BioWare Announces SWTOR 5.10 PvP Bolster Changes and Future Plans

SWTOR 5.10 introduces a new tier of gear with higher stats than originally planned. Together with that BioWare is also making significant changes to Bolster

Community manager Eric Musco took it to the forums today to explain what the studio plans for Game Update 5.10 “Jedi Under Siege” in regards to the Bolster changes and how will they differ from the originally announced plans for it to be leveled at 248. He also hinted at the possibility of PvP specific gear making a return with SWTOR 6.0.

Now, let’s take a deeper dive and explore what’s really happening to your PvP stats in 5.10 and what may be changed beyond “Jedi Under Siege”!

At first the developers planned for Bolster to be brought up to Item Rating 248 (the current highest tier of gear in the game). However, because of the devs’s desire to make Gods from the Machine “as terrifying as it should be”, they needed a higher tier of gear to compensate for the crazy amounts of damage and DPS/Heal checks involved in some of the boss encounters.

This brought the need for a higher stats on the new tier 5 gear. As you probably have already seen in my Masterwork Gear overview, the new highest level gear in 5.10 is going to be the Legendary Item Rating 258 with the lower version of it being the Purple Item Rating 252 set. From the new 258 to the current 248 there are 10 points jump where usually a new set would be 6 points higher. 

Because of the bigger gap, a Bolster of 248 would still leave a huge difference between the geared up players and the Bolstered ones. This is not BioWare’s intention. Quite the opposite, in fact. The developers want as small a gap as possible. This will create more competitiveness between the geared up characters and the “newer” ones.

Simply put, in order to make Master Mode Gods From the Machine as terrifying as it should be we needed to have a larger item rating jump than usual for our new gear. As many of you likely know, typically a new tier of gear means a 6 item rating differential. In this case, since we wanted to balance against a higher target we opted to introduce two item ratings of growth at 252 and 258 as a part of a single tier. Historically, we have moved Bolster to be equal to the previous tier’s best in slot item rating. In this case, that makes it 248 (which is what we chose). However, since this tier jump was different it also meant that we couldn’t be 100% consistent. By choosing 248 it means there is a 10 item rating differential, where normally this is only a 6 rating difference. Even though it is a “one tier” jump, it actually creates a larger item rating differential than there usually is. To address this, we are going to be increasing Bolster in Game Update 5.10 to item rating 252 (previously planned to be 248). 

A decision has been made that Bolster as of 5.10 will be set to 252. Not only that, but Augments also receive higher Bolster as well. The jump for them is from the current 203 to 236.

Also, as a reminder we are not only adjusting Bolster on gear, but also on Augments. We are increasing Augment Bolster from 208 to 236. This will additionally help in closing the gap between BiS players and those being Bolstered.

After the first announcement of upcoming Bolster changes with 5.10, several big discussions have been started and thanks to the activity of many players providing ideas, suggestions, complaints and general feedback, BioWare is considering the possibility of more serious changes to the PvP Bolster system in the game.

This, however, cannot happen in a small update. With 5.0 the devs decided to remove the PvP specific gear and erased “Expertise” from the game. Thanks to massive feedback and unhappiness from many players, the devs are now considering bringing it back. For that to happen, we will have to wait for an equally big update – the 6.0 expansion possibly.

A number of players have brought up the idea of having Bolster be at the highest item rating available. Effectively making gear in PvP irrelevant, where skill is the only deciding factor. Although we understand the desire from players on that side of the debate, it does introduce some issues. If there is no gear chase from PvP that removes all progression from PvP gameplay and it also removes a part of the reward structure.

However, we do know that there has been unhappiness with PvP gearing in general in the 5.0 era, especially with the removal of Expertise. To make large itemization changes to PvP like that will require an equally large update, so this is the type of issue we will have to wait until an expansion sized update to tackle. We will consider a variety of options including reintroducing PvP specific stats/gear, Boslter changes, etc. and we will make sure to talk through planned changes with all of you when we get to that point. 

Let me remind you that 6.0 is still far into the future and if my predictions and expectations are correct, we should see it happen not sooner than Fall 2019.

If you want to check out some of 5.10’s new features, you can install the Public Test Server (PTS) and log in to take a look at the new Daily Area of Ossus, test a new build for your character with the new 258 and 252 Tier 5 Gear and enter the Master Mode of Gods from the Machine and tackle the most difficult boss encounters ever in SWTOR.