The improved set isn't a high level set, more mid level, most comparable to shogun.
The B.E. Pilot set is needed first, the stats on that set are:
Penetration: 2
Impact: 7
Burn: 7
Cut: 7
Stab: 7
Durability is 2000
To make the B.E. Pilot set you need a variety of items, if you can see how the B.E. Pilot set is made you'll see it uses all unique Cyrene materials that are combined together to make the materials needed to craft the set. The material refining chart is on the forum, Chief has a link to it in his signature and there is another post around for it somewhere in the forum.
As far as how many materials, it's really not that many to make the B.E. Pilot into the Improved B.E. Pilot armor set, the hardest item to get is the Boffin upgrade part, which drops from the Vlanwing. You'll need to use the refining chart to refine a few materials to figure out which are needed to make the improved version of the B.E. set, but I can say it uses Imperium Key cubes and sweat, more than one of each for those materials.
The Stats for the Improved B.E. Pilot armor set are:
Penetration: 10
Impact: 9
Burn: 10
Cut: 10
Stab: 9
Durability 3000
Not only do the stats change on the armor set but the color changes as well. The B.E. Pilot armor set looks the same as the A.R.C. Pilot set in the Trade Terminal, so grey with black accents. After you get all the materials needed to make the upgrade of the B.E. set, the color changes from the grey with black accents to Jet Black, so it's an awesome looking set as well as very eco and extremely useful for a large variety of mid level to even higher mid level mobs depending on how you decide to plate the armor set.
I know once I get the entire B.E. Pilot armor set to the Improved B.E. Pilot armor set I will probably never be taking it off.
