Are you ready for Highmaul? Let's do the Highmaul checklist: 

• Gems? 
• ilvl 615 (or higher if aiming for normal or mythic)? 
• Enchants? 
• Potions, flasks, etc.? 
• Aware that LFR doesn't even open until the 9th?

Even if you are just going to raid find, you have to hit ilvl 615 to even zone in - which isn't specifically hard, but we'll go over a few tips to just get you right at 615 so that you can zone into the dungeon. If raid finder is your goal, you're gonna have to have enough equipable gear to put you into that zone, even if your wearable gear isn't at that level. 

So how do you pull it off? Well, it's hard - because climbing up ilvl takes forever when you hit level 100 with ilvl 600 and below gear and have to push every piece to at least 615. There are two ways to go about it, the first is that you're going to want to just quest through Nagrand with a war mill. This will get you to ilvl 615 rather easily (considering you can strike 630 gear on epic rolls), when combined with the epic 640 ring. Otherwise, you'll want (if in a hurry) to mix dungeon gear (615) with PvP gear (630) with Apexis Gear (630). 

You can do a mixture of everything and that should hit you around 615 easily. As long as the game says you can enter, then you can enter. 

Considering that raid finder, outside of the first week (before everyone gets a few cool rolls from the personal loot system), all you need to show up is literally the ilvl requirement and gear that is spec appriorate. If you're a tank, you'll obviously (in order not to get kicked or cause some really harsh conversations) want to go a bit above / beyond the requirements and make sure to get enchants, gems, etc. 

For healers, the same is somewhat true. Underperforming isn't specifically great, but you should be fine as long as you're in spec specific gear and have a few mana potions on you. 

For damage dealers, you should make the best attempt to be geared for raid finder - there isn't going to be that dude in full mythic gear to carry the entire raid through doing double damage of anyone else yet. That's a few months off. 

Anyway, if you're planning on raiding with your guild, you need to just follow the quick checklist: 

• ilvl 615 or higher if possible 
• potions
• grand flask if possible
• food for yourself (even if feasts are an option, always carry food) 
• most if not all gear enchanted 
• gems 

For mythic raiders / progression raiders, you may want to start at normal and move on to mythic after the start of the launch. The new raid system isn't specifically tested, so you may run into some issues. However, if your guild is fully apexis geared, mythic may not present the challenge in downing a few bosses at the start. Mythic doesn't unlock at the start, so you can gear up at heroic for the first week.

Highmaul Unlock Schedule

December 2nd - Normal & Heroic Difficulty Opens

December 9th - LFR Walled City Opens, Mythic Difficulty Opens 

December 16th - LFR Arcane Sanctum Opens

Janurary 6th - LFR Imperator's Rise Opens

What stat do I stack? 

If you're confused about what you should stack as you're leveling, open your spellbook and find the skill that grants 5% additional of a specific stat. That's probably the best stat to stack. For instance, Divine Providence on my Priest gives 5% more multistrike, and then you get 20% damage/healing/absorb off of a multistrike. So you should, at the start, stack multistrike. 

If you're curious about more in-depth class strategy, please be sure to check out ElitistJerks.