Myself and with the help of rambol.net have created a spreadsheet of bolster statistics between gears 208; 230; 236; 242; 248. This is to clarify what is happening to your stats between the gear tiers so there is no confusion.

Analyzing bolster: https://www.rambol.net/home/2018/1/2/examining-bolster

I want to thank "Mac" personally from <Failure> for helping me collect the last bit of data so I didn't have to spend a billion more coms to get full 248s.

Thank you.

Myself and with the help of rambol.net have created a spreadsheet of bolster statistics between gears 208; 230; 236; 242; 248. This is to clarify what is happening to your stats between the gear tiers so there is no confusion.

 

Analyzing bolster: https://www.rambol.net/home/2018/1/2/examining-bolster

 

I want to thank "Mac" personally from <Failure> for helping me collect the last bit of data so I didn't have to spend a billion more coms to get full 248s.

 

Thank you.

Hey Hottie, that’s excellent, thank you for doing that with Ramol and Mac.

Did you also possibly test Bolster on individual items while you had a mix of gear on. As an example, did you check what happens if you have something like 6 x 208 pieces, 2 x 236, 5 x 242, 1 x 248.

I’m asking because I often see weird discrepancies if you mix to many.

Hey Hottie, that’s excellent, thank you for doing that with Ramol and Mac.

 

Did you also possibly test Bolster on individual items while you had a mix of gear on. As an example, did you check what happens if you have something like 6 x 208 pieces, 2 x 236, 5 x 242, 1 x 248.

 

I’m asking because I often see weird discrepancies if you mix to many.

No, I did not. Mixing gear is where it becomes tricky. I can infer from the findings bolster might be aiming to give you free stat depending on how much your overall item rating drops.

Looking at the changes: 208s bolster alright, 236 bolster very well compared to the stat gain you get, 242 give you minimal increase and 248 do not bolster (with augments) but provide the best increase.

The best outcome would probably be 236-248.

No, I did not. Mixing gear is where it becomes tricky. I can infer from the findings bolster might be aiming to give you free stat depending on how much your overall item rating drops.

 

Looking at the changes: 208s bolster alright, 236 bolster very well compared to the stat gain you get, 242 give you minimal increase and 248 do not bolster (with augments) but provide the best increase.

 

The best outcome would probably be 236-248.

Thanks Hottie.

Edit : do you know what the “sweet spot” is to equip Augments so that we aren’t wasting stats or credits at the wrong gear lvl.

Edit :

Guys you should PM Musco and ask him to Sticky this thread so we can direct people to it.

I initially read through the info very fast and missed a few vital points that I think need to be discussed regarding the current Bolster lvl set cap introduced of 242.

My intention is not to hijack this thread. But I think this point needs to be made.

See Fig. 3 for a chart of Total Stat Gain vs Gear Tier. While 248 gear unsurprisingly provides the most stats (and thus the greatest potential DPS/HPS output), 236 gear Bolsters very favourably—marginally better than 242 gear

When I look at the chart associated with this paragraph, it shows how much of a massive difference there is between 242 and 248. It’s one of the reasons so many of us were saying that 242 was too low for Bioware to set it at.

EDIT : So that we don’t hijack this helpful thread. If you want to discuss what I’ve written, I’ll make another thread.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9508654#post9508654

Thanks Hottie.

 

Edit : do you know what the “sweet spot” is to equip Augments so that we aren’t wasting stats or credits at the wrong gear lvl.

 

Edit :

Guys you should PM Musco and ask him to Sticky this thread so we can direct people to it.

I would assume having lower tier augments would provide less stat. Bolster isn’t suppose to be better; the only really weird things I see is how the relics behave. Their math is not working for that slot so it gives you way more then you are suppose to get.

Thanks for a lot of efforts and nice summary!

Gotta ask 2 questions, though:

1. How is gear of mixed internal components bolstered? [Example: 248 hilt, but 246 mod and enh]

2. Speaking of 246 (which is commonly used for being craftable and sellable, and also due to being tank BiS), could you, when you have more time, test how do those bolster too?

Thanks for a lot of efforts and nice summary!

Gotta ask 2 questions, though:

1. How is gear of mixed internal components bolstered? [Example: 248 hilt, but 246 mod and enh]

2. Speaking of 246 (which is commonly used for being craftable and sellable, and also due to being tank BiS), could you, when you have more time, test how do those bolster too?

1: you are already over bolster with 246-248. If they are augment there will be no bolster and you’ll get exactly what you put in. Remember that bolster is up to 242 only. The only reason 248 is bolstering is because this test was done without augs and at 248 they account for augs being in your gear; therefore you are bolstered.

2: 246 will not bolster if you have augments on. Also keep in mind that mods/enhancements you buy might not be all low end/high mastery.

Wow, no wonder PvP seems so lopsided, they are bolstering 248 gear UP?

Am I reading that right?

Wow, no wonder PvP seems so lopsided, they are bolstering 248 gear UP?

 

Am I reading that right?

Top lvl gear has always bolstered up, even before 5.0, the old 208 gear would bolster above its stats when in pvp. It does not surprise me to see this 248 gear bolstering too.

It’s yet another reason why we were saying Bolster should have been set closer to 248 and not 242

1: you are already over bolster with 246-248. If they are augment there will be no bolster and you’ll get exactly what you put in. Remember that bolster is up to 242 only. The only reason 248 is bolstering is because this test was done without augs and at 248 they account for augs being in your gear; therefore you are bolstered.

 

2: 246 will not bolster if you have augments on. Also keep in mind that mods/enhancements you buy might not be all low end/high mastery.

So BIS for PvP is 248, no augments?

That is sickly comical considering the mat farming in ranked.

