WoW Rookie: Hear, hear for tier gear
by Lisa Poisso 
Mar 11th 2009 at 8:00PM
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.Reader Nick writes in with a question we've been planning to tackle here at WoW Rookie for a while now: "Hey, I'm semi-new to the game, but I don't understand what a 'tier' is. My bro has a level 80 Blood Elf Hunter, and he's always saying 'Oh, he has Tier 5; I got Tier 8.' What does that mean?"
The answer to all this math is nothing more complex than the progression of class-specific armor sets. (Oh, and tell your brother he can't possibly have T8 on the live servers yet -- that's going to drop in Ulduar.) Over the course of the game, Blizzard has introduced three-, five- and eight-piece armor sets for each class. These are the so-called "Tier #" or "T#" sets that you hear so much about, all obtained by raiding. Distinguishing between the sets grew confusing as new dungeons, raids and expansions were added, so players began referring to these armor sets in numerical order.
First, a quick look at the basic dungeon sets, which were often numbered among the Tier gear in earlier days.
Dungeon Set 1 An eight-piece set from Old World, level 58-60 dungeons. You'll sometimes hear this set called "Tier 0" by players.
Dungeon Set 2 Patch 1.10 added quests to upgrade Dungeon 1 items to form this eight-piece set. This set is sometimes called "Tier 0.5" by players.
Dungeon Set 3 These are five-piece sets that drop in The Burning Crusade instances. While any class can equip any item, most are designed with specific classes in mind. The "class" sets drop in non-heroic instances, while other pieces can drop in heroic instances. This set is sometimes called "Tier 3.5."
Several other faction-based armor sets, such as the Zandalar Tribe set from Zul'Gurub, used to be referred to in the Tier progression. These fell out of the progression once the Tier terminology started becoming more standardized and widely used.
Tier 1 This eight-piece set drops in Molten Core.Tier 2 An eight-piece set, Tier 2 drops in Molten Core, Onyxia's Lair and Blackwing Lair.
Tier 3 This set actually offers nine pieces for each class. They are quest rewards from items that drop in old, 40-man Naxxramas. Since Patch 3.0.2, Tier 3 gear is no longer available.
Tier 4 With Tier 4, raiding gear entered The Burning Crusade era. This is a five-piece set, sometimes with multiple spec sets for a class, obtained by turning in tokens that drop in Karazhan, Gruul's Lair and Magtheridon's Lair.
Tier 5 Again offering different sets for different talent trees, these five-piece sets are purchased with tokens that drop in Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye.
Tier 6 Tier 6 offers eight-piece sets for multiple specs for purchase with tokens from Hyjal Summit, Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau.
Tier 7 Welcome to the modern era, baby! The five-piece Heroes' sets come from tokens dropped in 10-man ("regular") Wrath raids. Gloves and chest tokens may also be purchased with Emblems of Heroism. Archavon the Stone Watcher in Wintergrasp sometimes drops a random Tier 7 piece.
Tier 7.5 The five-piece Valorous sets are purchased with tokens dropped in 25-man ("heroic") Wrath raids. Leg and shoulders tokens may also be purchased with Emblems of Valor.
Tier 8 and Tier 8.5 Coming soon from Ulduar!
Finally, we leave you with a special tip for casuals, slowbies and completists: Do you drool over armor sets? Check out wowwiki's Armor Sets page for history, drop details and screenshots of matched sets that you can wear as early as your teens. After all, nothing says HAWT like a full set of Defias Leather.
WoW Rookie feeds you the basics to get you off to a good start in the World of Warcraft. Find more tools you can use in the WoW Insider Directory and WoW Insider Leveling GuidesFiled under: Features, WoW Rookie
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Wakleon Mar 11th 2009 8:40PM
Why the bananna armor? Seriously? It that the BEST tier set you could find? I would have been happy will pally ranger.
West Mar 12th 2009 2:02AM
Judgement is still the best looking pally set they ever made.
http://www.wowhead.com/?itemset=217
The purple reskin for the TBC dungeon healing set was ok. It just lacked the bold colors and style of the original.
And Judgement is MUCH better looking than BANANAS!
BANANAS!!
Kvothe Mar 11th 2009 8:23PM
I'd hardly call the Defias set "HAWT"...
Corrytrevor Mar 12th 2009 9:43AM
The Defias leather is a bawler set.
Xavierlives Mar 12th 2009 10:54AM
Pssh! Every rogue probably has the defias set in the bank!
zetathran Mar 11th 2009 8:24PM
It really is neat to be able to go over all the armor sets in Wowwiki. I was indeed drooling the first time I saw the Mana-Etched Regalia on that site, and it's nice to see where all the pieces drop. Of course, it's quite plain compared to the Frostfire Garb a lot of people are wearing now.
