process of sharing with our newer pilots now. I think it will be super useful for them.

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This is another reason to love the versatility of the endurance, take the MWD off and switch to the AB and you don’t need those batteries which leaves the absolute luxury of two mid slots free.

Endurances are the Air fryers of eve, once you get one you start advocating for them to anyone who will listen.

Take the skills needed; other than mining frig 5 which isn’t that painful so far as 5s go, every skill you need to fly the T2 frigs transfers over to the rest of mining, and a new player can be making more money much faster with them than if they rush headlong into exhumers.

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