I personally think 1.5k DPS is a reasonable expectation for a smooth Heroic run, but that doesn't quite mean it's necessary. If the player is under-geared, working on an alt, or both, I think it's reasonable to excuse the weight (or lack thereof) they're pulling, provided they at least react well or know the encounters.

There was definitely a learning curve involved for me when I went from my fairly well-geared warlock who is typically in the top 5 DPS in 25-player raids, to my fresh level 80 death knight. I hadn't run any level 80 Heroics with melee before, so I was caught a little off-guard at times. It didn't take many upgrades before I was up around 2k DPS though.

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Q u o t e:


I'm wondering, as a Blizzard employee that plays WoW, if while playing this game you've ever encountered people that trash talk you for not being up to their expectations? And if so, how do you feel about that?

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I haven't really experienced that doing any group PvE content. As I've been learning group play with my death knight, it is pretty much all with guild mates. They know my experience with the game and understand that I'm learning how to run instances with a melee class. In fact, they're usually running me through for the upgrades.

I've been in plenty of pick-up groups before, but mainly on my warlock. He holds his own just fine... aside from the time I accidentally moved during Flame Wreath in Karazhan. That just ended up being extremely funny though, as it was the first time I ever literally wiped a raid. Most of my group knew me well and laughed pretty hard over it. And we're not talking about within the first five times or so of ever fighting Shade of Aran. This was probably my 30th time or something. ;p

Back at level 70 I used to run Battlegrounds ALL the time though on my warlock. The trash talking in that case was quite a bit different. It didn't usually involve a player remarking on my lack of skill, but rather me telling someone that would do nothing but complain and yell at everyone else for ruining his/her perfect PvP game play to either lead with sensible strategies, leave, or shut up.

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Q u o t e:
That being said, 2k minimum is a bit high. I did heroic ToC as a fresh to 80, still using my leveling spec. I couldn't quite out DPS the tank if there was any AoE at all (and it was a warrior tank, not a pally).

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Speaking of out-DPSing paladin tanks... My death knight still gets owned by our extremely well-geared paladin tank in Heroics (I'm still learning!). Anyway, we decided to stay in Loken's Lightning Nova, what with the outstanding gear and healing we had from the rest of the group and all. :p

The tank and I were the last ones standing when he was at 40% health. I died shortly after. We watched the tank solo him from 40% to death. It was neat.