Stay as Prot? Or switch to Ret?Follow

I need a little feedback here. I used to be a prot paladin as evidenced by my gear. But I'm not sure if I should switch or not.

My gear is awesome for a prot pally, but I don't know exactly what gear I should get if I switched to Ret Pally. And I'm not sure on whether or not Ret's awesomeness will stay. I'm afraid that if I do switch, we'll get a nerf (murphy's law).

So should I switch ( i know it's my call but give me your opinion as to why I should or shouldn't)
And if I did, what equipment would I need to get.

Here's my armory.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Akama&n=Aramith

At your current level, the only REAL difference between prot and ret gear is you need a big slow 2-hander if you are going to go Ret.

Once you hit 70 (and soon 80) the gear differences are a lot more pronounced. Rumor has it that you will be able to dual-spec (have 2 default specs available to switch between) either when WOTLK comes out or shortly thereafter. As far as I know this has not been CONFIRMED as of yet though.

There is absolutely no problem with carrying gear around for both specs (or even all 3) and respeccing whenever you want (or need) to depending on what you are doing. It just takes a lot of bag space unless you want to park some equipment in the bank when you are not using it.

Try out 2 (or even all 3) Paladin specs and use what is easiest and/or most fun for you while levelling, and use whichever your group needs the most for instances and later raiding. I think you will enjoy the flexibility.

I am primarily a tank on my main (level 70) Paladin, but I have a "decent" ret set that is almost all blues, and I am starting to build a healing set that has a few blues and purples but is still missing most pieces.

Work on the set you think you will use the most first, then work on the other sets when you get a chance. Being able to do just about anything and do it pretty well is what makes Paladins fun!

Protection kills faster now as well (we actually get some STRENGTH on our gear... YAY!) and Prot is not as dependent on spellpower gear now since you get a Stamina to Spellpower conversion through talents (1000 Stam = 300 spellpower) so it is now feasible to use warrior tanking weapons and gear and still hold threat just fine.

Before you hit level 60, you can almost spec any way you want to and be just fine 95% of the time. After 60 your spec starts to make a BIG difference, but Prot can actually pump out some decent damage now, as well as being a THREAT MACHINE!

Basically what it boils down to is what do you like to do?

Holy can heal like crazy, and can put out VERY respectable DPS now so is viable to level with.

Prot puts out better damage than before and has virtually 0 mana issues anymore... still a bit slower to solo/level with, but can grind 5-10 mobs at a time, thus making the "kill x mob" or "get x number of drop y from mob" quests really easy. Also just superb in instances, even better than before!

Ret is now a killing machine with 0 mana issues and some fantastic healing ability.

Overall, all 3 trees got MUCH better with this patch, so it is mostly what you like best now. And, as I said in my previous post, there is no reason not to have several different pieces (or sets) of equipment and respec whenever you want or need to.

I happen to LOVE being a tank, so that is what I am staying for the most part, but some weekend I am going to spec Ret and throw on my "crappy" Ret greens and blues and just go have some fun with it.

I just thought I'd throw my two cents in here for what it's worth. I levelled all the way to 70 as a Prot Pally, and I loved it, but I think I mighta did it differently than most people. Most of my gear had spell dmg on it. I didn't worry about +def or +stam until I needed to tank some of the harder instances (at which point I got my butt handed to me). But the reason this worked for me is that the talents in the Prot tree increased my survivability while the +spell dmg helped me kill mobs a lot quicker than your average Prot Pally would.

I think that with the new talents, a good mix of spell power and +stam & +def would work well for levelling up. Obviously it's not a good idea as MT in any instance, but for levelling...kill faster and stay alive longer...it was fun for me.

I switched from Holy to Protection.. AND WOW its a lot of fun especially with the new updates. My main is a 70lock but I think im having way more fun with the pali..

I have been a tank since 35ish and just went back to ret.

As many people complain about Ret being OP there are just as many who now see us as a good DPS. My main is a mage. At the lvl of my current paly - the Ret Paly and the Frost mage both had good DPS. I can down mobs pretty quick, I can put out good damage in an instance, if I pull agro - I require heals. I am not the evil OP DPS that people talk about.

I think it's pretty fun actually. From what I remember of my pre-tank days ret was pretty boring. Now I have buttons to mash and a bit more strategy. Compared to 1-1 (me vs 1 mob) as a tank - this is way more fun. To kill 5 mobs at once might be tough (unlike on my tank) but it's fun to try something new for once.

I ran Ramps as a 67 Ret Paly in almost 100% tank gear (Had 1 DPS mail gloves) and it was what I would expect from running my mage through at that point. I was top of DPS and could solo some mobs if there was a bad pull or what-ever...

Frankly - Ret is fun again.

Try Ret out! It won't hurt to try it, just save all your prot gear. Respecs are very easy to do...

And you'll probably want to go Retribution for levelling to 80 anyway.


I switched to a Ret build last night and tried out some AV with it. It is fun, but it wasn't crazy like I had heard. Perhaps because my ret gear is kind of poor. I assume the "OP" rets are those with pretty good ret gear.

I too levelled to 70 as protection, with massive spell damage gear.

Same experience here. I did some world PVP and got stun/locked up by a rogue. Later I saw him run past me and I stunned him and beat him to death.

Saw a mage and he destroyed me. I had bubble down, but I couldn't heal... He locked me out of holy, but by the time he did that, I was nova'd he blinked and crit me with Ice Lance.

Saw a warrior and I killed him, just healed through....