Ricarde's Modified Guide to Abyssal Damage Modules

[Ricarde Moirelelle 8]

This guide is meant to take an in-depth look at how damage modules affect your dps, and how to take advantage of these mechanics to achieve better results with abyssal modules.
If you're a newbro with green damage modules, or a veteran on the fence about spending 3b for a 31%, this is for you.

Let me preface the guide by saying this:
DPS% is a scam.
you don't need to buy high dps% abyssals to reach big boy damage.

Look at this kronos:


This is the standard WTM Kronos, with max skills and the recommended damage implants (check out https://forums.warptome.net/topic/10-implant-guide/ for a comprehensive list!)
The number we'll be looking at is the Weapon dps (3889). Watch what happens when we swap one of the green damage mods for a 31.7% abyssal (the highest possible roll with a green base. You won't even see these on the market most of the time and go for several billions of isk):


Gun dps jumps up to 4054. That is a significant increase, but may not be enough for you to consider spending that much for a single module. Now, look at this:


4054 gun damage, but with a 28.4% and a 29.1%, both of which are valued around ~500m each on mutaplasmids (https://mutaplasmid.space/module/1037588520435/ https://mutaplasmid.space/module/1037588520435/). but what is going on here?

To understand that, we need to talk about stacking penalties.
Surely, if you've ever fitted more than one module to gain the same stat, the fitting tool has warned you about these. In EVE, when you try to increase the same stat with multiple modules, these modules become less effective. The first module is 100% effective, the second is 86.9% effective, the third is 57.1% effective, and the fourth is 28.3% effective. The fifth would be 10.6% effective, which is why in WTM and most of the time in EVE you won't put more than 4 of the same module in a fit.
Weapon Upgrades increase your dps by granting you 2 stats: a damage multiplier, and a rate of fire bonus. Both of these are subject to stacking penalties when you use more than one WU.

But here is something not many people know: the damage multiplier and the rate of fire bonus stack separately.
What this means is that, regardless of which of the 4 modules a damage multiplier/rate of fire bonus is, they will stack by applying the higher values as the most effective ones.
For this reason, 2 abyssal modules, one with a max damage multiplier, one with a max rate of fire roll, are exactly equivalent to a single module with both of those stats together.
In WTM you get to work with 4 damage modules, which means you can distribute high value rolls for damage and rof across all the modules.
Now consider this:



This kronos uses 2 abyssal modules with a maxed out damage multiplier, and one with a max rate of fire bonus, and it has 4125 gun dps, which is enough to earn the MASSIVE DPS teamspeak badge. Without even a fourth abyssal. This whole set can be acquired for less than 2b.

Becase of how stacking penalties work, in your search for max rolled dmg/rof modules you can allow yourself to get a couple modules with red rolls, as they'll be stacked at the bottom of your stats and only be 28.3% effective:


Even with these awful red rolls that bring the dps% of the module below faction dps% (max dmg with brick rof is 25.2%), you're still gaining more dps overall because of how your whole set stacks its multipliers. Let me repeat this: DPS% is a scam and you should not care about it when you can work with 4 damage modules.
Of course a 31% dps abyssal will be better when considered on its own and it would likely never impact your dps negatively, however 31% abyssals are stupid expensive and you don't need them to achieve what we consider high gun dps.

The next question you might ask is, how do I get myself some of these modules?
Here is a very simple guide:

1) go to https://mutaplasmid.space
2) select your relevant damage module to look at what's on the market (usually public contracts in jita 4-4)
3) decide what you're looking for (damage multiplier affects dps more than rof, if you were building a 3 abyssal set you'd want 2 dmg multipliers and 1 rof)
4) use the sliders to filter out rolls that are too low

In this example I set the minimum rof to 11%, which is faction equivalent (dmg multiplier for faction is 1.12x)
5) sort by the stat you're looking for

6) Choose the cheapest module with an acceptable modifier for the stat you're looking for (In this example, that 1.14x for 500m doesn't look bad at all)
7) Click the "Link" button to have the ingame contract copied to your clipboard
8) Paste it in EVE's notepad (not the chat window) found under Edencom > Utilities > Notepad
9) Enjoy your guns go brrrr

For your 4th damage module, after you've gotten 2 max damage multipliers and 1 max rof, further increases in either damage multiplier or rate of fire affect your dps identically. If you want to round off your set, this time you can sort by dps% and choose the cheapest module that satisfies your needs.

If you have any further questions or need help sorting your abyssals, feel free to reach out to me on Discord (Mombei#0337)

Upgrade! (cheaply)

 

[Imelda Virpio 179]

10 hours ago, Ricarde Moirelelle said:

DPS% is a scam.
you don't need to buy high dps% abyssals to reach big boy damage.

THANK you. This, right here, is the thing 90% of our pilots need to hear. Once you feel like dropping ten or twenty billion on a set of mag stabs, go ahead and ignore this; until then, listen to Ricarde.

[niki lasvegas 538]

This is definitely useful stuff, if you want to keep your budget on the sane side. Personally for budget purposes I would simply choose 2 high dmg and 2 high rof modified abyssals for the 4-set. I would probably not go red with them tho'  except maybe CPU if you can afford the extra fitting space.

Honestly in-game sim is also your good friend before you buy anything. That is how i bought all my abyssal stuff.

Edited February 15, 2022 by niki lasvegas

[Ricarde Moirelelle 8]

2 hours ago, niki lasvegas said:

I would probably not go red with them tho'

Me neither, it was an example to show that even a brick won't tank your dps by that much, so you can allow yourself to get -1/-2 rolls if it's just a couple

[Malcolm Galora 375]

On 2/14/2022 at 12:42 AM, Ricarde Moirelelle said:

Paste it in EVE's notepad (not the chat window) found under Edencom > Utilities > Notepad

A new mail also works the same, I use those for temporary stuff.

While Mutaplasmid is a great tool for appraising mods and checking stats, also check for those selling mods in discord, as you often can get a good deal from the more established sellers. Often even able to buy them in sets that are already setup with stacking penalties in mind.

[Nazeth 1]

many alliances suggests to use t2 damage modules with gravid mutaplasmids, because its cheaper to roll better ones than buy faction or even officer ones.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Nazeth