zepoodle wrote:
I had DI and spiritual focus up until I hit Outlands and had to respec full prot. Being able to heal yourself reliably without bubbling is pretty useful while leveling.
I had those leveling as well, but as we all know while leveling we won't have a "perfect" build (if there was one, we wouldn't have it leveling that is). Unless you map out your level 70 spec and place talents as you level accordingly, there's gonna be a respec out of certain talents later on. But doing that makes you miss out on talents that make leveling easier. It's a balance.
zepoodle wrote:
I think some points in Holy or Ret can supplement any Paladin build, because we rely so much on mana and our ability to heal ourselves; thus Benediction or Divine Intellect are going to be always useful, regardless of the situation.
Speaking of Prot as the OP brought up, yes some points in Holy can do well to suppliment the build, Divine Intellect in particular, but it is no where near necessary, and there are other talents that wil serve a tank better than more mana. Paladins gain mana back by being healed, so as long as you are not overgearing what you are fighting and not spamming needless spells you should never need DI's increase to your mana pool.
That said, DI also gives a very minimal boost to a Prot's very low mana pool, whereas a Holy Paladin will get a much greater benefit. Prot's don't stack Intellect and DI gives a greater effect the more Intellect you have.