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Better Frigates and Some Easy Profits This Summer

My last article was about the changes CCP has already made by making the Combat Brawler Frigates much better. This was just the first step in a roll out of new frigate “classes” CCP is doing this summer.

Here are the Frigate Changes that are coming straight from CCP’s Dev Blog:

Executioner, Condor, Atron, Slasher: role dedicated to fast interception with weapon systems that support it – in order, energy turrets, missiles, hybrid turrets, projectile turrets.
Navitas, Bantam, Burst: long range offensive platforms. The Navitas is being overhauled as a drone boat, a role currently lacking among tech 1 small hulls. The Bantam will replace the Merlin as the long range dedicated Caldari sniper. Finally, the Burst still is bit blurry at the moment – considered roles are mobile artillery platform, drone boat or a mix of both.
Inquisitor, Breacher, Kestrel, Tristan: missile based ships – tank, speed, damage will depend on the missile system they use. Two choices on that front, short range with rockets, or long range with light missiles. Race fighting philosophy will most likely dictate engagement range.
Magnate, Heron, Imicus, Probe: strengthening current roles as support frigates. Which mainly means scanning and possibly mini-profession operations, like hacking and codebreaking as well.
Crucifier, Griffin, Maulus, Vigil: truly refocus their roles as disruption frigates. The Cruficier is being changed to a mini-arbitrator (swapping useless turret capacitor use bonus for drone damage). The Griffin has a fine role already, but like the others, will receive a boost. The Maulus improvement consists of having a look at sensor dampening, which was nerfed too heavily in the past, and possibly making it rely more on drones than turrets. The Vigil could be the most combat oriented of the disruption frigates by improving its target painting bonus and creating synergy by coupling it with missiles.
Impairor, Ibis, Velator and Reaper: let’s not forget rookie ships, as they also are lacking at the moment. We want them to be very versatile ships, able to give new players a good taste of what their race ship philosophy is all about, without reaching the efficiency of other tech 1 frigates in any given role.

As you can see the first class is basically interceptors, or dirt cheap alternatives to them. These ships were already being used as “disposable” interceptors and the new bonuses should make “hero tackle” a less expensive job.

The second group looks a little odd because a sniping bantam just sounds ridiculous to me. I’m too used to it being a worthless mining frigate to see it as a combat ship. Kinda like imagining Katy Perry singing Death Metal, it just doesn’t compute.

The most interesting is probably the Missile ships. I think with a slight rework the Kestrel and maybe the others have huge potential as Kiting DPS ships in a frigate fleet. Perhaps use the cheap tacklers for tackle and then have the Missile boats apply DPS from 30-50km out.

Finally, the EWAR ships have a lot of potential. The Griffin is already a hugely underrated ship, with more bonuses it will be even better. The Crucifier is being redone to be more like the Arbitrator, which should make for a interesting little frigate. If it gets a full bay of drones it may see DPS outputs over 100dps along with the Tracking Disruption which opens a lot of potential roles for it. The last one of interest here is the Maulus, a boost to it’s dampening could make it a great ship to add to fleets to counter logistics and ewar.

These changes won’t have the same impact on the game as the Tier 3 Battlecruisers did, but a new line up of Frigate roles will definitely motivate people to play with the Frigate class more and we will see a surge in Frigate Fleets. Personally, I will be analyzing the bonuses to look for fun new solo ships and tactics.

New Mining Barges

Don’t misread this… Because I HATE mining. It is mindless and the worst thing any player could do in EVE with the small exception of those people who really enjoy the idea of building things and get some enjoyment from it.

But there are some big changes coming to the Mining Barges that need to be talked about for both their Profit Opportunity and their importance to PVP. (Attacking a mining barge with the EHP of a battleship would be a bad surprise if you find out it’s bait and didn’t expect that much EHP)

Here’s the word straight from CCP’s Dev Blog:

New ORE frig: we want this ship to replace current mining frigates as low barrier of entry vessel, but also fulfill high-end gameplay expectations by providing a very mobile platform for mining in hostile space. Lowest mining output, decent ore bay, little to no resilience.
Procurer/Skiff: primarily made for self-defense. Better mining rate than the ORE frig, good ore bay, but capable of having battleship-like EHP.
Retriever/Mackinaw: made for self-reliance. Has the largest ore bay, similar to the size of a jet can, second best mining output but less EHP than the procurer mining barge.
Covetor/hulk: ore bay is identical to its current cargo hold, little to average EHP, but best mining output. Basically made for group operations when players have industrials and protection to back them up.

