I just recently started replaying my Marauder since March, and back then the thing to do was mix & match PvE and PvP gear for Warzones for optimal performance. Although I've been hearing some people say that PvE is now far less affective without the Expertise stat?

 

Right now I'm set up like:

Ear: BM

Implants 2x Columi (no expertise)

Saber 1: Elite War Hero [aug]

Saber 2: BM w/ War Hero mods

Head: BM

Vest: BM

Belt: Rakata (no expertise) [aug]

Bracers: Rakata (no expertise) [aug]

Pants: Champion

Boots: BM

Gloves: BM

 

 

I'm just curious because if I drop my Rakata belt/bracers and Columi implants I'll probably lose in the ballpark of 100 strength in exchange for expertise.

 

I'm currently at 1550 strength when buffed w/Mark of Power.

Edited October 17, 2012 by QuietGoneJinn

The magic number I've seen thrown around is PvP gear till Expertise is 1100-1200, then mix in a few pieces of PvE gear as long as it stacks your most important sub stat (Defensive stuff for tanks, Power for almost anything else.)

 

Ditch the Champion stuff, MK-2 recruit is better because of the expertise.

The magic number I've seen thrown around is PvP gear till Expertise is 1100-1200, then mix in a few pieces of PvE gear as long as it stacks your most important sub stat (Defensive stuff for tanks, Power for almost anything else.)

 

Ditch the Champion stuff, MK-2 recruit is better because of the expertise.

So after about 1100-1200 it's all minimal improvements? Right now I think I'm sitting at around 755-800 Expertise, and once I start earning more BattleMaster and War Hero gear should place me around that number, hopefully.

I personally don't have hard numbers on that, but most of my guildies do about that, building to 1200 and then working on other stats. Dipping a little below 1200 not so bad, going a little above the same. I think into the 1250+ range you're going to start hurting yourself.

I just recently started replaying my Marauder since March, and back then the thing to do was mix & match PvE and PvP gear for Warzones for optimal performance. Although I've been hearing some people say that PvE is now far less affective without the Expertise stat?

 

Right now I'm set up like:

Ear: BM

Implants 2x Columi (no expertise)

Saber 1: Elite War Hero [aug]

Saber 2: BM w/ War Hero mods

Head: BM

Vest: BM

Belt: Rakata (no expertise) [aug]

Bracers: Rakata (no expertise) [aug]

Pants: Champion

Boots: BM

Gloves: BM

 

 

I'm just curious because if I drop my Rakata belt/bracers and Columi implants I'll probably lose in the ballpark of 100 strength in exchange for expertise.

 

I'm currently at 1550 strength when buffed w/Mark of Power.

 

Contrary to what a lot of people will tell you, you can get away with some/all pve gear. But usually, the pve gear you can get away with using is augged, optimized campaign. Stock rakata is probably not good enough and columi is nowhere near good enough. Whatever you're gaining in strength (which might be as low as 200 vs recruit gear now...not sure of recruit stats) is being more than wiped out by a deficiency of about 400 expertise. So you'll want to replace any pve stuff with recruit ASAP.

 

But you're priority should be to ditch the champion piece. Since 1.3 it's the worst of both worlds. Too little expertise compared to recruit and too few stats compared even to columi.

 

You don't ever want to walk into a warzone with below 950 expertise or so (the one exception being if you're in augged, optimized campaign or dreadguard), and ideally you want 1200 something.

It's to a point that min/maxing with PvE armoring is yielding higher-dps-specific return.

I am at 1200ish expertise. I roughly did a small comparison with my color crystal.

 

41 Power Yields around 1% more tooltip damage across the board on my concealment operative. (Power Stacking does not diminish and works linearly).

 

41 Expertise gives me .51% more damage multiplier (this value will get smaller and smaller) and ~.42% damage reduction (this value too will be smaller and smaller due to DR).

 

So assuming class damage works alike (similar to my operative). (blanket math)

At 1200+ expertise mark.

Stacking Power will give you more damage.

However expertise still offer the extra mitigation. (so actually if you factor in expertise works as a multiplier and has both offensive and defensive effect, expertise is actually still the better way to go overall you really cant have too much expertise with the way expertise scales. Unless of course you dont give a crap about the damage reduction at all, in this case you should start to take out PvP armoring out and put PvE (the higher rating the better) in its place while keeping the PvP mod/enhancement. You are basically trading in 50 expertise for like 44 more main stat and 33 endurance (it's a huge trade up actually 50 expertise for 80+ stat points split between main stat and end.)

