No Tier gear is the worst idea ever, ugh !!!

[MasterHamster]

Removal of Tier set pieces just further compounds the issue that all gear is just the exact same. Every goddamn item in the game is stam/mainstat + 2 secondarys. But hey, if there's anything that is obvious is that Blizzard has been on a crusade to remove any sort of need for thinking when it comes to gearing, can't have people comparing items even if one has a higher iLvl, too complicated for the average ARPG player

The removal was just yet another step in the dumbing down everything (and removing so called inconveniences such as not having everything served on a platter, or having to decide what pieces to disregard in favor of a tier bonus) and removal of RPG elements in the game. When there's no items that truly stand out, not only does gear lose some meaning but so does the raid. There's no other progression than getting better items, instead of ALSO working on A SEPARATE PROGRESSION, i.e GETTING YOUR TIER BONUSES.

Even when you're starting to stagnate on ilvl upgrades (which happen oh so fast, evidently), you could still be hunting that elusive chestpiece to get your 4p. That made you LOOK FORWARD TO IT. Yes, it's frustrating to kill a boss and not receive what you want but that is how it's supposed to be. If every lottery ticket was a winner you wouldn't have any god damn excitement buying/scraping them.

Azerite armor tried to replace:
New abilities/passives 110-20
Tier set bonuses
Legendary items
Interesting "mandatory" OP items like trinkets with godlike procs

And this shit is what you get. Removal of what worked, in favor of watered-down, streamlined garbage that tries to fix "issues" that never were a real issue to begin with. People crying about not finishing their tier set bonus is NOT an issue worth trying to "fix". Having an higher iLvl item that you "can't equip" because it breaks a bonus means you'll have to figure out if the ilvl bonus is worth the loss, if it isn't, good for you! You just experienced an RPG element, where just going for the highest number might actually be a loss because you removed a bonus in the process. (Blizzard developers screeching in anguish)

But hey, now we got this neverending sea of near identical items, how exciting.

[Constraint]

I really can't stand the idea of Azerite armor being a replacement for Tier gear. Tier bonuses meant a fresh start to each raiding tier and it was always super exciting and fun for me to see what the new one would be, how it'd interact with which abilities etc.

The worst thing about Azerite gear is that you just have to keep farming the highest ilvl of the SAME TRAIT over and over and over again from each new raid. That is the least inspiring way of gearing I can thing of, to be honest. Just sucks the fun completely out of it.

On top of that, I really miss the unique art they'd come up with for each class. Spastics can defend their choices all they want, but that is outright laziness/cost-cutting and there's no two ways about it, because if it wasn't, they would still have given classes unique looks when they equipped it, instead of each armor archetype being identical. Absolutely pathetic.

[Jhonmakehow]

TBC, LK, Cataclysm send regards.
If u wanna Tank and DPS, get item for two specs, or just remove itens from the game, they dont make diference anymore.

Whats the problem with get two itens, for distincts spec? We lost time doing Isles and shit.

Our brain is Lazy, for him, the faster way is always the best way.
IMO.
That's why the game is boring now.
I dont want the playhard style from Classic, but, people are crying so much.

[bloodkin]

I don't understand that so many people can complain and rage about class homogenization and ability pruning, while at the same time be completely fine when the exact same thing happens to gear! Stats have been oversimplified and pruned to such an extent that only ilvl matters. Stats have no meaning anymore.

The disappearance of tiersets is only the next step, Blizz basically rolled legiondaries, artifacts and tiersets into the azerite system and removed class specific sets to reduce the workload of the art team (they actually stated this as the reason why tier art is gone this Xpac during the beta). This is imo a lazy excuse, so the art team shouldn't be doing it's work? Sure, blizz has more than enough textures and and art assets to create for each new addition to the game, but tiersets have traditionally always been one of the main art pieces blizz made, as it used to be that your character, and it's progression, was one of the most important things in the game.

The naysayers can meme on how it's so much better that art, gear and class homogenization is so much better, but for me, it takes aways what made characters unique and interesting.

[rpuuru]

Best idea ever

[Lindon]

Best fucking decision Blizzard has made in a long time was to remove tier sets.

[Zorachus]

I really can't stand the idea of Azerite armor being a replacement for Tier gear. Tier bonuses meant a fresh start to each raiding tier and it was always super exciting and fun for me to see what the new one would be, how it'd interact with which abilities etc.

