I mean that is absolutely true, although it also makes the system somewhat redundant after the first 4 weeks and getting full 4pc at the relevant ilvl.
Just seems like a loss. As you said the only reason to use it after tier would be to attain the appearance if needed, and only then if you have the correct offpiece which also has poor enough stats to be unusable.
There will be people who do it on purpose just to come and complain on the forums.
100%. Blizzard makes the MOST new player unfriendly designs I’ve ever seen. PUT A WARNING IN THE CATALYST!
Mental illness is real, but let’s be real this is a legitimate concern.
My current path plan to craft is → Legs → Gloves and shoulders: Once I find suitable shoulders I can convert to tier lol
I don’t think that’s right. Why would they call it “tier” then? The whole point of tier is for the bonus.
I think that line implies that the current 5 slots of tier, similar to the domination set pieces, require at least one of, to get the tier bonuses.
You can’t get the bonus from 2 or 4 pieces of the other slots without at least 1 tier piece coming from the existing 5.
Otherwise the whole labeling of “tier pieces” would be a huge troll on players - especially when they’re putting in a week cooldown.
Nope. All tier pieces have always worked towards the bonus. If these pieces didn’t work towards the bonus, then why call them “tier” pieces?
I think the 5 current slots GRANT the bonus (like domination bonuses) but the new tier slots can count TOWARDS the bonus.
But they’re calling those pieces “tier” in the blue post.
I can see a lot of people expecting it to count towards the bonus.
And set bonuses have only been on head, shoulder, chest, gloves and legs since after Vanilla. The rest of the pieces are to complete the tier outfit, not the set bonus.
But those weren’t called “tier” pieces. They were just the other raid gear. Like in legion - the xmog for the raid gear was completed with a combination of the tier set items and some gear. It wasn’t all “tier” gear - only the pieces that worked towards the bonus were called tier.
I think all other tier pieces in the past have always counted towards the bonus.
There was technically a tier cape in legion that had set bonus on it, but that was just a Legion thing.
They were part of the set for tier. Just like they are now.
I think they were part of the transmog set, not the tier set.
I dunno, I could be completely wrong, but I’ve been playing since vanilla and the way I’ve understood it - anytime someone refers to “tier” gear, it’s been about the pieces specifically tied to the bonuses. All the other gear was just raid gear that completed the transmog set.
So the transmog = tier + misc raid gear.
It’s really just a semantics thing. But if people can’t stare at the piece of gear that it turns into and see it’s not a set bonus… that just seems like their fault to me. lol
I disagree.
I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect - especially when the confusion has been expressed and we still don’t have clarification.
People keep saying the reason they’re doing this is for “transmog”. I just find that really hard to believe.
The Catalyst literally shows you this:
If someone is incapable of reading, then yes, that’s on them. Blizz has also specifically said which pieces carry the set bonus, tier has carried the set bonus on those particular pieces for over a decade and this thread exists. Between all of that… yes, it’s their fault if they make bracers without a set bonus and cry about it.
This is absolutely to finish the set, a way to “reforge” your stats and a way to apparently upgrade the gear, as well. It’s not just for the five pieces and that’s a good thing.
I don’t think it is. Whether I’ve ever talked with anyone (since vanilla) about getting/ having tier - it’s been about the pieces that give the bonus.
-Did you get your final piece of tier?
No one has ever meant about the genetic raid pieces that completed the transmog set.
While I do think this “feature” is nice to have, I think the issue is that they’re calling these pieces “tier pieces”.
If you don’t have a piece to see the difference, I could see people thinking that if they have 1 of the 5 core pieces, that’s all they need to actually get the bonus - with any combination of the other pieces counting towards the bonus.
This especially makes sense when we’re just coming off domination gear which worked exactly that way. You only needed certain pieces to activate the bonus - any combination of the other pieces counted towards the bonus.
I think it’s worth them clarifying.
They did. 
That reads like the domination gear. The 5 pieces grant the bonus - but the other tier pieces can still count towards the bonus.
Just like the blood, frost and unholy bonuses were only on certain slots.