Eve Online Mining: Kronos Update

The buffs to the Hulk and the Survey Scanner have made ore mining extremely efficient. Warp your crew to a belt, have your Squad Commander hit Regroup so you're all within Fleet Hangar range of the Orca, get the Orca boosting modules going, and mine away.

If there remains a trick to yield fleet mining it's to stick to .8, .9 and 1.0 systems, have the well known gankers set with -10 standings in case they show up in local, and have a plan and execute it if they do. Of course, they will usually send in a scout first to find you and establish a warp-in. If it's a cloaky neutral alt, your first warning will be when local lights up (if it happens to be a group you've previously identified), if not a cloaky, use your own judgement but since you are so far out from the asteroids it's unlikely that any legitimate miner would stay close to you. Keeping your fleet in orbit via the Regroup command isn't a bad idea either as even that movement is better than being dead in the water (how's that for a description).

Am seeing fewer and fewer solo Mackinaws and Retrievers in the ore belts, though that's anecdotal. Would make sense though since they are so much weaker now with respect to yield than a proper Hulk. Not seeing as many Hulk yield fleets yet, but have a feeling a lot of folks are training up their skills for the Orca, freighter and maxed Hulk, so we should see more in the future.

What does surprise me a bit is what I see in the ice belts. Business as usual, meaning Macks and Retrievers still working the .5 - .7 ice belts, regardless of how many ganks take place. Even Hulks and Covetors trying to grab as much ice as possible. My Skiffs yield as much if not more ice than any other mining vessel except the mighty Hulk and have a tank to write home about. Have to admit though, it is tempting to get the Hulks out and vaporize those ice anoms, but I know that won't have a happy ending.

If you're not mining ice, you probably should be. Take a look at the market graph for Clear Icicle. Will give you nose bleed. Not that I welcome competition, but ice is nice. If you try it, take a close look at the modules, the rig, the implant and the skills that can affect your ice yield.