wow Tier Sets Won't Be Returning in WoW Shadowlands

[Stan 5,018]

Game Director Ion Hazzikostas confirmed during the BlizzCon Q&A that there are currently no plans for Tier Sets to return in the Shadowlands, but they are still a possibility in the future.

Check out our BlizzCon 2019 hub for more news and interviews!

In Shadowlands, each of the four Covenants offers various rewards. These include Armor Sets, and depending on your Covenant choice, there will be four different sets to obtain for each Armor type (Cloth, Mail, Leather, Plate) and Covenant.

Blizzard teased the Covenant Plate Armor Sets at BlizzCon

Although the developers are listening to feedback and agree that Class Sets made raiding more compelling, they won't be returning anytime soon, and we'll see more of these cosmetic sets based on Armor type in Shadowlands.

[leapingshadow 50]

To elaborate more on this personally. I am in agreement with what Ion is saying about tier sets. In classic it was something you worked months on due to multiple reasons. Contending with other players for the drop, less drops per boss, only 1 difficulty, bonus rolls. All of these have contributed to making gear more easily acquirable and that directly translates into tier sets. Be honest, it was not unrealistic to obtain the 4 set bonus within the first month, most likely the first 2-3 weeks of that raid tier going live. Because of how quickly people obtained that gear, those slots became dead slots on your character because you would never trade away a set bonus. That is a hugely limiting factor for equipment creation and because of that it makes total sense why it went away. I do think there are places still for smaller 2 set bonuses, such as a Neck/Ring/Trinket like we've seen in Legion and BFA. 

Set bonuses are cool. Really cool. They give you a straight-forward journey to follow to obtain the whole of the set and reap the benefits. It's easy for new players to understand. It's clear then that the issue lies in acquisition, so how do you get around that? There's lots of ways but the way that is immediately apparent to me is to make a vendor that would sell this set gear. The cost being reagents from raids, dungeons, and professions, similar to the dungeon set 2.

Edited November 3, 2019 by leapingshadow
Phrasing.

[Imarai 17]

I agree with leapingshadow. I do think they are trying to work towards something similar with the new  kiss/curse items combined with the crafted Legendary items in the Shadowlands. The legendaries sound highly customisable in that you can choose the item slot, as well as secondary stats and some agency as to the effects. This means you aren't automatically giving up a specific item slot, so you can assess what might be your BiS and then create your Legendary for a slot that suits you. 

Additionally tier sets, whilst fun, and something to work towards did range between very good and abysmal for the bonuses depending on the class/spec/tier they were for. I remember once keeping the previous tier set until almost the end of the next tier during Legion, since the 2 set and 4 set bonuses were terrible for rdruid.

[RageMonkey 1]

Welp, hope they find a way to make Raid loot not suck or be boring. 

[Bobbis 208]

2 hours ago, leapingshadow said:

To elaborate more on this personally. I am in agreement with what Ion is saying about tier sets. In classic it was something you worked months on due to multiple reasons. Contending with other players for the drop, less drops per boss, only 1 difficulty, bonus rolls. All of these have contributed to making gear more easily acquirable and that directly translates into tier sets. Be honest, it was not unrealistic to obtain the 4 set bonus within the first month, most likely the first 2-3 weeks of that raid tier going live. Because of how quickly people obtained that gear, those slots became dead slots on your character because you would never trade away a set bonus. That is a hugely limiting factor for equipment creation and because of that it makes total sense why it went away. I do think there are places still for smaller 2 set bonuses, such as a Neck/Ring/Trinket like we've seen in Legion and BFA. 

Set bonuses are cool. Really cool. They give you a straight-forward journey to follow to obtain the whole of the set and reap the benefits. It's easy for new players to understand. It's clear then that the issue lies in acquisition, so how do you get around that? There's lots of ways but the way that is immediately apparent to me is to make a vendor that would sell this set gear. The cost being reagents from raids, dungeons, and professions, similar to the dungeon set 2.

I could agree with what they said about the dead slots, until they followed that with Azerite gear and the HoA. You aimed for your 4 set before, so had 4 dead slots (usually, there were exceptions for some specs but not often). Now replaced by 4 dead slots, 1 of which was a stat stick until 8.2, the other 3 still have a BiS set up to aim for. 

