I just compared the stats on mainly the Stalker EWH armor which is now on PTS with mainly the WH Stalker.

I got the EWH stats from Dulfy's site: http://dulfy.net/2012/11/21/swtor-patch-1-6-elite-war-hero-armor-inquisitorconsular-stats/

...and the WH stats from MMO-Mechanics: http://mmo-mechanics.com/news.php?article=1-2-pvp-war-hero-armor-preview

Instead of looking at the full items that you buy with comms, I looked at the actual item modifications, because those are what matters in the end in any way.

This is how much additional stats you'll get from EWH compared to WH. Feel free to correct me in case I've made any mistakes.

Hilt:

Each piece gets +2 Endurance, +1 Willpower.

Armoring:

Each piece gets +5 Endurance, +3 Willpower

Mod:

Each piece gets +2 Endurance, +1 Willpower, +1 Power, +1 Critical (where applicable, of course)

Enhancement:

The pieces which as WH has 27 Endurance, gets +1 Endurance.

The pieces which as WH has 45 Endurance, gets +2 Endurance.

All pieces get +1 Power, +1 Critical, +1 Surge, +1 Accuracy. (again, where applicable)

In all pieces, Expertise stays the same.

As an example, a WH mod can look like this:

41 end, 64 will, 30 exp, 12 pow

...and then there is an EWH mod which looks like this:

43 end, 65 will, 30 exp, 13 pow

Some pieces which are in the WH Stalker set does not have an equivalent piece in the EWH Stalker set, and vice versa, however at least in some cases, the "missing" pieces are available in other sets (I did not check all of them).

For example, there is a mod in EWH Stalker which adds +40 Power which does not exist in the WH Stalker, but this piece does exist in the WH Force Master (as +39 Power, see above).

So if looking only at everything which uses item modifications, the max potential stat gains for a Stalker are:

+74 Endurance

+34 Willpower

+7 Accuracy

+16 Critical

+7 Surge

+16 Power

Of course you cannot have all of these at the same time though, for example you can only get +74 Endurance if you pick all of the enhancements which give a lot of Endurance, you can only have +16 Critical if every mod and enhancement you pick has Critical, and so on..

To put this in perspective, the most Willpower you can get with WH mods are +900, and with EWH it's 934 (if all of the mods you pick are the ones which give as much Willpower as possible). This +34 to Willpower is roughly a 3.8% total potential increase in the amount of Willpower you get from item modifications when going from WH to EWH.

My opinion is that this is not much at all, and it is my opinion that this is a good thing.

EDIT: Originally I had calculated the max potential gains using 9 enhancements instead of the maximum 7. I have now fixed it.

you rule. thanks for doing this. Looks like the stat diff between EWH and WH is 1-3%.

Bioware effectively closed the gear gap. Outstanding move for the pvp in this game.

I linked your post and copy/pasted in a thread on the PTS forum.

Don't worry, we'll find someone that is able to whine even on something like this.

Now if they improved the recruit gear a bit...

Don't worry, we'll find someone that is able to whine even on something like this.

 

Now if they improved the recruit gear a bit...

the consensus right now is that recruit will be replaced by BM

This is perfect, I love this. I personally think all you need to do to keep PvP and PvE sets separate is include a base "Expertise" amount on all PvP gear. Each tier should have the same amount of Expertise and just increase the other stats.

This is a brilliant move.

Well. Easier to get War Hero gear is good I guess. Does this really close the gear gap enough though?

sigh, all in all a full EWH augmented will average a +300 hp 6 dmg and 0.3% crit over a full augmented WH , please dont tell me thats too far a gap for you.

3-5% is a great gap. I was really hoping they would reign this in a bit, and they seem to have done so.

Now they need to work on improving the looks of some of the highest tier stuff so people would actually want to be seen in it, and I think most people will be happy- the elites will have a 3-5% stat bonus, and have the coolest looking stuff, while the mid grind players will only be slightly less effective, and wear more generic looking gear.

Competition level will rise, there will still be a reward and reason to go for the next tier, and we can get back to calling for nerfs because someone had more skill than us and beat us, not because they were wearing better gear.

3-5% is a great gap. I was really hoping they would reign this in a bit, and they seem to have done so.

 

Now they need to work on improving the looks of some of the highest tier stuff so people would actually want to be seen in it, and I think most people will be happy- the elites will have a 3-5% stat bonus, and have the coolest looking stuff, while the mid grind players will only be slightly less effective, and wear more generic looking gear.

 

Competition level will rise, there will still be a reward and reason to go for the next tier, and we can get back to calling for nerfs because someone had more skill than us and beat us, not because they were wearing better gear.

