WOTLK Herioc Dungeon Level of Difficulty Guide
After a lot of game play, observations, and interviews with other players of multiple classes, I've come up with the following heroic dungeon ranking for difficulty and basic guidelines for success in WOTLK.  The abbreviations are what is most frequently being advertised in LFG channel.

From least to most difficult with recommendations/requirements which STACK on previous requirements:

Easiest(Level 80 - required, tank 20K unbuffed hp)
Utgarde Keep  - UK
The Nexus(priests 1400sp with 200 mps while casting, pali 1200 sp with 700 int, druids 1100 sp with mps 550)
Drak'Tharon Keep - DTK
The Oculus (patience required, many "timing" sequences which take time to learn but are not gear dependent)

All Blue Gear or Better(gear is enchanted & socketed, dps 1500+, tanks defense capped with 22-23k unbuffed hp)
Violet Hold - VH
The Culling of Stratholme (elixirs/flasks/pots/foods, healers need to have EXCELLANT mana regen ~500mps while casting, druids 1250 sp 650 mps) - CoT
Gundrak
Utgard Pinnacle - UP

Hardest - Nearly Full Epics or Best in Game Blues(dps 2k+, tank 24-45k hp unbuffed, healers priests 18k sp+, druids 1650 sp with 700 mps)
The Culling of Stratholme - Timed Event (tank/group must be able to hold aggro on multiple mobs keeping them off the healer successfully)
Azjol Nurub (last boss hits for 40k, tank must be able to dance) - AN
Halls of Lightening (see my post on Loken http://thottbot.com/c30396 - HOL)
The Old Kingdom
Halls of Stone - HOS

Full Epics
Trial of Champions - ToC

The goal of this guide is to help people be successful in the new content.  Thank you to Free Booters, Hyjal Realm for feedback which improved this posting!

As I am a healer(priest), I'm not able to generalize and simply define requirements healers have to have to be successful at each level.  Assistance in this area would be very much appreciated.

Have fun storming the castle! (please vote if this post was helpful)

I think strath can go to the hardest zone if you are going for the timed loot. as a shaman healer there people never give me time to drink till after boss fights where we have to take a minute between because waves stop. but also very important is a group who can keep adds off you. that will make the difference. im up to a l=bit over 20k mana with buffs and can now make it through there with not to much trouble as long as tank can take a few hits.

IMO heroic VH is the easiest and the hardest heroic. It all depends which boss you get.

So many things wrong with what you said. GunDrak first boss is one of the hardest in the books for me. We had to get a pally tank in there who wasn't even as geared as the warrior.

There are two VH bosses that are easy. The core hound and the eye. The water thing has magor adds which pretty much forces you to use the switchs and a hit hitting enrage at low health. The ethral guy or w/e is the hardest heroic boss in my book.

Bosses are immue to curse of tounges so that would'nt work.

In most of the heroics that you run at 80 (most since I have not done them all yet) there is one boss that is very very hard.

Gundrak is the first boss, Snake.  Clear that room, clear up to second boss, kill second boss, then have a druid or rogue pull the first boss to room where second boss was.  all ranged stand back and melee hide around wall when nova aoe starts to cast.  dont forget to run back and click on altar and that is where you will find the adds waiting that you did not have during boss fight.

VH is not hard at all.  Water elemental kill adds with switches, arcane dude just needs to be kited around with tank, last boss is not too hard healer just keep tank topped off.

Utgarde Pinnacle has a hard one with the 3rd boss.  You must collect harpoons from the dead guys during a gauntlet run then use them to bring down boss to ground, then dps him down.  Watch out for whirlwind and thunderclap from boss on squishes.

Nexus is the lady that spawns 3 copies of herself, one frost, one fire, and one arcane.  Kill arcane first as she poly's everyone, then frost, then fire.

Most of the other heroics were all pretty good to clear, little practice but nothing too hard.

Just remember to have a good tank, a good healer, and good dps.  We had a deathknight on one run that still had some greens = wipe wipe wipe wipe, after 4th wipe we booted, got hunter, killed boss first time np.

Nice and simple

VH= Easy to medium (more easy)

Gundrak= Medium trash and most bosses Snake boss is hard as hell.

AN= Fairly easy untill last boss hits like a truck and if you cant burn down the adds when he goes under your good as gone

CoT= Medium fairly dificult
Timed CoT= Yea its Hard

UK= Easy\medium Not to hard fairly good gear and organisation

Old Kingdom= Medium not to hard just keep organised and healers adn tanks just try to survive through the insanity let the dps come adn help you

Just ran Heroic AN yesterday with a decent tank, decent DK DPS and two not good DPS warlock and BM hunter.  I was healing as resto.  We got through the first two bosses, no wipes, one death by the warlock.  Last boss, we wiped four times and we called it quits.  The problem were the adds and one of the adds with the freakin poison. 

