This guide does not tell you how to play properly, if the feedback is good for this guide I'll put together my DPS rotation and general PvP guide.

 

Also note you can do Step 1-4 WHILE doing Warzones so it doesn't impair your progress. Always make sure you are grinding out comms while you are doing all of the below for the fastest gearing up process.

 

If I were to start over again and rebuild my Marauder this is exactly the order and process I would go.

 

Step 0:

 

Get all the Strength, Endurance and if you're a freak like me Willpower Datacrons. Willpower datacrons boost your force attacks like dots and force scream. Then level up all your companions affection to 10k (The non droid ones). When you do this you will gain 1% accuracy, 1% surge, 1% crit, % of HP increase, and increased healing on yourself.

 

 

 

Step 1:

 

Level up Biochem for the Stim, also pickup slicing. Since you have 10k affection on all your toons once you have your stim, run slicing missions while you do warzones and sell the mission discoveries. You'll make enough money to supplement buying V-1 Seismic Grenades, Warzone Medpacs, and Warzone Adrenals. All a must in my opinion for doing well in RWZ's and extremely well in Regular WZ's.

 

 

 

Step 2:

Get the recruit gear.

 

 

 

Step 3:

Then when you replace all the recruit gear, replace it with the BATTLEMASTER VINDICATOR armor and Lightsabers. With the Armor you'll have to rip out the mods and put them in a medium armor equivalent slot. Buy the POWER relics

 

 

 

Step 4 if you can afford it:

 

Buy 18 strength + 12 Endurance Augments and put them in every slot you have.

 

 

 

Step 5:

 

DO NOT BUY THE WAR HERO BRACERS/WAISTCORD, SEE STEP 6 FOR THIS

 

Buy the War Hero Vindicator Armor and the War Hero Foestopper's MK-1 Device, and 2x War Hero Pummeler's MK-1 Package as well as 2 War Hero Power Relics. The War Hero Vindicator Armor will give you the 10% damage on Force Charge which is SIGNIFICANTLY more useful for DPS than the Weaponmaster set. You'll find that you aren't using Undying Rage on CD, but that you are in fact using Force Charge on CD.

 

 

 

Step 6:

 

Buy the Legacy Bracers/Waistcord. I have the Advanced Might Armoring 26's in mine, but you can use 25 if you can afford them. Use Advanced Deft Mod 58A MODS until you start Min/Maxing (Step 7)

 

 

 

Step 7:

 

Time to MIN/MAX. This is what you're completed gear should look like, note the build doesn't include the Stim:

 

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/5cd48d26-1023-401d-a166-527b62574fe8

 

The difference between a fully Min/Maxed War Hero Marauder and a Regular fully War Hero geared Marauder is like going from Recruit gear to Battlemaster gear. It's a massive difference. I'm not fully optimized yet and I have 1208 expertise, 623.1 Bonus Damage, 25.87% crit, 78.80% surge, 98.67% Accuracy, and 20.1k HP fully buffed with Stim. (I also have all 4 class buffs so that helps)

 

The first thing you want to replace is all your mods so get: (Note the Vindicator Lightsaber already has this Mod and the second best enhancement so you save commendations)

 

Mod

War Hero Vindicator's Handgear (Gloves)

51 strength (++)

32 endurance (+)

39 power (++)

30 exp

 

You will get the best Warrior Mod and the SECOND best Enhancement. Replace all your mods and 3 enhancements with what is inside the Vindicator Gloves. Keep the Chest and Helm Enhancement as it has Accuracy + Power and you need the Accuracy for Carnage.

 

Once you do that, now it's time to replace the enhancements in 3 pieces of your armor and both your lightsabers with:

 

Enhancement

War Hero Force-Mystic's Gloves

27 Endurance (+)

30 Expertise

41 Power (++)

53 Surge (++)

 

Use this guide for whatever step you are on, but if you're starting fresh, do it like this for maximum enjoyment.

So let me just get this straight in my head. Get BH heavy armor and rip the mods out to replace in regular 50 med armor gear you get on galactic craiglist..... in replace of regular med armor BH gear, then get war hero heavy armor and rip the mods out and place them in the med war hero gear you can buy with regular credits. Is that right? What happens to expertise before you get to war hero?

