Wow. As in, I was in a 5 man pug heroic UP and wow, my DPS was sad. After about half the instance, the number two guy (warlock) had 70k damage and I had 7k. Granted, I am not in raid spec (destruction). I am not in raid gear (epics). To be fair, I was probably about as threatening as a fly on a horse's rump. Gumdam, I knew all this going in but still...

So just FYI...

Level 80: You are in 80-90% blue gear and should be doing about 1500 DPS. At this point, you run heroics constantly for more blue gear (probably approaching 1700 DPS, which you enchant to about 1850-1900 DPS).

1900 DPS: Now ready for end game raids, also known as "instances that drop purples". Basically run Naxxramas to start, then Ulduar and Trial of the Champion in Icecrown until the next patch (Icecrown) where you and your 2000+ DPS friends take down Arthas.

I guess that's basically it. What wasn't in there was endless running of all the instances for Emblems of Triumph and Epics tokens. The enchant for spellpower on a sword alone is 900 gold. That's nine days of [casual] dailies.

I guess this is why casuals take the easy way of upgrading gear: expansion packs.

Terms used today:

UP: Utgarde Pinnacle, an dungeon at the top of Utgarde Castle meant for level 80 players.

DPS: Damage Per Second, used contextually to mean I filled a damage dealing role (not tank or healer). 1500 seems to be the concensus of where you start once you hit 80.

Dailies: Repeatable quests (like kill 10 kobolds) that are available every 24 hours.