Why Tank a Mining Ship

The whole point to tanking a mining ship is so you dont have to replace the dang thing because of some dumb little gankers... Let's talk about making your ship survive a minor gank attack.
What is a minor gank attack? An attack by a single attacker intent on killing your ship before Concord kills him or to get you to earn agression so he can attack you without consequence. An attack by 2-5 attackers in a possibly organized group with the purpose of killing as many ships in an area as quickly as possible, before Concord destroys their group. Attackers are in Frigates or Destroyers usually with the cheapest fit they can put together for the best damage. How much time do I have to get away from a gank attack? The "Wolf/Wolf Pack" attack This kind of attack is designed to get the best DPS possible on a target. These are "close in" attacks, usually under 1000m, using fast cycling weapons like autocannons, blasters, pulse lasers, and rockets. The Alpha Strike attack This attack is intended to kill a weak target in the first shot/shots of the engagement. The cycle time of these ships are not quick cycle weapons. The expectation is you will get 1 to 3 shots in before Concord shows up. These range attacks are usually between 8000m and 12000m, using artillery, railguns, beam lasers, and light missles. "How much damage can a ganker do? How quickly can they do it?" Let's have a look at some raw figures for some favored ships. Please note, these are raw numbers that do not take into account any specific resistances of the target ship. * Let's look at the favored ganking frigate: the RIFTER! * Why the Rifter? The Rifter is the swiss army knife of frigates. It has good speed/durability/slot variety. If you want to learn more about the Rifter, check the Warrior Node. A ganking Wolf Rifter can average between 87/99dps and 100/115dps with overload. (5 day old pilot/pilot with good skills) Most ganking frigates are not suicide ships. They will can flip or anything else they can do to get aggression without calling Concord. So most of these frigates are going to have at least 1 Warp Scrambler. Cheap gank Wolf Rifter doing the damage above will cost under 800K. Why not a suicide Wolf Rifter? Except for a few very small frigates or pods, a suicide Rifter can't do enough damage before killed by Concord. * Let's look at the favored ganking Destroyers: the Catalyst and the Thrasher * Why the Catalyst? 8 turret slots and low/mid slot config sets it to get the highest DPS of any Destroyer. A ganking Wolf Catalyst can DPS average between 201/269 and 231/309 with overload. (5 day old pilot/pilot with good skills) These ships are often used as suicide ships but obviously they will try to get you to agress first. Cost for a Neutron Blaster I equipped Catalyst to do the max damage will cost around 3.3M. A ganking Alpha Strike Thrasher can average 1090+ damage in an alpha strike. Ganking with an Alpha Strike pack is standard fair for groups that are not sure exactly where a target may come/be when they arrive or they are hunting ships they don't want to get too close to. Cost of a Thrasher with 280's and a missile launcher will run about 1.9M An Alpha Striker pack of 5 can often kill a Hulk in one strike... This isn't necessarily because they are so deadly, it is because most hulks are not tanked in any way leaving them with under 8K EHP.

"I don't bother to tank my ship. If it gets blown up I will just buy another one." This is something I have heard a lot and I have often tried to explain why payoff of tanking your ships even though it reduces overall mining efficiency. But let us see if we can come up with some better info. Retriever: Pretty much a throw away ship. Don't bother to spend much time trying to figure out how to make it survive an attack. Keep aligned to any point and leave if concerned. Estimated cost to manufacture with T1 fit: 15-20M Mining time to replace(in a Retriever): ~3 hours (average of 1814m3/cycle assuming average of 7M an hour) Covetor: T1 Strips. Using Trimark Rigs, a Small T2 Shield, a DCII, and a 100mm plating, you can give this ship about 11,697 EHP. This will survive almost any small group gank attack of 5 for 8+ seconds. Either you should have warped out or you might survive till Concord kills them. Estimated cost to build: 30-35M Mining time to replace(in a Covetor): 3+ hours (average of 2721m3/cycle assuming average of 11M an hour) Hulk: T2 Strips with crystals. The end all be all for mining. Using Med Meta 4 Shield, 2x Adaptive Invulnerability Field II, Small Meta 4 shield, DCII, rig-Medium Ancillary Current Router, and rig-Medium Core Defense Field Extender, you can give the Hulk a 27,450+ EHP defense. I should go without saying that this will resist any small ganker pack in any highsec system. A Max Mining Hulk with only 1 Adaptive Invulnerability Field II, 2x MLU II, and 2x rig - Cargohold Optimization will give you a 9,532 EHP. (Note, this is just better than 1/3 the hp of the tanked fit) Estimated cost to build: 325-340M Mining time to replace(in this Hulk): 30+ hours (average of 3437m3/cycle assuming average of 12.5M an hour) Mining time to replace(in max mine Hulk): 22+ hours (average of 4,083m3/cycle assuming average of 15M an hour) Many people will look at these numbers and say "see... 22hrs to replace vs 30hrs... big deal". But that isn't the actual story... What you are really looking at is "bonus ore" vs "ganked Hulk". Let's just go off the assumption that if you were tanked you wouldn't have lost your Hulk. The comment I often hear is "The extra ore mined more than makes up for losing a ship every once in a while." OK. Let's check the numbers: Tanked vs Mining tricked out 12.5M vs 15M an hour 2.5M extra every hour. Hulk Replacement cost: 325M 130 hrs of mining to "balance" a lost ship against the extra earned ISK instead of tanking. If you mine for 4 hours 4 days a week, you will balance out and start making a profit in 8+ weeks. Only mine 8hrs a week now we are up to 4+ months... So, sure. If you want to count on the possibility that you will not get ganked very often, it is a good investment. I know people who lose Hulks multiple times a year and others that rarely/never do. But if you lose your Hulk to pissy little ganker fleet, remember that you will have a debt of 22hrs for replacing the ship and 130 more hours before you have "replacement" value out of your ship due to lack of tank. Last note: Insuring your Hulk will get you a fraction fo your ISK back giving you a head start on your replacement debt. But remember, insurance is not based off Market price, so dont be surprised if the best insurance only gets you 25% of the actual value. Minus the cost of insurance of course... Your choice and have a safe mining experience. Sir Striker Feel free to contact me in game if you have questions. Tank and gank fits below: The information below is in XML format. Copy it and save each as a separate file and you can import them into Eve. Catalyst Gank Wolf Pack

