How to Become a Contender: Supplemental(Bolster, PvP Gear, and You)

[Akushii]

I recently started using 162 rating gear (Black market/Arkanian) for my bracer/belt and 5th armor piece and it has been working out well. The expertise drop is minimal (1-3 I think), and it has increased my willpower/damage output. So it seems that you can walk into a warzone with full 162 rating gear, and be competitive. For MH/OH, you can go with the 168/162/156 combo if weapon damage is important. For people like me who love to raid as well as PvP, it should be easy to pick up Arkanian drops along with 168 MH/OH.

 

Furthermore, this gives you the option of using the PvE set bonus instead of the PvP bonus if it is more suitable (still waiting to test this). I have been testing this on my dps Assassin, using the new bolster buff from Ziost Shadow that was added at 2.7.1. I am almost contemplating going for the 4 piece PvE set bonus instead of the PvP (15% crit chance increase to voltaic slash VS reduce cooldown on recklessness by 15 sec and increase recklessness charge by 1).

Edited April 30, 2014 by Akushii

[morfius]

So we now have console to test bolster... Vg tank with bank full of PvE gear.

Full 180 - nice screw up = 910 Exp, 21.7 def / 41.5 shi / 39.3 abs, 43K HP (def/shi/abs augments)

Full 162 - almost there = 1903 Exp, 15 def / 36.2 shi / 36.1 abs, 38K HP (fortitude augments)

Full 148 (and anything bellow) - max possible without PvP weapons = 1936 Exp and messed secondary stats.

Slapped some 156 to check - started dropping Exp... seem that if you go for flat pve gear 148 is max bolstered level.

Pure PvE gear in PvP - 33 Expertise seem not worth for tanks (0.4% lost dmg reduction from players) if you have tons of 162s to slap on instead of 148. Some combos with level 50 armorings and 168/180 mods/enhancements may work better but flat 162 seem OK.

Gear swapping/gearing - 115 (to 2018) is 2% damage reduction, interesting question is which is more, those 2% flat or drop of shi/abs from Oboroan main/off hand.

For tanks Oboroan relics are BiS even in PvE before have DF/DP on grind or bulk of mats/credits for DF ones.

Implants - 162 tokens or PvP ones are BiS even for PvE again...

Earpiece - 156/162 with no acc/ala on it seem to work.

 

So imo tanks again need to go for relics first... even if they are sole reason to mess with PvP.

Edited May 2, 2014 by morfius

[getdownsb]

Does anyone know why my tool-tips all display the item rating (Armoring 150) instead of the level (Armoring 58)?

[morfius]

Does anyone know why my tool-tips all display the item rating (Armoring 150) instead of the level (Armoring 58)?

 

2.7 change (got rid of virtual item level).

[Archiebold]

Yes up can drop 82 EXP as long as your MH/OH have 69 hilts/armoring or above.

 

Here is a rundown of what you should be wearing or progressing to wear. More favorable is after the "or", but its not by much...

Crafted 53 or Brute Ear

Crafted 53 or Brute implants

Obroan or Brute Wrists/Belt

Obroan or Brute relics

Obroan/Brute or 72/69/66 MH/OH

Obroan/Brute 2/4 piece set boni.

69/63/61 or 69/66/58 on remaining pieces

 

According to Randle, is this the best way to optimize my gear?

 

And 72/69/66 MH is slightly better than Brute?

[getdownsb]

2.7 change (got rid of virtual item level).

 

Thanks, been away for a long time so I'm not up with the patch notes. Does anyone know the translation between item level and item rating? It's a bit confusing trying to hunt down the correct mods. Although I guess it should be simple, basically all pvp gear other then mh/oh.

 

Only problem is that I have no idea where I go for the mh/oh gear since I have been gone for over a year and rarely PvE'ed.

[kaydash]

I got this from another thread in the forums, but basically

 

180 = 78

174 = 75

168 = 72

162 = 69

156 = 66

148 = 61

140 = 58

[lazerxxx]

I've got on a vengeance jugg:

Ear & 2x Implants purple level 53

Wrist & Waist (162/162)

MH & OH (168/162/156)

Chest & Gloves (162/174/150) for PVE Setbonus.

 

I get bolstered to 1913 expertise. Can i tweak something more to my benefit ;-)?

[lordgandhi]

I recently started collecting tank gear for my guardian.

 

I want to equip +41 END crystals to get some some extra END on my MH/OH and with the according PVE mods I guess I'll get a bit more out of it than from similar Brute mods, right?

Which combination provides none or only a bearable minimum loss of expertise when I want to max END?

Can I go for 168/162/156 or would you recommend another combination?

[idnewton]

Slapped some 156 to check - started dropping Exp... seem that if you go for flat pve gear 148 is max bolstered level.

 

Actually I think it's anything below 156. The 152 purple level 54 implant/ear bolsters quite nicely.