Edited October 17, 2012 by warultima

The DR on expertise is very small. We are really talking miniscule peanuts here.

The DR on expertise is very small. We are really talking miniscule peanuts here.

 

I wouldn't say it's neccessarily the DR on expertise that makes people shoot for 1200 or so (though it is somewhat) but rather that the ceiling for Expertise isn't much higher than that. (I don't remember the exact maximum expertise you can accquire.) Atleast at 1200, rarely will you find anyone with more than, maybe +100-200 more than you, and you gain so many benefits from extra main/end/power. Atleast 1200 expertise +other stats is competitive vs Full WH, rather than 800 expertise and dismal stats vs. Full WH.

OP you have a long grind ahead of you before you need to worry about what a lot of folks here are saying.

 

First upgrade to full Battlemaster. Augment it as you go. Yes, do it, even though you will replace it, because the War Hero grind is long.

 

Work your way up to Warhero. Personally, I avoided buying WarHero Belt/bracers because I knew I would be using Oranges for those. Buy Orange belt/bracers, and put the really nice level 27 Armorings in them from the GTN (expensive!). Buy a WarHero piece with a good mod to stick in the mod slot.

I just recently started replaying my Marauder since March, and back then the thing to do was mix & match PvE and PvP gear for Warzones for optimal performance. Although I've been hearing some people say that PvE is now far less affective without the Expertise stat?

 

Right now I'm set up like:

Ear: BM

Implants 2x Columi (no expertise)

Saber 1: Elite War Hero [aug]

Saber 2: BM w/ War Hero mods

Head: BM

Vest: BM

Belt: Rakata (no expertise) [aug]

Bracers: Rakata (no expertise) [aug]

Pants: Champion

Boots: BM

Gloves: BM

 

 

I'm just curious because if I drop my Rakata belt/bracers and Columi implants I'll probably lose in the ballpark of 100 strength in exchange for expertise.

 

I'm currently at 1550 strength when buffed w/Mark of Power.

 

As a whole, you should only trade PvE pieces if you are trading +1 tier on a PvP piece. So unless you swap Rakata for WH, it is not a noticable upgrade from RAK to BM since you are already @ 700EXP. Don't waste any credits buying recruit gear. It stinks... In your case, you are already mostly BM, so you are pretty viable as is right now, especially if you AUGd everything.

 

This is how I see your progression order:

1. Augment all your current BM stuff. You will be in it for awhile...

 

2. Replace your implants with BM ones. This is dependant on what types of relics you have. If you have BM relics(or enough daily/BH comms for Rakata/BH implants), I might forgo BM implants for WH ones and skip to step 2. Assuming you are using matrix cube/PvE relics, this is the first and easiest actual upgrade.

 

3. Buy an orange belt & bracer(GTN/Legacy), augment them, then buy 2EA BM Weaponsmaster Power Generators. Remove the armorings/mods and put them into your orange bracer/belt. This is a HUGE upgrade for you as you will only suffer -26STR/-25END/-11POW(in PvE), but gain +150EXP plus an additional +37crit(+74). This is actually better stats than the stock BM belt. Move the left over ENH from the Foci and put them in your Champ pants. You might as well use them for the time being.

 

4. Replace your Champ pants with BM ones. Pretty straight forward here...

 

5. Swap comms and start to replace any non-WH items (relics/implants), with WH ones.

 

 

**Note: Before I started swapping comms, I actually bought 7EA BM Vindicator Gloves since the BiS WH DPS mod is in the WH version (and you need the glove for trade-in) and the cheapest option to buy at the BM level.

 

 

Hopes this helps...

Edited October 17, 2012 by L-RANDLE

So I should also replace my Strength Matrix Cube with a PvP cube?

 

Thanks for the input. I was neglecting to [aug] my BM stuff, but I see now that I will probably be using it for quite some time and I've got the money/schematics to just aug everything with the advanced might 22.

So I should also replace my Strength Matrix Cube with a PvP cube?

 

Thanks for the input. I was neglecting to [aug] my BM stuff, but I see now that I will probably be using it for quite some time and I've got the money/schematics to just aug everything with the advanced might 22.

 

Right now, the WH relic is BiS for PvP and PvE(at least IMO). Just augment your Matrix cube, and buy a champ relic for the other slot(aug) that as well for now. Save your WZ comms for WH/BM stuff as described.

 

Did you leave the game or were you on an alt? If you were on an alt, and happen to have 240 daily comms you could ship RAK implants to the mara. Those would enable you to wait on the implant upgrade, and go straight to WH relics (after you replace the belt/bracer, and champ pants, of course).