So let me just get this straight in my head. Get BH heavy armor and rip the mods out to replace in regular 50 med armor gear you get on galactic craiglist..... in replace of regular med armor BH gear, then get war hero heavy armor and rip the mods out and place them in the med war hero gear you can buy with regular credits. Is that right? What happens to expertise before you get to war hero?

Rip out the mods and put them in any orange armor you want - expertise in on the mods.

Its the same grind for either the weaponmaster or the vindicator... but the 4 piece set bonus is better on the Vindicator. However you won't get the set bonus until you can rip the WH armorings out since the BM set bonus is attached to the armor shell.

Its cheaper to get the mods out of the soc and vindicator sabers now... since they don't require a BM trade in anymore.

Very good point. Will update teh guide.

nice! a bit low on crit for my liking (i had 30 percent til recently, lowered by 1% for a bit more power bc the math supports it)

i get 6700k crits on blade storm too, i think ive even seen 7k hehe

(6900 for sure and i have a screenie of an 8k hit, think that was master strike though heh)

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/7fa710f3-4465-4563-ad8c-8e885aef7771

with exotech stim (always have it since i make em):

972 - 1141 primary dmg

222-333 secondary dmg

99.67 accuracy

29.05% crit chanc

78.80 surge

19006k health

i want might 26's no one makes em sigh finally started doing a bit of ops in hopes of getting them and the dread guard armor eventually ;p!

oh and i need to stop being lazy and go get the willpower datacrons.

nice guide all in all!

Thanks for the guide, any plans on an Annihilation equivalent?

I would think it is likely very close to the same but you may could replace some of the stuff that has accuracy or crit with willpower/power combo to boost your dots and force scream.

Just guessing though. I'm combat spec.

A good useful thread, no posts in a while...

Ive got the Vindicator WH saber - what bout the offhand? Im looking at this in light of the Elite WH later on. Looking at the stats of the Elite WH sabers, is it still better to get a Vindicator for the offhand or should I go for a Weaponmaster offhand saber?

A good useful thread, no posts in a while...

 

Ive got the Vindicator WH saber - what bout the offhand? Im looking at this in light of the Elite WH later on. Looking at the stats of the Elite WH sabers, is it still better to get a Vindicator for the offhand or should I go for a Weaponmaster offhand saber?

Go for Vindicator for main and offhad, you will only use the hilts from the elite weapons anyway

I have Full Vindicator WH gear with Elite Vindicator Weapons, currently spec'd Annihilation with 17xx str, 35.8% crit% and 78.8% Surge fully buffed with stims.

In preparation for specing into Carnage, I'm gathering enhancements from War Hero Force-Mystic's Lightsaber and mods from War Hero Vindicator's Lightsaber, both having high power. Is this a good idea?

What stat numbers should I aim for Carnage?

Correct. The guide needs to be updated for v.1.4. Not sure if he will get around to it though.

You can now save a tremendous amount of comms due to the fact that the WH weapons no longer require a BM piece to be traded in for them.

Previously we were getting the Mods from Vindicator Gloves, and the Enhancements from Consular Force-Mystic Gloves or you could also get the Enhancements from Smuggler Field Tech Boots and use the other items for your healer companion (Not a bad route if you don't PvE with a guild and get free Columi/Rakata drops for your companions).

However after v1.4 no one should be doing this. You will waste boat loads of comms.

You should now be getting your Mods from the WH Vindicator Saber (2,000 RWZ Comms) and your Enhancements from WH Force-Mystic Saber (2,000 RWZ Comms). Neither require a BM piece to be traded in.

If you go the old route and buy the gloves and boots you will pay 875 wz comms per BM glove + 2,000 rwz comms to trade the glove in on the WH piece. Which means the old route will run you 96,250 wz comms whereas getting your parts from the sabers will now run you 28,000 RWZ comms or 84,000 wz comms.

Even if you grind every day for several hours this still saves you about 2 weeks.

Rip out the mods and put them in any orange armor you want - expertise in on the mods.

 

Its the same grind for either the weaponmaster or the vindicator... but the 4 piece set bonus is better on the Vindicator. However you won't get the set bonus until you can rip the WH armorings out since the BM set bonus is attached to the armor shell.

