Ooh, someone else better take this. All I know is you don't have to get them sequentially, but some upper tier gear can be trader for higher tier gear. Tier 1 is early end-world dungeons, where Tier 10 would be more recent 10 and 25-man raids. - Haggis (Sean Loyless) from IM

No need to get them sequentially - basically, the higher the tier, the better the item. Right now Tier 9 is in play, and in fact, there's T9.0, T9.3 or something, T9.5 (they vary based on how you acquire them). When you collect enough of the set, you'll get different bonuses as well - and there's different sets for just about every spec - so a shadow priest tier set is different from a holy priest tier set - the bonuses and stats are different. Last week, my mage had 2 pieces of T8 and 2 pieces of T7, but now has 3 pieces of T8 and 1 piece of T9. Different instances drop different pieces. For example, if you want a tier 8 (or is it T7?) headpiece, the only way you can get it is from killing KT. This is slightly outdated, but will get you the general idea: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info... - Miriella

When you start raiding, it's called "progression content," meaning within an expansion or a certain period of time, you're supposed to complete X raid instance first to get the gear and experience you need to complete Y raid instance, which gives you the gear and raid experience you to complete Z instance, and so on. In the beginnings of WoW Classic raiding, there were two "tiers" to the progression: complete Molten Core, then complete Blackwing Lair. So, the armor set that was from Molten Core was Tier 1, and the Armor Set that was mostly from Blackwing Lair was Tier 2. The name stuck and all subsequently released raid instances have generally considered to be one tier harder/better than the last. Some raid instances weren't supposed to be fully above others, but were considered additional or overlapping content, so people came up with the idea of calling them tier N.5. The first one was the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, which only had a 5 piece armor set and couldn't fully replace your Tier 2 armor set (which was 8 pieces), so it was called Tier 2.5. - Mark Trapp

When expansions come out, they're supposed to be the great gear equalizer, so at the start of TBC, "Tier 4" referred to the first tier of raiding content, Karazhan, and Tier 6.5 was the final tier, which was the Sunwell. In Northrend, tier 7 is the start, and they're currently on tier 9 or 9.5. Icecrown is supposed to be tier 10. - Mark Trapp

So basically no hope of a casual player getting any of it, right? - Internet's Tad from fftogo

Well, any raid should be completable within a couple of hours, and they reset every week, so they could spaced out. It just requires getting 10 like-minded people on at the same time. - Mark Trapp

"No hope" is probably strong to describe. I'm a casual player and have had a couple pieces of Tier gear in my time. If you can make raids, you can get tier pieces. It'll just take you longer to get the whole set than the hardcore players. - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

Tad - if you just do the heroic dailies, you can actually get the T9.0 pieces. The lowest level of a T9 piece requires um...30 or 50 Badges of Triumph, depending on the piece? (Help me, I'm pulling numbers out of my ass) - and every time you do the heroic daily, you get 2 Badges of Triumph. So in fact, even if you only do one heroic instance a day, you can eventually get all 5 pieces of T9.0 gear. For the 9.3 or 9.5 or whatevers, you need to do either 25M ToC heroic or regular, or 10M ToC heroic. - Miriella

I would recommend PUGing a Naxx run (if people still run it, it's hard to find on my server). You can get some of the Tier 7 and raid experience. There's Obsidian Sanctum (3 mini bosses and the main boss) and Maly (one boss) that aside from wipes should take barely any time at all. Ulduar can be done in parts, it's long but running a few bosses here and there will add up well. ToC 10 or 25 would be the ideal spot to get in, but there are mechanics that can be difficult for people without much experience. @Miriella, 30 for shoulders and gloves, 50 for head, chest and pants. (My boyfriend is like Wowhead live.) - Heather

Wow, so I didn't pull numbers out of my ass...that's kind of sad (thanks for the confirmation!). And don't forget Vault of Archavon! There's three bosses and you can get T9, T8, or T7, depending on the boss you kill. Lol! - Miriella

I've been keeping an eye out for tier 7 pug runs on Silvermoon (where we are), and they are few and far between. The pug runs for later tiers want out-geared people with achievements so they can speed through it; it seems to be a requirement for even heroic content. It's definitely substantially more difficult to get into end game content this late in the expansion cycle, unless you can find a guild that's also in the same position you are. - Mark Trapp

You can find Naxx training runs on Silvermoon all the time. Naxx and Ulduar. Be warned, they do still gear-check and will kick you if you're not up to snuff with your stats. It's always a good idea to start earning some badge gear before aiming yourself straight for T9. You need to be skilled as well as geared, and leapfrogging the process just so you can strut in top gear is not only cheating yourself, it's cheating the people you raid with. Heroics and intro end-game raids like Naxx are there to train you for the harder content above all else; the gear is just your reward for making it. - tinypants - Hagitha of FF

Clearly I'm not looking in the right place or on at the right time: I can never find a Naxx run (much less a training run). I found one since I transferred here, and it fell apart before we ever got into the instance. I've been monitoring LFG and Dalaran trade chat: is there a better place to look? - Mark Trapp

