Dear Candide:
You are in luck, for this is quite an easy concept to grasp. You never HAD to get any of that set gear to get the next tier up. It was more of a reference as to how prepared you are for a raid. It breaks down to having these sets of equipment or equivilent to be ready for said raid.
Tier 0 - Molten Core
Tier .5 / 1 - Blackwing Lair
Tier 2 - AQ40 / Naxxramas
Tier 2.5 / 3 - Karazhan
Tier 4 - Tempest Keep
Tier 5 - The Black Temple

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Candide:
Disregard the previous statement because it is very confusing and misleading.
There are Multiple Tiers and Dungeon sets for armor. Every class has three different dungeon sets available, and currently 5 (soon to be 6 "Tiered" set available to them. In the Pre-Burning Crusade days, players had the ability to obtain:

Dungeon Set 1 (also referred to as Tier 0 because it is weak) Was obtained through multiple places, like Strathholme, Scholomance, UBRS and LBRS. The set consisted entirely of Blue pieces and contained 8 pieces of armor.

Dungeon Set 2 was (contrary to popular belief) significantly better than Dungeon set one and was attained by questing to upgrade your set. Many players considered it a waste of time to pay the cash required to upgrade it because better gear could be obtained in Molten Core. The set contained 8 pieces still with a number of them at epic quality.

Tier 1: Obtained Through Molten Core after 183727 hours of grinding away mobs, especially for guild beginning to raid. 8 Pieces, all epic.

Tier 2 was obtained in Black Wing Lair. It was 8 pieces and again all of them were epic.

Tier 2.5 was sort of a player named tier, in which a 5 piece set could be obtained from countless hours of grinding Cenarion Circle Rep and drops in AQ40.

Tier 3 was the first 9 piece set and all the pieces dropped in token like form from Naxx. Token form being "Desecrated Shoulderpads" in which a warlock, a priest, or a mage could roll on, and on of them could turn the "token" in for their t3 piece of armor. This was to eliminate wasted armor drops if everyone already had the piece they needed.

Burning Crusade:

Unless you were in full tier 3, it is unlikely that you have maintained any of your pre-tbc armor. So we start on a brand new set of dungeon sets and tiers. Unlike Pre-TBC all the sets in the Outland are only 5 pieces.

Dungeon set 3: 5 Pieces, Rare (blue) quality. Obtained in multiplaces, ie Shattered Halls, Steamvvaults, Botanica, and Mechanar and Shadow Labs. The loot is dropped as is, meaning if hunter pants drop, and you have no hunter, they are wasted. Aside from there being a class specific set for all classes, there is also a generic Plate, Cloth, and Mail set for classes to obtain for off-specs.

Tier 4: 5 piece, Epic set. Dropped in Multiple places, Kharazahn, Gruul's Lair. Dropped in Token based Form.

Tier 5: 5 piece epic set. Dropped in Multiple places, Gruul's Lair, Serpentshrine, Magtheridon and Tempest Keep. Also Dropped in Token Form

Tier 6: Dropped in Black Temple. Unsure as to details of how it drops. Presumably 5 piece set. Will be epic quality.

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While it's true that you don't need any previous tiers to use any others, the tiers that Hellbena listed aren't quite correct. The breakdown is as follows:

Tier 1: Molten Core
Tier 2: Blackwing Lair, Onyxia, Ragnaros
Tier 3: Naxxramus
Tier 4: Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon
Tier 5: Tempest Keep (The Eye)
Tier 6: Black Temple

Tiers 1 and 2 are specific drops (i.e. Windfury Belt specifically would drop), while 3-6 are token based - you get some kind of token that will get you a specific slot (example: chest) for one of three classes, and turn that in for the actual tier piece.

There's also the three dungeon sets, which come from various 5-man dungeons. Dungeon Set 2 is the only one to date that requires the previous set to update. You don't need Dungeon Set 2 to go to Set 3 though.

