It is a while since I last covered overheating and in that time I've finished Thermodynamics V and overheating is a lot more use to me now. Its winning me a lot of battles when soloing. If you already know all there is about overheating go and read Eveoganda or something!
This is a basic guide giving you what you need to know rather than delving deep into the mechanics.
Overheating? Wut?
You can set your modules to overheat by shift+clicking them or clicking the small section in the top green section of the icon. Only some modules can be overheated and these tend to be active modules not passive ones.
Whilst they are overheated they will get a decent bonus. Your points and web will reach further out, your weapons will cycle faster giving better DPS, your scan resolution will be higher, your reps will be faster and give you more HPs per cycle, your prop mod will propel you faster, etc.
A few examples of how overheating modules can improve your important internet spaceship (numbers for ships piloted by Drack):-
Merlin, Overheated Guns
Normal DPS - 205
Overheated DPS - 236
Breacher, Overheated MWD
Normal MWD speed - 4040 m/sec
Overheated MWD speed - 5783 m/sec
Cockbag Thrasher Overheated SeBo's
Normal Scan Res - 1673
Overheated Scan Res - 1858
Tristan Overheated Armour Repper
Normal DPS repaired - 92hp per 4.5 sec = 20.44 HP/sec
Overheated DPS repaired - 101hp per 3.8 sec = 26.58 HP/sec
Sounds great! Why don't you permanently overheat ALL THE THINGS?
The reason is the modules themselves take damage when overheated. The more modules you overheat, the more heat is generated. The more heat modules take the quicker they get damaged. This is shown on the UI:-
As you can see my low's are 27% heated currently as I'm overheating the repper. As the modules get hot they take greater damage. You can see this by the red bar that creeps around the icon slowly. Hovering over the icon tells you the percentage damaged they are.
As you can see my repper is 31% damaged from the overloading I've been doing. Be careful. You hit 100% and the module is buggered and will stop working. It will go offline and cannot be onlined until repaired. Sort of a major issue during fight.
You can turn off overheat at any time by shift+clicking or clicking the overheat indicator a second time.
Simple enough? Here are some tips-
Train Thermodynamics skill to V
The science skill of Thermodynamics reduces the damage taken by overheating by 10% per level. At level five, modules only take half of the damage from overheating. That's why Drackarn can overheat his small repper for the majority of a fight or get seven full volleys from T2 280mm arty cannons.
Roughly know how long you can overheat various modules for.
Each module takes a different amount of damage per cycle and has a different number of hitpoints. Somethings like MWD's do not like being overheated and will quickly burn out. Others like small armour reppers can be overheated for a long time before they die. You don't need to know exactly how many cycles (although I know that my Thrasher gets seven shots from its T2 280mm artillery cannons on overload before the guns burn out) just how well they do and how much attention you need to pay to them. Remember in a fight overheating is more loading on you the player. You may need to manage range, drones, cap, ewar, ect depending on your ship. Overheating adds to this complexity.
Fitting Management is Important
Heat spreads and different modules put out different amounts of heat. Anything physically next to the module overheating takes heat damage as you overload it. If two overloaded modules are placed next to each other they will take damage faster due to shared heat build-up. Its a good idea to space overloadable modules with non-overloadable modules between them. If you fit your modules in this order- point, MWD, web, shield extender and sensor booster and overheat the first three that is the worst possible thing you can do. The heat damage will burn them out faster than normal with the MWD in the middle getting the worst of the damage but also seriously damaging your web and scram as overheated MWD's really kick out excess heat. If you place the extender and sensor booster in between them they act as "heat buffer zones" and they'll not die quite as quick. Ideally you want the MWD buffered between the edge of the ship (first or last slot) and the shield extender. An example of what problems heat can cause is below. See that passive hardener has taken damage? Thats due to heat from the repper!
Pre-heat is a Saver for Some Modules
Some modules you want to pre-overheat. Examples include scram and web when a potential kiter is warping into you or you are camping a gate. A web that reaches 12km can be the difference between your target burning away and kiting you to death or it being stuck in your iron grasp! MWD's are useful to give a big boost to speed either to catch an asshat or to burn out of point range in a slingshot escape. Just be careful. MWD's don't like being overheated and soon burn out. Armour reppers are a good one to pre-overheat when flying frigates. In my Tristan I always pre-overheat my armour repper if it has one. They can really take the heat and you'll get a 10% bonus to the amount of damage repaired and a 15% decrease in cycle time! It also stops you forgetting in the heat of the battle. I've learnt that pre-overheating the repper should be done at the same time as activating DCU's. ie When you jump into system. If you are activating that module then you REALLY need it.
