What's better for HMs and Operations: Columi or Battlemaster Gear? Edited March 7, 2012 by Bpelta
clarification

Since Battlemaster is PvP gear, I am going to spin the coin on this one and say that probably Columi gear is better for PvE HMs and Raids.

Columi.

Expertise is a useless stat for PvE so columi gear is better. That's not to say you can't do HM's in battlemaster gear though, you certainly can.

Columi > Battlemaster gear for PvE.

 

those 4 extra item levels aren't nearly enough to compensate for the expertise.

 

 

However, Tionese vs. Champion gear might be a little less clear cut (10 ilevel difference).

Edited March 7, 2012 by Dee-Jay

colomni with the battle master mods that don't contain accuracy ripped out and put in the colomni.

PvE: Tionese --> Columi --> Rakata --> Black Hole/Campaign (Black Hole doesn't have set bonuses though)

PvP pre-1.2: Centurion --> Champion --> Battlemaster

PvP post-1.2: Recruit --> Battlemaster --> War Hero

 

For HMs and Operations it goes like this:

Recruit --> Centurion --> Tionese --> Champion --> Battlemaster --> Columi --> WarHero --> Rakata --> Campaign/BH.

 

Here's my recommendation. You can either use Battlemaster or Tionese gear on the easier HM flashpoints (everything except Kaon Under Seige and Lost Island) until you can get a full Columi set. Then run Operations until you can get a full rakata set with some Campaign/BH gear from stuff like the Nightmare Pilgrim. 3 Nightmare Pilgrim kills should get you at least 1 or 2 Camp/BH pieces. After you have 3/5 Rakata and 2 pieces of Campaign you are ready to take on EC HM and EV and KP Nightmare.

 

I myself cannot wait until Nightmare EC comes out - I'm hoping that Bioware actually makes that one a real challenge.

Edited April 21, 2012 by AshlaBoga

It's debatable whether or not to take War Hero over Columi.

 

Full War Hero OnlyJuggernaut (Tank spec in mind)

Full Columi Only Juggernaut (Same)

 

The full Columi set has higher base stats. War Hero has more secondary stats and a higher armor rating. The devs have stated before that this was the case.