The Upcoming Gallente Mining Menace

I have the feeling that come November we will see a lot of min/maxers roll up a lot of Gallente Alpha clone characters. I know that the drone meta is pretty popular, but the Gallente are so flexible right now. Not only can the Gallente mission effectively, but in my opinion, they offer the best option for those interested in mining as well.

I would wager that most people think that the best mining ship available to alpha clone players is the Venture. A good guess, as the example fit below shows.

The fit, including the +3% mining implant, has a mining yield of 388 m3/minute and will fill up the 5,000 m3 ore hold in a little under 13 minutes. Notice I fit a survey scanner in order to pick out big rocks to target, which allows for a little AFK mining play. Also, I did not fit mining drones because alpha clones can't use them.

But the Venture does not offer the best yield to an alpha pilot. That honor is shared by the Moa and the Thorax. Of the two, I prefer the Gallente option.

The Mining Thorax

Both the Thorax and Moa have a yield of 428 m3/minute, 10.3% greater than the Venture. The Moa actually fits a better tank and doesn't require a faction co-processor to squeeze in the fit. I can even fit a prop mod for greater mobility.

The Mining Moa

So why choose the Thorax? Because Gallente pilots have much better drone skills than Caldari pilots. A big difference is that Gallente pilots can field flights of 5 drones while Caldari pilots can only field flights of 3. Besides the number of drones, the Gallente alpha pilot has much better drone support skills.  For example, a Gallente alpha pilot flying the Venture fit above has the same DPS as a Caldari alpha pilot flying the Moa. In the fits above, the max skilled Gallente alpha pilot does 62 DPS in the Thorax while the max skilled Caldari pilot only does 25 DPS in the Moa. Given the toughness of the high sec belt rats, I'd rather have the 62 DPS and kill off the belt rats much faster.

A Not So Great Miasmos Fit

The second reason I prefer the Gallente is the presence of multiple industrial ships. In the case of mining operations, the Miasmos is the ship miners will desire. For those who only shoot at industrials, the Miasmos is the ship that specializes in moving around ice, gas, and most importantly for alpha players, ore. The 46,200 m3 ore bay can easily carry the mining output of one Thorax for 1 hour and 45 minutes. That 46,200 m3 is also the largest amount of ore any ship an alpha clone can fly can transport.

I need to add one very important fact about the Thorax and Moa mining fits. The cargo hold is small, only holding approximately one minute's output. To continuously mine, the player will need to deposit the ore into either a jet can or and anchored secure cargo container in a 0.8 or less security system. Those who want to relax and watch a movie or surf the net probably will prefer mining in a Venture.

I guess I should add that people won't see me flying any of the above fits on my paid accounts. This afternoon I will finish the last skill to gain mastery 5 for all the mining barges and exhumers. Trust me, when I'm flying a Skiff with mining drones deployed, I mine 1,338 m3/minute, or almost 4 times the amount a max-skilled alpha pilot pulls in a Venture. I possibly am wrong, but I don't fear the flocks of free alt accounts stipping down asteroid belts in high sec. I lived that with bots back when I first started playing EVE and I don't think the botters will bother with Ventures unless CCP bans out their bot farms.