Dungeon Set 1 (aka "Tier 0"): various level 55-60 dungeons
Dungeon Set 2 (aka "Tier 0.5"): quests, requires Dungeon 1 piece to upgrade
Dungeon Set 3: various level 70 dungeons

There are also sets in Ahn'Qiraj (20 and 40) and Zul'Gurub. These aren't necessarily "Tier" sets but would come inbetween as follows:

Zandalar Tribe set - inbetween Tier 1 and 2 (some raids go for this set first, since it's a 20-man raid instead of 40-man for MC)
Cenarion Circle set - inbetween Tier 1 and 2, after Zandalar Tribe
Brood of Nozdormu set - inbetween Tier 2 and 3

In short, if you're just now hitting 60 you'll want to continue to 70, then start on Dungeon set 3 and progress from there.

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Does anyone know the names of these tiers? I would like to look them up on Thotbot or Wowhead or something? thanks :)

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@4

Each tier is named differently for each class. Such as for hunters . . .

Beaststalker
Giantstalker
Dragonstalker
Riftstalker
Demonstalker

etc.

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Wowwiki.com has a nice page listing all of the armor sets (just search for "armor sets" and you'll find it). As mentioned, they do all have different names, so the best thing to do is to look up the class or tier you're looking for and look at the sets from there.

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@4

It's demonstalker then riftstalker.

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So, does only one token drop per run through these 60+ raid dungeons? Do multiple tokens drop? Thanks.

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Alright just trying to be clear on now I'm 60 it really isn't a point to go for 60 gear at all really just 70 gear. But as far as the Tier Sets. I don't know about Tier 6, but I know Tier 4 & 5 is sold buy a vendor in Shatterath City. I had my lvl 45 BE Priest summon there just to see what he look like in them. But I don't know what the cost is. I do see the token icons though as the price. I hope I understand correctly, but you only get the tokens by doing instances in Heroic mode, at least that's what is stated in the BC guide. I'm too assume that depending what instance you do in Heroic drops that instance Heroic token and you take that token to the vendor.

And to answer how tokens drops. I believe the guide said 1 for everyone.

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I would also like to know exactly how the tokens drop, and how many. Are the tokens acquired in quest reward form like the head of a slain boss? Then you take the head or token to NPC to get your reward. Or do the tokens drop one by one and players have to need/ghreed roll?

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Let's say you raid Karazhan at 70, regular Kara is fine. I don't think it requires Heroic mode. When you down a boss, a token/item drops for your class. You win the item then you turn that in at the vendor in Shatt and she gives you your item. The vendor actually shows what kind of token you need to redeem the item. Or it did before 2.4 patch. I'm no expert on it but that's what I get from previous runs in Kara. My set is the Season 1 Arena pvp set and I do just fine on raids.

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I'm surprised how off some of this information was.

Candide, and anyone else who is wondering, pay attention to Chad's answer, as it was the best (but still not perfect, as he mixed-up some of the Burning Crusade sets. No biggy though!)

Also, in regards to the tokens used for Tier 4-6 sets, here is an example: Prince Malchezaar, one of the bosses in Karazhan, drops the Token needed to get the Tier 4 Helmet. There are Three different possible Tokens Prince can drop, and he only drops one Helm token at a time. The three Helm tokens that Prince can drop are:
- Helm of the Fallen Champion: Paladins, Rogues, and Shaman use this to turn in for their Tier 4 Helm.
- Helm of the Fallen Defender: Warrior, Priest, Druid.
- Helm of the Fallen Hero: Hunter, Warlock, Mage.

Also, as a note, at the Tier 4 and 5 levels, there are three sets for: Druids (Feral, Resto, Balance), Shaman (Resto, Enhancement, Ele), Paladins. 2 Sets for Priests, 2 sets for Warrior. The tokens can be used to get the item for any spec.

For more specific information on tier sets, check out my blog. http://wownightswatch.blogspot.com, as I plan to do a more thorough post on there.

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Also, @12, you're thinking of [Badges of Heroism], that drop from all raid bosses, whereas the Tier tokens only drop from certain bosses, (in the case of T4, Mag, Prince, Curator, Gruul,HKM.)

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