I quit about a year ago, right before the implementation of cxp. I saw that rng stuff and removal of pvp gear and I just didn't want to be a part of it as I quite liked bouncing around from toon to toon all of which I could gear quickly compared to what I saw in the cxp as a long grind. I've kind of followed the changes they have made, but I'm just curious how good/bad the current gear gap is with bolster as I still really am not a fan of just sticking to one toon and like bouncing around doing pvp on multiple toons.

Bolster works fairly well and as such gear isn't the end-all-and-be-all in PVP, at least in Regs. If you're good you can be competitive even in bolstered 208s. A bolstered player in 208s who is a lot better than someone of the same class in full 248s is probably going to going to be able to out perform the player in 248s.

 

That said it would be a lie also to say that gear does not matter at all. For starters some in full BiS is going to have a larger health pool than someone of the same class in bolstered 208s, and people with low health are often an early if not initial focus in arenas. More health = more up time to heal, damage, or guard. Bolster has it's limitations as well, and even if you're playing a class you're already very familiar with (so experience isn't a factor) you'll notice you generally start doing more DPS and HPS as your gear level climbs.

 

Tl;dr version: PVP is entirely playable in less than BiS and you can be competitive without BiS, but all things being equal full BiS with set bonuses is a slight advantage over those without it.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Aeneas_Falco

Lack of bolster is offset by skill in NA I think, except for very situational times (lack of DPS to 1v1 someone etc.) I haven't really felt it. But I take so much more damage undergeared, which would be a problem in EU. Talking about ranked btw, regs is fully fine - Devil seems to do just good without full set bonus even. Edited November 14, 2017 by Metthew

Some rehash of what has been said, but here's my 2c...

 

Bolster is at 242 gear rating, best gear rating is 248. That's both good and bad. It's good because you will be pretty competitive with pretty much any gear. It's bad because you, starting from scratch, will experience a very long period of not progressing your character at all. You'll have to follow the upgrade path of 230-->236-->242-->248 all the way before you experience any improvement over bolster. That upgrade path takes a bloody long time.

 

To get to 248, you basically need to get your character to command rank 300. On the way there, keep all of the 230/236/242 gear pieces that you get from crates. You'll have to use some Unassembled Components (from warzones) plus the 230/236/242 gear shell to trade up to 248. If you want to ignore the crates altogether, you'd have to rely only on Unassembled Components and purchase each directly, then upgrade. It's possible, but slower.

 

TLDR: gearing is very slow, but bolster is decent.

The only problem I've had with bolster is that my crit is that I get accuracy when I don't want it (like AP PT) and my crit isn't as high as I want it (meaning I can't global someone on the aforementioned AP PT) but otherwise gear isn't really that big a deal and there's only an 8k difference in health.

 

Just, don't forget to keep your augments updated and setbonus equipped.

Yupp setboni is pretty much the only thing you "need" (you will feel it if you don't have it).

But as for bolster - works nice, I'm almost always still top or second best dps in wz on my sniper (3 - 4k dps), and she has "only" some 242 stuff and mostly still 236, so I should have the same stats that you have with 208.

Some rehash of what has been said, but here's my 2c...

To get to 248, you basically need to get your character to command rank 300. On the way there, keep all of the 230/236/242 gear pieces that you get from crates. You'll have to use some Unassembled Components (from warzones) plus the 230/236/242 gear shell to trade up to 248. If you want to ignore the crates altogether, you'd have to rely only on Unassembled Components and purchase each directly, then upgrade. It's possible, but slower.

you don't need to keep 230 shells, they are not "legendary". after takeing out the armorings etc. you can safely sell them.

you can take some shortcuts here: buy or craft 246 mods, enhancements, hilt/barrel. even gemini mk-4 earpieces and impants. This should be sufficient to be able to do some hm ops to get 242 gear. with the unassembled components you get from wzs, upgrade the 242 to 248. while doing this, use cxp boosts and you'll get to 300 rather quick (2-3 weeks without a double xp event) and pick up some 236/242 drops on the way.