Heat Early in the Fight
Why save the overheat to later in the fight? You might be already be beyond saving by then. Overheat early and turn it off when it gets too hot. If all looks lost you can turn it back on towards the end of the fight. Just make sure you don't waste your overheat. Overheating small blasters loaded with null when your target is still 20km away is a waste. Overheating your active armour repper when you are still in shield is a waste. Save the heat for when you need it.
Carry Nanite Paste
If you survive the your modules will be damaged. You can return to station and use the repair facilities there. If you have nanite paste in your cargo bay you can right click the module and select "Repair". Takes a while but it'll be as good as new soon (tm).
Try it Out!
An example of how overheating wins a fight that you might lose otherwise. Sat in active armour tanked short-range Tristan with blasters at warp in of a FW plex.
Get enemy on short-range scan.
Check armour repper already pre-overheated (but not active).
Guns pre-overheated.
Is the ship on scan a potential kiter? Navy Slicer, Condor etc? If so overheat scram and web.
If its not a kiter, activate prop mod on ready to burn at them (could land 3k away max) / If its a potential kiter, prop mod off but pre-overheated.
Enemy lands. Scram, web, burn at them.
When within 1km activated preheated guns.
If scram and web overheated, turn off overheat. (Sir! We have them!)
Deactivate prop mod (which obviously also disables overheat if I used it).
When guns are around 75% damaged stop overheat.
When low shield alarm goes off, stand-by on armour repper. When entering armour activate pre-overheated repper.
Check my tank verse targets tank. Are they breaking? Do my guns need to be overheated some more (risky now)?
Keep eye on repper heat damage (should be OK for many cycles).
Am I going to win, lose or is it too close to call?
Win? - OK, keep doing what I'm doing. If they try to GTFO overheat AB to keep up.
Lose? - Time to try and GTFO. Overheat AB and align out hoping extra speed will get me out of their point range so I can warp away.
Could go either way? - Keep overheating, watching damage bars and cross fingers! Balls deep man! Balls deep!
Overheating? Wut?
You can set your modules to overheat by shift+clicking them or clicking the small section in the top green section of the icon. Only some modules can be overheated and these tend to be active modules not passive ones.
A few examples of how overheating modules can improve your important internet spaceship (numbers for ships piloted by Drack):-
Merlin, Overheated Guns
Normal DPS - 205
Overheated DPS - 236
Breacher, Overheated MWD
Normal MWD speed - 4040 m/sec
Overheated MWD speed - 5783 m/sec
Cockbag Thrasher Overheated SeBo's
Normal Scan Res - 1673
Overheated Scan Res - 1858
Tristan Overheated Armour Repper
Normal DPS repaired - 92hp per 4.5 sec = 20.44 HP/sec
Overheated DPS repaired - 101hp per 3.8 sec = 26.58 HP/sec
Sounds great! Why don't you permanently overheat ALL THE THINGS?
The reason is the modules themselves take damage when overheated. The more modules you overheat, the more heat is generated. The more heat modules take the quicker they get damaged. This is shown on the UI:-
You can turn off overheat at any time by shift+clicking or clicking the overheat indicator a second time.
Simple enough? Here are some tips-
Train Thermodynamics skill to V
The science skill of Thermodynamics reduces the damage taken by overheating by 10% per level. At level five, modules only take half of the damage from overheating. That's why Drackarn can overheat his small repper for the majority of a fight or get seven full volleys from T2 280mm arty cannons.
Roughly know how long you can overheat various modules for.
Each module takes a different amount of damage per cycle and has a different number of hitpoints. Somethings like MWD's do not like being overheated and will quickly burn out. Others like small armour reppers can be overheated for a long time before they die. You don't need to know exactly how many cycles (although I know that my Thrasher gets seven shots from its T2 280mm artillery cannons on overload before the guns burn out) just how well they do and how much attention you need to pay to them. Remember in a fight overheating is more loading on you the player. You may need to manage range, drones, cap, ewar, ect depending on your ship. Overheating adds to this complexity.
