blue post from the general forums yesterday:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...ageNo=1&sid=1#3



As someone frustrated by the gear progression for small groups originally available at retail, I am cautiously optimistic. Does this mean that we'll see more lockout 10-man raids with pieces of the armor sets in the future?

Maybe, but probably only one or two more tops before the next expansion. I imagine that Tier 4 is like what Tier 0 is now - the starter set to get you going. Too bad, because it's PURPLE for Priests!

PURPLE!

Once again, to prove the importance of purple:



I miss this outfit.

-Bolty

Probably fair to call it a 'starter' set, since 4 comes after 3 but before 5.

But I do think T4 is going to be legitimately awesome unlike T0; Blizzard's CMs are quite giddy about Karazhan and since it has a lockout, Blizzard can put great items in there.

I suppose my end analysis is: Hey, they could have put awesome stuff in only 25-man dungeons and filled Karazhan with level 70 blues and greens but instead it's going to have T4-level gear. And based on that, I'm optimistic that we'll see some more along the way. Maybe 10-man and a 25-man wings released in parallel each time? That would be pretty cool.

Just a guess, but I'd wager the plan right now is for T4 to be the ONLY tiered set in BC. The plan is for yearly expansions from here on out. Think about it - each tier adds about 10 levels to the items. Wouldn't it make more sense for the players to go up 10 levels as well? The disconnect between clvl and ilvl has caused a number of problems that is forceing them to make fundamental changes to the itemization, I would be suprised if they want to do that every time there is an expansion. Especially if those expansions are yearly.

Now if the talent trees are messed up and require a class by class review, dramatically extending the duration of BC, they will need to add new content, new items, and probably T5.

Hopefully. I'm really looking forward to Kharazan. Though whichever slots are missing will almost certainly be fillable with equivalents (crafts, arena gear, non-set drops) I'm vaguely wondering where the rest of T4 will be and what will be in the other endgame instances - will the 25-man instances have T4a (similar budget but optimised for larger raids), T5 (better in every way) or the last half of T4?

Mostly important for my alts - I'll probably go back to my druid tank as my main for BC. So T4 is likely to just be for strolling around town anyway

I don't, cos I know the pants of doom were under there. Scarred I am, scarred.

"I ken flatt'n steel with my thighs!"

Corrected your statement in quote.

-Bolty