How to farm Dragonflight tier transmog at the end of the expansion — with help from the Revival Catalyst

Now that we’re at the end of Dragonflight, a transmog fancier’s thoughts naturally turn to fancies of obtaining tier sets from earlier in the expansion. And fortunately, the Revival Catalyst is here to help by converting your gear into tier sets… but which gear converts into which tier set can get a bit complicated. If you’re thinking of changing mains for The War Within, maybe to an alt you’ve neglected for most of this expansion but who you’d still like to outfit with some of those sweet, sweet looks, you might find yourself stymied by the fact that the Revival Catalyst can have some unpredictable results, especially when it comes to obtaining the tier set you actually want.

Note that our tips only apply to obtaining old tier sets from the Revival Catalyst using non-raid-drop gear. Technically the old tier sets are still obtainable from the raid itself unless it’s Awakened, at which point it drops Season 4 set is (and if it matches the set you want, than even better!). The Dragonflight raids will keep rotating through Awakened versions until the prepatch, which means if you want, say, Vault of the Incarnates tier, technically the easiest option is to round up a raid and do Vault of the Incarnates when it’s not Awakened. But not everyone has that at their disposal, as it can be hard to find groups doing older content.

But if you’re willing to work to find the appropriate gear, you can convert as many pieces in the Revival Catalyst as you want — everything except current season gear does not require charges. So read on for a season-by-season rundown of items you can still turn into old tier sets via the Revival Catalyst.

• Season 1: Vault of the Incarnates
  • Normal: The easiest way to obtain this gear is via the tokens that reward the Primalist Gear. Gear you purchase with Elemental Overflow or obtain from a token (e.g. Primalist Mail Helm) will turn into the normal-quality version of your tier set.
  • Heroic: Similar source, but a little extra step required: get your hands on an Untapped Forbidden Knowledge, then use it to turn one of the blue items from the previous step into a purple-quality item. This should then yield the heroic coloration when used with the Catalyst.
  • Mythic and LFR: Unavailable via the Revival Catalyst except by converting Mythic or LFR non-Awakened Vault pieces. You’ll still need to raid Vault when it’s not Awakened for these.
• Season 2: Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible
  • I’ve got some very bad news if you liked your Season 2 tier design and it wasn’t picked for Season 4: outside of raiding it on non-Awakened weeks, Aberrus gear is currently entirely unavailable from the Revival Catalyst.
• Season 3: Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope
  • Normal: The gear you can obtain from either of the Emerald Dream weeklies — A Worthy Ally: Dream Wardens or The Superbloom — yield gear that can be turned into normal-quality Amirdrassil tier. However, in a weird quirk, fully upgrading this gear does not reward the heroic tier appearance.
  • Heroic, Mythic, and LFR do not seem to be available via the Revival Catalyst at this time, outside of converting gear of the appropriate level from non-Awakened Amirdrassil.

Whew — what a mess! Hopefully in the future, Blizzard will invent some easier way to obtain these looks for people who want them, rather than having a constantly-shifting set of gear that can be catalyzed to and from. Something like the Mark of Honor system that PVP uses would be nice — maybe as a drop from bosses in legacy raids to obtain the piece you want, sort of like the current tier “omni-tokens” but for appearances.