Does it matter what your BDR is when you accumulate making waves? Or does it only matter when converting them to notability?
Only when converting to Notability.
It affects how much you need, not how fast you get it. Since the amount of change points you need for each level of Making Waves is defined by a finite arithmetic series, each point of BDR makes an increasingly huge impact as you aim for more and more Notability. If you are trying to advance from Notability 14 to 15, the difference between having no BDR and having one point is enough to bring Making Waves from 0 to about 12.[li]
edited by Saklad5 on 10/28/2016
And, just to state the obvious: If you’re aiming to increase your Notability, you need to have your top BDR gear equipped in order to have the discount on MW.