Since the set bonus goes with the armor in WH it will be much easier for people to create their own look. I've always done so and now with reduced cost to pull mods it will be cheaper/easier to go custom.

3-5% is a great gap. I was really hoping they would reign this in a bit, and they seem to have done so.

 

Now they need to work on improving the looks of some of the highest tier stuff so people would actually want to be seen in it, and I think most people will be happy- the elites will have a 3-5% stat bonus, and have the coolest looking stuff, while the mid grind players will only be slightly less effective, and wear more generic looking gear.

 

Competition level will rise, there will still be a reward and reason to go for the next tier, and we can get back to calling for nerfs because someone had more skill than us and beat us, not because they were wearing better gear.

the one thing that cracked me up so much today was a sentinel who swapped toons and ranted at me , we both have WH gear, but his theory was the only reason i keep winning is cause i play a marauder and that class is OP and needs a nerf, i coudnt stop giggling. I know for a fact that 1.6 will eleminate all gear disparity QQ threads but will be replaced by the same people who get rolled by skilled players crying for a nerf of one class or the other :/

sigh, all in all a full EWH augmented will average a +300 hp 6 dmg and 0.3% crit over a full augmented WH , please dont tell me thats too far a gap for you.

Didn't say it was. But 3% turns out being 10% sometimes.

This still probably won't stop the unbalance between augmented and unaugmented players though. Nor will it help if F2P players aren't using the new gear because it's purple.

the one thing that cracked me up so much today was a sentinel who swapped toons and ranted at me , we both have WH gear, but his theory was the only reason i keep winning is cause i play a marauder and that class is OP and needs a nerf, i coudnt stop giggling. I know for a fact that 1.6 will eleminate all gear disparity QQ threads but will be replaced by the same people who get rolled by skilled players crying for a nerf of one class or the other :/

Marauders are OP.

But so are Sentinels.

I know that the community is split on whether or not there should be big stat gains in the PVP gear progression (and whether there should be any PVP gear progression at all), so I'm glad to see so many positive replies.

I haven't yet really looked at the other pieces (ear, implant, relics), and I haven't made any calculations on how good it will be to mix in current top tier PVE pieces, but if this gear makes into the live version of 1.6, my opinion is that it looks as though the difference in going from WH to EWH will be so small that gear will no longer be an issue since the new WH (current BM) is relatively fast to get.

Either way, I got really happy when I checked up the numbers and compared them, and I feel like this is to me probably the best thing BW has done for PVP since launch.

Hopefully the players who want to have the incentive of always earning more gear will still be satisfied, then I think that if people on both sides of the argument can compromise a little we can all be happy about the gear come 1.6, and then find new things to complain about instead.

I predict the future QQ threads (aside form the normal nerf X buff Y) will be along the lines of people complaining that they can't just buy the mods with out the shell and they have a life and don't have the time like all the min/maxers to get the extra 17 damage out of their gear.

lol...first world problems

Well, it's a better gap that's for sure- doesn't seem that bad so here's hoping we'll stop seeing matches with 6k health differences and one person doing almost twice the damage as the next.

Though, this raises another question. F2P can't use purpz- will they be able to use BM if that's the next recruit, or are we going to see a flood of f2p in pve blues from now on? No offense- but having near useless players on your team is almost as much fun as being near useless yourself.

Not sure why there is all this crowing about QQ gear gap threads. As far as I can tell, the devs agreed that the gap was too great and have now made real changes to address it. I consider the matter settled: the gear gap is presently too great.

And if the OP's numbers are right (I hope I am underrstanding them), even optimizing mods (going with the mods that will enhance one attribute like Willpower) will not lead to a big gap either. Very interesting. Very.

So skill now comes to the forefront with rewards for those who still want to grind.

the consensus right now is that recruit will be replaced by BM

So fresh 50s will now get a free Battlemaster set instead of the MK-2?

So fresh 50s will now get a free Battlemaster set instead of the MK-2?

There has not been anything announced yet, at the moment any potential change to the lowest tier is only speculation.

If I were to guess, I'd say that MK-2 will be replaced by at least something, either Battlemaster if they want to use gear currently in the game, or they might introduce something like Recruit MK-3 if they want F2P players to be able to use it without having to buy the authorization for purples.

I predict the future QQ threads (aside form the normal nerf X buff Y) will be along the lines of people complaining that they can't just buy the mods with out the shell and they have a life and don't have the time like all the min/maxers to get the extra 17 damage out of their gear.

Actually....this is actually what I want, and I've been asking for it for a while. All the planets, you can buy individual blue quality mods and armorings. That suddenly stops at endgame, though I see no real reason why. Let players spend commendations on armoring and mods at a higher combined cost than the entire piece.