The ORE frig sound interesting but the Procurer, Skiff, Retriever, and Mackinaw are the most important changes here. Retrievers will become much more capable and their Demand by new Miners will be HUGE. Older Miners will be buying the others in large numbers, the Mack for solo mining, and the other two for “anti-gank” during hulkageddon type events as well as bait.

But What About PROFIT???

The main reason for mentioning all of this is the Profit Opportunity. Before I tell you a virtually guaranteed way to make some easy ISK lets look at what …Read More…

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How To Jet Can Mine And Avoid Dying

First of all, let me start by saying I hate mining and I do not recommend it to anyone. The bots have driven prices into the ground, making mining very unprofitable.

However, if you are new to mining and want to give it a shot. I will give you some advice on how to make the most of it and not get killed by a PVPer like me that will flip your can and blow up your mining barge just for laughs.

First of all, if you can avoid Jet Can mining by using a Orca or Hulk that has Cargo Rigs, I suggest you do it that way.

Second of all, DO NOT MINE ICE! That’s what 90% of the botters mine, it’s long boring and a waste of time.

Now that we have that out of the way let’s talk about what “Jet Can Mining” is. Basically, when you jettison something from your cargo, it creates a cargo can that has 27,000m3 space. This makes for a great place to put your ore while mining so you don’t have to run to station every 2 minutes. This is called a Jet Can.

When you Jet Can mine, you mine until your mining ship’s cargo is full, jet the ore into a can, then repeat until your Jet can is full. Once your can is full, you either go get your hauler and haul it to station or you start a new can.

However, remember that your cans only last about 1.5 hours from the time you jet them. I’m probably a little off on that time, but it’s pretty close. So make sure you get your ore before the can disappears.

At this point maybe you’re thinking… “Hey, I’ll just name my can with the time so I know when it was made!”

Not so quick… Can Flippers (that’s what they call people who hunt poor defenseless miners for fun) actively search for cans named this way. I can speak from LOTS of experience that a can with the time on it make life so much easier for a Can Flipper.

So DON’T name your cans. Leave them looking the same as they would look if they were cans left over from salvaging or something. Can Flippers will still find you, just not quite so often or easily.

But what if a can flipper does find you and flips your can? Should you go get your new Harbinger and teach him a lesson?

NO… Realize that can flippers do this stuff all the time and they are not just expecting you to do that, but they are hoping you do, so that they can get a bigger kill.

“But they are in a little T1 Frigate. That can’t hurt my Harbinger!”

Maybe, maybe not. But even if that little frigate can’t. The moment you “aggro” you will be giving them 15 minutes to respond and there’s nothing stopping him from going to the station and getting a bigger ship. Again, realize you are playing a game with someone who plays it over and over everyday.

You don’t go from never playing Basketball to walking on the court in a NBA game and expect to not do horribly.

There are some games that can only be won by not playing them.

Should your can get flipped there is one thing you can do that will hurt the flipper more than anything else, even if you were to destroy his ship (he doesn’t care if he loses his t1 frig).

That one Super Response that will piss can flippers off to no end is to simply DOCK! then sit in station until the flipper has left the system (local chat).

Should you want your ore back after he left, do not go try to take it. He could have a alt cloaked watching and waiting for you to take it.

The best way to get the ore back is to have a third party, (your alt or a friend) flip the can using a shuttle or rookie ship, then dock for 15 minutes until their aggro timer expires. Once they have flipped the can you can pick it up with zero risk because you are stealing from your friend or alt and not the can flipper.

Stick to these guidelines and you will avoid dying to can flippers…

But you still might die of boredom or potentially to a Ganker.

If you want avoid those two I suggest you quit mining and get The ISK Pro Guide. Or at very least sign up for my Free ISK Videos so you can learn some easier and faster ways to make ISK!