Will take a lot less time than waiting to get to 300 and hoping for useful drops.

While progressing through the command tiers, keep whatever legendary drops you get, even implants/earpieces/relics which you wouldn't want. you might get, for example a 242 devastating vengence which together with enough UCs you could trade in for an unassembled 248 relic which could be turned into a seredipitous assault relic. same for impants/earpieces with "unwanted" stats.

I quit about a year ago, right before the implementation of cxp. I saw that rng stuff and removal of pvp gear and I just didn't want to be a part of it as I quite liked bouncing around from toon to toon all of which I could gear quickly compared to what I saw in the cxp as a long grind. I've kind of followed the changes they have made, but I'm just curious how good/bad the current gear gap is with bolster as I still really am not a fan of just sticking to one toon and like bouncing around doing pvp on multiple toons.

 

If CXP/RNG bothers you, which is normal, you can do pretty well with just bolster. You can run 208s or if you can get the 230 gear for tokens then you get set bonuses.

 

228 augments are good to have but also keep in mind they are releasing new augments sometime soon.

you don't need to keep 230 shells, they are not "legendary".

Oh wait...we can directly purchase 236 with Unassembled Components now, right? If so, I forgot about that!

yes, you could, although it's a waste of UCs. better do some quick sm ops where you get the 236 "for free".

100% viable. Of course it matters, its just not deterministic

As others have said it is a slight advantage, but youll still have a fair shot in most cases. The difference will come into play when all other things are equal, otherwise, its not that significant.

One thing i didnt see mentioned is augments. BIS players have the top gear and top augments. Those 2 things together matter much more. Augment your gear and bolster will carry most of the rest.

for some reason bolster helps my lv58 commando a lot more then my lv70 242 rating merc.

i crit more on commando then my merc.

 

anyone kind enough to explain why this is happening??

Same as its always been post expertise...

for some reason bolster helps my lv58 commando a lot more then my lv70 242 rating merc.

i crit more on commando then my merc.

 

anyone kind enough to explain why this is happening??

Are you using 208s?

 

The expertise to mastery conversion and bolster don't know how to work together and you get a lot more mastery than normal.

But what about other stats like crit, end, mastery, etc.?

 

Does bolster merely effect the item ranking or does it give you stats too? Because a person with better gear will have better stats. So wouldn't they have an advantage over someone with empty slot orange gear or very low level gear?

But what about other stats like crit, end, mastery, etc.?

 

Does bolster merely effect the item ranking or does it give you stats too? Because a person with better gear will have better stats. So wouldn't they have an advantage over someone with empty slot orange gear or very low level gear?

 

Never, ever go into a wz without any mods in gear, it's better if you use green stuff than empty orange gear.

 

Bolster only affects what is there, so only your basic armor stat gets bolstered (which is on empty stuff like 30 armoring or something like that). You want to have in every slot something, at least a green item or an orange one with lvl 10 mods.

 

The only reason you don't have any relics/earpieces/implants on your character should be if you are new and you just doing your very first wz with the introduction quest (that gives you all the missing stuff).

 

Bolster pushes your stats as well, but only those you have!

Anyone have the skinny on how bolster works with augments? Been playing my sage, and I'm not sure if it's worth it to get new augs now, or wait. Currently rocking 208 augs, 242-248 enh/mods, and 220-224 armorings for set bonus). Edited November 15, 2017 by AndriusAjax

1 augment costs about 50k credits usually - they don't get bolstered. What you have is what you get.

 

So get them, since the new ones won't be around for some time after the patch or will be extremely expensive.

1 augment costs about 50k credits usually - they don't get bolstered. What you have is what you get.

 

So get them, since the new ones won't be around for some time after the patch or will be extremely expensive.