Hey guys, I know I'm doing kind of a thread-necro thingy here, but I really wanted to find this out:

From my understanding in this post, the set bonuses for BM is tied to the armor shell, while for the WH it is tied to the armoring mods. What if I were to take the Vindicator WH armorings and put them in a Weaponmaster BM armor shell? Would I get both set bonuses or just one? If just one, then how do I know which one will I be getting?

The reason I ask this is that I am already fully Weaponmaster BM-geared on my marauder (ouch, I know),and about to embark on the Vindicator WH gear grind soon. What do you guys think?

Hey guys, I know I'm doing kind of a thread-necro thingy here, but I really wanted to find this out:

 

From my understanding in this post, the set bonuses for BM is tied to the armor shell, while for the WH it is tied to the armoring mods. What if I were to take the Vindicator WH armorings and put them in a Weaponmaster BM armor shell? Would I get both set bonuses or just one? If just one, then how do I know which one will I be getting?

 

The reason I ask this is that I am already fully Weaponmaster BM-geared on my marauder (ouch, I know),and about to embark on the Vindicator WH gear grind soon. What do you guys think?

I believe the shell bonuses over ride the armor bonuses. You definitely don't get both. I also already had a complete BM Weaponmaster set and had to go back and purchase BM Vindicator once I learned of this route a few months back. It took me like two nights playing roughly 3 hours to grab the needed Vindicator pieces. While you technically wasted comms grabbing Weaponmaster first, you are also fully geared in BM making it easier for you now to do well and earn comms faster. So it won't take you long to get four BM Vindicator pieces.

REMEMBER... You only need 4 BM Vindicator pieces to trade in on 4 WH Vindicator pieces. Don't buy the chest, it's the most expensive and the stats are the same on the WH Vindicator and Weaponmaster chest components. You'll be changing the mod and enhancement in the long run anyway, and like I said, the stats on the armoring are the same.

So just trade your BM Weaponmaster chest in for a WH Weaponmaster chest. And then go back and purchase head, gloves, pants, boots of the BM Vindicator set and trade those in on WH Vindicator items. And those four Vindictor pieces will give you the four piece set bonus you need.

It's worth the time. My highest dmg game was 375k and on my first match with this set bonus I hit 495k with a great healer and have averaged 350k without a single healer on my team. If you can get a good 5 second rotation down right after force leap you can almost entirely melt any class except for a really well geared tank or a healer spamming heals. But in those cases, you're still helping your team because if your keeping their healer focused on themself then they aren't healing the folks your teammates are fighting!

I believe the shell bonuses over ride the armor bonuses. You definitely don't get both. I also already had a complete BM Weaponmaster set and had to go back and purchase BM Vindicator once I learned of this route a few months back. It took me like two nights playing roughly 3 hours to grab the needed Vindicator pieces. While you technically wasted comms grabbing Weaponmaster first, you are also fully geared in BM making it easier for you now to do well and earn comms faster. So it won't take you long to get four BM Vindicator pieces.

 

REMEMBER... You only need 4 BM Vindicator pieces to trade in on 4 WH Vindicator pieces. Don't buy the chest, it's the most expensive and the stats are the same on the WH Vindicator and Weaponmaster chest components. You'll be changing the mod and enhancement in the long run anyway, and like I said, the stats on the armoring are the same.

 

So just trade your BM Weaponmaster chest in for a WH Weaponmaster chest. And then go back and purchase head, gloves, pants, boots of the BM Vindicator set and trade those in on WH Vindicator items. And those four Vindictor pieces will give you the four piece set bonus you need.

 

It's worth the time. My highest dmg game was 375k and on my first match with this set bonus I hit 495k with a great healer and have averaged 350k without a single healer on my team. If you can get a good 5 second rotation down right after force leap you can almost entirely melt any class except for a really well geared tank or a healer spamming heals. But in those cases, you're still helping your team because if your keeping their healer focused on themself then they aren't healing the folks your teammates are fighting!

You know, it's such a relief to know that there's no point in converting all my weaponmaster pieces into vindicator ones. What you say makes absolute sense, I just need to convert the head gloves pants and boots to Vindicator BM then WH, and trade in the rest of my BM Weaponmaster for WH Weaponmaster, then be on my way on the slow journey to min-maxing.