<?xml version="1.0"?> <fittings> <fitting name="Catalyst Gank"> <description value="Catalyst Gank" /> <shipType value="Catalyst" /> <hardware slot="rig slot 0" type="Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I" /> <hardware slot="rig slot 1" type="Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I" /> <hardware slot="low slot 0" type="Magnetic Field Stabilizer I" /> <hardware slot="low slot 1" type="Magnetic Field Stabilizer I" /> <hardware slot="low slot 2" type="Micro Auxiliary Power Core I" /> <hardware slot="med slot 0" type="Sensor Booster I" /> <hardware slot="med slot 1" type="Sensor Booster I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 0" type="Light Neutron Blaster I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 1" type="Light Neutron Blaster I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 2" type="Light Neutron Blaster I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 3" type="Light Neutron Blaster I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 4" type="Light Neutron Blaster I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 5" type="Light Neutron Blaster I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 6" type="Light Neutron Blaster I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 7" type="Light Neutron Blaster I" /> </fitting> </fittings> Thrasher Gank Ship - Alpha Strike <?xml version="1.0"?> <fittings> <fitting name="Thrasher Gank 280"> <description value="Thrasher Gank 280" /> <shipType value="Thrasher" /> <hardware slot="rig slot 0" type="Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I" /> <hardware slot="rig slot 1" type="Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I" /> <hardware slot="low slot 0" type="Micro Auxiliary Power Core I" /> <hardware slot="low slot 1" type="Reactor Control Unit I" /> <hardware slot="med slot 0" type="Sensor Booster I" /> <hardware slot="med slot 1" type="Sensor Booster I" /> <hardware slot="med slot 2" type="Target Painter I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 0" type="280mm Howitzer Artillery I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 1" type="280mm Howitzer Artillery I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 2" type="280mm Howitzer Artillery I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 3" type="280mm Howitzer Artillery I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 4" type="280mm Howitzer Artillery I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 5" type="280mm Howitzer Artillery I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 6" type="280mm Howitzer Artillery I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 7" type="Light Missile Launcher I" /> </fitting> </fittings> Thrasher Gank Ship - Wolf pack <?xml version="1.0"?> <fittings> <fitting name="Thrasher Gank"> <description value="Thrasher Gank" /> <shipType value="Thrasher" /> <hardware slot="rig slot 0" type="Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I" />

<hardware slot="rig slot 1" type="Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I" /> <hardware slot="low slot 0" type="Gyrostabilizer I" /> <hardware slot="low slot 1" type="Gyrostabilizer I" /> <hardware slot="med slot 0" type="Sensor Booster I" /> <hardware slot="med slot 1" type="Sensor Booster I" /> <hardware slot="med slot 2" type="Sensor Booster I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 0" type="Rocket Launcher I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 1" type="200mm AutoCannon I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 2" type="200mm AutoCannon I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 3" type="200mm AutoCannon I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 4" type="200mm AutoCannon I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 5" type="200mm AutoCannon I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 6" type="200mm AutoCannon I" /> <hardware slot="hi slot 7" type="200mm AutoCannon I" /> </fitting> </fittings>