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Heroic mode refers to a dungeon difficulty setting. This setting is accessed from the party or raid leader's portrait menu; currently the only other difficulty setting is normal mode (the default setting). Depending on expansion and dungeon type (5-player or raid), the setting has different effects and requirements. For all heroic mode dungeons mobs and bosses have more HP, hit harder, and have additional or more potent skills. Heroic-mode bosses drop better quality equipment than their normal-mode counterparts as well as currency tokens used to purchase epic equipment from vendors.

Heroic mode dungeons are on a lockout timer much like raids, and can only be run once a day per character. Each dungeon is on an independent timer, however, so a character could run as many as 15 heroic mode instances per day. Heroic timers are reset daily at 9:00 A.M. server time for US servers, and 08:00 A.M. server time for European servers. The daily random heroic resets at the same time as other dailies, generally between 2-4 A.M. realm time.

Heroic dungeons introduced in Wrath-Logo-Small and Cataclysm don't require an attunement, but do require all characters in the group to be level 80 for Wrath-Logo-Small and level 85 for Cataclysm.

The Burning Crusade

Bc icon This section concerns content related to The Burning Crusade.

Each of the 5-player dungeons introduced in the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion pack may be run on heroic mode if every member of the party has obtained the appropriate key. These keys are purchased from the faction quartermaster of the faction corresponding to the instance once reaching honored. At introduction the keys required revered, but this was reduced in later patches to allow easier access to the heroic modes. Magister's Terrace, which was introduced later with patch 2.4, did not use a purchased key. To obtain this key players needed to simply complete a quest which involved killing the final boss of the instance in normal mode.

Some heroic mode instances share loot with their normal-mode counterparts, while some do not. For example, items that drop in a level 70 normal instance like Shattered Halls will also drop in the heroic mode. However a lower-level instance like Hellfire Ramparts will have completely different items in normal and heroic mode. For the instance where loot is shared there are also additional items that only drop in the heroic mode. These items are of higher quality than the other items. Each boss in a heroic dungeon may drop an epic gem. The last boss always drops one epic item in addition to a Spell holy championsbond [Badge of Justice].

Each key requires honored reputation with the respective faction. (Lowered from revered in patch 2.3.)

Instances Faction Key Instances to grind at 70 Approximate Difficulty
Hellfire Citadel HordeThrallmar/AllianceHonor Hold [Flamewrought Key]

Hellfire Ramparts (~633 rep, heroic ~2500 rep)
Blood Furnace (~700 rep)
The Shattered Halls (~1650 rep, heroic ~2700 rep)

IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
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Auchindoun Lower City [Auchenai Key]

Mana-Tombs (consortium reputation: ~1200 rep, heroic ~2400 rep)
Auchenai Crypts (~750 rep)
Sethekk Halls (~1250 rep, heroic ~2100 rep)
Shadow Labyrinth (~2000 rep, heroic ~2700 rep)

IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
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Coilfang Reservoir Cenarion Expedition [Reservoir Key]

Slave Pens (~650 rep, heroic ~1800 rep)
Underbog (~1000 rep, heroic ~2500 rep)
The Steamvault (~1600 rep, heroic ~1800 rep)

IconSmall RaidStar
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Tempest Keep The Sha'tar [Warpforged Key]

The Botanica (~2200 rep, heroic ~3100 rep)
The Arcatraz (~1800 rep, heroic ~2600 rep)
The Mechanar (~1500 rep, heroic ~2100 rep)

IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
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Caverns of Time Keepers of Time [Key of Time]

Opening the Dark Portal (~1100 rep)
Escape from Durnholde Keep (~900 rep, heroic ~2300 rep)

IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
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Isle of Quel'Danas Shattered Sun Offensive N [70D] Hard to Kill

Magisters' Terrace (~1450 rep)

IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar

Wrath of the Lich King

Wrath-Logo-Small This section concerns content related to Wrath of the Lich King.

