How prepared do I need to be for Heroics?

Hey dudes,

Well... I've been playing WoW since vanilla, so I've been around the block and back, but I can honestly say I've never reached endgame content until now.

I've read up on pretty much everything (except specifics of dungeons) and seem to be performing pretty decently in the normals that I've been randoming into despite not having amazing gear, but the thing I can't seem to find any info on is just how prepared I need to be to do Heroics.

i.e. What kind of item level should I be looking at before starting? Do I need to look up every single boss fight for every single heroic that I could possibly do?

I'm just a bit wary of jumping straight in, seeing as the WoW community isn't always the nicest of the bunch. I don't particularly want to !@#$ up and then be yelled out of a group. Yes, I'm aware I should probably just suck it up and see what happens, but I come from a long background of being a squishy healer (if only my leveling partner weren't so slow, I'd have an 85 priest by now...), so I'm not great with conflict. =P

tl;dr - How prepared do I need to be for Heroics? (Who'da thunk it?)

Thanks thanks,
-Thun
honestly end game content is not heroics bud, but, just get in there, and if you dont know a boss, just say so. im a @$$hole but never the person to deny someone honest help if they have the sack to ask.

don't ask, don't learn, be trolled and read up some tickies above, to help you learn the class, as far as gear, take upgrades as them come
I would say get as much of the justice gear as you can. Here is a very quick rundown of the bosses and the link you can find more info.

End Time

Echo of Sylvanas Stay out of purple stuff on the ground. When phase 2 comes, kill the ghoul everyone's DPSing and then run over its corpse and away from Sylvanas.

Echo of Tyrande Interrupt Stardust and blow your cooldowns at 30%. If you're ranged, don't get close to her, and if she turns to face you, move away.

Echo of Jaina Avoid big white blades that pop out of the ground. If you see a fire ember on the ground, stand IN it to keep it from damaging the whole group.

Echo of Baine Throw his totems back at him. If he stomps an island that you're on, swim to a new one quickly.

Murozond Stay out of big golden circles, stay out from in front of him, stay away from behind him, and pop your cooldowns whenever time resets.

Well of Eternity

Peroth'arn Stay out of green stuff on the ground, and don't let the eyes get close to you when you're stealthed.

Queen Azshara Kill the puppet strings on Mind-Controlled players as quickly as possible, and avoid bad stuff on the ground. You HAVE to interrupt Azshara's Total Obedience ability.

Captain Varo'then and Mannoroth Stay out of bad stuff, focus on Mannoroth once Varo'then's dead, and keep adds off your healer and Tyrande.

Hour of Twilight
Arcurion Interrupt Hand of Frost, kill Ice Tombs, and stay out of bad.

Asira Dawnslayer Stay out of Smoke Bomb and on top of the light circles left by Thrall's totems. If you're a caster or healer, try to keep the tank or Thrall standing between yourself and Asira.

Archbishop Benedictus Spread out, dispel Righteous Shear/Twilight Shear, interrupt Smite/Twilight Blast, and stay out of waves.

Link --- http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/29/patch-4-3-5-man-bosses-in-5-seconds-or-less/
Here's what I would expect of a DPS in a heroic group I was tanking:

-Know your class. This doesn't just mean having the appropriate spec, stacking the appropriate stats, knowing your rotation, etc., but knowing all the capabilities of the class. For a DK, this would mean being familiar with Mind Freeze, Strangulate, and Raise Ally and when to use them. Bonus points if you use Anti-Magic Shell in a useful way.

-Care about your gear. I can understand if someone's in an unholy mixture of 329 greens and 364 epics if they just hit 85, but I like to see gems in gem slots, and enchants on gear that's going to be staying around for a while.

-Be willing to learn. I definitely would not look at the Dungeon Journal for every fight you come across (since a lot of those abilities aren't applicable to DPS or are just being ignored by groups now anyways), but I would mention that this is the first time you've run the dungeon, and a quick "hey, what do I need to know for this boss?" always helps. Someone will type two lines back to you, and you won't die to a mechanic you didn't know about.

Other than that, be aware of all the different ways you can gain gear. Spend your justice points early and often, and be aware of the legacy justice vendor who's off to the side - he still has quite a few upgrades for you. I hope this helps!



Also, go to Tankspot.com they have all the dung to watch as in clips under the movie section. Very helpful for knowing fights & such. From there I also tend to research at wowhead.com
You can do crap dps but if you are willing to do what's needed, sometimes, that's more important. For example, helping with interrupts, move away from raid when you have bad debuffs, help pull random adds away from healer, running to grab the ember in Jaina encounter, avoiding uncessary damage done to you etc.

Gear will come, and go (when new content releases), but knowledge of the mechanics stays with you, and thankfully WoW is as dumb-ed down as possible and the mechanics are all very easy to pick up as long as you are willing to pay some attention to the screen than just tunnel vision onto recount. And if you have problem comprehend the info on the web just youtube it, there are enough people who like to upload their videos.

Just remember
1. You can't kill when you can't hit
2. You can't kill when you are dead
3. Respect the killing order if marks are given, attacking the mob tank isn't tanking will only kill you
4. Cool downs are useless unless you click on it, a lot of times learn when and where to use your cool downs is the difference between doing 35k in 5men heroics vs doing 20k in 5men heroics.
In the new 5mans interrupting and dodging is much more important than DPS.