Today as I was at the heroic daily quest giver another player whispered me about tanking a heroic. He wasnt a healer, but we found one soon enough and filled out the rest of the party quickly after with members of my guild.
We booked for Underbog and started the run and I noticed that the mobs were taking quite a while to burn down and after 2 near wipes (hunter and healer dead) I realized that the hunter was in mid 60s greens with season 1 shoulders as his only lvl 70 piece of equipment.
Now, I pride myself on not being an elitest bastard about WOW. Ill help just about anyone if theyre polite and can type well enough for me to figure out what they need, and a littel politeness has taken me a long way.
But I had to draw the line. On one side I had a VERY fresh 70 hunter who was excited to be in his first heroic. On the other I had 4 poeple who have spent the time, effort and gold to be able to do heroics.
So, I did what I had to do. I told him that I would have to replace him. I alopogised that I wasted some of his time and offered to tank any regular 70 instances for him should he ever need that. I did everything I could to spare feelings of him and the rest of the party.
This is where you expect me to tell you about how he cussed me out and all that, but thats not what happened. He told me he understood, and that hed go back to pvp for better gear. No cussing, no anger. He understood.
I dont really know why Im telling this story other than that it makes me feel good to share a tale of a person who ISNT a complete waste of flesh to counteract some of the horror stories I read on these forums.
That, and to remind you to always peep the gear of those you invite :P
I said this stupid thing was going to happen when they changed the rep requirement for heroics. I was first excited with the change, being exalted with pretty much everyone in outlands on my main, and just hitting my second 70 in my lock. I've now not only heard of situations like yours, but people doing heroics when they're in full greens, or worse, before they're even 70, and wondering why their party doesn't do well. I think it was a huge mistake by blizzard to let heroics be done at honored, (heck technically I could have gotten into heroic hellfire at level 61 on my hunter), but I don't think they'll ever change it back. This is more stupid junk catering to the casual player that ruins it for the rest of us.