Patric Thomas Mar 11th 2009 8:29PM
Note.. ". My bro has a level 80 Blood Elf Hunter, and he's always saying 'Oh, he has Tier 5; "
because a casual player never gets all of any Tier.
I'm a casual player and the closest I ever got to anything like a full "Tier X" set was the welfare epics from Spellfire Tailoring.
rick gregory Mar 12th 2009 1:10AM
Tailoring and other epics are not part of the tier progression. Like you, I used other epics that were often as good as the T[N] stuff, but these are outside of the Tier line
Balius Mar 12th 2009 2:30AM
Those are just a "set", and items that are as good as a given tier are sometimes referred to as, for example, "Tier 5 equivalent" (like the badge loot on the Isle of Quel'Danas was).
Xavierlives Mar 12th 2009 10:54AM
Here is what you do: go clear out some T1 spots now that you are 80 and then you will be old school.
Then you can blame work for you lack of raiding.
Aaron A. Mar 11th 2009 8:29PM
I've also heard the Wrath sets described as 7.10 and 7.25, referring to the items obtained in 10- and 25-person raids respectively. I'm not sure whether this "Ubuntu numbering" is widely used, but you might see it around.
Excelis Mar 12th 2009 8:30AM
Exactly so. Much better designation. Pre-LK the Tx.5 armor's sets came with instance patches to the game. Post-LK since Tier items will come from Raid instances that have have both a 10man and 25man version it is much more logical to use Tx.10 and Tx.25.
Khalis Mar 12th 2009 1:06PM
The problem with that is that Uldular 10 gear will have item levels on par with Naxx25, as well as the same tokens.
Jeremy Mar 21st 2009 8:42AM
Well Aaron, I have never heard of the new tier gear being referred in a such a manner (which doesn't mean it isn't widely used in some places). Most common reference I've encountered across multiple servers (mostly backwater ones mind you) are T7 for 10-man and T7.5 for 25 man. Kinda like how Sunwell drops were viewed as a half a tier above the Hyjal/BT drops and were referred to as T6.5 drops.
A few weeks ago, the guild I am in got bored because we had finished our raiding for the week halfway thru our 3 day of scheduled raiding. So began our Sunwell clear for the achivement. The next week, same scenerio and it was BT/HJ (not alot of guilds cleared this prior to nerf or even after nerf). But for the hell of it Ipicked up my shammy's T6 five piece set for novelty. So sits my pretty 5 pc set in the bank.
MusedMoose Mar 11th 2009 8:30PM
Thank you so much for this article. I've been wondering where the tiers come from for quite some time, but I'd never needed to look it up.
darthginger Mar 11th 2009 8:43PM
that was a big thing when i first started playing the game. looking at the armour sets on the wow-europe site. Having no concept of the raids themselves apart from what was written on the wow website about them. but wanting to do them, the incentive to play them and get these awesome looking sets.
and also seeing these higher level players standing around in IF looking as cool as the t2 / t3 sets did gave you incentive to want to raid also.
i don't feel this is forced enough now tho, with so many options the whole "tier" concept is either outdated or needs a revamp. many people never try for full tier sets as they get better pieces individually.
i found this myself raiding through tier4 and 5. having 5/5 could gimp you on other pieces.
there should be some incentive beyond the (sometimes rather lacklustre) set bonus's for wearing a full raid tier set. They are supposed to mean something, but currently they dont. its not a symbol of anything anymore.
i know wows, changed a lot since vanilla. but this is one change im sad to see.
Hoggersbud Mar 11th 2009 8:52PM
See, Blizzard actually found that forcing people to load up on a full tier set was counter-productive, as they felt their gear choices were limited. That would be un-fun.
Talelon Mar 12th 2009 4:27AM
I understand what you mean, but it'd be nice to see some "worthwhile" set bonuses to give incentive to actually collect the full thing like it was back in PreBC
Surcal Mar 11th 2009 8:53PM
For completeness you can include the ZG, AQ20 and AQ40 sets.
AQ40 is geneally considered Tier 2.5
ZG and AQ20 are harder to categorize Tier0.75?
Lisa Mar 11th 2009 8:59PM
Actually, we did include those sets -- see the section between the Dungeon sets and the Tier sets. While many people pinned Tier nomenclature on those sets back in the day, they're not generally named among the Tier sets anymore. Instead, most folks refer to them now as "faction sets."... not to be confused with "fashion sets." Because contrary to what Kvothe may think, the discerning player with long-ranging perspective knows that Defias Leather IS teh hawtness. ;)