Disclaimer: I haven't checked carefully for all classes vis a vis set bonuses and such, so consult your local Elite War Hero PVP vendor before taking the advice in this post. Scroll to the end for a list of mods/enhancements I was able to find for various classes, note I didn't look through the tanking sets. Skip to the end for a quick summary.

 

Background(feel free to skip the next two paragraphs):

 

While offering minor upgrades all around, the fact is that a little bit of extra oomph adds up over 14 pieces of gear. However Elite War Hero gear is expensive and I noticed when planning how to gear my shadow that there was not a single piece of elite war hero gear that had both a good mod with 52 Willpower/42 secondary stat (power/surge) AND a good enhancement with 42 secondary stat/54 Tertiary Stat (Accuracy/Surge/Alacrity not that that matters for me).

 

Therefore, since my policy has been using PVE pieces to get a set bonus anyway, I have been buying up a ton of Elite War Hero Stalker's Bracers since they are relatively cheap and have a good power mod. If I wanted a good crit mod (as I will when I start min/maxing my Infiltration Hybrid Set) I'll buy a lot of Elite War Hero Force Master's Bracers for the same effect.

 

 

Let me explain (Real Guide starts here):

 

 

Because Stock Elite War Hero is across the board badly itemized, we are basically forced to get a piece of gear with a good enhancement AND a piece of gear with a good mod in order to properly min/max. Depending on class you might also have to grind out a THIRD piece of gear to get your preferred set bonus (for example the shadow tank set bonuses are pretty good for Hybrid Tank specs that end up throwing a guard out at a healer a lot, but of course the mod and enhancement are worthless if you're otherwise gearing with DPS stats).

 

That my friends is a lot of grinding.

 

So to offset this, I suggest looking at the available elite war hero belts and bracers for your class. If you're using a PVE set bonus via shells then both the armoring and the mod in these belts can put you at 63 level mods for about 2/3rds the cost of buying the elite war hero body pieces (the savings are even greater if you would have been forced to buy anything but gloves or boots for your good mods).

 

From there, if you're using PVE set bonuses, then you can shop enhancements from ANY class because enhancements never have main stat on them so are usable by anyone. For example the Elite War Hero Field Medic boots come with a very good power/surge enhancement, so if you can't find a power/surge enhancement on your vendor for 2000 Ranked comms, go buy from the smuggler instead (I have a compiled list at the end of the guide). If you have a cybertech you can RE the Armoring and Mod for stablizers which sell for a decent amount of credits, or if you have an alt coming you can send that gear to them (if they need it) and get them a jumpstart on gear as well. Also keep in mind that if you haven't gotten your elite war hero offhand, and you aren't a Sentinel, a Mercenary or a Smuggler, the armoring is unslotted, so in that case at least one of those armorings can still be put to good use even if you ARE using PVP set bonuses

 

If you're using PVP set bonuses and it so happens that the pieces you need for the set bonuses already come with the exact mods you need, this isn't as helpful, but chances are at least one is going to come with a bad mod, and every mod you get from belt/bracers (instead of grinding another, unneeded piece) is at least more than 500 ranked comms in your pocket.

 

Perusing the Torhead Database, I've found the following enhancements off of either boots or gloves:

 

War Hero's Adept Enhancement 27: 28 Endurance, 42 Power, 54 Surge

Elite War Hero Combat Medic's Boots (Commando/Merc Heals)

Elite War Hero Eliminator's Gauntlets (Commando/Merc DPS)

Elite War Hero Field Medic's Boots (Smuggler/Op heals)

Elite War Hero Field Tech's Gloves (Smuggler/Agent DPS)

Elite War Hero Vindicator's Boots (Preferred Knight/Warrior DPS set bonus I believe)

Elite War Hero Weaponmaster's Boots (Knight/Warrior DPS)

 

War Hero's Initiative Enhancement 27: 28 Endurance, 42 Power, 54 Accuracy

Elite War Hero Eliminator's Boots (Commando/Merc DPS, though 4 piece set bonus maybe good for Vanguards)

 

 

War Hero's Acute Enhancement 27: 28 Endurance, 42 Critical Rating, 54 Accuracy

Elite War Hero Field Tech's Boots (Smuggler/Agent DPS)

Elite War Hero Weaponmaster Gloves (Knight/Warrior DPS)

 

War Hero's Quick Savant Enhancement 27: 28 Endurance, 42 Power, 54 Alacrity

Elite War Hero Force Mystic's Gloves (Sage/Sorc Healer)

 

As you can see every secondary and tertiary DPS/Healing stat is accounted for one way or another so if you're willing to be creative about what goes where you can min/max your mods/enhancements without ever spending more than 2000 comms on a piece of gear outside of your mainhand weapon (offhand too for classes who use barrels or hilts in their offhands).