For the first half of the battle, I dropped Mana Totem and once second wave of adds come, I dropped Poison Cleansing Totem, but adds spit two poisons out and each tick creates 2k damage.  So by the time I heal tank, 2nd DPS and myself, the other two DPS are done for. 

The REAL problem is that none of the DPS are grabbing the adds and worst, none of the adds off me. 

From the official WoW forums, a survey was done for 1800 players.  Hardest to easiest:

1. Occulus
2. Halls of Lightning
3. Old Kingdom
4. Azjol-Nerub
5. Halls of Stone
6. Utgarde Pinnacle
7. Gundrak
8. Culling of Stratholme
9. Violet Hold*
10. Utgarde Keep
11. Drak'Tharon Keep
12. Nexus

*Depends on the first two boss encounters.  Kiting Shadow guy is not a problem. It's when it teleports everyone into himself and everyone runs away in different directions, some towards the orbs that make it difficult. 

Hi,

I must say, i've usually disagreeing with most heroic difficulties things lol...

But i've dont done HoS, Occ, and Old Kingdom... My opinion of what nine i done:

1. Halls of Lightning, God i've hating this encounter, i usually don't do it with guildies or friends i am afraid of, so it gets an hell, its boring, its hard with not decent healer/tank. And my last tank, i've had more aggro than him. First boss, take adds, kill easy and "fun". Second, move away from golems, tank and spank, third, move from sparks and bolts, tank and spank, Loken, move from nova(nubs dont make it...), hug him, and you die with not decent group... Trash, just mark its long trash, else nothing special i guess...

2. Azjol'Nerub, this is actually not that hard(i think all heroics is easy though), its needed to have an tank who understand pounce, healers must also have an decent ammount of mana. First boss, take skirimishers before mini-bosses, have warlock to CoE down the small adds from boss, tank and spank, second, take mini adds before crushers, kill Hadronox when she attacks. Third, Okay this is simple rly.
1st thing do:Tank move away pounce turn the boss away from Carrion Swarm.
2nd thing do:He digs underneath, move when he rumble under you, kill Venomspiters first when they come(nice to dispell theyre stupid poison) And Guardians after.
3rd thing do:Loot...
Trash aint excisting almost lol....

3.  Utgarde Pinnacle, this is an relative easy encounter. Everything keeps an standard difficulty except first boss who is easy as sh!t. First boss, kill adds when spawn, tank and spank. Second boss, one do harpoons, move from whirlwind, tank and spank. King Ymiron, no pets active if want achivement, tank and spank rly. Trash is easy everywhere.

4.  Culling of Strathholme, i love this one, its easy, its fun, it makes me feel happy^^ First boss tank and spank, Second boss, tank and spank, Third boss tank and spank, Fourth boss, Tank and spank, Mal'Ganis, tank and spank. Mark have decent healer for Mal'Ganis cause of the "time stop" spell. Good tank shield dropp due its easy! Worth go here for new tank!!

5. Violet Hold, Relative easy, Core hound, Tank and spank, Etheral, tank kite ALWAYS when spheres is up. Eye, tank and spank(DPS, DO NOT PULL!!!)(Yes.. I've tried) Void, take adds,(not if want achivement), tank and spank, Ichoron, tank and spank, kill adds FAST FAST FAST!!!. Arakkoa tank and spank. Cyangiosa, Tank And SPAAAANK!

6. Nexus, i've must say, many say its easiest, but i hate it, bad groups is sucky. But it aint hard at any how, so its why 6/9. not 9/9, i hate it... First boss, tank and spank, kill adds first. Second, tank and spank, when she transforms:Arcane-Frost-Fire, sheep Frost, fear fire(or other cc) . Third, Take rifts as fast as possible, take adds, tank and spank. Fourth, tank and spank, move from crystall thingy. Keristraza, jump everytime after you cast a spell, if melee, run around boss when attacking, tank and spank.

7.  Gun Drak, Easy, fun for some, due some nice dropps^^. First boss, Take Wraps, kill adds with AoE and keep em of healer. Second, move from pits, tank and spank. Third, Tank and spank, fourth, Tank and spank, Fifth, tank and spank^^

8. Utgarde Keep, Easy, some good dropps, some makin me happy ^^... First boss, kill Frost Tomb, tank use any AoE you got at adds, tank and spank. Second boss, Nuke Dalronn to 10%, then kill Skarvald, then finish of Dalronn, tank and spank elsewards. Ingvar is only Tank and Spank!!

9. Drak'Tharon Keep, by me, the easiest heroic, and som3 free dropps id say. First boss, tank and spank, but move away from dead Drakkari corpses, Second boss, tank stay down with crystallhandlers when spawn, all ranged dps take these, melee stay up and take everlasting adds. When boss gets free, he dont spawn more adds, everyone run to boss and kill him. Tank and spank. Third is good healer requirement for nasty attacks, go check here at http://thottbot.com Tank and spank for DPS, he got also stupid fear... Prophet, tank only man press taunt in skeleton form, all other spam 3,4 and 1(4 and 1 got cd). In normal form just tank and spank..