It's the same thing, a bit different, but still the same. 

[Blightmoore 0]

Oh, come on. Ion admitted after feedback it was clear the community wanted tiers back and that they made a mistake/would look into bringing them back. So what happened? I'm excited for some changes yes but this was a huge pet peeve during bfa. It's so boring. They stressed they wanted to bring back class identity (tiers help that) and not spec identity but then you go ahead and keep tiers out despite feedback.

Edited November 3, 2019 by Blightmoore

[Misuteri 26]

With LFR, Flex, Normal/Heroic raiding and weekly world boss during MOP it was possible and quite likely to be 4/4 the first week.  I never considered them “dead” spots in inventory but one I just had to upgrade (Likely.).  Hell during Dragon Soul we stacked armor classes so we could get someone’s alt 4/4 bonuses before they raided.

There’s no reason that they couldn’t make a belt, bracers or something that really IS a dead spot be a +1 to tier bonus.  Heck they stole everything else from Diablo 3, why not that concept?

People will discover in Classic that they may (I haven’t been running the sims or know.) want 2 piece D1/D2, 2 piece T1, 4 piece T2 for max something.

It’s entirely possible that they could mix and match gear from early to late in the expansion to make things interesting that way.

[darkgreenwax 409]

I feel like 4pc is too much, but I'd be totally welcome with a wide variety of 2pc sets that would add some fun flavor or utility and not become mandatory.

[Brutalis 165]

Set bonuses were really cool, but very imbalanced. Sometimes a spec was useless but then they got the 4pc and was great, then you had those sets where the 4pc changed your entire rotation which is fun. Other times we had bonuses that offered very little. As well, I can agree with what Ion said about dead slots and such... But raid loot, as is, is very boring. It's boring from a transmog perspective too - having a single set shared across an entire armour type was a dumb idea and class tier sets have historically been some of the best looking and most-mogged armour in the game yet now all we have is bland stuff that I never see anyone use.

The old system served it's purpose and, indeed, it's time for something else, but the alternatives thus far have been pretty terrible.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Brutalis

[jediolson 0]

I thought about coming back for this xpac but seeing that there is no tier again. I think i'm just done with the game. Every Xpac they just keep taking more and more out of the game that made it worth playing so now once you get  tf you never replace it. it's Just Dumb. Classic WOW is better then what they turned retail WOW into. And that's sad because that code is so old. And the worse part is even the gear in classic looks better then anything new they come out with. Set Bonus was a BIG BONUS, and if all the classes had their bonus it was pretty balance with the pure dps classes at the top and the muti spec classes right below them. I use to be a hardcore wow player but ever sense I came back at the start of Legion the game is just boring to play. The only thing there is to do is far your AP and that is boring. The AP system is worse then having set bonuses and sets a unfair scale to the people that didn't have hours to waste farming it. like people that only have 1 azerite trait unlocked in the tree to the ones that have all 3 and the extra 15% stam. Like smart thinking wow let me quit my job and just play wow all day!

[Kynelan 0]

Honestly it doesnt matter to me the big thing people care about ate the set bonuses which honestly could be a consumable drop from a boss to add onto gear or better yet give it to professions! Inscription could probably use a boost in that area. Most professions are pointless unless you can make a mount or pet. Try improving on all areas and bring back class identity and profession focus. 

[Blondre3000 1]

Tier sets made the game feel so much more worth playing, to be able to have something you can work for that no other class can obtain.. it's all mix/matching and then transmog to old sets from a better time in WoW.. IMHO warforge/random il boosting is a huge reason that retail has been failing. Why should people bother trying to reach the hardest content in game, when you can just farm dungeons and get lucky drops for stronger gear than base mythic raids? It's absurd and the biggest reason I've quit retail. No tier sets? Total RNG on whether or not you're going to get *filtered* gear or end game gear from anything? No reforger to min/max your gear? It's all a shite system that I wish they would learn from their mistakes, but they won't. Removing the RNG item levels on gear, and going back to static item levels per drop would be a massive leap in returning this game to it's former glory. Giving us tier sets that, yes, sometimes could be aquired fast or almost never at all, is something a lot of people want. ...so long as it's not some shitty recoloring of another set like they've been doing lately. (imo get some of those diablo artists to make some weapons and sets)