 

Class Breakdown of Good mods

 

Trooper/Bounty Hunter

52 Aim/40 Crit Mod: Elite War Hero Eliminator's Bracers (Belt too, but bracers are cheaper)

 

Couldn't find a cheap Trooper 52 Aim/40 Power Mod unfortunately =/ I suggest all power enhancements and get crit from mods, though if you really must go power heavy, there's one in the Elite War Hero Combat Tech boots.

 

Smuggler/Agent

 

52 Cunning/40 Power Mod: Elite War Hero Enforcer's Armguards

 

Couldn't find a Smuggler 52 Cunning/40 Crit mod in belt/bracers. There's one in the Elite War Hero Field Medic's Gloves, so it looks like it won't be cheaper than that.

 

Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor

 

52 Willpower/40 Power Mod: Elite War Hero Stalker's Bracers and Elite War Hero Force-Mystic's Cuffs

52 Willpower/40 Crit Mod: Elite War Hero Force-Master's Bracers

 

Consulars lucked out in this regard.

 

Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior

 

52 Strength/40 Crit Mod: Elite War Hero Weaponmaster's Bracers

52 Strength/40 Power Mod: Elite War Hero Weaponmaster's Waistcord

 

So Knights and Consulars probably have the most freedom with what they want to do, but with some creative itemization I think everyone can take advantage of this.

 

TL;DR: No matter what pieces you buy to get your set bonuses with 63 armorings you are guaranteed to have sub-optimal mods or suboptimal enhancements. However, as long as you pick your stat distribution right, your optimal mods can all be gotten from Belts or Bracers, and your enhancements can be purchased for no more than 2000 ranked comms. If you have the expertise to spare and you've been REing the mods you couldn't use then you can even forgo buying the Elite War Hero weapons by taking the materials and finding a crafter to make you a PVE Hilt/Barrel assuming you haven't already gotten these weapons.

Edited January 10, 2013 by ArchangelLBC

bump for people who don't know about this and to stroke my own ego =P

Thanks for the info. Gearing up my Op Healer currently, and this will be very useful.

Glad to be of service! =)

Terrible post. It'll only make it easier for other people to improve their chars without doing the work checking stuff I did myself. Rate it down!

 

Only kidding (well, 80%...). Great post for those who want to sort out their gear.

Thank you very much. Its a must read thread for people like me who want to get started with min/maxing.

it's a good post, thanks for putting it up, as I am gearing into EWH slowly, i am finding it is tially screwing with my main stat distribution, I actually lost significant main stat (cun) for WH to EWH which is midn boggling and somehow I missed that but wait i had to trade in my boots at the same time so I can not even swap back......

it's a good post, thanks for putting it up, as I am gearing into EWH slowly, i am finding it is tially screwing with my main stat distribution, I actually lost significant main stat (cun) for WH to EWH which is midn boggling and somehow I missed that but wait i had to trade in my boots at the same time so I can not even swap back......

 

Always rip mods from gear you're trading in. You might want the mods later, plus if you're Cybertech crafter you can re-engineer any you really don't want to get valuable molecular stabilisers.

 

I have a load of my old WH mods in my EWH gear, because the itemisation is better than what came with the upgrade. I'll grind the EWH version mods from the items that have them eventually, but the WH versions will do fine until then.

it's a good post, thanks for putting it up, as I am gearing into EWH slowly, i am finding it is tially screwing with my main stat distribution, I actually lost significant main stat (cun) for WH to EWH which is midn boggling and somehow I missed that but wait i had to trade in my boots at the same time so I can not even swap back......

 

Yeah all my warhero pieces are empty shells because I don't like the look of shadow gear (and my sent is using guardian gear so I couldn't use the shells if I wanted to, which I don't because they're horrible looking).

 

Stabilizers are great if you have artifice/cybertech for the piece you're replacing.

 

Also you take a big loss in mainstat when you use the secondary stat heavy mods (13 per mod or so), but the gain in secondary stat (like 30 power or crit) more than makes up for it.

Or, you know, you can use mrrobot like everyone else...

Bumping this because this should really be stickied

Hey arch did you ever make one of these for Wh?

 

Not much interest in EWH atm

Hey arch did you ever make one of these for Wh?

 

Not much interest in EWH atm

 

Not deliberately no, but I can. Unfortunately the only unslotted armorings come from offhands which are 1400 coms. Enhancements are relatively easy to get though. Off the top of my head I know I looked at combat tech gloves and eliminator's boots (both trooper) for decent enhancements when rounding out my 61 set. I can get on that and edit the original post.

