Why do I mine in Lowsec

[Ca'ain]

Well, I'm a bit of a thrill seeker and like trying to mine in lowsec. I was watching D-scan; prealigned, but two trouble makers (flashy in local) apear, and suddenly two Hecates land on grid.

I warp to my celestial, and they followed; made the mistake of warping to 0 and bounced off the customs office. They get a point on me. Put on my shield tank (should have overloaded). I put up a good fight with drones (if I had T2 or an ewar I might have got out of it) got one down to structure, but alas:

https://zkillboard.com/kill/62795542/ - 22,866,617.52 ISK.

I reshipped into my SB to see if I could catch the one I almost killed; and...

Sentry Guns did the work for me:

https://zkillboard.com/kill/62795878/ - 60,350,422.85 ISK

+ 37,483,805.33 ISK

This one was luck; but is it better to be good, or lucky?

I think I'd like to do this as bait in the future.

[Analiese Aubernet]

Something to keep in mind for the future - getting a Hecate "down to structure" often doesn't mean much. They are typically hull tanked, as was the one you fought, and 75-80% of their tank is in their hull.

[Ersin Oghuz]

Also by the looks of it, your procurer fit could not hold against 1 Hecate even if you overheated tank.

[Atum Petros]

Just another learning experience...that's all. If you're having fun, keep at it! And just GTFO of Dodge when the flashies show up

[ThomasThe Doubter (Biomassed 2017.06.21)]

Hi all. Quick question is it even worth it to mine in LowSec. I have heard that it is not profitable at all because of the risk of getting your ship blow up and the ores do not get you that much more isk. Is this true or not. Thanks all

[Kontxesi Buchanan]

Hi all. Quick question is it even worth it to mine in LowSec. I have heard that it is not profitable at all because of the risk of getting your ship blow up and the ores do not get you that much more isk. Is this true or not. Thanks all

As someone who is mining in low sec for the fun, if not profit, I'm going to say yes, that's true for the most part. Jaspet isn't going to get you THAT much more ISK than plagioclase, and you're going to have to defend yourself against meaner rats plus other players.

My friend and I are doing it more as a learning exercise than for real profit. "Okay, this guy came in and kicked our butts with this. What, if anything, can we do to protect ourselves from that in the future?" It's likely we'll start losing enough ships to chase us out, but who knows.

[Raido Kudonen]

Mining in lowsec is a bait activity, not an ISK making activity. As such, one should generally PvP fit instead of yield fitting. A good bait Procurer fit looks something like this (you use the single strip miner to pretend like you care about mining):

Spoiler

[Procurer, correct fit]

Damage Control II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Medium Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Scrambler II

Strip Miner I
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I


Hobgoblin II x5
Hobgoblin II x5

You should easily solo a Hecate with this fit; you'll want to immediately heat your invul and energy neutralizer (a single small energy neutralizer caps out a blaster Hecate in under a minute), approach the Hecate, and micro your drones if he tries to kill them. If he realizes he's going to die he'll double-click in space and use his small base velocity advantage to try to escape; in that case, overheat your scram and keep approaching and your drones should kill him before he pulls range.

Against two Hecates, it's very close and your best case scenario is probably trading your Proc for one Hecate. However, you should still be able to pull it off with heat. Consider neuting the Hecate you're not shooting; this way, if you clear the DPS of your primary target by successfully killing him, the other one will not be doing very much damage and you might get both of them.

[Ca'ain]

Something to keep in mind for the future - getting a Hecate "down to structure" often doesn't mean much. They are typically hull tanked, as was the one you fought, and 75-80% of their tank is in their hull.

Completely right; I assumed since he was taken out by the sentry guns he must have almost been dead, but I only dealt 25% of the damage:

Tower Sentry Caldari III - 4,468 (72.1%)
Ca'ain - 1,729 (27.9%)

I still can't figure out how he ended up dying.

[Marius Labo]

No rigs on the fit?

Also out of curiosity, when you say "prealigned" does that mean you're at certain speed to enter warp quicker? As in, you're at a speed that that will have you enter warp x amount of tics earlier than from a standstill? I assume you weren't at 75% top speed or above for insta-warp.