World of Warcraft: Tier Sets Explained

One of the many conundrums that players face as they become immersed in the World of Warcraft is that of gear upgrades, tier and set bonuses, and gem/enchant optimizations. As you move through harder and harder content the gear available from drops becomes better and better, and you also gain access to special armor known as tier sets. There have been many changes implemented in WoW over the last year which have left many people just now reaching the level cap confused about which is the better gear to aim for. It is generally accepted that some of the best gear available at any point in the game is the tier for that level. Not only because of the stats available on this gear but because they also offer class-specific set bonuses for gaining more pieces of the set which can sometimes offer great advantages in later encounters.

Starter Raids, Tier 7, Heroism & Valor Emblems

Originally a vanilla World of Warcraft raid offering tier 3 armor sets, Naxxramas was redesigned as a 10/25-man raid for Wrath of the Lich King and the armor within was upgraded to this level. The tier 7 armor sets offered here are the first available in WotLK and come in 2 varieties: a set of item level 200 gear known as tier 7 (t7) from the 10-man raid, and one of item level 213 known as tier 7.5 (t7.5) from the 25-man version.

Originally, the heroic dungeons in Northrend and the starter 10-man raids offered an item from bosses known as Emblem of Heroism which could also be traded in for epic gear of item level 200. In the 25-man raids one could obtain Emblem of Valor which could also be traded in for gear of item level 213. What is most interesting is that before WotLK, tier was only available from special token drops which then could be traded in for a single piece of tier but in Wrath, two pieces of t7 and two pieces of t7.5 are available from the vendors for emblems of heroism and valor.

Ulduar, Tier 8 and Emblem of Conquest

When the raid dungeon of Ulduar was added to the game tier 8 made an appearance too, again in two versions; one of item level 219 from 10-man (t8) and one of item level 226 from the 25-man version (t8.5). Another emblem was also added known as Emblem of Conquest which dropped from the bosses of Ulduar and again could be traded in for gear. The gear available from conquest emblems is item level 226 and therefore equivalent to the drops in the 25-man version of Ulduar. The Emblem of Conquest vendor again also offers two pieces of tier 8.5 (the helm and the chest) for those that were unlucky getting the token drop they needed.

Patch 3.2, Tier 9, Emblem of Conquest Changes and Emblem of Triumph

With the release of patch 3.2 Blizzard unveiled the new level 80 version of Onyxia’s Lair alongside a new raid dungeon, the Trial of the Crusader (10-man and 25-man normal) and Trial of the Grand Crusader (heroic versions of both). With this Blizzard changed how things worked regarding dungeon progression and tier sets. Now, all heroic dungeons and raids below Onyxia offer Emblem of Conquest from the bosses, making it easy to save up a ton of these emblems. The new raids added offer a new Emblem of Triumph from the bosses at a rate of three per boss. The daily quest for a heroic Northrend dungeon also offers two Emblems of Triumph as a quest reward, making these trivial to get by anyone even if it takes a while to save them up.

Now, the tier 9 sets added in patch 3.2 work a little differently to previous sets. Firstly, there are three different sets. Tier 9 is available in its entirety from an Emblem of Triumph vendor, but only at the lowest item level of 232. Above this to get the next level tier 9 (item level 245) you must obtain a Trophy of the Crusader from either the 25-man normal or the 10-man heroic version of this instance. The highest level set of item level 258 is once again available from token drops, but these are only available from the 25-man version of Trial of the Grand Crusader.

The Future: Icecrown Citadel, Tier 10 and Emblem of Frost

Now that WoW patch 3.3 has been released, supposed by some to be the last major content patch before the release of Cataclysm, Blizzard will be adding Icecrown Citadel and the Lich King for players to defeat. The final tier of WotLK, Tier 10 will also be added to this raid along with a new Emblem of Frost and a vendor for these. Tier 10 will be available in two levels, t10 and t10.5 but will work a little differently. Players will have to first get the lowest level tier 10 from Emblem of Frost, and combined with a token drop from the heroic raid dungeon, can then upgrade their t10 to t10.5. Emblem of Triumph will be made available to players from heroic Northrend dungeons and the daily will be upgraded to the new Emblem of Frost, making it possible for players to get gear of item level 245 and above simply from doing content that was available at the start of WotLK.

Zygor's Guide has much more about the different tiers, and has all the tips you need to level your character fast. If you are looking to improve your skills, check out his guide. We highly recommend it.