First, I'll start off with that at first I thought there was a bug in Cyrodiil that wouldn't let you increase your armor or spell resistance pre-50. Even abilities that grant armor rating or spell resistance don't work. I noticed this the first time I went into Cyrodiil with my Sorc that had Bound Armor on and I was getting melted fast. I looked at my character sheet and sure enough the buff didn't matter and just ate 2 slots on my bars. If you want to test this yourself.. take off all your gear in Cyrodiil while under the buff and you will notice that even naked your stats don't change.

Now I realize it's not a bug. It's intended. The PvP buff you get when you enter Cyrodiil pre-50 gives everyone the same base stats at PvP rank 1 and you can't alter that number through buffs or passives.

However, the higher your PvP rank the higher your base stats can go under the PvP buff. I know this because my level 38 Sorc and my level 12 NB both had the same stats until I got a couple PvP ranks on my Sorc. My Sorc is PvP rank 4-5 now and has higher base stats.

There isn't much information out there that I can find and it's really been bothering me. Does anyone know how this works?