Did Your Mom Fit Your Orca?

Originally published on 6/17/2013 on our alliance forums

So, I was looking at MinerBumping today and of course the kills of the week. What I saw was pretty funny/appalling. To get an Orca ganked in high sec, not in a war, is pretty much the same thing as hitting a parked car or putting your hand on a hot stove. Perhaps better yet, putting your head into an oven that is set to broil. Now, don't get me wrong. I have made mistakes with industrial ships. Maybe that is why I am so adamant about how they are fit.

Let's break this down Barney-style, as I like to say.

Sensor boosters:

Are not a valid fit for an Orca. How long does it really take you to target a can? 10-15 seconds, maybe? Who cares, they aren't going anywhere unless your fleet decides to leave them out there for 2 hours before they mention they are ready to pull. Are you really so paranoid that you have to grab a can within the time frame of a eye blink or else it will be stolen (with no one around, no doubt)? Let's keep the sebos on insta-locking arty, tackle, logistics and EWAR, please! For the sake of everything that is holy.

Shield Rechargers:

I mean, really? What is the passive shield recharge on an Orca? I think it is measured in days. Why would you think that shortening the recharge time would be of any benefit to you. Furthermore, having only (1), yes one, shield recharger is going to accomplish what again?

Capacitor Rechargers:

Yeah, so running those survey modules, gang links and yup, a tractor beam really push the capacitor to it's extreme limits. Seriously, if you need a cap recharger, you are doing it wrong. 1. if you are active boosting your Orca, 1 cap recharger would be like taking a shower in the rain. POINTLESS.

Survey Modules:

Okay, you may have inferred from my forum posts that no one in an industrial ship should fit a survey module. It is a complete waste of a fitting slot. I have used them in the past, but I found with the short cycle times of mining lasers in a boosted fleet means that if you over run a cycle on a roid, you are only missing a very minute amount of ore. The use of a survey module isn't mission-critical and it really isn't a way to boost your output. A vast number of modules will certainly be more beneficial, but not any of the aforementioned ones above.

Shield Boosters:

Okay, this is a fine-line sort of module. The issue that I have is that without a shield booster, with a proper fit, you can get a 159k ehp fit just using the mid slots. My lowest resist on my Orca is 76%. I have 2 cargo expanders in the lows. However, should I find that I want a little bit more tank, I would replace those two with a DC2 and a reinforced bulkhead. This drives the EHP up close to 250k. No alpha fleet less than a couple DOZEN battleships is going to crack that tank before CONCORD meanders into the combat zone. I have found, with my buffer tank, I can walk away for a week letting rats chip away at my tank. There is really no need for a shield booster. The Orca doesn’t have a large capacitor but it has plenty to run active hardeners, gang links and tractor beams. Shield boosters will gobble up cap so fast, you will only get 10 cycles at the MOST. That is not a suitable tank when your EHP is only about 54k. Ancillary shield boosters!!! LOL. I was a fan of them on my Vargur when they came out (pre-nerf). I could cycle them and get nearly 1000dps, if I ran them both at the same time, it was a 2000dps tank. You can cycle them so that one charges and when the other one runs out, the 1^st one is ready to start again. Only a few times did I ever need to use both at the same time and that was as I was bugging out. Yes, you can fit thousands of cap boosters in an Orca, but you can still only use 3 or 4 every 60 seconds. That is shit. Leave those things in your hanger or put them up for sale on the marketplace.

Rigs:

It is a huge expense to buy an Orca. Why not protect it or get the most out of it. There is absolutely no reason what-so-ever to have empty rig slots. Fit them with either tank or cargo rigs. It doesn't matter, but you need something there. If you can't fit T2 rigs, train them. Its not a throw-away ship that you can get from the market by the handful. It is an investment, such as owning a car or buying a house. You need it more than it needs you and you need to protect it like a newborn child. It will always find it's way into troubled waters. It is your job to be a competent captain sailing for a safe harbor.

In summation: Industrial ships are the backbone of the EVE economy. They need to be treated with respect and care. They are not to be taken for granted or flown willy-nilly. If you needed to buy plex to get one, you would be spending about 30 USD. If you keep getting picked off because your fits are fucked, you might as well pay me 20 bucks a kill. I will save you 10 bucks each time. Don't even get me started on mining barges/exhumers. Anyway, that's my two ISK