Exhumer Changes

A while ago I made a post about CCP fixing the mining ships by giving them some tank.  This week they put in the patch to make some significant changes.  One hull has a great tank with the smallest amount of yield.  The next hull has huge ore bay, medium tank and medium yield.  The last hull has the best yield but limited tank and an ore bay big enough for only one cycle requiring some kind of fleet support.  In theory this type of division sounds pretty good, giving each hull it's own role and providing options for miners to choose what fits their play style the best.

For the ice or gas miners there are no longer innate bonuses for those activities, instead there are two new rigs which boost ice or gas output but you can only fit one at a time due to calibration costs. 


Skiff
I'll start with the Skiff, previously one of the least used ships in the game.  The Skiff was dramatically changed with the addition of a strong tank, bonus to it's single laser, more medium slots, and increased CPU/PG to support the new tank.  The tank is inline with battleship EHP as mentioned in a dev blog about the changes.  The yield seems to be just about right as well when compared to the other two ships.  Below are two fits I made to allow easy changeover from Ore to Ice with minimum hassle.  Alternately if you choose to have two separate ships you can modify the tank or yield a little more depending on what you want.

[Skiff, Ore]
Modulated Strip Miner II (Veldspar Mining Crystal II)

Medium Shield Extender II
EM Ward Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
2x Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Mining Laser Upgrade II
Power Diagnostic System II

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I

Effective HP: 88,984 (Eve: 76,309)
Tank Ability: 103.90 DPS
Shield Resists - EM: 79.32%, Ex: 80.59%, Ki: 76.71%, Th: 83.46%
Capacitor (Stable at 62.82%)

Sig radius- 226m

Yield- 3300 m3 per cycle

[Skiff, Ice]

Ice Harvester II

Medium Shield Extender II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
EM Ward Field II
2x Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Ice Harvester Upgrade II
Mark I Generator Refitting: Diagnostic System

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I

Effective HP: 88,713 (Eve: 76,076)
Tank Ability: 103.05 DPS
Shield Resists - EM: 79.32%, Ex: 80.59%, Ki: 76.71%, Th: 83.46%
Capacitor (Stable at 69.40%)
Sig radius- 226m

Yield- 10.52 m3/s


Mackinaw
The Mack shifts from being the best ice miner to being the AFK miner's delight.  With a huge ore bay capable of holding a jetcan worth of ore this ship will definitely be one of the more popular ships in the belts.  Initially I thought the tank on the Mack would be between the Skiff and the Hulk but after some experimenting I've found the tank is about the same as the Hulk.  This means the mack is somewhat fragile but no where near the tissue paper wrapped kill mail it used to be.  The yield is exactly the same as the Skiff as well which is either an interesting coincidence or the fitting program I use (EHQ) is doing odd things.  All in all I'm rather impressed with the Mack's changes and the role it's been given. 

One item worth noting is the self sufficiency of the Mack combined with it's increased yield means running two Macks instead of two Hulks or a Hulk + Orca will probably be the preferred choice for someone running a small scale mining op.  If nothing else the reduced hassle the large ore bay offers compared to having to shuffle ore from one ship to the next every cycle could be of greater value then the higher yield the Hulk fleet offers for the solo miner running a few accounts.

[Mackinaw, Ore]

2x Modulated Strip Miner II (Veldspar Mining Crystal II)

Limited Thermic Dissipation Field I
EM Ward Field II
2x Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Mining Laser Upgrade II
Power Diagnostic System II
Co-Processor II

Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Effective HP: 29,789 (Eve: 26,014)
Tank Ability: 53.81 DPS
Shield Resists - EM: 79.32%, Ex: 80.59%, Ki: 76.71%, Th: 81.62%
Capacitor (Stable at 14.91%)

Sig radius- 273m

Yield- 3300 m3 per cycle

[Mackinaw, Ice]

2x Ice Harvester II

Limited Thermic Dissipation Field I
EM Ward Field II
2x Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Ice Harvester Upgrade II
Power Diagnostic System II
Co-Processor II

Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Effective HP: 29,789 (Eve: 26,014)
Tank Ability: 53.81 DPS
Shield Resists - EM: 79.32%, Ex: 80.59%, Ki: 76.71%, Th: 81.62%
Capacitor (Stable at 40.28%)
Sig radius- 273m

Yield- 10.52 m3/s

Hulk
Now we come to the grandaddy of mining in Eve.  The Hulk has reigned supreme as the mining ship of choice for several factors and the recent changes continue the domination of the Hulk as the most efficient mining vessel.  No other ship can destroy asteroids or ice chunks as fast as the Hulk can.  I used to fit my Hulk for max yield and skimped out on the tank, but with the destruction of this years Hulkageddon and the extremely frail base tank I have realized it's time to fit my Hulk to survive an attack.  With that said the below fit Provides better yield than the two other hulls while still maintaining about 30k EHP worth of tank.  I'm also going to be equipping my Orca with a shield boosting module to add a bit more tank to the ships I support. 

[Hulk, Ore]

3x Modulated Strip Miner II (Veldspar Mining Crystal II)

ML-3 Amphilotite Mining Probe
EM Ward Field II
2x Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II

Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
 

Effective HP: 26,249 (Eve: 21,413)
Tank Ability: 58.57 DPS
Shield Resists - EM: 81.91%, Ex: 83.02%, Ki: 79.62%, Th: 72.83%
Capacitor (Stable at 24.44%)

Sig radius- 164m

Yield- 3900 m3 per cycle

[Hulk, Ice]

3x Ice Harvester II

Thermic Dissipation Field II
EM Ward Field II
2x Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Co-Processor II
Damage Control II

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I

Effective HP: 28,262 (Eve: 24,711)
Tank Ability: 60.30 DPS
Shield Resists - EM: 81.91%, Ex: 83.02%, Ki: 79.62%, Th: 85.52%
Capacitor (Stable at 43.27%)

Sig radius- 164m

Yield- 11.36 m3/s


  These builds are meant to be interchangeable with minimum adjustments with special emphasis on keeping the same rigs.  Tank can be improved by pulling the ice harvester on Ore builds or yield possibly increased by adding CPU rigs to allow fitting a laser upgrade.  In the end the changes go a long way to making each ship worth having.

  Later on I'll work up some ideas for the T1 mining barges.