Quote



All gear in pvp is now bolstered to 252 and all Augments are bolstered to 236



What does this mean? And what is Bolster?



Quote: Rambol : What is Bolster? Your base stats, gear stats, effective Discipline Path skills, ability ranks, dps, armor and combat level have all been increased for this Warzone match. In short, Bolster is a PvP mechanic intended to close the gap between undergeared and better-equipped characters.Jan 3, 2018

* All gear below 252 will Bolster up your stats to 252. But some gear lvls will Bolster better than others.

* Bolster can be tricky and give weird results mixing different armour levels.

* Total armour rating is 252. So mixing 252/258 items with lower lvl gear can also mess up your stats.

* Bolster has set limits (undisclosed) on how many of each stat you can have before it affects another stat. This can decrease another stat if you go over some of them. ie. having more crit can lower your alacrity and vis-versa (I will go into more detail be,ow)

* Main hand weapons are seperate fro the rest of your bolstered equipment. (Not off hand or secondary weapons. These are still included in your bolstered gear).



Gearing Advice that has been tested under Bolster



If you are just reaching lvl 70. Get yourself some 228 gear till you can afford 230 purple gear.



236 and 240 augments on gear below 252 are detrimental or useless to your bolstered stats because Augments and the slot are bolstered to 236.

Especially the master Augments because they won’t add any stats to an augmented slot.

I believe this is because the default augment Bolster is actually a 236 mastery one. So if you leave the slot empty, you are in fact getting a defacto 236 mastery augment for free. (This has been test by myself and a few others who posted the results in other threads).



If you want to use Augments on your bolstered gear to change your secondary stats, then use 228 ones, if you use the 236 ones, you will often get lower damage and health stats than if you’d used 228 Augments.



I’ve done a heap of testing with this current Bolster. I’ve literally spent millions doing it.



The results so far are these:



1. Obtain a 252–258 main hand weapon as soon as you can through Ossus. Until then, use the highest rated “main hand” weapon you can get.

2. 230 purple gear bolsters the most consistently with regards to damage and health stats. Using a mix of higher gear will produce eradicate results and can often create lower stats.

(Edit: After more testing. It’s safe to use higher wrist and belts up to lvl 248 and they won’t affect secondary bolstered stats because they don’t contain secondary stats from enhancements)

3. Full 248 gear with 228 Augments is pretty good, but probably less that 1-2% difference above 230 gear with 228 Augments.

4. Mixing 252 gear with 230-242 gear will give even more eradicate results and I’ve seen people with less stats than my 230 + 228 Augments.

5. Using 248 gear with “236 Augments” will either give you no extra stats if they are Mastery Augments. So it’s a complete waste of credits to do so.

6. Using 248 gear with 236 secondary stat Augments will increase those secondary stats, but you can take a big hit to the main damage/power and health stats

7. Using 228 power Augments can give you a small amount of extra damage stats, but it can slightly reduce you health.

8. Filling “every” piece of gear with an augment can also reduce your health or crit because you are essentially replacing a defacto 236 mastery augment when you fill a slot. That also means using a 228 mastery augment is pointless and detrimental. *** don’t use any master Augments below 252 ***



The simplest and cheapest gear setup before you can get “all 252+” is to use 230 gear with 228 Augments (not mastery ones).

Depending on your class and what stats are the most important to you. Use either a mix of crit, Alacrity or accuracy Augments. (Not equipping accuracy will still give you approx 103% accuracy from Bolster. If you want 105% accuracy, you can use 1 x accuracy aug)

If you have the time, credits and can be bothered, you can slightly fine tune this by adding a few 236-248 gear pieces to the 230 bolstered setup. Remember, Bolster has a cap on some stats. So if you go over that cap, you will lose other stats to compensate for going over. This is the part where you can experiment with.



In case people don’t already know. You don’t do this testing in a WZ.

*** There are Bolster terminals on the respective fleets and there is now 3 in the Rishi strong hold ***

I am using the one in the Rishi training room on the first lvl of the sky ship. This allows you to activate a training dummy too and you can check the results as you test gear combos. But there is one in the first Rishi SH area on the other side of the small pvp area.

One thing to note is don’t use the WZ training dummy to test your real damage output. It seems to still be setup as if you had the old expertise stats. I’ve found the operations dummy gives the most accurate results.



Personally I’ve now 2 sets of gear per class across my Alts. Not unlike when we had pvp gear. But because I mainly pvp, I rarely use my pve gear unless I’m helping my wife to do HM FPs or Ossus World Bosses.

My pvp set is 230 + 228 Augments and 252 main hand

My pve set is 242-252 + 228-236 Augments and 252 main hand (basically the best gear as I pick it up).