Right now, the WH relic is BiS for PvP and PvE(at least IMO). Just augment your Matrix cube, and buy a champ relic for the other slot(aug) that as well for now. Save your WZ comms for WH/BM stuff as described.

 

Did you leave the game or were you on an alt? If you were on an alt, and happen to have 240 daily comms you could ship RAK implants to the mara. Those would enable you to wait on the implant upgrade, and go straight to WH relics (after you replace the belt/bracer, and champ pants, of course).

No I took a break. I do have an alt, but he's only level 12.

 

So don't bother Augmenting the M7-G0 Matrix Cube? I was going to augment it to +84 strength because I can't seem to find a PvP relic that has good Strength. That would put me at almost 1600 strength and 881 Expertise and 36.10% Crit (when buffed). I'd also lose about 40 Endurance w/o M7-G0.

 

I still need to get the BM Boots and Implants, that shouldn't take too long at about 150 comms per game (Plus Dailies). Thankfully Jaesa has been criting my Might 22 Augments for 2-for-1 a lot.

 

 

It's hard to gauge my character because some games I go 400k, other times I can barely get 110k.

Edited October 17, 2012 by QuietGoneJinn

Random tips / opinions:

 

1) Ditch anything weaker than BM gear and replace with BM

 

2) Fully augment all pieces of BM gear, except maybe the next one you are going to replace with WH

 

3) Dont wear any PvE gear, or even worry about that, until you are nearly maxed in PvP gear. Meaning, almost full WH. There is no point in wearing PvE bracers and belt if your expertise is only 800

 

4) Relics: Use the PvP Power Relic, and the PvP Proc relic (im sure we are going to digress and argue about this for a bit now). If you calculate the gains etc, the matrix cube is waaaaaaay behind the other relics. But there are many diehard relic cube fans out there so I expect a discussion.

 

My reasoning: I use a 246 damage proc relic. This relic can only proc every 3rd attack, and only has a 1/3 chance to proc. Lets just say you only proc 1 out of 10 times. This is an absurdly low rate of proc'ing but thats my point. 1 in 10 procs means you do 246 damage every 10 attacks. That equals 24 damage per attack. Thats the equivalent of like 120 Power. And thats using an example that cuts the proc rate almost in half. More realisticly, it will proc nearly twice as much, bringing to the equivalent of 240 power from a relic!

 

The other relic to use is the PvP one that adds like 100 Power. This is significantly more than the matrix cube and there really should be no discussion about this one.

No I took a break. I do have an alt, but he's only level 12.

 

So don't bother Augmenting the M7-G0 Matrix Cube? I was going to augment it to +84 strength because I can't seem to find a PvP relic that has good Strength. That would put me at almost 1600 strength and 881 Expertise and 36.10% Crit (when buffed). I'd also lose about 40 Endurance w/o M7-G0.

 

I still need to get the BM Boots and Implants, that shouldn't take too long at about 150 comms per game (Plus Dailies). Thankfully Jaesa has been criting my Might 22 Augments for 2-for-1 a lot.

 

 

It's hard to gauge my character because some games I go 400k, other times I can barely get 110k.

 

You could augment your Matrix cube for now. If you intend to skip the BM relics and go straight to WH, then I would. Remember the BM/WH relic has POWER on it. Even if you augmented your relic to 84STR(16.8 bonus damage), a stock BM relic with 103POW(23.69 bonus damage), is a better swap. The gain in EXP will also boost all your stats by about 1%. You will lose some CRIT/END, but just augment the BM/WH relic with a Advanced Might Augment to offset some of the loss in STR/CRT/END.

 

If you already were 100% BM everywhere else, it is a no-brainer, but right now your priority is to replace those columi implants with BM ones, get 2EA Weaponmaster generators to replace your RAK belt/bracer, then replace any remaining Champ pieces. Once you do that, you should have accumulated enough RWZ comms to get WH relics.

no pve gear since 1.2

Just respec your marauder to Rage and be safe in the knowledge that your spec won't get nerfed and that you'll be able to perform regardless of gear. The other details will take care of themselves.

no pve gear since 1.2

 

It depends on tier.

 

Subbing a BH/CAMP/DG piece for a recruit piece = fail...

It depends on tier.

 

Subbing a BH/CAMP/DG piece for a recruit piece = fail...

 

Agreed. Try dueling a similarly skilled player in augged campaign, while you're in recruit. They will hit much, much harder than you, expertise or not. And expertise mitigation isn't better than 8000 extra health either.

 

Also agree that the war hero relic of boundless ages are the first war hero pieces you should get, due to their dual use.