How long is normal before you start doing heroics at 80?

[unseen]

OK, I'm just looking for some general advice I guess on what to expect from my team. I hit 80 about two weeks ago and I run a Warrior, 3 Warlocks and a Priest.

I never got to do heroics pre-wotlk, in fact I wasn't even 70 when wotlk came out, so I leveled straight to 80 with basically the stuff that I got from quests and a few instances I've run along the way. Now that I'm 80 I've begun running the instances I can do (first two bosses of halls of lightning, gundrak, and a couple others), but the rep grind is sloooowwww. I'm also doing some of the dailies, but it's going to take several more weeks at this point to get to exalted with anything to start seeing real benefit from it.

So right now I've got a warrior with around 530 defense and 22k hitpoints (gets up to almost 25k with fort and imps out) and some warlocks and a priest that hover around 1300 spellpower.

Along the way I leveled tailoring and enchanting on two different characters. I'm going to go back and level jewelcrafting on my tank to get some tanking trinkets to help out with his defense and some stats. I'm unsure what else I should be doing at this point to speed up the process.

How are people getting geared enough to do heroics? It could very well be that I need to rethink my macros/keybindings on my team. Or maybe this is normal? Should I try getting into pugs with one or two of my characters to gear them up separately (my priest or tank)?

Any advice would be appriciated!

[Hachoo]

Well I pretty much started right after hitting 80. The only thing I did first was finish up my storm peaks and icecrown quests which netted me something like 25,000 gold, which allowed me to buy ~4 crafted epics per character as well as nice gems etc so I could start out heroics with an uncrittable tank and decent spellpower level on my shamans.

[unseen]

Well I pretty much started right after hitting 80. The only thing I did first was finish up my storm peaks and icecrown quests which netted me something like 25,000 gold, which allowed me to buy ~4 crafted epics per character as well as nice gems etc so I could start out heroics with an uncrittable tank and decent spellpower level on my shamans.

I'm still working on getting epic flying, so the gold I'm getting from quests is going to be thrown into that first -- which will leave me broke again .

From what I've read, pretty much everyone suggests getting epic flying prior to gear-- or is that not the case?

[Multibocks]

Get epic flying, it will make the slog to and from dungeons so much faster. Not to mention gathering. I pretty much started heroics the day I dinged 80, now I didnt manage to down a full dungeon until the second day. That was mostly due to not knowing the tactics I needed.

[Hor]

I guess it depends, if your tank is low on Defense, I'd say get him some crafted gear atleast. It's pretty easy to get to 540 though (even as a DK with the new Rune). This does bring about another interesting question though ... once you hit 80, which instance first? IE which is the absolute easiest. I haven't had a chance to hit the new Heroics really, been too busy IRL. But I know with BC Ramps was not the easiest (for me anyway) Mechanaar was where it was at in the beginning.

[Redbeard]

You all should be rocking druid tanks... automatically crit immume, tyvm. =)

They are simple to play, but for sure not as much utility as the pally.

[ss2]

I was in my first heroic about 15 minutes after my group turned 80(I had to train skills). A lot of dying followed but I did clear a few heroics with level 70 overpowered badge gear and quest blues.

The hardest part about starting heroics is jumping over the gap of "the tank died before I could cast a heal". I recommend picking up "daunting" plate set and titansteel tanking pieces if you don't have something better. There's also gear in those forgotten about normal level 80 instances.

[unseen]

Fast forward a few weeks and today I bought epic fliers for my group. SOOOO HAPPY THAT HURDLE IS OVER.

Now I can finally focus on actually gearing my tank/healer/dps up to do heroics!

[Basilikos]

he commentary in this thread has persuaded me to end my self-imposed WoW break early. That, and my EVE Online trial just wasn't entertaining me.

[Tonuss]

he commentary in this thread has persuaded me to end my self-imposed WoW break early. That, and my EVE Online trial just wasn't entertaining me.

Seeing thread posts and blog posts from people hitting places like Karazhan has given me lots to look forward to. It seems as if there is plenty to do for multiboxers both on the way to 80 and once they hit 80, including WotLK heroics and older 10 man content. There is lots I want to try, though I work so slowly it will be a while before I get there...