Tier sets in an MMORPG: Tier 1 class armor sets, regalia and set bonuses

A tier set is a class armor set that players in classic MMORPGs raid for over and over: a handful of pieces that together grant set bonuses and change the way your class plays. In Zarhold — a card MMORPG in your browser — the first of these sets are called Tier 1: every one of the ten classes has its own, the item level is 232, and they come only from heroic raids and heroic world bosses.

Let’s look at what a tier is in MMORPGs in general, what Tier 1 in Zarhold is made of, how the 2-, 4-, 6- and 8-piece bonuses work, where regalia come from and how Halvard the Unseeing turns them into your class’s armor.

What a tier set is in an MMORPG

“Tier” simply means a level or rank. In MMORPGs it’s the name for a step of raid gear: each new tier is stronger than the last and comes with bonuses of its own. Two things set a tier set apart from ordinary items.

• It belongs to a class. A set is made for one class: its look, armor type and bonuses are for that class alone. Nobody else can wear the pieces.
• It’s more than the sum of its parts. On top of each piece’s stats, the set grants set bonuses: the more pieces you wear, the more bonuses you unlock.

That makes a tier set a long-term goal. One lucky run isn’t enough: pieces arrive one at a time, and collecting all eight takes more than a day. That’s exactly how Tier 1 is meant to work in Zarhold — it’s the main long-term goal of heroic mode.

Tier 1 in Zarhold: ten class sets

Every class has its own eight-piece armor set — full armor from head to toe: helm, shoulders, chest, bracers, gloves, belt, legs and boots. The pieces are epic, item level 232, and can be worn from level 60.

• Barbarian — Bulwark of the Unbreachable Wall (plate);
• Lightbringer — Raiment of the Last Lighthouse (plate);
• Ranger — Gear of the Silent Trail (mail);
• Rogue — Shroud of the Moonless Alley (leather);
• Priest — Vestments of the Silent Litany (cloth);
• Revenant — Plate of the Grave Winter (plate);
• Stormbringer — Raiment of the Storm-Speaker (mail);
• Mage — Mantle of the Starry Vault (cloth);
• Warlock — Garb of the Sworn Pact (cloth);
• Druid — Mantle of the Living Grove (leather).

That’s 80 pieces in total. Their stats are built for PvE — Health, Power and Hardiness, no Resilience — and they’re 16% higher than a regular level 60 epic in the same slot. In any given slot the numbers are the same for every class: what differs is the armor type, the look and the bonuses.

A set piece is personal, and only its own class can wear it. You can’t list it on the auction, mail it or put it in the guild bank; you can disenchant it or sell it to a vendor, like any item level 232 epic. More on what personal items allow is in the Personal items knowledge base article. All ten sets, with their looks and bonuses, are in the Item Atlas, on the Forge Regalia · Tier 1 tab.

Set bonuses: 2, 4, 6 and 8 pieces

Set bonuses unlock at 2, 4, 6 and 8 equipped pieces and stack: with eight pieces all four are active. The key feature of Tier 1 is that one set carries three bonus sets — one for each of your class’s talent trees.

The bonuses that work are those of the tree you’re playing right now — the same one that picks your class power: the spec you activated by hand, or the tree with the most points in it (see Specializations and talent loadouts). Bonuses lock in at the start of a fight: switch trees between fights and the new tree’s bonuses work from the next one. The armor’s tint and glow follow your tree too, so a tank and a damage dealer in the same set look different.

What each step gives

Every tree has its own bonuses, but the ladder looks much the same for all of them:

• 2 pieces — usually your tree’s key card costs one crystal less or lasts a turn longer;
• 4 pieces — a combo: one card makes another cheaper, stronger or returns it to your hand;
• 6 pieces — for most trees, a new set card right in your deck;
• 8 pieces — the peak of the set: a new card, a new combo or a change to the tree’s core mechanic.

Altogether Tier 1 bonuses bring 27 new cards. The item tooltip shows the bonuses of all three trees: yours is highlighted, unlocked steps are green. Your hero’s paper doll also gets a strip of eight slot runes with your tree’s bonuses, so you can see at a glance how far the next step is.

Set bonuses don’t work in PvP

No exceptions here: set bonuses and set cards don’t work in the arena, on battlegrounds or in duels. The item stats — Health, Power and Hardiness — work everywhere. Tier 1 is a PvE reward, and in fights between players its bonuses stay silent. How PvP works is covered in PvP in a card game.

Regalia: what a set is forged from

Set pieces don’t drop from bosses directly. Bosses drop regalia — sealed armor blanks; classic MMORPGs call these tokens. Regalia come in three groups, and each group serves three or four classes:

• Regalia of Dawn — Lightbringer, Priest, Warlock;
• Regalia of the Storm — Barbarian, Ranger, Stormbringer;
• Regalia of Dusk — Rogue, Revenant, Mage, Druid.

Each group has eight regalia — one per armor slot: the Sealed Crown, Pauldrons, Breastplate, Bracers, Grips, Belt, Greaves and Stride. That’s 24 regalia in all. The same regalia becomes different items for different classes: a Barbarian reforges the “Sealed Breastplate of the Storm” into the “Breastplate of the Unbreachable Wall”, while a Ranger gets the “Hauberk of the Silent Trail”. A regalia’s tooltip shows what it turns into for every class of its group, with your class listed first.

Regalia are personal too, only stricter: you can’t sell, disenchant or mail them.

