Hi!
Im thinking to make a miner char. Wanted to mine in high sec. What has the best yield? An Orca or an Exhummer? And is the Orca 100% safe from gankers?
Nothing is 100% safe.
I have not cared a whole lot about mining speed enough to calculate exact numbers, but I would guess an Exhumer would out-class an Orca by some margin in raw speed, while retaining some drone defense, either some combat drones for belt rats or ECMs for gankers. A skiff is nearly impossible to pop with any degree of efficiency, though, like I said, nothing will guarantee your safety, especially if you’re not there to react to a situation. You should always have a contingency plan in place to handle the loss of your ship.
1 Like
concerning raw yield
solo -> exhumer.
duo -> exhumer+orca.
Orca brings boosts to mining yield, to shield value and shield resists, so a neat 30% more ehp. Also orca can target your mining exhumer and provide it heated L ancil + L T2 rep (with a processor in the low slot). If your barge/exhumer has OL its hardener, that makes it much harder to gank
The ore hangar is also very nice, basically you don’t need to use a mack to avoid the long trips.
The fleet hangar can get some mining laser ammos, when needed - most ofthe time they are in the main hangar
the maintenance bay allows you to have a few spare fits , eg if you have only orca°two toons you can put the ice fits in it ^^ . Or you can put an exploration fit, when a new sig pops in you just switch to exploration mode and scan it down.
An orca will cost you at least twice what an exhumer will. OTOH, perhaps money is no object. 
An Orca, while solo, will BARELY equal a well fit mining barge IF you build it for maximum drone mining yield, with minimal tanking and use things like Augmented Mining Drones. Which will cost you considerably more than a well Tanked Skiff or Mackinaw, which will get you more yield for far less money. If you have access to an Boosting Alt this number goes up considerably because drones are not boosted by the orca command bursts.
An Orca, while technically capable of mining via drones, is still a Mining Command ship not a dedicated mining ship by itself, it is meant to be used in fleet situations more than solo. If you are looking to give it a go try a Porpoise first to get a feel for the concept before you commit to the expense of an Orca. I feel you will find that even a well fit Procurer will out mine the command ship.
1 Like
unless you are VERY, very ,stupid, an orca will outlast your exhumer.
If you have two accounts, an orca will make life much easier. And will help your exhumer staying alive.
on this fit ,
- use one DCII
- use T2 hardeners. At least two of them + invul. In order : EM, invul, TH, invul, kine
- use a 500mn to align faster. The cloak is useless, you can’t MWD-cloak because align is too much. Web alt is better (and allows you to have a kine hardener)
- use two boost in the high slots.
ie,
this fit
[Orca, *Epiphtheria Amilupar's Orca]
Damage Control II
Expanded Cargohold II
Thermal Dissipation Field II
500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
[Empty High slot]
[Empty High slot]
Shield Command Burst II
Shield Command Burst II
Large Cargohold Optimization II
Large Cargohold Optimization II
Large Cargohold Optimization I
Hammerhead II x5
Shield Extension Charge x300
Shield Harmonizing Charge x300
has 344k ehp and 15ish align with mwd pulse. That’s twice the EHP of the KM.
Then you can fit mining drone rigs instead of cargohold, reactor instead of low slot cargohold, and remote shield rep in HS
booster mining fit
[Orca, on grid]
Damage Control II
Reactor Control Unit II
Thermal Dissipation Field II
500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
Large Ancillary Remote Shield Booster
Medium Murky Compact Remote Shield Booster
Shield Command Burst II
Shield Command Burst II
Medium Murky Compact Remote Shield Booster
Large Drone Mining Augmentor II
Large Drone Mining Augmentor II
Large Drone Mining Augmentor I
Hammerhead II x5
Shield Extension Charge x600
Navy Cap Booster 200 x7
Shield Harmonizing Charge x600
of course you should OL your hardeners if you get attacked, which would go up to 448k ehp.
on this fit, the mining yield is with full drones :
- T1 : 17
- T2 : 25
- aug : 27.5
- harvester : 29
ice :
- T1 : 16.6
- T2 : 20.24
- aug : 21.7
1 Like
Vote Exhumer.
Orca Skills:
Industrial Command Ships I
Spaceship Command V
ORE Industrial III
Mining Director I
Leadership I
Mining Foreman V
Leadership I
Any Exhumer:
Exhumers I
Spaceship Command IV
Industry V5
Astrogeology V
Science IV
Mining IV
Mining Barge V
Mining Frigate III
Both Industry and Science give you a lead into other Industry activities. Research and manufacturing. The leadership skills really only maximum if you are looking into long term fleet action. The extra cargo space is not a good trade-off. The skiff’s tank is just as a deterrent as an Orca. Plus the skiff’s base speed gives it an edge against bumping as well as faster approach to asteroids in an ore anon.
The yield for an exhumer can be further expanded with the refining skills which also empower the mining crystals.
So long as you keep the thing in HS space use a Retriever. This mining barge will outclass an Orca for mining speed on any given day. People mine with Orcas in HS all the time. They park it in a belt and send out the mining drones and then go afk a few hours.
The Retriever is open to ganking, but every mining ship is. Just never mine afk and always watch Local chat. Stay out of the known CODE controlled systems and find a nice quiet system that perhaps has some ice or even kernite (0.6 systems).
The Retriever is also cheap so a good starting place.
Find a nullsec mining corp to join in a renter alliance.
Even in a venture/retriever you will be better off than doing much of anything in hisec.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.