Anyway, I hope that helps. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.



Spoiler

Edit: Bolster also plays a role in lowbie and mid pvp. It works in a similar fashion, but is easier to get the best setup because the gear is much lower.



How to Bolster in lowbies and Mids for damage and healing (sorry I don’t tank)



1. Don’t use any Augments. It will reduce your over all stats and be detrimental. You can adjust all your secondary stats using enhancements.

2. The lower your gear, the harder Bolster works for you. But at a certain point, it is better to up grade you gear.

3. Your first pvp mission will reward you with ear, relics and implants. These are gear lvl 46 and these are the best to use till lvl 70 (seems weird, but trust me, only use these)

4. Get all your gear, ie armour, mods, enhancements, hilts and barrels (and offhand shield, focus etc at lvl 10 vendor) from the fleet supply vendors. Located in the supplies area . There is a vendor for every 4 lvls. But you don’t need to buy them everytime and it is a waste to do so if you are only pvping.

5. If you are going to upgrade gear as you lvl, always try and stay 4 lvls below yours because Bolster works better.

6. Make sure you have a Crystal in both main and offhand. This is very important as you will take a big hit in stats if you don’t, especially your main hand.

7. Make sure every gear slot and armour slot is filled. This includes people using “legacy lvling gear”. Please put in enhancements as this will make you Bolster better.

8. Don’t use blue items, except your left side items you got from that pvp reward. There is one other exception, main hand.

9. Main hand is not included in Bolster. So try and keep this at your current level. You can use purple and blue items in your main hand and I recommend you do.



Here are some pointers if you are only pvping and not doing pve.

* The easiest way to control your secondary stat setup is to set it up using enhancements. When you get that right mix, don’t mess around with increasing your gear that has enhancements (except main hand).

* If your main hand ends up giving you way more secondary stats than you need as you lvl up, then swap one enhancement at the same lvl with another stat you can use.

* You can increase your wrist and belt gear lvl slowly because it will give you more damage and health and should not affect your secondary stats as long as you don’t go to high with them.



Here is a hypothetical setup :

Your character is lvl 42.

Ear, implants, relics are gear lvl 46 (lvl 10 blue gear)

Main hand weapon has all purple internals with +41 Crystal. The highest you can be use at lvl 42 (120 gear lvl I think?)

Head, chest, hands, legs, feet, offhand, wrist are all green items from the lvl 22 vendor. (Offhand has +41 Crystal)