So glad I have my EVE Online accounts.

So BIS for PvP is 248, no augments?

 

That is sickly comical considering the mat farming in ranked.

 

So glad I have my EVE Online accounts.

I don’t think that’s what she’s saying.

I believe if you don’t have Augments you will get a small boost in stats to compensate, but that won’t be as high as if you have Augments in those slots. Once you put Augments in, they will give you much higher stats and Bolster won’t even be needed,

I don’t think that’s what she’s saying.

 

I believe if you don’t have Augments you will get a small boost in stats to compensate, but that won’t be as high as if you have Augments in those slots. Once you put Augments in, they will give you much higher stats and Bolster won’t even be needed,

^ this

Whoever puts mk-1 augments in 248 gear is probably beyond saving anyway

So BIS for PvP is 248, no augments?

 

That is sickly comical considering the mat farming in ranked.

 

So glad I have my EVE Online accounts.

248 bolster because their system is running under the assumption you always wear augments. Once you are fully auged you get no bolster past 242. Bolster is only there to help players who (for some reason) are wearing 248 without augments because of the massive stat bonus they are missing if they had augments.

248 fully auged is better than 248 bolstered without augments.

BiS is 248 fully augmented.

^ this

 

Whoever puts mk-1 augments in 248 gear is probably beyond saving anyway

What does MK-1 have to do with it?

Another bolster item issue:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=941360

Another bolster item issue:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=941360

Everyone know about wind crystal relics. Relic slot is broken under swtors bolster math. The wind crystal other then some small amount of end, provide the same stat advantage as 248 relics. Depending on your uptime, 248s will still be better for hps/dps (high uptime on proc exceed the raw stat gain of the wind crystal).

I personally don’t mind them and I think others shouldn’t either. These relics only help players not have to grind out 248 relics. Cheap and easy to get off gtn.

Relics are kinda funny in the thing that their proc doesn't respect either kind of lvl sync and bolster. Due to that, the slightly higher passive stats of wind relics are not worth the lack of proc.

Easiest way to tell is just calculate their raw stat gain vs 248 while factoring in the uptime of 248 stat gain with their proc.

If you do the math you need roughly 28%+ proc uptime for their stat gain to exceed the wind relics (of course no factoring in their proc because it doesn’t work in pvp). Higher uptime = more dps/hps.

Everyone know about wind crystal relics. Relic slot is broken under swtors bolster math. The wind crystal other then some small amount of end, provide the same stat advantage as 248 relics. Depending on your uptime, 248s will still be better for hps/dps (high uptime on proc exceed the raw stat gain of the wind crystal).

 

I personally don’t mind them and I think others shouldn’t either. These relics only help players not have to grind out 248 relics. Cheap and easy to get off gtn.

I think it is a huge problem that gear doesn't bolster the same specifically because "Everyone" does not know.

Being competitive in the game should not require all sorts of meta data from the web to identify odd item combinations that no one would ever normally use.

It is all well and good to have the data, so that it can be sent to the devs to fix.

I think it is a huge problem that gear doesn't bolster the same specifically because "Everyone" does not know.

 

Being competitive in the game should not require all sorts of meta data from the web to identify odd item combinations that no one would ever normally use.

 

It is all well and good to have the data, so that it can be sent to the devs to fix.

They provide no hidden advantage over 248s and are in most cases worse. The only thing that makes them favorable is that you can buy them on gtn. How is this any different then buying a crafted 246 relic off gtn?

Relic slot is broken yes, but it’s not game breaking at all.

I think Hottie's satisfactorily answered everyone's questions but I thought I'd jump in anyway. I realise people want a TL;DR and to know concretely which item modifications, etc., are best in slot. However, our motivation was simply to examine how Bolster adjusts stats across different item ratings, hence our experimental design.

I don't want people to misinterpret our findings and would urge those who are confused to reread the article and take another look at the spreadsheets. If things weren't clear enough, I am sorry.

To clarify, we specifically chose not to include augments in our testing. We list our controlled variables in the spreadsheets and in the article. They are as follows:

• no class buff
  
• no stim
  
• no utilities
  
• no augments
  
• +41 Critical Rating crystals in main hand and offhand
  
• all datacrons and companion bonuses.
  

We tested the Sorcerer DPS and healing disciplines, equipping the default 230, 236, 242 and 248 Force-Mystic’s sets (the ratio of Critical Rating to Alacrity Rating remaining consistent between tiers) and a set comprising 208 item modifications (from the previous expansion).

By controlling as many variables as possible in this way, we hoped to better identify/illustrate how Bolster works.

In the article, we explain that this is why our test character in unaugmented 248 gear benefits from Bolster: Bolster seems to account for augments and sees that they are missing, despite the character's overall item level reading as 248 (on the character page).

Yes, Bolster can lead to some strangeness. The level 10 Wind Crystal relics are a great example. Even in this instance, however, they perform only slightly better than 242 relics and slightly worse than 248 relics. In other words, Bolster is working more or less as intended.

To the best of our knowledge, BiS is all 248 gear/item modifications and 236 augments... but that wasn't what we were investigating. I hope that clears everything up!

Rambol, I've got to question the timing of the article. particularly when we aware that this is going on

I was aware of this when it was posted. No one can explain what happened here and no one can recreate it. So it’s pretty much irrelevant imo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was aware of this when it was posted. No one can explain what happened here and no one can recreate it. So it’s pretty much irrelevant imo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Didnt say you weren't aware, which is why i chose to say "We" and while some of us cannot create the combo exactly, i think it would be remiss to pretend its not happening. On a side note the best part about what this guy did is he masks his gear rating by swapping gear and maintaining his bolster. he'll draw no outward attention with a 246 rating.