Higher Tiers offer a number of benefits. Tier 5 Legendary Armor drops at a 75 Stat Package guaranteed, has 11 Energy for slotting Mods and has a special “Tuning” Mod slot (which allows you to either add +1 to the three lowest Stats on the Armor or add +5 to a given Stat at the cost of -5 to another). A fully Masterworked Tier 5 Armor piece with a +10 Stat mod and Balanced Tuning will result in a Stat package total of 103 points. Having higher Tiered Armor grants a bonus to your overall Damage Resistance (to a maximum of 15% with Tier 5 in each slot) and contribute to a Bonus multiplier when completing Portal Activities. Exotic Armor pieces currently drop at the equivalent of Tier 2 [i]when determining Stat packages[/i], but are considered to be Tier 5 when applied to the Damage Resistance and Bonus multiplier mentioned above [b]if they are listed as New/Featured gear[/b]. There are plans to eventually allow players to obtain/upgrade Exotic Armor with base 75 Stats, 11 Energy and Tuning slot mentioned previously, but it will apparently be some time before that option is added to the game. (΄◉◞౪◟◉｀)