Is it worth training Cybernetics V?

Solution 1:

This depends on what you want to do with your character. For example, there are minor bonuses from having +5 implants but these in themselves are probably not worth the training time, at least initially. However, there are some more specialised implants that do provide larger bonuses and may be worth investing the time in training Cybernetics to V for, including:

• Fleet links implants (for example the Mining Foreman Mindlink - provides boosts to all mining links and a replaces the yield bonus from Mining Foreman with a flat 15% bonus)

• Pirate implants (Crystal, Jackal, Halo, etc) - the higher grade versions of these implants provide additional bonuses which can help in various ways as you can see below:

  Regular sets
  Snake: 24.73% velocity bonus
  Slave: 53.63% armour HP bonus
  Crystal: 53.63% shield boost bonus
  Talisman: -38.12% energy emission systems duration bonus
  Halo: -20.7% signature radius bonus

  Low-grade sets
  Snake: 16.02% velocity bonus
  Slave: 33.83% armour HP bonus
  Crystal: 33.83% shield boost bonus
  Talisman: -26.94% energy emission systems duration bonus
  Halo: -14.3% signature radius bonus
  

• Many of the +5% hardwire implants require Cybernetics V also

In general, for a character just starting out, I don't usually go above Cybernetics level 3, you can get far greater gains in terms of skill effectivity by training up specific skills relating to specific disciplines. However, for a more established character or if you're playing a long game and aren't too bothered about immediate gains, it's worth taking into consideration the numbers. Here is some math:

Assuming perfect skill setups for whatever you're training (ie: if something requires INT as primary and MEM as secondary and you have +10 in INT and +4 in MEM), Cybernetics V will take you around 12 1/2 to 13 days to train.

Each level of implant provides a +1 bonus to the attribute it is designed for, up to a maximum of +5. Each +1 will generate you about 1.5 skill points per minute (1 from the primary attribute, 0.5 from the secondary attribute). Taking this 1.5 skill points per minute we can calculate how many skill points you'll generate over a year as follows:

1.5 * 60 (minutes/hour) * 24 (hours/day) * 365 (days/year) = 788400

This means that each +1 you add to an attribute through implants (assuming you add both relevant implants for whatever you're training) will generate you an extra 788,400 skill points per year. With this information, we can determine that:

• Level 1 implants generate you 788,400 SP per year
• Level 2 implants generate you 1,576,800 SP per year
• Level 3 implants generate you 2,365,200 SP per year
• Level 4 implants generate you 3,153,600 SP per year
• Level 5 implants generate you 3,942,000 SP per year

It's worth noting that 788,400 SP is approximately the same as levelling a rank 3 ability to level V (which requires 768,000 SP). Additionally, training Cybernetics to V will take you about a year to recover the training time spent on training Cybernetics to V, assuming you upgrade your implants to +5's.

Solution 2:

Although the accepted answer is technically correct I would like to give a slightly different approach.

The answer is: no, not yet.

As was pointed out, the value of +5s over +3s take nearly a year to be realized, but that is only part of the story.

+5s also cost 10x as much as +3s and will also be lost if you are podded. The total cost of +5s is around 500 million. This is generally prohibitively expensive for newer players and causes people to become risk adverse to the extreme.

Mindlinks are for boosting characters only, are often a few hundred million each, and require upwards of six months of training to get the skills to be a booster (a generally boring position usually left to alts.)

"Highgrade" implants such as slaves are extremely powerful, but that power comes at a cost. Most highgrade sets cost over a billion for a set, especially with omega included.

Bottom line is you should be able to be perfectly happy with +3s for the first several years of your EVE life, leave the pirate implants to the bitter vets with more isk then sense.