The worst thing about Azerite gear is that you just have to keep farming the highest ilvl of the SAME TRAIT over and over and over again from each new raid. That is the least inspiring way of gearing I can thing of, to be honest. Just sucks the fun completely out of it.

On top of that, I really miss the unique art they'd come up with for each class. Spastics can defend their choices all they want, but that is outright laziness/cost-cutting and there's no two ways about it, because if it wasn't, they would still have given classes unique looks when they equipped it, instead of each armor archetype being identical. Absolutely pathetic.

Agree 100%.

And Azerite gear costing you money to reforge, and worse, gets more expensive each time you wanna switch specs WTF ? How was that idea ever given the green light ? So it will soon cost me thousands of gold, and eventually tens of thousands just to switch my Azerite traits from Tank spec to dps spec. F me.

It's almost worth having two characters of the same class now, but dedicated specs. Have a Protection Warrior character, and second character that's only Fury spec'd. Or better yet, farm and hope the RNG gods give you the same 3 Azerite pieces twice, and just keep those 6 pcs of gear to switch back and forth for each spec. What a fucking stupid lame idea Blizzard.

And then the mog style of the gear all looking the same between classes, F'ing dumb. All Plate wearers get the exact same looking gear now, no specific Death Knight vs Paladin plate gear that would make each class unique and it's own. That's just cheap and a way to save development cost.

Answer me this please, I recently got i405 Azerite shoulders, I was in Fury spec, and had loot set to Fury. But when I switched to Protection Tank spec, and then reforged all 3 pcs of gear, and when I chose to change my specs then, those new i405 Shoulders were stuck in Fury trait on the main outer ring. I went back to the reforger again, to wipe it and start over, and again, it would not change out of that Fury trait. Like that was permanently for Fury only. WTF?

[Puremallace]

Ever wonder why some Paladins have what is obviously a Prot piece in their gear slot? Even the number one guy on my server does this. It is because you pick a loot preference and stay Ret to get anything done.

When we had a vendor for tier gear it was FARRRR easier for multi speccing but now you are just like screw it unless you are someone in Method doing high end stuff and can get the gear.

The RNG loot system is forcing people to take what they can get and pray that maybe someday you will have separate sets.

[wanax]

Azerite traits not changing with your spec is probably the shittiest thing about it.

I agree with this so much. Making them switch with specs only makes sense especially since we haven’t had to visit a class trainer to respect in how long? So they add it back with this? Nonsense.

Anyway I miss my tier sets but I can only hope the main art team is designing a bunch for the next xpac

[FAILoZOFF]

Abandoning tier sets idea was a right and justified one. Its just that Azerite gear that was supposed to replaced it "turned out" (no really, it was a dumb system from the beginning) to be a total shtfest.

[Zorachus]

So seems some people are happy Tier gear is gone. May I ask why >? And you actually think Azerite is better ? What would you want instead ?

Tier was great for the 2pc and 4pc bonuses they offered, and then how it changed each new Raid release. And the other great thing with Tier, was when changing specs, the Tier stats and bonuses changed with you automatically. Go from Ret to Prot spec, the Tier gear changed automatically when switching specs. Why they don;t do that with Azerite is baffling.

And of course the fun benefit of Tier gear was the unique class specific designs. Not just Plate overall looking the same, but Death Knights, Paladin's, and Warriors each had their own special looking sets. In BfA the Raid sets all look exactly the same between DK's, Pally's, and War's, and they also look generic and uninspired.

[rrayy]

Players have been complaining about this since launch. One of the many things that makes the Azerite system super awkward. The system as a whole imo was a cop out so they could do a dumbed down version of artifacts and get out of having the art team design tier sets for 11 classes.

Let's stop this nonsense. They didn;t do anything to get the art team out of making tiers sets. That is a narrative that has no footing the the realm of reality.

[Zorachus]

Serious question though, with the shitastic Azerite system were stuck with, what do people do ?

It seems Blizzard doesn't want me to change traits every time I switch specs between DPS and Tank, they are charging me a million gold to do that. So...do you just pick more general traits that seem to fit both specs in the middle ?

Or I suppose the best option, but takes much longer, is hope and pray for a second set of Azerite gear, and have two sets of each piece for each spec. But that could take forever, and what if you got lucky on some gear titanforge to i415, but the other one you get is i390, etc... Just sucks not to have the traits changes with different spec's.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Apart from it not changing between specs, the Azerite system is superior to Tier Set Bonuses in every way.