Not really. I see Naxx and Ulduar called for at least once a night in Trade. You'll see it more on the weekends than anything else, and typically during the day. I know that my main guild runs a lot of that stuff during the daytime and is always in need of a couple pugs. They gear-check to make sure you can do at least the minimum for the run, but that's about it. We try to do Naxx 10 training runs at least once a week, though we've not done it the last two weeks due to people being on vacation and ill. :-/ If anything, we should be running y'all through heroics as often as possible. Are you very far into your Conquest badge gear yet? - tinypants - Hagitha of FF

Doing a little more research, I'm trying to understand how this works. I'm currently geared in what's considered Naxx starter gear: from everything I checked, my spellpower, haste, hit, crit, spirit are all well above the minimum. So Naxx is tier 7, and presumably, drops tier 7 loot, right? But heroics now drop emblems of conquest, which give loot that's essentially equivalent to tier 8. So if you can't do Naxx until you're basically out-geared for the zone, what's the point of doing Naxx? - Mark Trapp

Mark - doing the lower instances and raids is intended to give you experience to doing the harder or higher raids. There's plenty of people who run around with the T9.0 gear as I mentioned but have no idea how to actually play in a raid or even an instance, as tinypants is suggesting. We'll all hate you if you have the gear but don't know what you're doing :) It's a very valid point you bring up though, as many of my guildies are bummed that people don't ever really want to do Naxx or Ulduar anymore, because they're great instances to do (Ulduar not so much), but since you can get even better gear by doing the comparatively-super-easy ToC, or even just heroics, there isn't a point, but people still need to know how to raid and play your class so the rest of the raid isn't stuck carrying the inexperienced. - Miriella

I think when I hit 80 I'll just keep to my casual schedule. The new Random PUG doodad should make it easier to run instances and then heroics and then we'll see what comes after that. I'm not in any hurry to get the most uber equipment. - Internet's Tad from fftogo

Miriella, good point, although I wonder if only a person interested in a progression guild would care about that. If you just want to run pugs, or are in a casual guild, there's value in the experience of the dungeon qua dungeon and getting better gear, but not necessarily in doing dungeons in order (otherwise, you'd be in a progression guild). I guess that's why pugs enforce achievement requirements, to shoehorn the progression philosophy on top of an ostensibly casual play style. It is frustrating not to be able to get a foot in the door at even the heroic pug level (everyone wants to do a speed run), which is why I keep pushing for us to them :-P - Mark Trapp

All I have to say is...I miss the days of attunement. As a casual player back in classic content, it annoyed me, but as a raider in BC and Wrath, I can fully appreciate the need for it now. - tinypants - Hagitha of FF

I think the achievement system is a better system: because you can require people to have an achievement, but you can still make exceptions on a case-by-case basis. With attunements, if you don't have it, you can't go, regardless if the rest of the raid thinks you'd be okay. Which leads to constantly running lower instances if you're not a top tier guild that can poach from the lower tier guilds. - Mark Trapp

From what's going on in my guild right now most of the Heroic runs are being done to get under geared players badges, gear for alt, or achievements. But if you think of raid experience like a resume, Naxx will get you a lot. The gear isn't the best of the best, but the mechanics cover about 90% of what's in game. My guild looks at experience and gear, but also the effort people put in. Work on Son's of Hodir rep for the shoulder enchant and whatever your head enchant comes from, max your professions, and look into perfecting your spec/gems/enchants. (I recommend for spec ect you check the armory. I forget what server Insidia is on it's UK, but they are one of the world best. Firetree has Pie Chart if you want a reference.) You can also check out Elitist Jerks for forum threads on classes. If you put some effort into playing smart it will pay off. Even running the daily regular dungeon will get you connections. If a handful of players recognize your name you are more likely to get invites. It can result in raid runs when guilds are short a few members. - Heather

Heather speaks the truth. To be frank, there's no excuse for trying to leapfrog the system. It's lazy and it does a disservice to your fellow raiders. Earn your spot in a raid group, don't just expect it. The worst thing Blizz ever did was make tier gear purchasable with badges. :-/ - tinypants - Hagitha of FF

YES. What tinypants said. :) - Miriella

Blizzard has a tenancy to come around with the nerf stick and an easy button a little while into new raid levels. They do it mostly so people can play catch up and get into raiding without spending the time learning that progression guilds did. It does make sense when a guild looses players or when people are bringing alts in to balance raids properly, but it's detrimental where people assume gear is the end all be all. My guild leaders forum sig is "team work>skill>gear" and it's really true. You need to have gear to get the numbers, but skill is going to make the numbers matter, and playing well together is going to make the numbers lead to boss downings. I feel ranty right now, but I think it's because we ran a 25ToC tonight with about 10 PUGs. Most of the people had trouble switching dps and some really basic movement. Movement skills cannot be overstressed! (Which is why Safety Dance is important!) - Heather

I want to have a giant group hug with Miriella and Heather. :D - tinypants - Hagitha of FF

tier 7.5 is easysauce in Naxx. or at least it was when lich king came out a year ago. - Bill Kinney

Yay grouphug!!!! *stretches out her arms in anticipation* - Miriella

/grouphugs We gamer girls have to stick together! ^_^ - Heather