Edited May 6, 2014 by idnewton

[IInox]

so hilt mh & armoring offhand pve are bis for a bug? Edited May 7, 2014 by IInox

[Akushii]

For non set bonus pieces, are 69/63/61 and 69/66/58 still the best? Or do we have to switch to 72/69/66?

[MCaliban]

Will you be updating the first post of this thread?

[phalczen]

Will you be updating the first post of this thread?

 

A fair question, though in his defense the major take home message is that using certain combinations of PVE mods can get you to be BiS without wearing the current highest tier of PVP gear (raising the spectre of whether you should even wear tier 1 pvp gear at all.) The exact combination will always change whenever new tiers of pvp gear, pve gear, or level caps are introduced, but it seems like the developers are wed to the idea of Bolster, and that it will work in this fashion (i.e. BiS being some achievable through some combo of pvp and pve gear under a specific threshold) for the foreseeable future. Whenever there is a new tier of something, there will have to be some experimentation in what will achieve the best combo, but the target will probably only be a few points higher than the previous threshold.

 

The previous threshold, alluded to in the OP, was around 450 (using 156/150/146 stuff). The current threshold must be around 460 if the current ideal combos are 162/156/140 or 162/150/146 (Arkanian/BM armoring, crafted 53 or Dread Guard/Hazmat mod, and Rakata or Campaign/BH enhancement). That's only a little over a 1% change in item rating, hardly even a tier of gear. The 168/162/156 combo for MH/OH is apparently for classes that are heavily weapon damage (white damage) based, who can suffer a slight reduction in bolstered expertise in exchange for the higher bonus damage afforded by using 168 stuff. Pretty much everyone else could be using augmented 162/156/140 stuff with 156 ears/implants and be nearly BiS. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say as long as you aren't in raid gear, you should be bolstered to a competitve amount, though you need a modicum of raid gear to get closer to BiS. People asking for the return of recruit gear? You essentially get that when you get the free five artifact 156 pieces from the one time Oricon intro story missions. You can take that stuff and swap in some older level 50 end game enhancements of any flavor (ideally Campaign/Black Hole) and get a few more points of bolstered expertise to boot without taking too much of a hit to primary stats. L-Randle can correct me if i'm wrong, I welcome any corrections.

 

Now this would be pure speculation, but I suspect if there is another tier of gear (either pve, pvp or both) released before the next level cap increase, then I speculate the target will move up to 470 (just under the MH/OH combos recommended post 2.7)

Edited May 9, 2014 by phalczen

[morfius]

Actually I think it's anything below 156. The 152 purple level 54 implant/ear bolsters quite nicely.

 

Ouch I forgot those, my PT with them get 4 point expertise more than VG with Black market ones, same ear and last of gear above slapped in legacy set.

But loose too much HP to be worth for those 4 points... so for best I think - Makeb rep ones (crafted), analog drops or BM/Arcanian.

From PvE gear and bolster - full 162 (shi/abs mods/enhancements + fortitude augs) on tank seem BiS due to endurance and secondary stats, for DPS have to check which of them have enough 162 to slap on 1 legacy set and make some new tests.

Edited May 9, 2014 by morfius

[L-RANDLE]

Yeah, you hit it right in the head. The goal of this wasn't really to continually update, but more as a "bolster does this, so do this and don't do this". It took a ton of time and credits to put the OP together and I really don't have the time since my kids baseball season started. I can update a few things and maybe put a summary to encompass future tier increases, but, a full blown update I don't think will be in the cards anytime soon.

[funkiestj]

Yeah, even without updates, L-RANDLE and his merry band of bolster testers have shown us the way to figure it out for ourselves. Between that and the new bolster terminal ...

 

Also, you could copy the OP to a free wiki (take your pick) or Google Docs (make the document writeable by world if you like) and update it yourself.

[Erahth]

Just had a look through the patch notes for 2.7 and noticed this:

 

Bolster has been updated to account for the new tiers of gear, and now provides additional Expertise to elder game PvE gear. Bolster still caps at a level slightly below Obroan gear.

 

Characters who do not wield weapons with Expertise mods and crystals are now capped at 1936 Expertise instead of the full 2018.

 

Does this mean that if you don't have a PvP weapon, you're capped at 1936? What is the effective difference between 1936 and 2018, and would the benefit of a PvE weapon be more than the Expertise difference?

[L-RANDLE]

Just had a look through the patch notes for 2.7 and noticed this:

 

 

 

Does this mean that if you don't have a PvP weapon, you're capped at 1936? What is the effective difference between 1936 and 2018, and would the benefit of a PvE weapon be more than the Expertise difference?

Posted this in another thread.... Basically, even for force/Tech classes, its slightly more favorable as a dps class, and a Weapon Damage class, its very, very lopsided.

No it really didn't. It actually is more like a revert to the old system where slightly less than max EXP was BiS.

