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World of Wardrobe: Bringing home tier 2

Anne Stickney
Updated ·7 min read

Heading back to pick up some awesome armor sets from vanilla WoW or that dazzling weapon that'll have your enemies cowering in fear? Transmogrification makes it possible -- and World of Wardrobe shows you how.

Tier 2 is easily one of the most recognizable, iconic gear sets in World of Warcraft's history. Nowadays, tier sets are designed around the concept of a dungeon or an area in the world. Tier 2, on the other hand, simply presented a cohesive look that practically screamed, "This is my class." Judgement was considered the hallmark of paladin armor design; Bloodfang embraced the sneaky, silent and deadly nature of a rogue. Transcendence was a beautiful reimagining of stained glass commonly found in cathedrals; Nemesis was a dark reflection of everything a warlock should be.

If you're looking for a tier set that encompasses everything that your class represents, tier 2 is going to be right up your alley. Last week, we dove into the depths of Molten Core, where Ragnaros awaited, tier 2 pants in his pockets. This week, we ascend the heights of Blackwing Lair to challenge the Black Dragonflight, who seem to have made a habit of squirreling away some particularly pretty pieces of gear and some of the most unique weapons you'll ever set eyes on.

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Tier 2 sets

All tier 2 sets follow the model of tier 1 and have eight pieces to collect. All tier 2 pants are found on Ragnaros at the end of Molten Core; unfortunately, this means you need to clear the entirety of Molten Core and kill Ragnaros to get a shot at the pants. For classes that wear robes, it's not really necessary to wear your set pants, and you can avoid Molten Core unless you're a completionist. However, for robeless classes, Molten Core will be a necessity. Thankfully, it's soloable content.

The rest of tier 2 can all be found in Blackwing Lair. There are two ways into Blackwing Lair -- you can go through Lower Blackrock Spire and enter the raid instance, or you can use a handy teleportation orb at the end of the hall by the entrance to UBRS. The orb requires you to complete the quest Blackhand's Command, which can be obtained by killing the Scarshield Quartermaster. It requires touching an orb located behind General Drakkisath in UBRS; however, level 85 players shouldn't have a problem skipping their way through the instance.

Tier sets for each class are as follows:

While Molten Core can be easily soloed, Blackwing Lair is an entirely different story. The first fight in the instance requires at least two people, due to the mechanics of the encounter. I decided the best thing to bring along with me was a warrior, and the best warrior to bring along with me was Matthew Rossi's Tauren beast.

You can complete that first fight with two people, but as we soon discovered, it's tricky. Three people, on the other hand, make the fight and the rest of the instance an absolute breeze. So unless you feel like a challenge, I suggest you grab a couple of friends of varying classes before you go tromping into BWL.

Razorgore the Untamed

Razorgore is the first boss in BWL and the reason you need multiple people. Razorgore stands at one end of the room, and on the other end is a platform with several Orcs and a shiny orb. Clicking the orb will allow you to mind control Razorgore, and the controller will have a bar of unique abilities that Razorgore can perform. Razorgore's room is also full of eggs.

The controller needs to stand next to an egg and use the Destroy Egg command to get rid of the eggs, one by one. While this is going on, adds will spawn and move throughout the room, either aggroing on Razorgore or on the person controlling him. If the adds kill Razorgore, he will detonate as his last act and kill everything in the room, your party included. This is where your partners come in. Have them kill all adds while Razorgore destroys the eggs. There's a cooldown on the Destroy Eggs ability, so this fight takes a little time to complete.

Once all eggs are destroyed, Razorgore breaks free, the adds run from the room. Kill the dragon, loot the corpse, and pat yourselves on the back.

Tier drops Razorgore the Untamed drops tier 2 bracers for all nine classes listed above.

Other items of interest Razorgore also has a chance to drop Spineshatter, a pretty neat-looking one-handed mace, and The Untamed Blade, a lovely two-handed sword.

Vaelastrasz the Corrupt

When you enter Vaelastrasz's room, he will not aggro on you -- but you want to move quickly anyway. There are two packs of Goblins in the room that have a chance to drop Hourglass Sand; this will come in handy later. Rush in and try to hit the Goblins before they flee. As for Vaelastrasz, you'll have to speak to him to start the encounter.

Vaelastrasz casts a 3-minute buff on all players called Essence of the Red that essentially gives you endless mana, energy or rage, depending on what class you play. He also casts a debuff called Burning Adrenaline periodically on a random player that will increase damage done and attack speed by 100% as well as making all spells instant-cast. Sound good? It isn't -- it also reduces your health by 5% every second, and when your health runs out, you detonate.

Fortunately, the buff outweighs the debuff in this encounter. My partner and I were able to kill him in plenty of time to take advantage of the buff and before he could even think about casting Burning Adrenaline.

Tier drops Vaelastrasz the Corrupt drops tier 2 belts for all nine classes listed above.

Other items of interest Vaelastrasz also has a chance to drop the Red Dragonscale Protector, a really bizarre and unique shield, and the Dragonfang Blade, a gorgeous dagger.

Broodlord Lashlayer

Quick! Before your Essence of the Red buff wears out, run up to the second floor and clear all trash in the room while you've still got infinite rage, energy and mana. It's not necessary, but it's fun! Looting trash can also give you more Hourglass Sand, and again, you'll want to squirrel that away as you pick it up.

The next level up is the suppression room -- a room designed for rogues and the bane of pretty much everyone else who ever encountered it. The suppression room consists of several suppression traps and a ton of trash. The traps radiate a Suppression Aura that will slow you down and generally make life miserable. If you have a rogue, he can disarm the suppression traps as you move along -- and you'll want to keep moving, because the trash in the room respawns at an alarming rate. If you don't have a rogue in your party, you can simply slog your way through the suppression aura and mercilessly slaughter everything in your path.

Broodlord Lashlayer waits for you at the end of the suppression room, and he's an utter pushover. The only real concern you need to worry about is a knockback that has the potential to launch you into trash. Put your back to a wall and beat the stuffing out of the Broodlord.

Tier drops Broodlord Lashlayer drops tier 2 boots for all nine classes listed above.

Other items of interest Broodlord also has a chance to drop two really amazing weapons. The first is Heartstriker, a dragon-themed bow. The second is Maladath, Runed Blade of the Black Flight, a one-handed sword that has one of the more striking models in game.

All that walking and only three bosses down? Don't worry, the next area is full of dragons to punch in the face. Follow along to page 2, where we deal with an irritating trio of black dragons, the strangest puppy you'll ever meet, and the Lord of the Blackrock Spire.

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