Telaan Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 (edited) New to the game? Just back after an extended break? Before you jump into PvP there is something you need to know about: Bolster. Bolster is a mechanic that was implemented to prevent fully geared pvpers from steamrolling new players in two or three gcds. The gist of the system is this: When entering a wz the game gear checks you. Anything with expertise is passed over and does not receive any bolster bonus. This works exclusively with pve gear. Research by those with the math abilities and time shows that level 45ish blue gear/mods received the best bolster bonus. Not counted towards bolster are augments and color crystals. As a result the bis option are obroan armor, 46/46/46 all other items, +41 power crystals, lvl 53 blue microfilament implants and ear, and 28 augments. Until you acquire obroan armor, 46s on you gear will be as good and/or better but without the set bonus. According to Tait the tool tips are bugged and show incorrect information. The 46 mh/oh are bis regardless of class. If you have old pvp gear with expertise on it, DO NOT WEAR IT. If you have pve gear with mod ratings 69+, DO NOT WEAR IT. I cannot stress this enough. It will be awful and you'll most likely be lol'd at right before players quit the wz. For more indepth information please visit the pvp forum. Edited March 3, 2014 by Telaan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Distilde Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Tnx for this post. Im about to ding 55 and i was wondering how i needed to gear up for pvp. Let's say i have the blue 46 mods. armoring etc and augmented and the crystals, then what shall i do with relics. I now have very outdated relics. Can i just buy the conquerer relics? or would they hurt my bolstered gear? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telaan Posted February 26, 2014 Author Share Posted February 26, 2014 (edited) Tnx for this post. Im about to ding 55 and i was wondering how i needed to gear up for pvp. Let's say i have the blue 46 mods. armoring etc and augmented and the crystals, then what shall i do with relics. I now have very outdated relics. Can i just buy the conquerer relics? or would they hurt my bolstered gear? Obroan relics are bis and should be the first pieces of pvp gear to go for. They are really the best relics ingame, period. Using the conq ones until you farm the necessary comms is what I would recommend. Be sure to get the two relics that give you your main stat and power. However, until you acquire the reg comms to get the conq one, your outdated pve relics are "ok". What's important is that the slot is filled so you get bolstered to 2018 expertise. You simply won't benefit from the passive proc that the pvp relics have until you're able to farm the comms for them. Edited February 26, 2014 by Telaan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreeshak Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 So what should I be spending my warzone commendations at if conq gear is worse than 46/46/46? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheaterLL Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 (edited) So what should I be spending my warzone commendations at if conq gear is worse than 46/46/46? The 46 only applies to MH/OH.Rest should be 61/61/61 or 63/63/63 (if you have) or 69/63/61 (for PvE setbonus if you want).For implants and earpieces the lvl54/53 purple are best bolstered.First you replace your PvE relics with conq., then with obroan and augment these.After that you should replace imlants and ear with conq/obroan and, again, augment the obroan ones.Finally, replace every piece that is NOT using the 69/63/61 combination WITH setbonus IF you want to keep it with obroan gear and augment these. Be sure NOT to put ANY expertise in ANY item that you want to have bolstered because it will NOT be bolstered then. (Means you have to put a 56 crit, power or endurance crystal into MH/OH and that you may not mix PvE mods with PvP mods in one single item. If they are in different Items (i.e. a 67/67/67 head and a 63/63/63 chest) it won't affedt your bolster. You can trade 30 wz comms to 10 ranked comms at the left vendor next to the PvP mission dropbox. After you have your full Obroan/Setbonus bolster gear (fully augmented with purple 66[28] mk-9s) you may want to have replacements for your bolster gear for openPvP and duels because they will not be bolstered. After that you can either start farming gear for your alts and send the mods etc. to them via legacy bound gear or you can buy the 2 pets and 2 speeders (pets require valor 70 and 1.5k ranked comms each, mount 1 50 valor and 1k wz comms and mount 2 costs 1.5k ranked comms) Edited February 26, 2014 by CheaterLL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telaan Posted February 27, 2014 Author Share Posted February 27, 2014 The 46 only applies to MH/OH.Rest should be 61/61/61 or 63/63/63 (if you have) or 69/63/61 (for PvE setbonus if you want).For implants and earpieces the lvl54/53 purple are best bolstered.First you replace your PvE relics with conq., then with obroan and augment these.After that you should replace imlants and ear with conq/obroan and, again, augment the obroan ones.Finally, replace every piece that is NOT using the 69/63/61 combination WITH setbonus IF you want to keep it with obroan gear and augment these. Be sure NOT to put ANY expertise in ANY item that you want to have bolstered because it will NOT be bolstered then. (Means you have to put a 56 crit, power or endurance crystal into MH/OH and that you may not mix PvE mods with PvP mods in one single item. If they are in different Items (i.e. a 67/67/67 head and a 63/63/63 chest) it won't affedt your bolster. You can trade 30 wz comms to 10 ranked comms at the left vendor next to the PvP mission dropbox. After you have your full Obroan/Setbonus bolster gear (fully augmented with purple 66[28] mk-9s) you may want to have replacements for your bolster gear for openPvP and duels because they will not be bolstered. After that you can either start farming gear for your alts and send the mods etc. to them via legacy bound gear or you can buy the 2 pets and 2 speeders (pets require valor 70 and 1.5k ranked comms each, mount 1 50 valor and 1k wz comms and mount 2 costs 1.5k ranked comms) This is mostly correct. However the 46s are not just for mh/oh. They work very well across the board and will still get you within single digit percentage of obroan. What was specifically being addressed with the mh/oh was that it is better than obroan for force/tech users. Additionally, 46s are easier and cheaper to acquire than other combinations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreeshak Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) what about implants + earpieces? blue 53? blue 54? purple 53? purple 54? which bolsters better? do we know? Edited February 27, 2014 by kreeshak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telaan Posted February 27, 2014 Author Share Posted February 27, 2014 what about implants + earpieces? blue 53? blue 54? purple 53? purple 54? which bolsters better? do we know? In reality, any of those will work. The degree to which you'll see any difference is so minute that it's not worth worrying about. Pick whatever is cheapest as ultimately obroan is still bis for those items. They will simply be place holders that get you within ~5%, until you can grind out the necessary comms. The difference is so minute that class power and player skill will overshadow anything else at that point. There is a sticky in the pvp forum that goes into a little more detail, but much of it is "guess" work being done in game as players test various items. BW has not commented in any meaningful way as to the mathematics behind bolster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreeshak Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 tested my own question in a warzone. apparently blue 54 implants give more expertise than purple 53 implants Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telaan Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 Updated op with new information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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