Overheat you silly newb!

He overheats his mods and so should you!

Thermodynamics is your friend. It must be learned and there are two very simple reasons why. One is to piss off your enemies. The other is to destroy your enemies before they destroy you. Those are two noble reasons, are they not?

Overheating your mods is like using NOS on your car. You use it too early and you look like that idiot in the original Fast and the Furious who wrecked his pretty little rocket mobile. You use it too late and you’ve lost the race already and can go home ashamed. If you time it right, you get all the hot chicks at the end of the race.

Using this tactic appropriately can extend your usefulness in a solo scenario or in fleet operations. I prefer to overheat when:

1) A target is well tanked and the extra DPS is needed

2) A target is just out of range and I need to tackle him

3) The fight is close, we’re both into structure, and I want the kill

These preferences are all meant to put me on top and win the fight. Be it a tackle with 30% increase in web range or a last burst of overpowered damage, that little extra pressure can break your foe. Worried about damages though? Well, repairing heat damage in station is cheaper than buying a new ship and all the goodies that go with it. It is also much more pleasant to be the proud owner of a new kill mail than the proud owner of a new loss mail. So what about pissing your enemies off? I did mention that and you can do it with overheating. If you’re about to die, you have no hope of escaping, and you want to enact some form of revenge and get the last laugh, overheat EVERYTHING so you break all your mods and deny them your precious loot. That, alone, should convince you to get training.

So now that I have convinced you to utilize those overheating options, let me explain to you what the basics are. Thermodynamics opens up the ability to overheat your modules and since Energy Management (5% bonus to capacitor capacity per level) affects all ships, you should already have it to 5. That means Thermodynamics is an inject away. Each rank gives you a 5% decrease to the amount of heat damage taken. Many people argue that the skill needs no more attention after you’ve trained it to level four, but, like any skill, if you have the time and effort go for it all the way to level 5.

The heat your modules is taking is spread throughout the entire rack, meaning that the heat spills over, much like the surface of a stove gets warm around the burner you had on. Since overloading an entire rack of modules generates more heat than a single module, your modules will burn out faster. Simple huh? Be warned though, the method of overheating isn’t perfect, especially for those of us with eyesight issues. You need to click a little tiny button, representing an entire rack, or a little green bar, indicating a single module. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you just end up screwing up and either turn off something you need or you can’t turn off your overheat. This, to me, is the biggest drawback. I wish CCP would implement a more efficient way to overheat, but until then, we’re stuck.

Once your modules are overheated, the green bars above each module will eventually start to turn red. Once the whole thing is red, your module has melted and can not be used until repaired. You can repair this in a station with a repair bay or anywhere in space with Nanite Repair Paste. Going with the NRP allows you to repair your modules when you’re out in unfriendly territory. However, it’s expensive, takes a bit of time, and does take up cargo space that could be used for ammo or fine beverages. It currently has a median price of 2900 isk per unit and uses 5 units per 10% of heat damage. Use it at your own discretion (many people swear by it), but realize that you can make it to a station more times than not.

Finally, I leave you with a tip. Say you are just out of range of another ship and you overheat your webber for a nice optimal boost. You make the tackle, scram, web, et al, and start to orbit. Do not forget to turn off your overheat! The goal of overheating was accomplished, you made the tackle. Get in close enough so you can disable the overheat and not burn out your modules and loose the tackle.

Other resources to convince you to burn your modules into oblivion:

Everything you need to know about Nanite Repair Paste

Overheating explained on Battleclinic

EVElopedia and Thermodynamics/Overheating