Wrist and waist are green items you can get from the lvl 38-42 vendor. Edit: Bolster also plays a role in lowbie and mid pvp. It works in a similar fashion, but is easier to get the best setup because the gear is much lower.1. Don’t use any Augments. It will reduce your over all stats and be detrimental. You can adjust all your secondary stats using enhancements.2. The lower your gear, the harder Bolster works for you. But at a certain point, it is better to up grade you gear.3. Your first pvp mission will reward you with ear, relics and implants. These are gear lvl 46 and these are the best to use till lvl 70 (seems weird, but trust me, only use these)4. Get all your gear, ie armour, mods, enhancements, hilts and barrels (and offhand shield, focus etc at lvl 10 vendor) from the fleet supply vendors. Located in the supplies area. There is a vendor for every 4 lvls. But you don’t need to buy them everytime and it is a waste to do so if you are only pvping.5. If you are going to upgrade gear as you lvl, always try and stay 4 lvls below yours because Bolster works better.6. Make sure you have a Crystal in both main and offhand. This is very important as you will take a big hit in stats if you don’t, especially your main hand.7. Make sure every gear slot and armour slot is filled. This includes people using “legacy lvling gear”. Please put in enhancements as this will make you Bolster better.8. Don’t use blue items, except your left side items you got from that pvp reward. There is one other exception, main hand.9. Main hand is not included in Bolster. So try and keep this at your current level. You can use purple and blue items in your main hand and I recommend you do.Here are some pointers if you arepvping and not doing pve.* The easiest way to control your secondary stat setup is to set it up using enhancements. When you get that right mix, don’t mess around with increasing your gear that has enhancements (except main hand).* If your main hand ends up giving you way more secondary stats than you need as you lvl up, then swap one enhancement at the same lvl with another stat you can use.* You can increase your wrist and belt gear lvl slowly because it will give you more damage and health and should not affect your secondary stats as long as you don’t go to high with them.Here is a hypothetical setup :Your character is lvl 42.Ear, implants, relics are gear lvl 46 (lvl 10 blue gear)Main hand weapon has all purple internals with +41 Crystal. The highest you can be use at lvl 42 (120 gear lvl I think?)Head, chest, hands, legs, feet, offhand, wrist are all green items from the lvl 22 vendor. (Offhand has +41 Crystal)Wrist and waist are green items you can get from the lvl 38-42 vendor. I decided to make this thread so it’s easier for people to find the this info.Some things to note about Bolster :* All gear below 252 will Bolster up your stats to 252. But some gear lvls will Bolster better than others.* Bolster can be tricky and give weird results mixing different armour levels.* Total armour rating is 252. So mixing 252/258 items with lower lvl gear can also mess up your stats.* Bolster has set limits (undisclosed) on how many of each stat you can have before it affects another stat. This can decrease another stat if you go over some of them. ie. having more crit can lower your alacrity and vis-versa (I will go into more detail be,ow)* Main hand weapons are seperate fro the rest of your bolstered equipment. (Not off hand or secondary weapons. These are still included in your bolstered gear).If you are just reaching lvl 70. Get yourself some 228 gear till you can afford 230 purple gear.236 and 240 augments on gear below 252 are detrimental or useless to your bolstered stats because Augments and the slot are bolstered to 236.Especially the master Augments because they won’t add any stats to an augmented slot.I believe this is because the default augment Bolster is actually a 236 mastery one. So if you leave the slot empty, you are in fact getting a defacto 236 mastery augment for free. (This has been test by myself and a few others who posted the results in other threads).If you want to use Augments on your bolstered gear to change your secondary stats, then use 228 ones, if you use the 236 ones, you will often get lower damage and health stats than if you’d used 228 Augments.I’ve done a heap of testing with this current Bolster. I’ve literally spent millions doing it.The results so far are these:1. Obtain a 252–258 main hand weapon as soon as you can through Ossus. Until then, use the highest rated “main hand” weapon you can get.2. 230 purple gear bolsters the most consistently with regards to damage and health stats. Using a mix of higher gear will produce eradicate results and can often create lower stats.(Edit: After more testing. It’s safe to use higher wrist and belts up to lvl 248 and they won’t affect secondary bolstered stats because they don’t contain secondary stats from enhancements)3. Full 248 gear with 228 Augments is pretty good, but probably less that 1-2% difference above 230 gear with 228 Augments.4. Mixing 252 gear with 230-242 gear will give even more eradicate results and I’ve seen people with less stats than my 230 + 228 Augments.5. Using 248 gear with “236 Augments” will either give you no extra stats if they are Mastery Augments. So it’s a complete waste of credits to do so.6. Using 248 gear with 236 secondary stat Augments will increase those secondary stats, but you can take a big hit to the main damage/power and health stats7. Using 228 power Augments can give you a small amount of extra damage stats, but it can slightly reduce you health.8. Filling “every” piece of gear with an augment can also reduce your health or crit because you are essentially replacing a defacto 236 mastery augment when you fill a slot. That also means using a 228 mastery augment is pointless and detrimental. *** don’t use any master Augments below 252 ***The simplest and cheapest gear setup before you can get “all 252+” is to use 230 gear with 228 Augments (not mastery ones).Depending on your class and what stats are the most important to you. Use either a mix of crit, Alacrity or accuracy Augments. (Not equipping accuracy will still give you approx 103% accuracy from Bolster. If you want 105% accuracy, you can use 1 x accuracy aug)If you have the time, credits and can be bothered, you can slightly fine tune this by adding a few 236-248 gear pieces to the 230 bolstered setup. Remember, Bolster has a cap on some stats. So if you go over that cap, you will lose other stats to compensate for going over. This is the part where you can experiment with.In case people don’t already know. You don’t do this testing in a WZ.*** There are Bolster terminals on the respective fleets and there is now 3 in the Rishi strong hold ***I am using the one in the Rishi training room on the first lvl of the sky ship. This allows you to activate a training dummy too and you can check the results as you test gear combos. But there is one in the first Rishi SH area on the other side of the small pvp area.One thing to note is don’t use the WZ training dummy to test your real damage output. It seems to still be setup as if you had the old expertise stats. I’ve found the operations dummy gives the most accurate results.Personally I’ve now 2 sets of gear per class across my Alts. Not unlike when we had pvp gear. But because I mainly pvp, I rarely use my pve gear unless I’m helping my wife to do HM FPs or Ossus World Bosses.My pvp set is 230 + 228 Augments and 252 main handMy pve set is 242-252 + 228-236 Augments and 252 main hand (basically the best gear as I pick it up).Anyway, I hope that helps. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Click here if you want a “Free Friend Referal” Click here if you need a “How to PvP Guide” 🌈 All Star Girl Squads 🌈