Background:

My Seer Sage has 4 pieces of Campaign armor, 2 Dread Guard relics, a Campaign weapon and the rest are Black Hole gear. With the 4 pieces of Campaign armor, I have the 4 piece PvE bonus for Seers. While the 4 piece PvE bonus (extra 50 force [10% extra force]) only helps in long encounters, the 2 piece bonus (reduces the cooldown of Healing Trance) is a huge bonus for HPS and proccing Resplendence.

My Sabotage Gunslinger has 2 pieces of Campaign armor, 2 pieces of War Hero armor, 2 Dread Guard relics, a Campaign weapon, a War Hero offhand (with a PvE crystal), and the rest are Black Hole gear. With this armor, I have the 2 piece PvE bonus and the 2 piece PvP bonus. The PvE bonus is weak (+10 energy every 2 minutes,) but the PvP bonus is huge (3 extra seconds to Flyby's attack, which is buffed in the Sabotage tree.)

Both characters are approaching level 55 and have a bunch of basic comms.

 

My question is: After replacing the Black Hole gear, the relics, and weapons, should I replace my Campaign and War Hero armor with Basic gear and Black Market gear and loose my set bonuses? This question was asked in the Guardian forum with no answer: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=678015 . A similar question of upgrading from Arkanian to Ultimate gear in General Discussion had no real answer: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=677351

Keeping the setbonus (so only the armouring) of campaign/war hero armour can be proftable, whether it's worth it is something you need to decide for yourself and differs per setbonus. My opinion however:

 

For a gunslinger:

+3 seconds of flightby at the cost of: 24 cunning times 2 (81 cunning, 67 endurance on Black Market/Arkanian vs 57 cunning, 60 endurance on war hero)

Personally, I think it's worth it in most encounters until you get your conqueror/partisan/arkanian armorings, though if you can't drop flyby enough (or place it well, afford the energy on recharge etc) the 48 cunning will start to matter. Though this setbonus is one of the most amazing ones in the game, in my opinion.

 

The old Campaign armouring, no, in my opinion it isn't worth it unless you really feel you have energy issues. So I'd drop that one in favour of black market and even basic.

 

As for the Sage:

Healing trance is amazing, though relies on rejuvenate aswell, meaning that it's a playstyle choice. I personally couldn't go without the reduced cooldown and kept the 2 piece setbonus. How-ever since our energy management is as easy at 10% as 90% I didn't find the +50 force worth it (besides you will get your full Arkanian before you will actually need it in things like NiM) the difference per 2 piece is 48 Willpower, max, if you have the resolve armouring pieces it's even a lesser difference.

 

Ofcourse replace mods and enhancements with 66/69 as soon as you can since the setbonus isn't tied to them.

 

Happy gaming!

 

PS: If you're interested in other classes or Arkanian to Verpine. Setbonusses are simply amazing (in most cases) I'd almost always pick them over a bit of main-stat.

Edited September 20, 2013 by Gloomycakes

i think the answer to this question is that it really depends on what you intend to do with the character (PVE or PVP) and at what level. Ultimately, its down largely to personal preference as each person plays differently. having a set bonus that gives reduced cd/proc/better energy management really does nuts if its a skill that you dont regularly use or if energy management is never an issue.

May i use this thread to add a question:

The PVP set bonus work outside PvP zone, such FP, Op, and story mode content?

And the PvE bonus work in PvP zones aswell??

afaik yes

May i use this thread to add a question:

The PVP set bonus work outside PvP zone, such FP, Op, and story mode content?

And the PvE bonus work in PvP zones aswell??

 

The PvP set bonus does work outside of the PvP zone. (Take a look at the Scoundrel questions on the class forums: they mention using the Gunslinger PvP 2 piece set bonus to get the most DPS on Op bosses.) PvE bonus works in WZ and the like.

 

Also, classic relics work in both PvP and PvE. However, lvl 55 PvE relics' procs do NOT work in WZ.

 

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to keep the useful 2 piece set bonus of each until I can get a replacement armor set.