Where regalia drop: heroic raids only

Regalia drop only on heroic difficulty — from heroic raid bosses and heroic world bosses. Normal mode has none. Heroic is the same raid, except every enemy, from guards to summoned minions, is exactly twice as strong and twice as tough. The recommended item level is 232 (220 in normal mode), but it’s advice only: it doesn’t change how strong the enemies are. Details are in Heroic raids and world bosses.

How a regalia drops:

1. Each heroic boss drops at most one regalia per party.
2. The chance: a regular raid boss — 12%, a final boss — 20%, a world boss — 15%.
3. Every boss has its own regalia slot. In total 39 bosses drop regalia: 33 raid bosses and 6 in world boss battles. Raid final bosses drop the “big” slots — helm, chest and legs.
4. The regalia’s group follows a random seat of the party: all five seats are equally likely. If the seat belongs to a world resident, the regalia goes to them.
5. Live players of that group who don’t have that slot yet roll a fair d100 for it. If everyone already has the slot, someone from the group gets it as a spare.

That leads to some simple math. If you’re the only player of your group in the party, a regular boss’s regalia goes to you in about 2.4% of kills on average (12% × 1/5), a final boss’s in 4%, a world boss’s in 3%. A party with several players of one group pulls that group more often, but also shares the regalia among them.

The loot once a day rule applies: regalia and shards come only from your first run of the day to that location. Normal and heroic share one window, and a repeat run is just helping friends, with no loot (see Repeat clears). Which boss drops which slot is shown in the raid’s Loot window with heroic selected, and in the Item Atlas.

The Regalia Forge and Halvard the Unseeing

Regalia are turned into armor by Halvard the Unseeing, Keeper of the Regalia Forge — an ancient smith who forged the regalia of heroes from ages past. He is blind but sees a hero’s path by an inner fire, so he forges to the measure of the path, not the body. The Regalia Forge opens from the game menu, and the window of a freshly dropped regalia has a “To the Forge” button.

How to reforge a regalia:

1. Open the Forge — your regalia are on the left: suitable ones are highlighted, others are dimmed and labelled with the classes they’re for.
2. Pick a regalia — it goes onto the anvil, and the runes of the slots you’ve already forged light up around it.
3. On the right you see the piece your class will get, its look, every tree’s bonuses and which step it will unlock.
4. Press “Reforge” and confirm. The piece appears in your bag; if the bag is full, it arrives by mail, and that letter never expires. Equip it on the Character Sheet.

Forge Shards and spare regalia

A 12–20% chance for the whole party isn’t much, so the Forge has protection against bad luck — Forge Shards:

• +1 shard for every heroic boss on your first run of the day if its regalia didn’t go to you — whether it didn’t drop at all or went to someone else;
• +20 shards — for reforging a spare regalia, one whose slot you already have;
• 150 shards — Halvard forges a regalia of any slot of your group that you don’t have yet.

So 150 heroic bosses without luck still add up to one set piece of your choice. Shards are best spent on the slot that drops for you least often, or on the one you’re missing for the next bonus step.

If you get a spare regalia, you have two options: within 2 hours after the fight, hand it to a companion from this run who belongs to your group and lacks that slot (there’s a button in the Forge), or reforge it into 20 shards. How a party splits items in general is in Group loot rolls.

How to collect Tier 1: a step-by-step plan

1. Gear up in raid epics. Normal raids drop item level 226 epics — with those it’s easier to get close to the 232 recommended for heroic. How to gear up from scratch is in our level 60 gear guide.
2. Build a regular group. Heroic is a challenge for strong groups of live players. World residents will fill any free seats, but a regalia that lands on their seat goes to them.
3. Check the Atlas for which bosses drop the slots you need: the Forge Regalia · Tier 1 tab shows every piece and regalia with chances. How to use the atlas is explained in Where does it drop?
4. Run each location once a day. Your first run of the day gives regalia and shards; repeat runs are just helping friends.
5. Don’t waste spare regalia: hand them to a companion within two hours or reforge them into 20 shards.
6. Aim for the steps. Two pieces already give the first bonus, four and six noticeably change how your tree plays, and the eighth piece is the peak of the set.

Tier set FAQ

What is a tier set, in plain words?

It’s an armor set for one class, made of several pieces that grant set bonuses together. In Zarhold, Tier 1 is eight epic pieces of item level 232 for each of the ten classes. Bonuses unlock at 2, 4, 6 and 8 equipped pieces.

Do Tier 1 pieces drop in normal raids?

No. The regalia that set pieces are forged from drop only in heroic mode: from heroic raid bosses (12%, final bosses 20%) and heroic world bosses (15%), at most one per party.

Do set bonuses work in the arena?

No. Set bonuses and set cards don’t work in the arena, on battlegrounds or in duels. The stats of the items themselves work everywhere.

Can I give a set piece or a regalia to a friend?

A finished set piece — no: it’s personal. A spare regalia can be handed, within two hours, to a companion from the same run who belongs to your group and doesn’t have that slot yet. Regalia can’t be sold or mailed.

What happens to my bonuses if I switch talent trees?

The set adapts on its own: from the next fight the new tree’s bonuses kick in, and the armor changes its tint and glow. You don’t need a separate set for each role.

The bottom line

Tier 1 is the main long-term goal of heroic mode: eight pieces for your class, item level 232 and bonuses that reshape how your tree plays at 2, 4, 6 and 8 pieces. Regalia don’t drop often, but Forge Shards keep bad luck from dragging on forever. Jump into the game, gather your party and start with your first heroic run — Halvard is already stoking the Forge.