Using my build out, I increased Ravage by 700HP when calcd for PvP.

 

i.e.

Here is a screen on my in Obroan

 

http://s1253.photobucket.com/user/ldogg1579/media/OBROANMH_OH_zpsc8366bc2.png.html

EXP: 2018(60% boost)

Rav: 8114(12982 in pvp)

Mass: 2470(3952)

 

Here I am in 41/72/69/66

http://s1253.photobucket.com/user/ldogg1579/media/PVEMH_OH_zps71fa7724.png.html

 

EXP: 1930(57.38%)

Rav: 8701(13694)

Mass: 2641(4156)

 

 

As you can see, its depends on what the EXP nerf is on 78 weapons, but regardless I know for fact brute can't outpace 72x2 so why bother with 78s? Its not worth the time or credits for me personally.

[LydMekk]

Btw for low lvl pvp under 55, i'm testing at what lvl values are maxed at. Blue 47s was better than the old 45s. Now making a set of 49s to try out.

 

Entering a WZ in 140s drops all values sharply so thats no good.

 

Will update.

[NesisLegend]

Hey I'm level 20 and I have Cybertech to keep my gear up to level, but it's become a hassle since I mostly PVP and don't go gathering mats. Is it really necessary to upgrade my gear every level?

[funkiestj]

Hey I'm level 20 and I have Cybertech to keep my gear up to level, but it's become a hassle since I mostly PVP and don't go gathering mats. Is it really necessary to upgrade my gear every level?

 

if you are doing PvP, you do not need to keep your gear up to date -- bolster will take care of you.

 

Do equip all slots as they become available (relics, implants). Augments don't get bolstered (I'm sure this is true for 55, can someone confirm this for lowbie) so you probably want to upgrade augments now and then.

[MCaliban]

Yeah, you hit it right in the head. The goal of this wasn't really to continually update, but more as a "bolster does this, so do this and don't do this". It took a ton of time and credits to put the OP together and I really don't have the time since my kids baseball season started. I can update a few things and maybe put a summary to encompass future tier increases, but, a full blown update I don't think will be in the cards anytime soon.

 

I meant parts like this.

 

"I also assume Lvl 63 purples and/or a mix and match combo(69/63/61) will also be more favorable than Obroan MH/OH, but I think these screens are enough to know that Obroan weapons are not even as good as crafted 58 purples, which in turn, makes them useless outside of OWPVP."

 

My level 38 toon wears 92/92/92 blues.

 

Off the top of my head, I don't know what a 69/63/61 would be though I recall they were for level 55 toons. Someone new to the game would have no idea why you're recommending 69/63/61 gear.

[Pekish]

I did some real test and let me tell you the result are quite cool no matter if u are all green or all purple result are very similar BUT let me show you the screen shoot of

 

A) FULL GREEN lvl 31 (all green gear are lvl 31)

 

vs

 

B) almost 100% FULL PURPLE+AUGMENT

 

in the screen shoot i show 4 step

NAKED - ONLY GEAR - GEAR+BUFF - GEAR+BUFF & BOLSTER

 

LVL 31 and LVL 35 i will do another one at 40s

 

http://i.imgur.com/DwXeAq4.jpg

 

the real difference is mostly POWER and ENDURANCE the quantity of critical rating u can get out of purple compared to green is so small that once bolstered make no difference

 

what you should focus on with purple gear is to get extra endurance and power those will make a slightly difference

Edited June 2, 2014 by Pekish

[cvak]

Just want to weigh in on this, saw a few numbers, but wanted to add a few more. My current gear is fully aug'd Obroan with all rep side datacrons. Not optimized yet though. Numbers are fully buffed (except for HiB missing guardian/sent buff). I'm comparing it to my PvE weapons, which is full 180 main hand and full 186 nightmare offhand.

 

As a reference, I used one ranged and one tech ability, in my case High Impact Bolt and Demolition Round.

With Obroan weapons, DR had a tooltip damage of 5206-5326 (avg 5266).

 

With the 180/186 weapons, the tech ability Demo Round had a tooltip damage of 5689-5809 (avg 5749). This is an increase of 483 damage, or in percentage an increase of 9.17 %.

 

From the ranged ability High Impact Bolt, the difference increased, where donning my PvE weapons gave me an increase of 12.9 % when comparing average tooltip damage.

 

So, what are the drawbacks of using my PvE weapons in PvP? A 3.08 % decrease in damage reduction. Additionally, I changed out the offhand mod and enhancement into a 156 and 140 whilst keeping the 186 armoring (total item score of 482), but saw lesser results.

 

If anyone with full brutalizer could respond with their fully buffed damage on HiB and DR, we could also get numbers on comparing BiS PvE weapons vs supposedly BiS PvP weapons. Because as of now, it looks to me like I'd never unequip my PvE weps, no matter what I'm doing in this game.

Edited June 3, 2014 by cvak