With the second expansion, heroic mode was extended to raids. The key requirements were not included on instances, instead heroic mode is available to all players at 80. The token system used in TBC heroics was considered successful, new tokens were added for the various "tiers" of wrath heroics and raids. For example, the same tokens drop in heroic 5-players and the first-tier 10-player raids, while a different token drops in the first tier 25-player raids and second-tier 10-player raids. A third token drops in second-tier 25-player raids, and will presumably drop in the third-tier 10-player raids when implemented.

Before Patch 3.2.0, Heroic mode raids, unlike their instance counterparts, did not dictate difficulty. Instead 10-player raids were considered "normal" mode, and 25-player raids to be "heroic". Heroic raids are not intended to be "harder" than the 10-player version of the same raid, instead simply tuned for the larger number of players. Heroic raids do still drop higher quality equipment than the normal-mode counterparts, by the logic that it is more difficult to form a good 25-player group. The currency tokens dropped in each mode can be used to buy items of similar quality to the boss-dropped items.

Patch 3.2.0 did away with this setting, other than showing up in achievements, in favor of the following:

Dungeon difficulty:
5-player heroic mode for the Heroic mode instances.
Raid difficulty:
10-player heroic mode for the Heroic mode (10-player raid).
25-player heroic mode for the Heroic mode (25-player raid).

In Wrath-Logo-Small, heroic mode dungeons have the following relative difficulty.

Instance Reputation Reward Approximate Relative Difficulty
Ahn'kahet 2300 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Azjol-Nerub 1300 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Culling of Stratholme 1700 IconSmall RaidStar
Drak'Tharon Keep 2000 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Gundrak 2250 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Halls of Lightning 2150 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Halls of Stone 1850 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Nexus 2300 IconSmall RaidStar
Oculus 1600 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Utgarde Keep 1950 IconSmall RaidStar
Utgarde Pinnacle 2000 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Violet Hold 1300 IconSmall RaidStar

Source: Poll Results For: "What Heroic Dungeon is the Most Challenging?"

Heroic Mode; Violet Hold, located within Dalaran, is commonly considered the easiest of all Northrend Heroic Instances. This is because it can be completed in under 20 minutes on average by those with even minor Heroic Instance Skills. Its low difficulty and low Reputation of 1300 makes it commonly a very casual Heroic Instance.

Cataclysm

Cataclysm This section concerns content related to Cataclysm.

Bosses in heroic cataclysm instances award Pvecurrency-justice [Justice Points]. By using the dungeon finder, players can gain an additional 70 Pvecurrency-valor [Valor Points] per day.

Instance Tabard Rep Guild Rep Guild Exp (5 members) Approximate Relative Difficulty
Blackrock Caverns TBA TBA TBA IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Deadmines TBA TBA TBA IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Grim Batol 1900 220 472400 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Halls of Origination 1715 385 826700 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Lost City of the Tol'vir 1280 220 472400 IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Shadowfang Keep TBA TBA TBA IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Stonecore TBA TBA TBA IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Throne of Tides TBA TBA TBA IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar
Vortex Pinnacle TBA TBA TBA IconSmall RaidStarIconSmall RaidStar

Daily heroic

Patch 2.3.0 introduced daily quests for heroic dungeons. These daily quests, referred to as "daily heroics", involved killing the final boss in a dungeon on heroic mode, and gave additional Spell holy championsbond [Badge of Justice] in Bc icon or Spell holy summonchampion [Emblem of Triumph] in Wrath-Logo-Small and money as a reward.

Players were able to earn extra Pvecurrency-justice [Justice Points] and gold for the first random wotlk heroic dungeon they complete that day, but the Wrath-Logo-Small daily heroic quests were removed in patch 3.3.0, however the Bc icon daily heroic quests still exist.

Random cataclysm dungeons yield Pvecurrency-valor [Valor Points] the first time you run them each day.

Patch changes

Wrath-Logo-Small Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): Changed the setting to 5 Player Heroic under the interface setting Dungeon difficulty.
Wrath-Logo-Small Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): Changed the setting to 10 Player Heroic and 25 Player Heroic under the interface setting Raid difficulty.

See also

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