TL;DR version is in the end!

This info is meant for a fresh level 70 character and not really for those who want to min max to the ultimate goal of 258.

My goal was to get new characters set up for PVP as fast as possible and as cheap as possible. This is not as effective in PVE as you stats will be off quite a bit.

If you do not craft augments/kits yourself then you will need around 3-4mil credits, it depends how much 228 raitng augements cost on your server + the cost of buying augment kits (all 14 of them mk-10) and then adding augment kits to gear (40k credits per)

For the gear I recommend using command tokens to buy full set tier 1 purple gear.

Bolster works by boosting your characters stats to equal the gear caps between players. The current system is to geal raiting 252 and augments (Important!) to 236 rating.

Bolster can be tested in Fleet: Imperial side it is in Ziost Shadow, Command deck, Training area. There is a terminal there you can use to get bolster. The same is on Republic side.

My testing character has been my new Marauder:

1) I bought cheap legacy bound gear from fleet, to make upgrading easier.

2) I bought ful set of mk-3 gear for about 1k command tokens.

3) Ripped all the mods out and added them to legacy gear.

4) Added two crit crystals to my weapons

5) Added augment slots to all gear slots(14 slots)

Now the question is whats stats you want to get. Bolster will focus a lot on power, endurance and mastery. Crit and Alacrity will be in a very strange state, usually both are very low. Alacrity not even hitting the first breakpoint and crit around 1,4k or lower.

For my Marauder, I wanted to get high Alacrity and high crit, that means 1860+ Alacrity and 1,9k Critical.

Marauders gear has 2 Enhancements with Accuracy, in gloves and boots. Those need to be replaced with Alacrity enhancements. I did this by buying 2 pieces of armor with command tokens, where alacrity enhancements are in them. For me it was 2 helmets.

The next step is augmenting all of the gear. I used 228 rating purple augments. I needed 8 Alacrity augments and 5 critical augments to reach my goal stats. This leaves you with 1 free augment, that I chose accuracy, because I'm playing Carnage spec, what is a lot of white damage.

It is important to have augments in every slot, to benefit from augment bolstering.

My stats without bolster (PVE stats):

Mastery: 5651

Endurance: 7174

Power: 3084

Critical: 1565

Alacrity: 1673

Accuracy: 96

My stats bolstered(PVP stats):

Mastery: 7060

Endurance: 9062

Power: 4252

Critical: 1975

Alacrity: 1883

Accuracy: 306

Stats are without a stim.

My next goal is to gear a PVP tank like this and in the future I might try to do a Skank build, just to see how the bolster min/maxes the stats there.

I hope this info helps someone, as I couldn't find any info how to use bolster to your benefit on a starting character.

TL;DR VERSION:

1) Get to 70

2) Buy Tier 1 purple gear with Command tokens,

3) Buy augments for all slots.

4) Swap out Enhancements IF you don't need some stat (like accuracy enhancements)

5) Augment your Critical and Alacrity to whatever level you want, rest of the augments you can add to power or mastery

6) Do not forget Crystals for your weapon and shield/focus/offhand weapon

My next goal is to gear a PVP tank like this and in the future I might try to do a Skank build, just to see how the bolster min/maxes the stats there.

I've been playing around with "easy tank gearing" for a new immortal jugger I just dinged 70. I have absolutely no illusions that I know what I am doing anymore, since the change that allows crits to be shielded. But I've tried 2 different ways so far.

For both version I have the tier 1 purple DPS versions of the ear, implants and relics.

1st way: I took the default purple tier 1 tank gear (as you say, just bought with command tokens). I *seemed* to be tanky as h-e-double-toothpicks. But I also did lackluster damage at best. I added in a mix of power and crit augs (208s). That didn't seem to help much. (I would almost swear I remembered to check my stat changes between having empty augs and after putting in the actual 228s and there was no noticeable difference - but I don't have a record of that.)

Stat-wise with things this way, I don't have a record of the exact stats, but I remember something like 50% shield 40% absorb (or maybe vice-versa), and a bunch of defense.

Since common "forum knowledge" is still, I believe, that defense is worthless. I'm now trying a 2nd approach.