Interesting

 

Would you recommend high aim/end in an orange bracer and belt?

Adv nimble 26A

Reflex 27

No. Always go with the high secondary stat mods. 51 Aim/41 Power or 51 Aim/41 Crit ( think those numbers are correct).

Skimmed it quickly

 

The only thing missing is the "custom" set bonuses.

 

For example a 2 PVP Heals, 2 PVE Heals, is what i run as an Op Healer

 

Also 2 PVP heals, and 2 PVP Efnforcer is popular for heals. (2 piece enforcer increases evasion duration)

 

I also like the 4 piece stalkers for sorc heals. But you could go a lot of ways with the sorc.

 

There are other classes I'm sure. GET TO IT!!!

I will stroke your ego for you

Skimmed it quickly

 

The only thing missing is the "custom" set bonuses.

 

For example a 2 PVP Heals, 2 PVE Heals, is what i run as an Op Healer

 

Also 2 PVP heals, and 2 PVP Efnforcer is popular for heals. (2 piece enforcer increases evasion duration)

 

I also like the 4 piece stalkers for sorc heals. But you could go a lot of ways with the sorc.

 

There are other classes I'm sure. GET TO IT!!!

 

Well for set bonuses you gotta get the armor with set bonuses attached or the relevant armorings. Not really a way to do that cheap except if you're going for a 2/2 PVP/PVE set bonus to get the PVP stuff from boots and gloves and use BH comms for PVE armorings for legs and head gear (or if you have a rakata/columi/tionese head piece and you just wanna hide head slot do that, come to think of that you get free tionese gear now).

why is the gear optimized and the set bonuses such garbage that you need to grind a dozens of ewh pieces you dont need just to pull mods or enhancements out in order to put them in pieces you do need? it seems like such a waste of time and credits. what bizarro world would game developers think this was a great idea? it's like they don't understand the mechanics of each class and role and what stats are good for them haha

why is the gear optimized and the set bonuses such garbage that you need to grind a dozens of ewh pieces you dont need just to pull mods or enhancements out in order to put them in pieces you do need? it seems like such a waste of time and credits. what bizarro world would game developers think this was a great idea? it's like they don't understand the mechanics of each class and role and what stats are good for them haha

 

Developers do love their grinds. Keeps people playing. The point of this guide was to help you lessen it because personally I don't like grinds.

just curious how much expertise a DPS should stop at(i constantly inspect ppl to see how they thought of going) i i`m holding at 1208 curently (both crystals with power + bracer and belt with pve armoring) i did meet some others that dropped to 1100 expertise by also using pve mods in main hand and offhand(hilts/barrel) and don`t know if i should too, also do u use main stat augments or power? Ty

just curious how much expertise a DPS should stop at(i constantly inspect ppl to see how they thought of going) i i`m holding at 1208 curently (both crystals with power + bracer and belt with pve armoring) i did meet some others that dropped to 1100 expertise by also using pve mods in main hand and offhand(hilts/barrel) and don`t know if i should too, also do u use main stat augments or power? Ty

 

I recommend main stat augments. When it comes to expertise i see many drop below 1200, if you don't have one of your EWH weapons, you can pick up a barrel/hilt/armoring for one to get maximum force/tech power...

I always use mainstat augments.

 

Also while there is a strong argument for using Power Crystals over expertise (best tradeout of expertise for DPS stats imo) or even PVE hilts or armorings, you should never use PVE mods or enhancements as the expertise tradeoff for one or two secondary/tertiary stats just isn't worth it (unless you meant mods as a general term. Can get confusing since there is an actual item modification called a mod, and yet we also use the term as short hand for any item modification).

 

I currently sit between 1214 and 1264 expertise on my shadow. Some argue for more some for less. Haven't really mathed out which is better though some claim you hit DR on expertise even lower (while others claim that going even higher is better).

 

If you are going to trade out though, I would trade out your crystals first, then do PVE hilts/barrels if you don't already have elite war hero, then look at armorings. If you're depending on PVE armorings for set bonuses (because you think Tionese/Columi/Rakata looks dumb) then do those first then crystals then hilts etc.

 

Also, I personally believe dipping below 1100 expertise is a mistake, but try things out and see what works for you. I guarantee you'll feel squishier with lower expertise, but by the same token dying in 2 GCDs is a function of focus fire and expertise won't save you then.

Bump this... excellent info and you need to keep updating as much as you can man.

Greaf info, exactly what i was looking for. This will make gearing up alot easier for me. Keep up the good work.