There are already a few posts about this, but I want to add my voice to the chorus:
Many tier sets need an overhaul, otherwise gearing up in naxx will feel like progressing towards worse gameplay–except you MUST wear them, because of the absolutely massive power coming from sanctified armor.
Currently a number of specializations have 6pc bonuses with a stacking 1% modifier up to 25%. This is terribly boring, but it is not even across the board. Some specs need merely hit their target (hunters) whereas ele only gets stacks with overloads. This process can easily take over a minute, where many fights die much quicker, or some specs just get to use this tier bonus more effectively than others. This bonus is egregiously boring, and should be replaced with actual gameplay altering/feelgood bonuses.
Ele Shaman:
- 2-piece Increases periodic damage done by your Flame Shock ability by 20%.
- 4-piece Reduces the cooldown on your Lava Burst ability by 2 sec.
- You gain 1% increased damage done to Undead for 30 sec for each time your Overload triggers, stacking up to 25 times.
The 2pc is by the barest bones “fine”. It has more effect in aoe, it contributes a non-zero amount of damage, but it is completely uninteractive, and not particularly noticeable. Compared to the mage tier set where you get to evocate for a massive damage buff, this is not completely, but very close to worthless.
The 4pc at least changes the pace of your rotation. My understanding is it is numerically insignificant, as lava burst may be outscaled by lightning bolt (this is a spec specific problem tier alone should not address, but it is relevant). As such it may, like the 2pc be functionally worthless.
I already detailed my issues with the 6pc. Now, let us look at some old tier bonuses, which we will be FORCED, (because of sanc armor) to give up.
- aq2pc: knockback protection, absolutely goated, makes playing the game feel better, if not numerically significant in a majority of situations
- aq3pc provides damage scaling to lava burst such that it actually does damage. It feels good to hit fat lava bursts, and do to lava bursts low spellpower coefficient, this is important to make it a powerful button
- bwl2+6pc they gave mana sustain and damage, not too special, but certainly powerful enough, and impactful on aoe
- mc tier gave more resets to lava burst, and extended the duration of flame shock. The tier set here is more meaningful, impactfull, and fun to play than the naxx tier, and this one was the first! With this you could snapshot flame shock and potentially make it more powerful than the naxx bonus, while also just having more free globals to cast.
Every single one of the previous tier sets had options which were better in terms of fun, qaulity of life, or output, than the naxx set (bar the 25% buff bs). I would rather play with any of these over the naxx tier, and that should not, at all be the case.
Mage Healer:
- 2pc: Allies with your Temporal Beacon heal for [long spellpower formula] health every 1 sec.
- 4pc: Your Regeneration ability grants your target 60% increased movement speed while you are channeling, and each time it heals your target, they have a chance to gain 10% increased attack and casting speed for 15 sec.
- 6pc: Damage you deal to Undead causes 25% more chronomantic healing, and you gain mana equal to 5% of the chronomantic healing you generate from damaging Undead.
Here at least there are some functional options, but we are saddled with the 4pc. Regeneration is not a button you want to press in most situations. It is certainly not a button you are likely to full channel. This bonus therefore, not only grants a bonus to someone other than the player wearing the tier, but will never be in the first place. This bonus may in fact be, absolutely useless to most players, unless you are bribed to maintain the buff on dps so that they may parse.
The 2pc is serviceable if not particularly interesting, and the 6pc at least has some real juice to it. The problem is that mage healers do not scale well with crit or haste, since many abilities are channeled. I also fear for the longevity of frost dps, and frost healer because they would preclude the isanely powerful bwl 6pc from being put on your shoulders.
As such, the mage healer situation is better than that of the ele shaman, but it too is saddled with almost completely useless bonuses, and bonuses which are not as impactful as previous tier sets. I will not feel naxx tier, whereas bwl, and zg both positively altered gameplay. even the mc 2pc made gameplay more fluid.
These are the two classes I know the most about, and have followed to some degree. Both their situations could use improvement. It will feel awful, going into naxx and getting gear–only to have a worse character in terms of gameplay. The power baked into the strange new sanctified system practically precludes any other gear from seeing use, after only a few resets of trinket upgrades. Heck, they are so powerful we might see warriors rolling on spellpower cloth, just to get another sanc armor slot. Please, with the limited time left before this patch drops, put some work into these tier sets to make them interesting and fun. So many of them are not only boring and numerically lackluster, but offer core gameplay downgrades.