Leveling as prot?Follow

I just hit 61. So I can probably say pretty well.

You will go slower as a Prot. However, you can AOE grind. I mistakenly thought that IF I leveled as Prot, I would be better at tanking once it mattered. This wasn't true. Old-World content is so hard to get a real group - there's always a friend or guildie who's 10 levels above... So my tanking experience really didn't help me. (Also - much of Old-World content is Tankable as Ret.

I thought it was Fun. I really am enjoying tanking now, but if I had to do it all over again, I'd take Ret to 60, then spec for tanking Outland Instances.

Actually I found that protection was faster for me than ret. Ret is faster against single targets, but a lot of stuff in this game is grouped up. You can finish them simultaneously with protection. And protection build can kill any single target ret can, when you need to kill that named mob for the quest, it just takes longer. Overall, I'd say I found protection faster than retribution.

I respecced a ton from 1-70, I think you might find ret faster until you get holy shield, but I don't know. You know what makes paladin level the fastest though? Team play. :P I leveled from 58-60 as ret, 60-65 as prot, mostly solo, then 65-70 as holy, all PuG instances, and I think I did it in shorter time than 58-65. Also, now I have a bunch of quests left to do with pure profit reward. :P


Edited, Aug 25th 2008 4:29pm by digitalcraft

Levelling as Prot is considerably faster than Retribution, I have tried both and it's a fact. Get the Shield from the Sporeggar faction which causes a DoT on a sucessful block, and you will be able to grind 5-6 melee mobs with little issue. I finished the mob-intensive Zangarmarsh and Nagrand quests extremely quickly by AoE grinding, finishing on 90% health and 80% mana after killing six mobs at the same time is just pure joy.

The other great thing is you will find it so much easier to find instance group slots while you're levelling, which will speed up your route to 70 even more. I probably got 30% of my XP from instancing alone, and as a result had pretty kickass gear by the time I finally hit 70.

The downside is you will suck badly in PvP, casters especially will eat you alive in World PvP, and going to Battlegrounds is an embarassing experience as Prot.

Sounds like the right answer differs. It really is fun to take on 4 - 6-10 mobs and live. Yeah, when everything goes crazy you might burn a Pot, but Prot Spec is fun.

My point was mainly that, Unless you plan on slowly leveling (really experiencing content...) You won't be running many Old-World Instances - And - Since you don't need to Spec Tank to do it in Old-World content... If I could do it again, I'd go Ret. But, like others have said... Maybe Prot is faster...

Hey - either way, it's all about play style.

Good god lvling protection sucks.
There are very few times when you can pull 6-8 mobs at once, at that only really works when they don't have bleed effects. Or constant poisons, diseases, etc. Very few times. Even worse, by the time you gather most of these, half have left you for moving too far. The best thing to lvl on is buzzards in Hellfire, but even then.

And I was moderately geared, with as much tanking gear as possible, the sporeggar shield with felsteel spike and all the goodies and no way can you take 6-8 equal lvls and walk away with 90% health and 80% mana. Atleast the vast majority of mobs you fight is that way. It's the special abilities mentioned above that ruin that.

And good luck fighting casters, because it will take you an hour to take them down. And half of all the mobs you fight are casters. You don't block spells and you only get one hammer of justice per minute. It kills your health.

You can tank as ret up to 68 or so, after that the gear shifts heavily and the mobs hit really hard. I've tanked everything up to and including Sethekk Ret, anything beyond takes too much work or just isn't going to happen without an overpowered group.

My $.02 is to stick with Ret as you level, save your tank gear from quest rewards and instance runs if possible and then respec whenever you are ready to tank only.

Added note: This is protection in outlands from my experience. I never went protection pre-59 and so can't speak to that.

Edited, Aug 26th 2008 3:23pm by NephthysWanderer

At low levels, ret sucks. I did a short test on the yetis outside tarren mill, and Seal of command did LESS damage than seal of Righteousness. It worked out to the same difference on a 2h weapon or a 1h weapon. The gap is even bigger if you spec into improved righteousness (Holy tree). Of course, I have yet to go back to SoC since lvl 35, but the fact Command was such a let-down left a bad taste in my mouth. I might respec back to ret at 60, since weapons are significantly better so the added damage should be more.

Edited, Aug 27th 2008 11:47am by Zeynothix

I lvled as prot from 1-64. I did have a group of friends so we hit alot of instances. And in that situation I found that it was insanely fast untill about lvl 50. But that was likely because I took a break and my group ran off without me. At 64 I hooked up with a prot pally and respeced holy. If you have friends then lvling as prot will likely give you the edge you need to become a superior tank. You will know how threat works and how to stay ahead of the occasionally suicidal dps.