 

I can make em, I have all schems and all crafting is maxed. I just heard new augs are a few weeks away. Is that not correct? What update has new augs coming?

As far as I could find there aren't any official patchnotes for that yet, but it seems you can get the "minor ones" from the new op and the legendary ones need to be crafted for a ton of materials including new ones.

 

Just google it and look into the reddit pages yourself

 

Either way, even if you learn the recipe right after patch, I don't think you're able to craft 14 right away - since mats will be damn expensive or not even available

Never, ever go into a wz without any mods in gear, it's better if you use green stuff than empty orange gear.

 

Bolster only affects what is there, so only your basic armor stat gets bolstered (which is on empty stuff like 30 armoring or something like that). You want to have in every slot something, at least a green item or an orange one with lvl 10 mods.

 

The only reason you don't have any relics/earpieces/implants on your character should be if you are new and you just doing your very first wz with the introduction quest (that gives you all the missing stuff).

 

Bolster pushes your stats as well, but only those you have!

 

What I'm saying is a guy with 200 endurance will have more health than a guy and 100. T guy with 300 crit is going to crit more than a guy with 100 crit. So the gear does matter, right? Bolster doesn't remove the gear advantage.

 

Am I mistaken?

No, you have 1 mod that is lvl 10 and gives 7 to endurance or whatever - other person has a lvl 120 mod that gives 50 to endurance - they both get bolstered to item lvl 242 and both get "a temporal wz mod" that gives 130 or so to endurance.

 

If you don't have a mod in your armor you miss out on the stats getting bolstered, in the end it only matters that you have something.

 

so no, the person with more crit doesn't have more crit in a wz - except if you use mods that provide less crit than theirs in general (e. g. different lethal mods - lethal b mod or what they're called - more endurance, less crit - more crit less endurance)

 

But let's not make this too specific, just get stuff into every slot and you are good - go for set as soon as you can and get the best augments right away or none at all, because they don't get bolstered.

No, you have 1 mod that is lvl 10 and gives 7 to endurance or whatever - other person has a lvl 120 mod that gives 50 to endurance - they both get bolstered to item lvl 242 and both get "a temporal wz mod" that gives 130 or so to endurance.

 

If you don't have a mod in your armor you miss out on the stats getting bolstered, in the end it only matters that you have something.

 

so no, the person with more crit doesn't have more crit in a wz - except if you use mods that provide less crit than theirs in general (e. g. different lethal mods - lethal b mod or what they're called - more endurance, less crit - more crit less endurance)

 

But let's not make this too specific, just get stuff into every slot and you are good - go for set as soon as you can and get the best augments right away or none at all, because they don't get bolstered.

 

But even any empty item has a rating of 8. It's better than starter white armor.

If you, by level 10, still don't have at least green armor to queue for wz then you shouldn't queue at all, because clearly you haven't yet understood how gearing works

 

"that white armor I wear at level one is not as good as orange armor from cm"

 

Yes it is but you're not lvl 1 when you start queuing wzs and should have done enough story quests by now that you have the basic stuff.

 

Any further "what ifs" I'm going to ignore because I get the feeling you're trolling...

 

In short:

 

orange empty - bad

orange full - good

Lack of bolster is offset by skill in NA I think, except for very situational times (lack of DPS to 1v1 someone etc.) I haven't really felt it. But I take so much more damage undergeared, which would be a problem in EU. Talking about ranked btw, regs is fully fine - Devil seems to do just good without full set bonus even.

 

6 months ago I was raging at the gear gap and how Bolster wasn’t high enough... but since the move... there have been a lot less good pvpers about and the gear gap doesn’t seem so big now...

I’m still playing most of my matches in 208 pvp gear and with 300ms lag... and it’s the lag that kills me more than the gear or other players...

Gear is only becoming a problem for me when I come up against someone else of equal or higher or close to the same skill as me... then the gap and lag is disastrous... thankfully that’s not happening much because there are far fewer higher skilled pvpers left