Once again, thanks for the great advice.

You know, it's such a relief to know that there's no point in converting all my weaponmaster pieces into vindicator ones. What you say makes absolute sense, I just need to convert the head gloves pants and boots to Vindicator BM then WH, and trade in the rest of my BM Weaponmaster for WH Weaponmaster, then be on my way on the slow journey to min-maxing.

 

Once again, thanks for the great advice.

I think you've got it. You don't need to convert your BM Weaponmaster to BM Vindicator though. The stats on Vindicator and Weaponmaster are the same. You can keep using the BM Weaponmaster until you get to WH.

So here's what you do:

1) Keep pvp'ing in BM Weaponmaster

2) Use your comms to buy BM Vindicator.

2) You can pull the armor/mods/enhancements from the BM Vindicator and send them to an alt in legacy gear or put them in orange gear for a DD or Tank companion.

3) Keep the BM Vindicator shells in your storage as that's all you need to trade in. You can trade in the empty shells.

4) Trade in your BM Vindicator shells for the WH Vindicator hat, gloves, pants, boots.

5) Pull the WH Vindicator armor/mods/enhancements and put them in orange gear for the set bonus.

6) Then you can pull the BM Weaponmaster armor/mods/enhancements and send those to an alt or a companion.

Think you had it, but just to make sure!

I believe the shell bonuses over ride the armor bonuses.

Actually it is other way around.

Actually it is other way around.

Well there ya go! So if you like that BM Weaponmaster gear you can throw your WH Vindy mods in it.

1.6 update GOGO!

If you have min/maxed WH I would not jump into standard Elite gear. If you don't have min/maxed WH I would recommend min/maxing FIRST. It is so cheap now and the boost from standard WH to Elite so minute there is no reason min/maxed WH would still not be better than standard Elite from the damage output perspective. We will need to work on mitigation first though.

As a min/maxed WH Sent/Maur I would recommend pulling the new hilts and the new armorings and putting those into your current min/maxed gear. And then one at a time swapping in the upgraded mod or enhancement in each of your pieces. This way you are not going backwards by just tossing on random ACC or CRIT to screw everything up.

Fairly sure I saw the mods were coming out of the boots. Didn't yet see where the enhancements were.

The annoying thing now is that we will once again have to trade in pieces which drags things out a bit.

If you have min/maxed WH I would not jump into standard Elite gear. If you don't have min/maxed WH I would recommend min/maxing FIRST. It is so cheap now and the boost from standard WH to Elite so minute there is no reason min/maxed WH would still not be better than standard Elite from the damage output perspective. We will need to work on mitigation first though.

 

As a min/maxed WH Sent/Maur I would recommend pulling the new hilts and the new armorings and putting those into your current min/maxed gear. And then one at a time swapping in the upgraded mod or enhancement in each of your pieces. This way you are not going backwards by just tossing on random ACC or CRIT to screw everything up.

 

Fairly sure I saw the mods were coming out of the boots. Didn't yet see where the enhancements were.

 

The annoying thing now is that we will once again have to trade in pieces which drags things out a bit.

Im new to the game and started playing as a marauder recently, im just wondering what exaclty does min / maxing mean?

Im new to the game and started playing as a marauder recently, im just wondering what exaclty does min / maxing mean?

Taken from wikipedia:

"Min-maxing is the practice of playing a role-playing game, wargame or video game with the intent of creating the "best" character by means of minimizing undesired or unimportant traits and maximizing desired ones. This is usually accomplished by improving one specific trait or ability by sacrificing ability in all other fields. This is easier to accomplish in games where attributes are generated from a certain number of points rather than in ones where they are randomly generated. Min-maxing is particularly common in games where the cost of traits does not reflect their expected usefulness; for instance, in a combat-heavy game a player may focus on physical traits, giving a character abnormally low mental and social skills so that the remaining points can all be channeled to physical statistics that are more likely to come into play."

Im new to the game and started playing as a marauder recently, im just wondering what exaclty does min / maxing mean?

Min-maxing, in SWTOR, is when you take out better mods/armorings/enhancements from other gears (usually from another class) and put them into yours so that your character becomes more powerful.