2nd way: I bought enough purple tier 1 pants to replace all my mods and enhancements with the DPS version. So that gets rid of all shield, absorb and defense, and replaces it with a mix of power and crit. Then I picked up a mix of shield and absorb augs - this time 228s. So currently I have 4 absorb, 4 shield and I still have 1 208 overkill (power) aug. I don't have any augs or aug-kits applied to the ear, implant or relic pieces.

My PvE stats this way are:

dmg: 3093-3634

bonus dmg: 2010.1

accur: 111 %

crit: 41.95%

mult: 71.78%

hlth: 102571

armor: 13535

damage reduction: 49.75%

defense: 8%

shield: 30%

absorb: 27.84%

bonus force dmg: 2736.6

bonus force heal: 1978.9

alac: 0%

Bolstered according to the fleet bolsterizer:

dmg: 3603-4144

bonus dmg: 2520.1

accur: 111 %

crit: 44.18%

mult: 71.78%

hlth: 132337

armor: 13535

damage reduction: 49.75%

defense: 13.34%

shield: 38.74%

absorb: 34.51%

bonus force dmg: 3246.5

bonus force heal: 2339.9

alac: 0%

All that worth, of course, every penny you paid for it.

I've been playing around with "easy tank gearing" for a new immortal jugger I just dinged 70. I have absolutely no illusions that I know what I am doing anymore, since the change that allows crits to be shielded. But I've tried 2 different ways so far.

 

For both version I have the tier 1 purple DPS versions of the ear, implants and relics.

 

1st way: I took the default purple tier 1 tank gear (as you say, just bought with command tokens). I *seemed* to be tanky as h-e-double-toothpicks. But I also did lackluster damage at best. I added in a mix of power and crit augs (208s). That didn't seem to help much. (I would almost swear I remembered to check my stat changes between having empty augs and after putting in the actual 228s and there was no noticeable difference - but I don't have a record of that.)

 

Stat-wise with things this way, I don't have a record of the exact stats, but I remember something like 50% shield 40% absorb (or maybe vice-versa), and a bunch of defense.

 

Since common "forum knowledge" is still, I believe, that defense is worthless. I'm now trying a 2nd approach.

 

2nd way: I bought enough purple tier 1 pants to replace all my mods and enhancements with the DPS version. So that gets rid of all shield, absorb and defense, and replaces it with a mix of power and crit. Then I picked up a mix of shield and absorb augs - this time 228s. So currently I have 4 absorb, 4 shield and I still have 1 208 overkill (power) aug. I don't have any augs or aug-kits applied to the ear, implant or relic pieces.

 

My PvE stats this way are:

 

dmg: 3093-3634

bonus dmg: 2010.1

accur: 111 %

crit: 41.95%

mult: 71.78%

hlth: 102571

armor: 13535

damage reduction: 49.75%

defense: 8%

shield: 30%

absorb: 27.84%

bonus force dmg: 2736.6

bonus force heal: 1978.9

alac: 0%

 

Bolstered according to the fleet bolsterizer:

 

dmg: 3603-4144

bonus dmg: 2520.1

accur: 111 %

crit: 44.18%

mult: 71.78%

hlth: 132337

armor: 13535

damage reduction: 49.75%

defense: 13.34%

shield: 38.74%

absorb: 34.51%

bonus force dmg: 3246.5

bonus force heal: 2339.9

alac: 0%

 

All that worth, of course, every penny you paid for it.

So after all of this, did you notice any difference in your performance?

So after all of this, did you notice any difference in your performance?

Oh, sorry... "yes". I guess I thought my post was getting a bit long, and needed to end.

But I do notice more damage. I'm still not on par with some of the other tanks I see, but I never have been when running a tank. And I do feel a bit more squishy. I think the trade off is worth it (that is, I feel like I got more dmg potential vs. the tankiness I lost - not sure yet though really.)

I did just solo a DPS sage to take a node in Yavin... so I must be pro level now, right!? (OTOH, I never saw said sage cast a single self heal during our fight - so maybe that was more about the sage's ability than it was mine? )

I did just solo a DPS sage to take a node in Yavin... so I must be pro level now, right!? (OTOH, I never saw said sage cast a single self heal during our fight - so maybe that was more about the sage's ability than it was mine? )

Hey banderal, how is the PVP now, honestly speaking? How often do 70s pop, what maps pop most often, etc. Also, does 248s bolster to a point you feel competitive or are you noticing a power difference between yourself and others with better gears?

