Tiers, Renown and 80 (#)?

Another basic question thread, but not for the want of trying to find it through searching. Given the age of this game I constantly find it surprising how little background information seems to be posted, or ‘available’ these days.

Anyway, could someone please explain the following to me:

I repeatedly see references to dungeons and raids referred to in terms of Tiers; these I assume refer to the difficulty, etc. However, how does one find out what ‘tier’ one’s character is? Is it an average of the gear quality or is it some rating of attack, defence, etc?

Also referred to in tiers are certain items of crafted gears, such as gems, but crafting skill is referred to in titles, such as Grand Master, what are these crafted item tiers? Similarly, some recipes apparently require renown of some sort; once again could someone please explain what that renown is about?

Finally, I see some characters wondering round with a number in parenthesise after their level 80, such as 80 (1) or 80 (3). What do these additional numbers denote?

Many thanks for at least reading these questions about basic aspects and, hopefully for taking the time to answer them.

Cheers. :smiley:

Raids have tiers, from 1 to 6 (and 3.5). To know the tier of an item, the easiest way is to check the vendor price (20s - t1; 30s - t2; 50s - t3 & t3.5; 70s - t4; 80s - t5; 1g 50s - t6).

Or you can check on AoC>TV Armory

Gems have a level, which defines the minimum level of the gear where you can slot it, and the effect level, which depends on the level of the gear where they are slotted. So, a lvl 60 gem can be equipped on any lvl 60 and upper gear, but the actual bonus depends on the level of the gear, which means that the bonus will (usually) be higher if slotted on a lvl 80 gear, then if you put it on a lvl 60.

Crafting of higher level stuff requires to be in a guild, with a guild city with buildings of the appropriate level.

Guild renown gives access to additional vendors.

It’s the PvP level.

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I would answer it’s all about what you can do and can not do with your character, only you and the players you often play with can tell that. good players can still do good with lesser geared character, while less good ones will require more gear.

First off, Yawgmoth thank you for taking the time to make your detailed reply and for the link.

However, could you please clarify if from your reply a character’s tier is determined solely by the gear worn? Also does the vendor price guide also apply to crafted gear?

Cheers.

Edit: Cappa’s reply was added whilst I was typing mine. Thank you for the comment.

To do a tier 1 raid, you should be at least level 75 and have appropriate level gear (All “blue”). For Tier 2 and above you will need to be level 80, Have gear that is Tier 1 or Khitan equivalent. You "may’ also need certain AA’s depending on your class and the encounter.

It is best to have experience playing your class in a raid for tier 2 and up. It is also a good idea to read up on the raid encounters first before going to a new raid.

Then there is the Raid Finder… Only requirement is that you are level 80. The encounters are dumbed downed versions a “real” raids but do not prepare you for the same encounters in a real raid. The rewards are good, to good in many peoples opinion.

Basically, you can “skip” any tier you like if you have good enough gear, knowledge, skill, and AA’s, but you really should try to move up through the tiers to gain the knowledge and experience to develop your skill. Doing Raid Finder to gear up will leave you clueless.

Each tier rewards you with gear and/or tokens for the same tier level (Tier 1 gear from teir1 raid…).

Gems: You can put a higher gem into a lower item - the “tiers” come from an old system (For everyone really interested: there a 6 “families” of gems, in each family every gem has a unique color and a unique level - there can only be one red, green, blue, white, black or yellow gem and one 40/50/60/65/75/80 level gem. Actually all of this does not matter exept in one very perticular situiation for one recipe…). All gems 40-75 can be put into armor, lvl 80 only weapons.

Character Tier: past lvl 80 your character has no determined “tier”. Often times people judge by gear - and want you to have T1 gear to go to T2, T2 gear to go to T3 etc. Tanks usually need more gear, DPS less good gear. Some dungeons and raids have a threshold for hitrating - you should aim for more than 12%.

The additional numbers are pvp levels 1-10.

As a new player all of this “basic” stuff can be quite confusing - it would be best for you to look for a good guild or someone ingame who can give you a tour via voice. Usually all of this is what guilds or friends are for.

Regrading informations online: There were plenty of it. But the official Funcom forum was shut down and re-opend 2 times during the last 10 years, leaving it to the players to copy or identify the importand threads. Especially with the first forum a lot of newbie basic information got lost.
And guilds tend to hide their information in members only forums. Also a lot of sites from old, very active guilds no longer exist.

Once more thank you all for your replies and explanations. A lot is understandable now.