Many years ago when I started playing EVE I was grinding isk killing belt rats. I would often kite them to avoid damage, but after awhile they’d just warp away - so i fit a disruptor. To my amazement, even when pointed these rats would still just warp away sometimes. I also noticed that they were locking and applying EWAR on me from outrageous distances (1000km+).
Alright, fast forward 10+ years: here I am sitting at 1200km away from 5x Serp cruisers… and I’m being damped by 3 of them. It’s still happening! Why is this still a thing?
I don’t think they actually have any dampening affect from that distance, just they have the ability to target and activate their damps, so the icon appears, but your targetting range doesn’t actually change.
That’s what I recall from a previous discussion on this a couple of years ago, but I could be mistaken.
Easiest way to know is to open your fitting window and see what your targetting range is when damped from that distance.