Hey banderal, how is the PVP now, honestly speaking? How often do 70s pop, what maps pop most often, etc. Also, does 248s bolster to a point you feel competitive or are you noticing a power difference between yourself and others with better gears?

This is kinda off topic I guess, but...

[Edit - in fact, let's not pollute this thread... I'll make a new one with the answer I just deleted from here - let's keep this a gearing thread ]

Hey banderal, how is the PVP now, honestly speaking? How often do 70s pop, what maps pop most often, etc. Also, does 248s bolster to a point you feel competitive or are you noticing a power difference between yourself and others with better gears?

Pops depend on server, so cant help with that, but on Darth Malgus pops are fine. New Bolster is 252 and 95% of the people will be bolstered as it will take ages for people to min max the 258 gear or to even get that gear level. This is the reason for this thread, to get ready for pvp with the lowest gear possible. Ofcourse you can still get destroyed by people fast, but thats due to them knowing their classes well, than just outright overgearing you.

Hey banderal, how is the PVP now, honestly speaking? How often do 70s pop, what maps pop most often, etc. Also, does 248s bolster to a point you feel competitive or are you noticing a power difference between yourself and others with better gears?

On Star Forge they don’t pop as often outside of the middle of primetime. Even in prime time there seems aslightly longer delay.

TL;DR version is in the end!

This info is meant for a fresh level 70 character and not really for those who want to min max to the ultimate goal of 258.

My goal was to get new characters set up for PVP as fast as possible and as cheap as possible. This is not as effective in PVE as you stats will be off quite a bit.

 

If you do not craft augments/kits yourself then you will need around 3-4mil credits, it depends how much 228 raitng augements cost on your server + the cost of buying augment kits (all 14 of them mk-10) and then adding augment kits to gear (40k credits per)

For the gear I recommend using command tokens to buy full set tier 1 purple gear.

 

Bolster works by boosting your characters stats to equal the gear caps between players. The current system is to geal raiting 252 and augments (Important!) to 236 rating.

 

Bolster can be tested in Fleet: Imperial side it is in Ziost Shadow, Command deck, Training area. There is a terminal there you can use to get bolster. The same is on Republic side.

 

My testing character has been my new Marauder:

1) I bought cheap legacy bound gear from fleet, to make upgrading easier.

2) I bought ful set of mk-3 gear for about 1k command tokens.

3) Ripped all the mods out and added them to legacy gear.

4) Added two crit crystals to my weapons

5) Added augment slots to all gear slots(14 slots)

 

Now the question is whats stats you want to get. Bolster will focus a lot on power, endurance and mastery. Crit and Alacrity will be in a very strange state, usually both are very low. Alacrity not even hitting the first breakpoint and crit around 1,4k or lower.

 

For my Marauder, I wanted to get high Alacrity and high crit, that means 1860+ Alacrity and 1,9k Critical.

 

Marauders gear has 2 Enhancements with Accuracy, in gloves and boots. Those need to be replaced with Alacrity enhancements. I did this by buying 2 pieces of armor with command tokens, where alacrity enhancements are in them. For me it was 2 helmets.

The next step is augmenting all of the gear. I used 228 rating purple augments. I needed 8 Alacrity augments and 5 critical augments to reach my goal stats. This leaves you with 1 free augment, that I chose accuracy, because I'm playing Carnage spec, what is a lot of white damage.

 

It is important to have augments in every slot, to benefit from augment bolstering.

 

My stats without bolster (PVE stats):

Mastery: 5651

Endurance: 7174

Power: 3084

Critical: 1565

Alacrity: 1673

Accuracy: 96

 

My stats bolstered(PVP stats):

Mastery: 7060

Endurance: 9062

Power: 4252

Critical: 1975

Alacrity: 1883

Accuracy: 306

 

Stats are without a stim.

 

My next goal is to gear a PVP tank like this and in the future I might try to do a Skank build, just to see how the bolster min/maxes the stats there.

 

I hope this info helps someone, as I couldn't find any info how to use bolster to your benefit on a starting character.

 

TL;DR VERSION:

1) Get to 70

2) Buy Tier 1 purple gear with Command tokens,

3) Buy augments for all slots.

