Solo grinding as prot - some advice?Follow

I have just gotten my pally to Outland and have been grinding pretty much as someone posted in another thread: Namely pulling 2-3 mobs, judging Crusader on each, bringing up Righteousness and Holy Shild then pounding away with a consecrate here and there for good measure. Apart from a few problems, this seems to work Ok-ish. But, I do have some things I'd like some advice on. Sorry if these have been specifically covered somewhere that I've missed.

My questions are:

1. I've been getting rid of my +spell dmg gear in favor of +def/avoidance gear for tanking hoping to be ready at 63 to start Ramps runs. This move has definitely taken a bite out of my aggregate DPS while soloing. Should I be keeping a "grinding" armor set separately from a "tanking-only" set of gear? If so, then +spell dmg for grinding, right? I don't really love the idea of multiple sets of gear, but if that's what it takes....

2. Mana regen. I need to down a drink (and usually some food) after every pull. Is that normal? Am I just used to having the luxury of near-zero downtime from my rogue and warlock or is there something obvious that I'm too dumb to figure out?

3. While I'm asking... The maintankadin list (which is so awesome it needs it's own adjective) has a rep sword and a BOE drop for 70 but doesn't make mention of the s1 mace (or the Thrallmar sword come to think of it). Would the pvp weapons be totally wrong to go after?


Thanks in advance for any constructive advice. Playing a pally is very, very different from the DPS classes I'm used to and any help is appreciated. Also, massive amounts of thanks for all the posters in this forum who have been invaluable to helping me get this toon as far as I have.

Excellent, thanks!

Getting used to multiple gear sets, check. Of course, I've already DE'd all my old spell damage gear like an idiot....

SoW (or occasional SoL) makes sense. Just seems that with SotC I would grind faster because of the improved damage. But with the down time drinking I can see why that thinking is in error.

After working out my rogue's honor needs (still one more piece to go), doing only 24k for my pally weapon is a free taxi ride down Easy Street..... except with more yelling "INC" and fewer HKs.

i dont know about those quest rewards anymore.

i still had some old SD plate in my bank and they have been restated as Ret gear. /vender . . . meh.

Im not sure what you mean by "every mob" but judge 1 mob at a time not all at once... DONT be tab-cycling through targets. With a little timing you'll get it set up so they all die around the same time.

A couple suggestions: always try and grab 4-5 mobs, rather than 1 at a time(unless they are casters, then 1-2 at time, max), this is much more efficient mana-wise as it doesn't cost you any more mana to kill 5 than 1 if you're using consecrate and judgments anyway. Throw a spike on any shield you get until you pickup wayward footman's.

Thanks for all the replies!

I was, in fact, tabbing JotC through to add damage to the mobs when the consecrates and holy shields hit. Basically a game of whack-a-mole (having to keep the judgements up). I figured it would speed up their demise, which maybe it did. But the drinking time is definitely a problem.

Now with JoW the kills feel much slower, but at least I'm not drinking like a sailor on shore leave. For the record I'm generally pulling 3 at a time.

As to the shield: I've a bright and shiny Wayward waiting in the bank. Oh, yes... it's shiny.

Thanks again all for helping a poor DPSr make the great leap into tankadinology.

There's this new equipment suffix.. "of the Crusade."

It has a small amount of Def rating, some Int, and a nice chunk of spell damage. I've only found one piece though, and it was replaced by a much better blue in no time.