EVE Miners and Tanking:

Do you feel the need to try and survive a Minor Gank Attack? THAT IS THE QUESTION!

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.

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 time do I have to get away from a gank attack?

I am going to have to use others time observations at this point simply because I haven't had the time to confirm them personally... The Response time of Concord depends on 3 things: The Systems Security Level How close Concord is to you.

 System Security Rating 1.0

If they have spawned recently to deal with another attack. Concord Quick Spawn ~5 seconds ~5 seconds ~8 seconds ~10 seconds ~12 seconds ~14 seconds Concord Standard Spawn ~5 Seconds Time to Kill Attacker ~3-5 seconds ~3-5 seconds ~3-5 seconds ~3-5 seconds ~3-5 seconds ~3-5 seconds Wolf Catalyst 2.4sec 927x3= 2781 927x3= 2781 927x4= 3708 927x5 = 4635 927x6 = 5562 927x7 = 6489 Timber Wolf Catalyst 1.9sec 1225x4= 3708 1225x4 = 3708 1225x5 = 4933 1225x6 = 7550 1225x7 = 8775 1225x8 = 9800 Alpha Thrasher 7.2sec 1232x2= 2464 1232x2 = 2464 1232x2 = 2464 1232x3 = 3696 1232x3 = 3696 1232x3 = 3696 Ultra Alpha Thrasher 5.9sec 1885x2= 3770 1885x2 = 3770 1885x3 = 5655 1885x3 = 5655 1885x3 = 5655 1885x4 = 7540

The following table is unconfirmed times (the Damage listed is for Quick Spawn):

0.9

~5 Seconds

0.8

~14 seconds ~16 seconds ~18 seconds ~20 seconds

0.7

0.6

0.5

"How much damage can a ganker do before Concord kills them? 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. NOTE: Due to new Inferno changes to frigates, Rifter is no longer the frigate king! When I get time I will add fits for the updated frigate line.

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 Sites page for links to Rifter PVP sites. 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/Alpha 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. Wolf Catalyst 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.

Timber Wolf Catalyst Seeing a lot of these lately. People seem to not care about ISK. A ganking Timber Wolf Catalyst can average 600+ DPS. If the pilot has his all his relevant skills/specialization to 3 - he can at optimum range do a minimum of almost 635 DPS. If he lucks out he can get a wrecking shot for 300% damage. These ships equip T2 Ion/Nuetron Blasters usually with Void ammo and 2xField Stablizers and Sensor Booster with script, 1xHybrid Collision Accelerators(rig), and 1 Small Hybrid Burst Aerator(rig). Cost is about 15M. They hope they will recover at least half the gear.

Alpha Strike Thrasher A ganking Alpha Strike Thrasher can average 1230+ 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 3-5 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 5K EHP.

Ultra Alpha Strike Thrasher Seeing a lot of these lately. People seem to not care about ISK. A ganking Ultra Alpha Strike Thrasher can average 1800+ damage in an alpha strike. Ganking with an Ultra Alpha Strike pack takes fewer ships and can often take an untanked Hulk solo. Cost of a Thrasher with T2 280's, T2 missile launcher, SensorBoosters, Warp Disruptor, power units and rigs, will run about 14M. About half the gear usually survives. An Ultra Alpha Strike pack of 3 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 5K EHP.

NOTE: All damage noted above can be affected by many things/additional items giving higher or lower damage.

"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. o o 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.

o o

Estimated cost to build: 30-35M + Fit(3xStrip Miner II, 2xExpanded Cargohold Optimization, 2x Cargohold Expander II) Current value: ~ 35M Mining time to replace(in a Covetor): 6+ hours (average of 2721m3/cycle assuming average of 11M an hour) Hulk: T2 Strips with crystals. The end all be all for mining.

A Max Tanked Hulk using Med Meta 4 Shield, 1x Adaptive Invulnerability Field II, 1x Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field, Medium Meta 4 shield, 1x Small Shield Extender II, DCII, rig-Medium Ancillary Current Router, and rig-Medium Core Defense Field Extender, you can give the Hulk a 27,450+ EHP defense. It should go without saying that this will resist any small ganker pack in any highsec system or a solid defense in Low/Null. 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 + Fit(3xStrip Miner II, 2xExpanded Cargohold Optimization, 2x Cargohold Expander II) Current value: ~ 35M Mining time to replace(in Tanked Hulk): 33+ hours (average of 3437m3/cycle assuming average of 12.5M an hour) Mining time to replace(in Max Mining Hulk): 25+ 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 full view...

"Bonus ore" vs "Ganked Hulk".

Let's just go off the assumption that if you were tanked you wouldn't have lost your Hulk. Contention: "The extra ore mined more than makes up for losing a ship every once in a while."

Counter Contention: OK. Let's check the numbers: Tanked vs Mining tricked out 12.5M vs 15M an hour o 2.5M extra every hour. o Hulk Replacement cost: 325M

130 hrs of mining to "balance" a lost ship against the extra earned instead of tanking. If you mine for 4 hours 4 days a week, you will balance out and start making a "profit" against a lost Hulk in 8+ weeks. Only 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 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. Contention: "I have Insurance so it won't take nearly that long." Counter Contention: Insuring your Hulk will get you a fraction of your ISK back, giving you a head start on your replacement debt. But remember, insurance is not based off current Market price nor fittings No insurance, just the base 40%: ~26M ISK - Take 10 hours off of your 130 hour "replacement bonus ore" fund. Platinum Insurance: ~ 60M ISK Minus the cost of insurance of course: ~18M every 4 months Lets assume you get blown up in the first 4 months just for simplicity: - Take 17 hours off of your 130 hour "replacement bonus ore" fund.

The Choice is yours. Good Mining and I hope you have a safe mining experience.
Cheers. Sir Striker