4) Swap out Enhancements IF you don't need some stat (like accuracy enhancements)

5) Augment your Critical and Alacrity to whatever level you want, rest of the augments you can add to power or mastery

6) Do not forget Crystals for your weapon and shield/focus/offhand weapon

I’m interested to know if you tried all of this without the Augments to get a comparison

I’m interested to know if you tried all of this without the Augments to get a comparison

Yes, they way i tested this was without augs first. I just went to the Bolster terminal with just the T1 gear, with no changes. Thats where I saw how bolster bolsters stats. Then i started adding augs 1 by 1 to see how bolstering reacts, after I added a few, it was clear to see how it works. Augs do get bolstered on their own, if you do not have augs, you do not get the benefit.

Yes, they way i tested this was without augs first. I just went to the Bolster terminal with just the T1 gear, with no changes. Thats where I saw how bolster bolsters stats. Then i started adding augs 1 by 1 to see how bolstering reacts, after I added a few, it was clear to see how it works. Augs do get bolstered on their own, if you do not have augs, you do not get the benefit.

But in the pasts it’s mainly been the secondary stats that bolster with Augments. Power, endurance and mastery don’t Bolster above a certain lvls and if you tried to go above it you would actually lose health or power or some other secondary stats. Did you see similar results?

I am about to gear up my Next Sniper and will start doing some testing as well.

But in the pasts it’s mainly been the secondary stats that bolster with Augments. Power, endurance and mastery don’t Bolster above a certain lvls and if you tried to go above it you would actually lose health or power or some other secondary stats. Did you see similar results?

I am about to gear up my Next Sniper and will start doing some testing as well.

To get numbers, I need to do it again, as I was more focused on secondary stats (Alacrity and Crit). I'm sure there was a change, I just didn't pay attention. I will do another character this week, so I will pay more attention to main stats thistime as well.

To get numbers, I need to do it again, as I was more focused on secondary stats (Alacrity and Crit). I'm sure there was a change, I just didn't pay attention. I will do another character this week, so I will pay more attention to main stats thistime as well.

I’m going to craft a bunch of 228 augs this week and use some command Comms to buy 230 gear and test vs my 248 gear with 236-228 augs.

I’ll get back to you once I get it done.

TL;DR version is in the end!

Have you tested any of the old old set bonus armorings with bolster? I haven't gotten around to it myself, but I am curious because some of the old 2-piece are worth using over the once per minute over the full 6-piece setbonus.

Just for the sake of science, completeness, anal retentiveness... whatever you want to call it. I tested bolstered 228 augs, vs. 236 augs. My understanding is that augs are supposed to bolster to 236 - so I wanted to see what it actually did.

TLDR; 228 vs 236 for tank-stats, dmg potential stats went down, tanky stats went up - all less than 2% each - not worth the cost to actually get 236 IMO.

I did not swap the full set of 14 augs, so maybe that makes this invalid, not sure. But my relics, ear and implants are not aug'd yet, and I have one lower level overkill aug that I left in because I don't have enough creds to replace it yet. So I used used 8 augs for my tank. 4 shield and 4 absorb. The numbers on the left are with 228 augs, the ones on the right are with 236 augs (percentage diff in () after). Hopefully this lame ascii table is readable.

                   228 augs         236 augs           (% diff)
dmg          3608-4149         3562-4103          ( -1.2%) - (-1.1%)
bon dmg  2525.9                 2479.8                 (-1.8%)
acc            111.00                  111.00                   -
crit              44.19                   44.17                    (-0.045%)
crit multi    71.78                   71.78                    -
hlth            132057                134297                (+1.6%)
armor        13535                  13535                   -
dmg red    49.47                   49.47                    -
def chnc    13.34                   13.34                    -
shield         38.71                   38.82                   (+0.28%)
absorb       34.51                    34.64                  (+0.37%)
fc bon dm  3252.3                 3206.3                (-1.4%)
fc heal        2344.1                 2310.3                (-1.4%)
alac            0                            0

So did you test stuff @trixxie ?

No I was too lazy. I forgot all about it.

I’ll try and remember to do it tomorrow

So did you test stuff @trixxie ?

Trixxie is taking a forced hiatus from the forums at the moment.

I’ve done some of my own testing while setting up a new Assassin Alt.

This is what I’ve seen in matches when comparing my armor stats with other players.

My 230 gear with 228 Augments is often better than 248 gear with 236 Augments.

