What's needed to raid?Follow

So I'm at 78 and am nearing 80. I plan to go into heroics/raiding and the other pve stuffs as resto and balance (and i'll probably make a feral set after), but there is a slight problem. I'm unsure as to what stats i should need to measure up to before starting to enter heroics. To my understanding, it needs to be something like T6/sunwell equivalent, but i'm not looking for a gear listing or something like that. I'm wondering about what stat values of SP, MP5, etc. i should have to be ready to go into heroics and to start raiding.

For resto heroics :
I had about 1500 spellpower (tree form ofc) and about 600 spirit.
Don't worry about mana regen, that amount of spirit will be enough to cover that.

For resto 10 mans :
Let's say 1700-1800sp, and try to get your spirit up to 800, but acquiring both these can be tough when you just left heroics.

Make sure to use innervate when you get below 35%, those last few % go down fast most of the time (and those first % stay up for a long time imo). Always bring along reagents for combat ress and buffs.

Tbh I don't have a clue for balance. Main thing is you should get hitcapped (but can't provide you numbers, I think, not sure, that it's 8% to hit a hc boss *proven wrong by Arex). Once you're able to put out 1500 (at least) on the hc dummy, you're mostly set to go.
For how-to-dps:
Keep up moonfire and insect swarm too
Use wrath to get eclipse, then starfire (or vice versa, get a pro to answer that)

Also, http://www.wow-loot.com/druid.htm is a great site to get you going (and pretty easy to use), shows you what interesting drops where, and gives a bit of info on the strategy of heroic bosses.

That's about all I know about starting heroics. Just one thing, don't be afraid, people are jerks when they wipe, they really are, don't let them scare you. (If it's not your fault and your dps is 1500+ at least)
If you need some more info, just ask.




edit: typo's


Edited, Jun 15th 2009 6:37am by Thorpedro

Just to clarify, I meant specifically for heroics. The whole point of heroics is to get geared up for raids. You don't want to go in all greens, especially as a healer because that could potentially cause wipes, but you don't need to go crazy buying yourself crafted gear either. Raids on the other hand, is a whole other ball game. Unless you're lucky and have a guild that will carry you through of course. :-p One good website to check out is wow-heroes.com It'll tell you when you're ready for the different raids based on your gear.

Balance:
Hit cap, then spell power, then haste. You hardly ever will go oom in naxx or heroics, so don't even care about that. Maybe on some Heroics with too many AoEs pack, but it's not the usual. Try to hit the soft cap of haste (around 400). Crit is better if you go with a Solar rotation, but not that great if you go with a Lunar rotation.

Resto:
I gues...spirit and spell power. Or maybe spell power, haste and spirit. Crit is almost useless, depending on your rotation. There isn't much a "one way fit all" to resto. If you use more hots, you will like more haste. Heavy users of Nourish would like to have more crit, though.



ps. about the hit cap. If you are alliance, remember to account the draenei bonus. 1% less hit rating you will be needing.

Actually at resto has a haste soft cap of 400. As at that point the GCD is at 1 second and can't get lower. If the main spells you are casting are instants then there is no point in more haste.

Haste will increase throughput but crit will increase efficiency if you cast enough spells that can crit. It is a dance and depends on what you need. Your exact raid set up and the fight will help determine which is better.

Spell power and spirit always rock.

Well, you guys definitely answered for more than was asked (which is a good thing). Thanks a lot for the advice guys; it's given me a good idea as to what to aim for.