Tier Sets and the Catalyst

Tier gear is a set of class-specific pieces that grant extra bonuses when you wear enough of them — one bonus at two pieces, a second and larger one at four. The bonuses are written for your specialisation and they are usually a bigger power increase than the item levels involved.

The set covers 5 slots: Head, Shoulders, Chest, Hands and Legs. Any four of those give you both bonuses.

Tier pieces drop from raid bosses as tokens — an item shared by several classes that you turn in for your own class's piece. They also appear in the Great Vault, and they can be created from gear you already own through the Catalyst, which is the next section and usually the faster route.

Each token covers a group of classes. Find yours here so you know which boss to care about:

Useful when you are two pieces from a bonus and deciding which bosses are worth the evening.

The Catalyst converts a non-tier piece you already own into the tier piece for that slot. It is the answer to "the shoulders will not drop" — rather than waiting on luck, you take something you have and turn it into the thing you need.

You spend a charge to do it. Charges accumulate over the season as you play, so they are limited but not scarce, and an unspent charge does nothing for you.

Which piece to convert — this changed this season. The conversion now keeps the original item's own secondary stats, tertiary stats, gem sockets and special effects instead of stamping the set's fixed stats onto it. Tier pieces used to arrive with whatever stats the set dictated, and for a lot of specs that meant a set bonus bought at the cost of a badly-statted item.

So the piece to feed it is the best-statted item you own in that slot, not automatically the highest item level one. If you have a 305 with your two best stats and a 308 with neither, convert the 305.

Item level still sets the floor. As a rule of thumb, converting something more than 13 item levels below your character's average is wasted — you will replace it before the set bonus pays for itself.

Avoid converting crafted pieces: you can remake those at will, so spending a charge on one throws away the charge and the flexibility together.

When to use a charge. Getting from two pieces to four is the largest single jump available, so spend freely to reach four. Past four, hold charges — a later charge spent on a much better base piece is worth more than an early one spent on whatever you happened to be wearing.

The practical order for most characters:

1. Take every tier token that drops, on any difficulty, even a low one. Two pieces is the first bonus. 2. Prefer tier pieces in the Great Vault over higher item level in a slot you have already covered. 3. Use the Catalyst to close the gap to four rather than waiting for the last slot to drop. 4. Once you have four, go back to taking the best item level — and upgrade the set pieces with crests like anything else.

The planner reads your equipped set pieces, tells you how many you have and which slots are missing, and names the piece it would run through the Catalyst — the highest-item-level non-tier piece in a slot the set covers, with crafted gear excluded for the reason above.

What it does not do is pretend to know when your next charge arrives.