Viability of PvE Gear in End Game PvP and Understanding of Bolster Merchanics

[Ottoattack]

Recently I brought my healing sorc back from retirement and while I was gearing her and I used 2 piece PvP set and 2 piece PvE set, and I had to tinker with bolster to ensure that I still achieve max expertise and it hit me; I never considered looking into the PvE set for my PT. The PvE set bonus for PT adds 8% to RS damage and lowers explosive fuel CD by 15 secs. This seemed good for Pyro, so I did a long math analysis to see how can I get the most bang for my buck from PvE gear and will it be better than full PvP gear or not. I wanted to share the information with my fellow PTs.

 

This heavily deals with the bolster mechanics. I do not think this is an “exploit.” Especially that top PvP gear is defiantly BiS. It just allows using PvE set pieces as starter gear before you obtain you PvP gear and/or if your spec benefits from PvE set bonus with a small minimal loss in stats.

 

Quick Facts:

I want to give credit to L-Randle for this forum http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=707204. This is the closest to a mathematical explanation of the bolster the devs promised and never provided. Two important things you need to know about bolster and PvE gear:

 

1- PvE gear does not lose expertise if the sum of levels of all the pieces is equal or below 193; meaning, if you have a PvE piece with 69 armoring, 66 mod and 58 enhancement (69+66+58 = 193) you will receive full expertise in the WZs.

2- Any PvE gear above level 69 loses expertise; regardless of other PvE items in the mix, thus do not use any level 72 gear or above in WZs, ever.

 

In addition, power provides 0.23 bonus damage, main stats provides 0.2 bonus damage & 0.0027% critc and mark of power (inquisitor buff) and tree provide 14% to main stats, thus increasing the gain from main stats and critic by 14%. To simplify, BHs get 0.228 bonus damage and 0.00308% critic per main stats.

 

Stats Per Gear:

I will assume using power for mods and enhancements and X mods for all PvP gear (same for PvE low endurance mods and enhancements as these are BiS). You can apply the same methodology for critic, it is not different, but I used power, because it is currently more used in gear. The comparison is for moldable 3 pieces gear that is not MH and OH.

 

Conqueror 123 MS, 141 End, 87 SS, 64 Power, 48.05 BS, 1,410 HP, 0.37% CMS

Obroan 131 MS, 151 End, 93 SS, 68 Power, 51.26 BS, 1,510 HP, 0.40% CMS

PvE 61A/66M/66E 125 MS, 131 End, 96 SS, 58 Power, 50.58 BS, 1,310 HP, 0.38% CMS

PvE 69A/66M/58E 138 MS, 138 End, 80 SS, 51 Power, 49.86 BS, 1,380 HP, 0.42% CMS

 

MS: main stats

End: Endurance

SS: Secondary Stats

BS: Bonus damage

CMS: Critc from main stats

 

I choose these two formats for PvE gear, because set bonuses are available on level 61, level 63 and level 69 armoring. I omitted the level 63 gear, because getting Dread Guard gear requires doing operation Explosive Conflict on HM or NiM or having the pieces from pre 2.0. I selected the PvE combination that provides the best stats, but you can feel free to experiment, just keep in mind the armoring level you need and that the sum of levels in the piece is equal or less than 193.

 

Conclusion:

From the stats above you can conclude that Obroan is BiS (regardless of spec and class), as it provides highest bonus damage and HP, however, BiS PvE gear is better than BiS Conqueror. Conqueror just provides slightly more HP than PvE gear. Obroan gear provides around ~200 more HP and 2 bonus damage per piece compared to PvE gear.

 

For PT, I did an analysis on RS from PvE piece (adds 8% to RS damage) and PvP (15% critic bonus). RS damage is on average is 3.88% damage ahead using PvP gear compared to PvE at critic rate of 23% for ranged dps. I did not factor explosive fuel reduced CD into the damage bonus, because it is too complicated. I am also in favor of using PvP gear over PvE, as PvE will require experimentation to figure out what is the new BiS that gets maximum stats without losing expertise if a new tier of gear is introduced. I did not factor as well that the 8% from the PvE gear is obtained by getting 2 piece PvE set bonus, so it can be used in combination with another PvP set bonus, such as medic PvP set bonus as the 2 piece reduce HO CD by 5 secs or the AP set bonus that increase duration of carbonize by 0.5 secs.

 

Note: for other classes that have PvE set bonuses that are better than PvP ones, PvE set bonus is BiS. Example, back to the healing sorc, 2 piece set bonus provide 3 seconds reduction in static barrier lockout and 4 piece provide 3% reduction in consumption damage, which is borderline useless. The PvE 2 piece set bonus reduces innverate CD by 1.5 sec which is sorc main and strongest heal. Thus the best gear setup for sorc is to take 2 PvE pieces with set bonus and the rest PvP with healing set bonus. I heard that PvE 2 piece is also BiS for operative healer, but I don’t play one so I can’t corroborate that.

 

I hope this was useful.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Ottoattack

[Megatfx]

I will like to add, you don't get a bonus damage increase from using the PvE Barrel (Or armoring depending on if MH/OH), Mod, Enhancement, you get the damage boost from being able to wear a power crystal in that slot. Edited January 4, 2014 by Megatfx

[Eksenia]

I've seen some run with pvp weapons with crafted 72 barrels/hilts (65 conq mod, enh). How does that work out compared to a vanilla conq weapon?

[Ottoattack]

I've seen some run with pvp weapons with crafted 72 barrels/hilts (65 conq mod, enh). How does that work out compared to a vanilla conq weapon?

 

From my understanding, 72 gear loses expertise regardless of the combination of other pieces in the mix. What you defiantly do not want to do is mix PvE and PvP gear in one pieces. This screws the bolster badly. Also, tech power from MH and OH weapons get adjusted to as if you have 78 barrel and armoring, regardless of what you have equipped. What you get out of the gear is the stats, so there is no reason to use PvE barrels above 69 level.

 

For MH and OH weapons either stick to the 193 sum of levels format plus power crystals or use obroan.

[Eksenia]

From my understanding, 72 gear loses expertise regardless of the combination of other pieces in the mix. What you defiantly do not want to do is mix PvE and PvP gear in one pieces. This screws the bolster badly. Also, tech power from MH and OH weapons get adjusted to as if you have 78 barrel and armoring, regardless of what you have equipped. What you get out of the gear is the stats, so there is no reason to use PvE barrels above 69 level.

 

For MH and OH weapons either stick to the 193 sum of levels format plus power crystals or use obroan.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought. Perhaps the guy was either uninformed or used it solely for duels or something. Who knows!