A few days ago, the combat team explained in more detail how the "boost" works on the official forum. Here is the translation of their message.
sourceHi everybody !
I know a number of people were waiting for a post with more details on how the Boost works and how it interacts with the normal stats system, so I thought I could shed some light on one of the most complicated systems we have in SWTOR. I think it's easier to explain (a slightly simplified version) the process that the boost system performs when entering a war zone.
Note: In addition to all of the item-specific things I'm going to explain, the boost also increases character level, granting them some base stats and increasing the player's ability rank to compete. The short version of this process is: if you're not 55 we pass you 55 and we give you all the base stats you would have had between level where you are and 55, and then we add some generic bonuses. extra to make up for the fact that you don't have all the abilities and skill points.
To start, a few quick notes on terminology here:
- Power: When I talk about power in the rest of the post, I am referring to a generic concept about the total power of an object, and not to the power statistics specifically.
- PvE Stats: Statistics that are used in PvE combat. In fact, all the stats in the game except expertise.
The basics
The boost is based on the idea that we're trying to boost players up to a certain item power level, represented by a number called item rank. This item rank determines how much stats, armor value, weapon damage value, etc. is given to a particular item. At the most generic level, the boost system looks at each of the item slots a character has equipped, and if that slot is below the target item rank, it gives the character enough PvE stats. to make up the difference as well as a full complement of expertise (assuming the object does not start with any expertise). Any item that has an item rank higher than the target item rank does not receive PvE stats, and a lower amount of expertise.
The detail: For each item slot, the boost must determine what the item rank of that slot is. It does this by taking the weighted average of the ranks of each mod that exists in the object (if it's a modded object) or the actual rank of the object (if it's not a modded object). The weight given to each mod is directly related to the amount of potency that is given to each mod in the item system, which is the same for all "non-crystal" mods in SWTOR. Crystals have a significantly smaller power budget, so they don't have as much of an impact on average rank as a "normal" mod.
Once the system has each slot's item rank, it combines that data with how the character spent their skill points (to help determine what kind of role a character wants to play) and generates a set of base stats he assumes the character has on a particular item, and a set of boosted stats he should have with target item rank.
The system then simply gives the character the difference between the assumed base stat set and the boosted stat set. For Expertise stat in particular, there is an extra step: if the item already has any Expertise value, then we totally ignore any amount of Expertise we should add, regardless of the rank difference.
The amount of stats we set at each item rank level follows exactly the same item creation formulas as our item team, and we do our best to assign those stats to what we think is a Average player of that class / advanced class / skill tree branch would like. In a perfect world, we could take a full set of items from rank 100 and a boost from rank 100, and you would have totally identical stats if you mod your items the same way we selected the stats for it. boost.
All of this is fine for items that have ranks are our targets, but what about items above? Any item that has an item rank above the boost target rank receives absolutely no additional PvE stats, but can still receive expertise. Look at the next section for that!
Expertise:
Expertise is a multiplicative stat that only applies while in PvP combat. It has 3 systemic effects: it increases damage dealt by a%; it decreases damage received by a%, it increases healing by a%. Since this is a multiplicative stat, this means that in PvP, a player with much lower PvE stats but a higher multiplier may be more powerful in PvP than a character with higher PvE stats but a poorer multiplier. (or null). A simple and extreme example of this would be a player who hits for 50 damage with a multiplier of 6 (for a total of 300 damage) versus someone who hits for 100 damage but only has a multiplier of 2 (for 200 damage). totals). Even though Player A's base damage is significantly lower than Player B's base damage, he is much better in PvP.
This allows us to set a scope of the overall power level for PvP (the floor being a fully empowered character with the boost and the cap being the best augmented PvP gear) and we can include PvE gear in that scope as we just want it by changing the amount of expertise that equipment receives. As your PvE gear has more and more PvE stats compared to your PvP gear, we are removing balance to keep the potency of that gear under control. The result is that we can make sure that PvP gear is always better than PvE gear (in PvP), regardless of the differences in PvP stats.
Hope this has enlightened you on how the boost system actually works, and I imagine this will bring up a number of questions. We will try to answer as much as possible
