306 Ear and Implant Gearing

[TerraStomper]

An Attempt at Sorting out the Myriad of Upgrades, Sidegrades and Downgrades that 6.0 Drops

 

Testing gear drops I've observed 29 different types of ears and implants a character can acquire at item level 306. A few of them are likely best in slot, while the others offer different amounts of mastery, endurance, power, defense, or tertiary stats. Some may show up only with defense and shield or absorb, while others only with power and accuracy, alacrity, or critical. There may yet be more versions, or even more variants, but I haven't seen them. Some are better or worse than others.

 

Observations:

• 50% of the drops will be Sha'tek, most best in slot (when paired with Adept, Initiative or Quick Savant)
  
• 50% of the drops will be one of other variants (paired with Efficient, Proficient, etc.) Tanks get to be more discerning about what is best.
  
• Variants have at least two, or perhaps more versions.
  
• Of the variants, Mantellian, Mier-Lang, and Sund, stand out. These are tanky, with higher endurance and tertiary stat with low mastery, and low secondary. There are at least 5 versions of the Mantellian. They might be more suited when running content under Level Synch given their higher tertiary stat and that Level Synch pretty much ignores mastery, endurance and power for level 75 characters running such content. However the higher tertiary stat is a minor improvement. Sund can offer the largest tertiary (+471).
  
• Some of the versions have very low tertiary stats.
  

 

Here are the Variant prefixes, some of their versions, and their stats. Sha'tek v2 is best in slot for DPS and healers.

 

• Arakyd Industries (v1 +812 Mastery, +1112 Endurance, +585 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• Arakyd Industries (v2, +824 Mastery, +1127 Endurance, +555 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• Baktoid (v1, +806 Mastery, +1148 Endurance, +563 Secondary, +422 Tertiary)
  
• Baktoid (v2, +824 Mastery, +1127 Endurance, +555 Secondary, +422 Tertiary)
  
• BlasTech (v1, +825 Mastery, +1117 Endurance, +561 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• BlasTech (v2, +830 Mastery, +1115 Endurance, +558 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• InterroTek (v1, +800 Mastery, +1135 Endurance, +652 Secondary, +376 Tertiary)
  
• InterroTek (v2, +800 Mastery, +1135 Endurance, +560 Secondary, +441 Tertiary)
  
• InterroTek (v3, +836 Mastery, +1097 Endurance, +568 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• Mantellian (v1, +802 Mastery, +1143 Endurance, +545 Secondary, +441 Tertiary)
  
• Mantellian (v2, +808 Mastery, +1134 Endurance, +563 Secondary, +433 Tertiary)
  
• Mantellian (v3, +814 Mastery, +1132 Endurance, +542 Secondary, +441 Tertiary)
  
• Mantellian (v4, +816 Mastery, +1121 Endurance, +565 Secondary, +441 Tertiary)
  
• Mantellian (v5, +816 Mastery, +1136 Endurance, +589 Secondary, +405 Tertiary)
  
• Mier-Lang (v1, +830 Mastery, +1116 Endurance, +562 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• Mier-Lang (v2, +830 Mastery, +1118 Endurance, +522 Secondary, +451 Tertiary)
  
• Mier-Lang (v3, +835 Mastery, +1109 Endurance, +562 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• Sha'tek (v1, +818 Mastery, +1049 Endurance, +652 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• Sha'tek (v2, +858 Mastery, +1007 Endurance, +652 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• SoroSuub (v1, +813 Mastery, +1112 Endurance, +589 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• SoroSuub (v2, +829 Mastery, +1161 Endurance, +534 Secondary, +409 Tertiary)
  
• SoroSuub (v3, +829 Mastery, +1113 Endurance, +568 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• Sund (v1, +801 Mastery, +1123 Endurance, +523 Secondary, +471 Tertiary)
  
• Sund (v2, +801 Mastery, +1115 Endurance, +567 Secondary, +451 Tertiary)
  
• Sund (v3, +835 Mastery, +1095 Endurance, +589 Secondary, +429 Tertiary)
  
• Systech (v1, +802 Mastery, +1131 Endurance, +580 Secondary, +431 Tertiary)
  
• Systech (v2, +829 Mastery, +1125 Endurance, +582 Secondary, +409 Tertiary)
  
• Systech (v3, +843 Mastery, +1128 Endurance, +564 Secondary, +409 Tertiary)
  
• Systech (v4, +860 Mastery, +1120 Endurance, +551 Secondary, +409 Tertiary)
  

 

Power or Defense are Secondary. Absorb, Accuracy, Alacrity, Critical, or Shield are Tertiary.

Of course, some of them are better for different classes, disciplines, and roles than others.

Edited September 15, 2019 by TerraStomper
more updates for tanking

[Totemdancer]

I don’t understand why we need so many useless ones mixed in with BiS or what we are used to now.

 

Is this attempt to make people grind more by diluting the odds of getting something useful, aka more RNG on RNG?

 

Do we really need so many?

Edited September 15, 2019 by Totemdancer

[Benirons]

i dont know y they decided to create so many different versions....

 

this is just going to be a headache for everyone who even mildly cares about gearing. Stick with the nice simple "optimised" vs "unoptimised" and just have all the tertiary stats on them

[Banthabreeder]

What scares me is that most of the theory crafters have moved on. There will only be a small handful of people left that will create new 6.0 gearing pve/pvp guides for all the different classes. Most popular classes will be addressed first, but then some classes will never even get one. I always revert to those guides to direct me where to go in regards to equipping the best stat of gear for my character.

 

Adding all these different variations of gear will be a logistical nightmare for me to figure out on my own. As a sniper, how am I to know whether I should use or keep a Mantellian implant as compared to a Systech one. Or to a Baktoid, or a BlasTech one? As a Counselor, which ear piece; Sha'tek or InterroTek, should I keep and continue to use and which should I deconstruct? What if I destroy the better one? (this also applies to the overabundance of choices for mods as well.)

 

There are too many options to choose from. I know the devs are probably sitting at their conference table saying, "They all whined about not enough options, we finally give it to them, and now their whining there are too many". Well, what can I say? Your damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

 

I'm not a smart person. Most regular players aren't either. If the real hard core true hero testers on these forums are saying they are having a hard time with this, then there is a real problem that needs to be addressed. I just hope it can be resolved before launch.

[Totemdancer]

i dont know y they decided to create so many different versions....

 

this is just going to be a headache for everyone who even mildly cares about gearing. Stick with the nice simple "optimised" vs "unoptimised" and just have all the tertiary stats on them

 

Imagine if you are new to the game or have trouble understanding how to gear up now. This new setup is going to be a nightmare for those people.

I can already see the rage in pug groups when people don’t have the right gear or the constant help requests in chat and the snarky replies to use google.

This amount of complication isn’t needed in a game like swtor.

[TerraStomper]

I acquired a couple more versions today while exploring on Onderon. I'll update the post tomorrow. I've now seen Tertiary stats as high as 471, which is significant. Also, it looks like none of the Bulwark ears or implants are BiS for tanks. Instead it will be from a choice of the Warding ones.

 

I agree with everyone's comments. There are too many variants. But, if you're DPS or a healer, Sha'tek is a good way to go. Plus, when an ear or implant drops, and half the time they'll be Sha'tek. Still, if you come across a very high tertiary ear or implant, you might want to keep it.

 

Who knows, the huge variation might might rekindle theory crafting. There is a lot here to ponder.

Edited September 15, 2019 by TerraStomper