Kurfer Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 After 25 games testing, I can't hit for harder than 19k in warzones. My bolster currently shows: 10% alacrity 3640 tech power 44% crit I see other mercs hitting 40k+ The rotation is pretty simple, I know it can't be that: Tried following this guide: http://vulkk.com/2016/12/30/mercenary-arsenal-discipline-swtor-5-0-guide/3/ I still can't seem to hit hard, I don't know if bolster is currently bugged to **** and beyond but the numbers just don't add up. Even with a sustained rotation detailed in that guide my DPS is only 3200 at best in warzones. I am constantly breaking 5k on my saber classes and have gotten 6.9k dps on my sorc so I know it's not poor play. I honestly think bolster is not showing the proper stats in game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jherad Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 70s? Or midbies? Currently bolster makes you hit MUCH harder in midbies than at 70. What's your exact gear? How are you working out what your max hit is for? Just eyeballing, or are you using combat log? Do the latter. Definitely don't go off the scoreboard at the end - this doesn't take into account 'overkill', if you do a 35k hit but they only had 15k health left, it'll show as a 15k hit. If your max is 3200 dps, then something is definitely wrong either with your gear (as in 'bugged' wrong, not just bad choices), playstyle or rotation for sure. How long have you been playing the class, and what was your max in 4.0? What do the tooltips say for damage on various abilities when you're in a warzone? Did you forget to slot crystals perhaps? That can make a big difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurfer Posted January 18, 2017 Author Share Posted January 18, 2017 (edited) Ok might have uncovered something very odd with bolster. I have a commando that had 208 pvp items. When it comes to bolster, not all 208 armorings are equal. My Merc's gear was as follows: 240 barrels 230 mods 230 enchancements 208 pve armorings no set bonus 230 ear/implants 208 pve relics The ONLY thing I switched out was the 208 armorings I received from the Commando. SAME STATS just with the set bonus (this was the 208 pvp gear from previous expansion). The ONLY addition was set bonus which does NOT make the difference I experienced. before making this change my previous largest hit was 19k (verified by logs) after this change (same stat result just different 208 armorings) my largest hit was 37k. After three random solo reg matches my worst DPS was 4200, then 4900 then 5880. Before that I couldn't break 3300. I main a marauder, I knew after playing that for so many years this rotation wouldn't be a challenge. Let's face it, it's fairly hard to screw up the merc rotation (arsenal). Make sure you have heat sig, explosive gas and heat seekers while making sure to utilize rail procs and shots procs. DMG is very easy with mercs, it's the situational awareness of defensive cool down usage that takes time to master. What's crazy is, after switching out the 208 non set bonus armorings with 208 set bonus, my stats within the warzone were the same. 3640 tech power 10% alacrity 44% crit That tells me the number displayed to the player within the warzones is NOT accurate. There is no way set bonuses give 40%+ increase. Edited January 18, 2017 by Kurfer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordTurin Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 You are confusing "max hit" with total damage and dps. The big hits you see people making is because a lot of things line up for them, usually the most important being the "auto crit" that you get from the set bonus. More importantly, if you also roll a crit on the move that you are going to get an auto crit for anyway, your crit multiplier gets buffed an insane amount. That's where the big hits come from. However, I'd be willing to bet that your dps at the end of warzones is not a huge increase. It is probably in the scope of 5-10% on average better when you have the set bonus then when you dont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurfer Posted January 19, 2017 Author Share Posted January 19, 2017 (edited) You are confusing "max hit" with total damage and dps. The big hits you see people making is because a lot of things line up for them, usually the most important being the "auto crit" that you get from the set bonus. More importantly, if you also roll a crit on the move that you are going to get an auto crit for anyway, your crit multiplier gets buffed an insane amount. That's where the big hits come from. However, I'd be willing to bet that your dps at the end of warzones is not a huge increase. It is probably in the scope of 5-10% on average better when you have the set bonus then when you dont. Actually, i'm not confused at all. I realize completely that max hit, total damage and dps are three different things. In reality, the ONLY number I usually bother to look at is DPS. In my eyes, it's the only stat that matters; total damage is meaningless as it's relative to the length of the match. The reason I mention the max hit is because as I noticed a trend of considerably lower DPS; I also noticed that my max hit was drastically lower. It's typical statistical analysis, something has to be responsible for max hit being so low as that is fairly out of my control. Yes, there are sequences that are directly responsible (does the enemy have debuffs, am I properly using my buffs/passives/adrenals/etc) but max hit has less outliers than dps as dps requires a solid rotation consistency. At first I was potentially thinking I did something wrong but as you read earlier my DPS is actually fairly good with the 208 set bonuses (more on that below). The fact remains, as mentioned above I am level 31 CXP. My rotation has remained the same, I swapped 208 non set bonus armorings with 208 set bonus armorings and my DPS went from not being able to break 3200 to 5000+. Earlier today I had a 4x4 match and did 6700 dps. Again, nothing changed in my rotation. The damage output is drastically higher which leads me to the title of this thread. Bolster is a flaccid piece of donkey dick and it's buggy as hell. Edited January 19, 2017 by Kurfer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lhancelot Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 That tells me the number displayed to the player within the warzones is NOT accurate. There is no way set bonuses give 40%+ increase. I have long suspected bolster has hidden values, and it doesn't suprise me one bit. The "formula" seems to follow no sensible pattern in how gears get bolstered. I honestly think the devs don't even understand it. Long bit ago, I would always try to inspect a specific sorc because the guy always wrecked people in the wzs. This sorc was often times standing at the PVP vendors area like we used to always do. Everytime I inspected him he had his gears off. I really believe the dude found some anomaly with certain mods or gears that were granting him some sort of advantage and to keep it a secret would strip off his gears. I just think the bolster system has never been transparent and there's no way it's bolstering everything equally and fairly. If this is true, then there's no doubt players have found ways to exploit bolster and it's wonkiness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurfer Posted January 19, 2017 Author Share Posted January 19, 2017 (edited) It's very hard to take this game seriously. There are just too many odd little problems for me to put any thought into it anymore. Edited January 19, 2017 by Kurfer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warvey Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 stop defending the bolster... IT IS BROKEN AF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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