Yes, any opinion is welcome, hope you'd like it. GOOD LUCK!

I think everyone is going to find that depending on what class they are and what roles they play in an instance it's all going to be different.

As a Holy Pally, here are my easy - hard heroic instances.

Easy
- UK
- CoS, yes, even the timed ones!
- HoS
- VH
- Nexus
- Gundrak

Hard
- AN, group cleansing is really not my best!
- UP
- HoL, I've been in there twice, couldn't heal for Loken, am going to try another strategy though, one where I make me the BoL and just stand outside of the nova. I suppose also you need people who know how to run away from it, otherwise it is hard.

The others I haven't done in heroic yet... But will definately soon!! That's my opinion!! =p

Ive seen alot of people saying the snake boss in Gundrak is hard.  This is probably b/c they don't know how to tank him, or rather where.  The ramp that you go down is the perfect spot have healer and caster dps stand opposite the ramp and have tank and melee dps right where the ramp starts downward.  Aoe the adds and he becomes one of the easiest bosses in the game.

Everyone says that Loken is so hard, but if u have a few tricks he is actually really easy. All u need is a shammy or hunter for nature res, and a non-pally heals (no multi-person heals mean group will die) then hes just tank and spank :). we killed him in 2 mins and 3 seconds, like 1 or two ppl had done H HoL before, and one dps was only doing about 800, and we killed him first time. Hope this helps ppl having trouble with him.

Loken in HoL is not the one of the hardest bosses to kill it is one of the hardest bosses to heal for the healer needs to have great gear, or very expirienced. preferably both

how do you turn an instance on heroic before you go in? What do you do to make the next instance you walk into one that isn't on regular?

right click your portrait if you are the party leader. click difficulty i think.. and go to heroic.

what does mps mean >.>

Mana Per Second, which I think s/he actually meant MP5 which is Mana Per 5 Seconds.

one thing that i saw is that most people are sayign that loken in heroic halls of lighting is hard, the group i was in was a pug, we have decently gear DPS(3 warriors on of which was me 2arms and 1 fury) a pally tank and priest heals, now the priest knew his class, but his gear was lacking slightly. We wiped 3 times, once because of a bad pull, and twice on loken, this is mostly because the priest had a bad connection and kept Dc'ing as loken casted lighting nova. One of teh warrior left after the 2nd wipe on loken, so the other invited his resto druid pal, and he heal through the nova's once again i think that single heal classes(mainly pally but priests can suffer if they dont know what they are doing) but we took him down in less that 2 minutes, in the end if your healer and tank know what they are doing(also helps if you DPSers arent idiots) it is really easy, for example with ionar as long as you know to run from sparks he is pretty easy. So in the End i think people are say the halls of lighting is harder than it really is

I believe the only difficult Heroic is Oculus. You need a decent tank/healer combo like any heroic but this instance has nothing to do with gear or dps output. It is all about group coordination. I think because it is not a typical dungeon people avoid this place and it never gets run on my server.

But people who avoid this place need to realize, its kind of a practice for EoE.

Now EoE is a tough raid to do, its mana intensive, coordination required, and in general a pain in the butt.

Just my 2 pennies.

After playing WotLK some more, the following is my LoD for heroics:

Most Difficult: Occulus (same as Arbjrs2)

Medium: Hall of Lightning, Hall of Stone, Gundrak, The Old Kingdom, Utgarde Pinnacle, Culling of Strat (timed), Azjol Nurub

Easy (can be done with 4 players): Violet Hold, The Nexus, Drak'Tharon Keep, Utgarde Keep

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AN: I once thought it was hard, but recently I went in with a group and we wiped once because party leader introduced me to a new tactic to bypass some mobs at the 2nd boss, except it was my first time and so we wiped there.  Otherwise, we did fine all the way through to the end. 

Our tank had 40k HP, DPS was plentiful and our guild healer was awesome.  One of the DPS died on the last boss, but basically, aside from good heals, the 'trick' is to run around and not be 'knocked-up' by Anub'Arak and get the adds off the healer.

VH, Nex, DTK, UK: Can all be done with four players.  Mind you, I'm speaking from the perspective where all the players are decently geared.  Generally: half epics, rest are mostly rares and maybe one or two pieces of uncommon. However, you don't even need to be that geared to do these dungeons.  They are relatively much easier.  All the bosses in the VH are easy.  This did not dawn on me before, but you and the party basically need to know how to move around and fight.

The Occulus: Sucks.  Flying coordination, attacking, healing - it really depends on the party and the computer hardware they have.  The controls for the flying mounts are dependent on how well you can use your keyboard and mouse for something like this. 

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When it comes down to it, the difficulty of a dungeon can be negated by a dynamic knowledgeable group of players. 

/agree

And it's changing in 3.2 so that your gear affects how powerful your dragon mount is; this will make it harder for the average player if they scale it so the current damage output from the mounts is the maximum i.e. what it will be with the best gear.