My health is usually higher. My main damage is usually higher. My crit and alacrity are where they need to be. And I get free accuracy stats when none are equiped.

I think there maybe some really small differences depending on the mix people choose to min max, but over all my starts are the same, if not better with 230 + 228 using Bolster.

The only people I’ve seen with better stats are those with actual 258 gear. And you can really see the difference. 50-100k more health. A few hundred more primary damage.

They are easy to spot because all have over 140000+ health. When you see a Sorc with more health than a tank, they stand out. Now we will start to see how detrimental or not this new gearing system feels when more people have 258 gear and the majority don’t.

I have one lower level overkill aug that I left in because I don't have enough creds to replace it yet.

 

                   228 augs         236 augs           (% diff)
dmg          3608-4149         3562-4103          ( -1.2%) - (-1.1%)
bon dmg  2525.9                 2479.8                 (-1.8%)
acc            111.00                  111.00                   -
crit              44.19                   44.17                    (-0.045%)
crit multi    71.78                   71.78                    -
hlth            132057                134297                (+1.6%)
armor        13535                  13535                   -
dmg red    49.47                   49.47                    -
def chnc    13.34                   13.34                    -
shield         38.71                   38.82                   (+0.28%)
absorb       34.51                    34.64                  (+0.37%)
fc bon dm  3252.3                 3206.3                (-1.4%)
fc heal        2344.1                 2310.3                (-1.4%)
alac            0                            0

Someone help this poor Banderal out, for the sake of science give him some credits so he can afford some 236 augments! My goodness, it's 2019 and we got toons running around in 228 and lesser augs still?! What kind of community is this?!!!

Someone help this poor Banderal out, for the sake of science give him some credits so he can afford some 236 augments! My goodness, it's 2019 and we got toons running around in 228 and lesser augs still?! What kind of community is this?!!!

That’s actually not helping him out. My testing shows 228 Augments Bolster better stats when you have gear below 252.

He’s better off waiting till he has 258 gear to use 236 Augments. But by the time we all have 258 the gearing will change again.

So the best thing is to just equip 228 Augs (save credits) to existing gear and bypass the 258 grind and if you are lvling an Alt, just use 230 gear.

I’m not joking when I say the 230 gear is working as well or in some cases better than 236-248 gear.

50-100k more health.

50 to 100K MORE health? That can't be right. My 248 geared shadow has 137600 health after bolster, that would give someone 187-237K health? A tank stacking health maybe, I dunno.

Someone help this poor Banderal out, for the sake of science give him some credits...

I don't mind free credits of course, but I think my little experiment showed that 236 augs just don't matter. Also my health is a bit lower with my tank because I opted for shield/absorb augs, and those actually trade off health for the tank stats. I'm not sure if it's worth it or not, but I'm trying it out.

That’s actually not helping him out. My testing shows 228 Augments Bolster better stats when you have gear below 252.

He’s better off waiting till he has 258 gear to use 236 Augments. But by the time we all have 258 the gearing will change again.

So the best thing is to just equip 228 Augs (save credits) to existing gear and bypass the 258 grind and if you are lvling an Alt, just use 230 gear.

I’m not joking when I say the 230 gear is working as well or in some cases better than 236-248 gear.

Yep, I agree (and I'm sure you care that I agree ). Not surprising really. Bolster has a long and treasured history of making lower-level gear bolster best.

[Edit: but I'd still take free credit donations. ]

50 to 100K MORE health? That can't be right. My 248 geared shadow has 137600 health after bolster, that would give someone 187-237K health? A tank stacking health maybe, I dunno.

My health on my 230 bolstered Sin is 136938

This is my gear.:

All 230 items (except Sabre) with 228 Augments on everything

8 x Overkill Augments (Mastery either gave no extra stats or less)

6 x Crit Augments

1 alacrity enhancement equiped. I replaced the rest with crit.

1 Alacrity implant

1 Alacrity ear

1 crit implant.

Sabre has

Mastery Crystal

246 hilt

242 mod

242 enhancement

228 augment

My stats with Bolster are :

Prime Dmg : 4173 - 4875

Bonus dmg : 2769.6

Accuracy : 103.76%

Critical: 46.25%

Crit multiplier : 73.84%

Alacrity :7.50%

Health : 136938

Armor : 4092