Fitting Management is Important
Heat spreads and different modules put out different amounts of heat. Anything physically next to the module overheating takes heat damage as you overload it. If two overloaded modules are placed next to each other they will take damage faster due to shared heat build-up. Its a good idea to space overloadable modules with non-overloadable modules between them. If you fit your modules in this order- point, MWD, web, shield extender and sensor booster and overheat the first three that is the worst possible thing you can do. The heat damage will burn them out faster than normal with the MWD in the middle getting the worst of the damage but also seriously damaging your web and scram as overheated MWD's really kick out excess heat. If you place the extender and sensor booster in between them they act as "heat buffer zones" and they'll not die quite as quick. Ideally you want the MWD buffered between the edge of the ship (first or last slot) and the shield extender. An example of what problems heat can cause is below. See that passive hardener has taken damage? Thats due to heat from the repper!
Some modules you want to pre-overheat. Examples include scram and web when a potential kiter is warping into you or you are camping a gate. A web that reaches 12km can be the difference between your target burning away and kiting you to death or it being stuck in your iron grasp! MWD's are useful to give a big boost to speed either to catch an asshat or to burn out of point range in a slingshot escape. Just be careful. MWD's don't like being overheated and soon burn out. Armour reppers are a good one to pre-overheat when flying frigates. In my Tristan I always pre-overheat my armour repper if it has one. They can really take the heat and you'll get a 10% bonus to the amount of damage repaired and a 15% decrease in cycle time! It also stops you forgetting in the heat of the battle. I've learnt that pre-overheating the repper should be done at the same time as activating DCU's. ie When you jump into system. If you are activating that module then you REALLY need it.
Why save the overheat to later in the fight? You might be already be beyond saving by then. Overheat early and turn it off when it gets too hot. If all looks lost you can turn it back on towards the end of the fight. Just make sure you don't waste your overheat. Overheating small blasters loaded with null when your target is still 20km away is a waste. Overheating your active armour repper when you are still in shield is a waste. Save the heat for when you need it.
Carry Nanite Paste
If you survive the your modules will be damaged. You can return to station and use the repair facilities there. If you have nanite paste in your cargo bay you can right click the module and select "Repair". Takes a while but it'll be as good as new soon (tm).
Try it Out!
An example of how overheating wins a fight that you might lose otherwise. Sat in active armour tanked short-range Tristan with blasters at warp in of a FW plex.
Get enemy on short-range scan.
Check armour repper already pre-overheated (but not active).
Guns pre-overheated.
Is the ship on scan a potential kiter? Navy Slicer, Condor etc? If so overheat scram and web.
If its not a kiter, activate prop mod on ready to burn at them (could land 3k away max) / If its a potential kiter, prop mod off but pre-overheated.
Enemy lands. Scram, web, burn at them.
When within 1km activated preheated guns.
If scram and web overheated, turn off overheat. (Sir! We have them!)
Deactivate prop mod (which obviously also disables overheat if I used it).
When guns are around 75% damaged stop overheat.
When low shield alarm goes off, stand-by on armour repper. When entering armour activate pre-overheated repper.
Check my tank verse targets tank. Are they breaking? Do my guns need to be overheated some more (risky now)?
Keep eye on repper heat damage (should be OK for many cycles).
Am I going to win, lose or is it too close to call?
Win? - OK, keep doing what I'm doing. If they try to GTFO overheat AB to keep up.
Lose? - Time to try and GTFO. Overheat AB and align out hoping extra speed will get me out of their point range so I can warp away.
Could go either way? - Keep overheating, watching damage bars and cross fingers! Balls deep man! Balls deep!
Good advice. I OH in every fight to one degree or another. Module placement in slots cannot be over stated, it is critical to success. Often that extra slot buffer will save your ship from death and squeak out a victory.
ReplyDeleteAlso worth mentioning: If you burn out a module completely it can only be repaired in a station. AND it will be offlined. Remember to open fitting tool and online after station repairs. It is very deadly to online mods mid-fights...
ReplyDelete