What is a Tier 4 ?

My post of a tier4 glove I got prompted the following question :

Not to sound like a noob or anything but I probably will, i had the Gauntlets of Renewed Hope drop in kara on my 1st run yesterday, once socketed with teardrop living rubys (18 heal a piece) and since im a chanter i enchanted it with major healing (35+ hp heal) along with its base of 62 heal it totals 133hp heal which is actually very bad ass.. i read around tho and ppl say T4 or tier4 gloves are better cuz of the spell crit, but my question is what the hell is a tier4 item, even better what the hell is tier4 (is there a tier 3 etc..) I know tier means levels but Im kinda confused.. help!

Well, I think its best to start off with what is a Tier 4 item. WoW has been around for a few years now. In its initial offering, it had levels from 1 to 60. Now, most of the instances till level 60 were 5 man instances like Sunken Temple. However, at 60, players got the first taste of a raid instance , which in those days was 40 man raid - like MoltenCore. There one could start collect armor which belonged to a set - i.e. if you had 2 pieces of the set, it would impart more bonuses !

In those olden times, when the continent of outland was not known to the Azerothians, the maximum level the armor sets went was to level 3.

To just illustrate the difference in quality of the different tier sets, lets see how the head piece changes from Tier 1 to Tier 3 for a Paladin

Tier 1 : Armor : 695 [+9 Str 20 stam 24int +10sp + 10 fire resist]
Tier 2 : Armor : 795 [+17str +18stam +23int +6sp + 10 frost resis +10 shadow resist]

Getting the difference ? Another thing which would happen is that the lower tier would become a requirement for getting the next level of armor. The T2 helm dropped from the lair of Onyxia the dragon - and guess what - the dragon breathes fire, so you will do well by getting a T1 helm which has the fire resist !

The first raid in the burning crusade campaign is Karazan. Here the set items dont drop, rather you get a token which can be traded in Shattrath for the corresponding item for your class. Since this is the first tier armor to drop after level 60, this is the next tier - i.e. T4 armor set.

Now for the differences between the Gaunlets of Renewed hope and the T4 Justicar Glove:

Gauntlets of Renewed Hope

906 Armor
+19 Stamina
+29 Intellect
Blue Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +3 Intellect

Justicar Glove :

944 Armor
+29 Stamina
+30 Intellect

From the comparison (cause there is only one set you have), its clear that with the sockets, the Gauntlets would be a better choice as healing gear. However, as you get more sets, the set bonus for the T4 set becomes :

[2]Equip: Restores 5 mana per 5 sec.
[4]Equip: Increases healing done by up to 62 and damage done by up to 21 for all magical spells and effects.

And so would make more sense to use the T4 gloves once you are sure of the set bonuses. Hope that helps !