You know I'd buy that opinion for a dollar.

I'd take tier bonuses in the style of Azerite Perks going forward.

But that's a side issue to if you want Class Sets or Raid Sets. Honestly I get Ion's reason for trying something different, in Legion we'd gotten to a point where the best tier sets were just HD revamps of BC sets. We ran out of true "class identity" sets back in Wrath, or maybe Cata if you're a Shaman. Not to dig into the FFXIV bag again, but they don't do tier sets. They do the same thing WoW does with location-themed sets based on "armor class" (or in their case your role). Though they do have a class-themed set you get for hitting the cap and finishing your class storyline, kinda like the old Order Hall Set in Legion.

[kpzcei]

best idea.

[Dimad]

I dont mind the loss of the tier bonuses. What i dislike is the loss of unique armor appearnce for each class. Now you have cookie cutter generic looks per armor type.

[Trend]

This is probably an old topic, but I am pissed;

I am a casual player, and was working on a ton of alts most of BfA so far, but finally getting my guys to i380+, and switching between specs, and for some reason I never realized this, because never really used it before, but ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME WITH THIS BS ?

On my Warrior, when I switch from Fury dps to Protection Warrior, the Azerite traits don't change specs either. I have to go to the Azerite Reforger, and pay money to have those 3 pcs of gear wiped, and then I can choose new traits for the other spec. But F me, it gets expensive the more often you do it. WTF idea was this ?

First off, Legion had it good, you had your Tier gear, lets say your Ret dps, then you change to Prot Tank spec, the gear would automatically change right away for you, and the gear went from dps bonus to tank bonuses. But with this Azerite shit, it doesn't do that, you need to pay big money to keep switching traits, and the more I do it, it's not cheap.

F off at Blizzard, who ever thought this was better than Tier gear.

I think the azerite system is terrible. However, that you act like Legion was good for changing specs compared to BfA is fucking hilarious. Did you even play Legion?

The two major systems of Legion were artifact weapons and legondaries. Both were absolutely shit for changing specs until the expansion was virtually over. You have to be joking this.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Ever wonder why some Paladins have what is obviously a Prot piece in their gear slot? Even the number one guy on my server does this. It is because you pick a loot preference and stay Ret to get anything done.

When we had a vendor for tier gear it was FARRRR easier for multi speccing but now you are just like screw it unless you are someone in Method doing high end stuff and can get the gear.

The RNG loot system is forcing people to take what they can get and pray that maybe someday you will have separate sets.

Even with a vender for tier gear you had to get the drops to buy it so that really wouldn’t fix the use what you have problem for multi spec.

- - - Updated - - -

So seems some people are happy Tier gear is gone. May I ask why >? And you actually think Azerite is better ? What would you want instead ?

Tier was great for the 2pc and 4pc bonuses they offered, and then how it changed each new Raid release. And the other great thing with Tier, was when changing specs, the Tier stats and bonuses changed with you automatically. Go from Ret to Prot spec, the Tier gear changed automatically when switching specs. Why they don;t do that with Azerite is baffling.

And of course the fun benefit of Tier gear was the unique class specific designs. Not just Plate overall looking the same, but Death Knights, Paladin's, and Warriors each had their own special looking sets. In BfA the Raid sets all look exactly the same between DK's, Pally's, and War's, and they also look generic and uninspired.

I think there are positives and negatives to tier gear being gone. I like that you have more choice on effects with azerite and I like that there are reasons to do stuff other then raiding to get different effects. I dislike the change in art approach and I dislike that you need to level up your heart.

[Constraint]

Let's stop this nonsense. They didn;t do anything to get the art team out of making tiers sets. That is a narrative that has no footing the the realm of reality.

What the fuck are you talking about, out of curiosity? How does it have no footing in the realm of reality?

The removal of tier sets (whether for good or ill) in no way prevents the art team for creating unique looks for each class - they consciously chose not to. Do you think they merely forgot to, as some form of oversight? I'm struggling to accept that you actually believe what you're typing.

[Moxal]

Yeah, I very much miss tier sets. They weren't always AMAZING, but it was nice to be able to have a set goal to work towards that carried from difficulty to difficulty.