I posted yesterday that I had gained the necessary skills for a Retriever (pic lifted from Crazykinux somwhere on this page), and I was going to continue training toward the Hulk.
Wilhelm made a great observation about Hulk training in the comment section for the thread. Basically, he said it’s a lot of training for somewhat of a dead end in the skill line.
I initially thought that was just fine with me, but after thinking about it a little more this morning, I may just stop at the Retriever for the time being. It’s going to be toward a month of training for the Hulk, and I’m not quite sure I’ll actually be that hardcore about mining. If I find myself in the situation where I do want to increase my mining yield, it’ll be a fairly quick path toward the Hulk, and worth my time. Until I’m sure I really need that boost, though, I think I’m going to hang out in the Retriever for my mining needs, and switch back to some combat ship training. Or maybe some manufacturing, or improving refining…hmm, so many choices!
/random 
Been looking in that direction myself. I’m a still a few days from the Retriever, but I’m seeing it more as a means to an end rather than an end in itself– a great source of isk and minerals for other activities.
Not that there isn’t something Zen-like in mining. Going pew pew though is much less stressful if you know you can replace a ship easily.
I’m stopping at the retriever for a while.
personally i would sugest moving more toward a combat training the skills will allow you to make money running missons as you skill up. convo me ingame on this same name i can help ya out with a few ideas and find out where you are at.
or i could just be looking for ur ingame name so i can run a agent search and find yous……..
Thanks Sidewayz. I’m actually in decent shape with combat mission skills. I can run level 3’s with my eyes closed in my Hurricanes, and I’m actually trained up through BS V as well. I still need some of the support skills for BS, though. I actually enjoy level 3’s, because they’re quicker, and I don’t always have the time to get through a level 4, salvage included 🙂 And yeah, offers of support in Eve are always taken with a grain of salt, lol. I appreciate the offer, but I’m holding my own for the time being 😉
P@tsh@t, yeah, totally Zen. I really enjoy mining while I’m working on other tasks. There’s something about the zoned-out concentration of mining that helps me concentrate better on my RL tasks as well. Of course, that probably says a lot more about the way my brain works than the way mining works 🙂
I wouldn’t necessarily discourage the Hulk ambition. It is a good set of skills to be able to fall back on. When it comes to missions, you have to get to level 4 missions to make more money per hour than mining with a Hulk.
It was more a matter of getting hooked on how much more money you make per hour as you go up the mining steps from Bantam to Osprey to Retriever to Hulk. The increases stop at the Hulk.
One thing you can always do is train up the skills to use tech 2 strip miners and tech 2 mining crystals while you make your decision, you’ll want those for the hulk anyways and they will also help your retriever’s yield.
Both good points, and thanks for the clarification, Wilhelm!
I just got my Hulk recently, but the ‘dead end’ thing never really hit me. Still lots of skills related to mining and production to keep you busy. Getting to 100% refining is a great goal in relation to mining.
Production training can take next to forever as well, especially when you get into ship production or tech II.
I would aim for the Hulk. The yield is huge, it’s safer thanks to the higher tank, and it’s nice knowing you are getting as much are as you can per cycle.