Levelling 70-80 ProtFollow

One thing I never wanted to get into too much detail talking about during the beta was how Protection played levelling 70-80. I was convinced all along that there was no way that what I was experiencing was balanced with what the live release would offer. While the mechanics aren't entirely the same as when I stopped testing, I have to say that Protection Paladins still have it made for Wrath levelling.

The biggest factor of course is Blessing of Sanctuary in its new form. At level 70 I was able to grab groups of pretty much any size of level 71 melee mobs (which are in abundance early on) and run the entire fight with full HP and mana. Against small groups, I'd Seal/Judge Wisdom and with Sanc/Holy Shield up never run out of mana. 4-6 mobs weren't enough to cause a noticble decrease in my HP bar while fighting. Against larger groups of 12-16 mobs, I'd Seal/Judge Light, since the increased number of mobs meant a drastic increase in avoided hits, which means a drastic increase in mana return from Sanc.

Add to this the extra AoE toy we get immediatly, and the fact that maybe 20% of the mobs are vulnerable to Exorcism/Holy Wrath and levelling to 72 is cruise control. I'm looking at less than an hour for 73 tomorow -- and having the whole day available (rather than the 12 hours or so that I had today, of which I lived my life outside of WoW in a large portion of) I'm projecting possibly ending the day at 76.. since I know it's not all a straight-shot for AoE questing the next couple of levels.

Of course.. at level 75 our tank skill-set is mostly complete with our last major rotation spell coming in then. It could be worth it to take the class for a spin in the "balanced" live version instances.

Now, the easy levelling isn't totally unique to Protection Paladins. There are plenty of specs spanning many of the classes that just rip apart the level 70-73 area. I've heared several people talking about how it feels like the game is easier in Northrend or how they feel like they're cheating since nothing can touch them. By the time they're leaving the two starting zones it's a different song for those classes. The Wrath starting zones were legitimatly built for level 68s (where Hellfire was a good name for that zone if you were sub-60 imo) and it shows. We experience this steep curve of difficulty out of the starting zones as well, but Protection still feels like cruise control on the other side of the zone.

I'm interested in seeing how progress goes tomorow. Forgive me for focussing on progress over content -- I've done it already, I know what's there. It doesn't wow me seeing a neat an innovative quest that I've done twice before.

If you have even Kara/T4/Badge gear, the quest rewards are basically vendor trash unless you are trying to put together a Ret set or something. However, the quests are fun and not too tough other than competing for mobs, but the respawns are fast for 95% of the quests, and the variety of quests is good. I love it so far!

I am a bit worried about staying uncrittable though. I had a nice 496 Defense at 70, and when I dinged 71 it immediately fell to 486. I stopped right after i dinged, so I know it will go up to 491 or so just from doing quests, etc. The problem is, I believe you need 495 defense at 71 to be uncrittable, so I am going to have to swap some stam for some defense it looks like. I am now glad I am a blacksmith, becuase blacksmiting now seems to be the best way to get good prot gear for Northrend.

Of course it would only matter to have 495 defense if the mobs I was fighting were level 74, which, so far, they are not. The highest level mob I have had to fight in Northrend so far was 72, so that requires less defense to be uncrittable at level 71 for me.

Edited, Nov 14th 2008 1:28pm by jeromesimina

Somehow i don't find any good spot to aoe grind...almost everywhere are some annoying casters or ranged mobs that keep killing me -.-
Any ideas where i could go?

While AoE grinding is fun and effective, it's very very difficult to do if you're in the middle of the raving masses. Most spawn points are camped to death and the lower mob density than BC is a bit annoying.

Can't wait for the new gear thread! Since I'm a relatively slow leveler (still only 73), I find it very useful to plan what to look out for ^_^ I've seen one gear list for 80 that's based on heroics, but it would be nice to see one getting ready for heroics.

I thought you might mean HotR, but thought I'd check - since I only recently noticed my Toughness buff from mining, I thought it was entirely possible that I overlooked a new ability...

I was pretty impressed that I was able to keep aggro in Utgarde Keep when I had a T6 healer and DPS warrior with me - and my 70 gear was mainly dungeon blues and SSO rep rewards. I spent the post-nerf time before LK leveling alts, so I didn't get in on the badge loots (I kind of regret it, but I'm already 73 so I don't know how long they would have lasted anyway).

Protection is a very viable leveling spec now because of BoS and increased DPS. As Prot, you will want to always have at least 2-3 non-casters on you with Holy Shield and BoS up, and you will rarely run out of mana. But I would not say it's 'preferable' to Ret for the 70-80 grind, it's simply far more comparable now in terms of leveling speed. If I was planning on doing instances along the way, I would definitely stay in Prot, but Ret still has very high burst (which makes it better in areas flooded with casters) and is no slouch in the survivability department with JoTW and instant FoLs. You are not slowing your leveling down with either choice, basically. I, personally, still prefer Ret leveling because I think it is better right out-of-the-box (if you do not have super gear on either spec) and is stronger vs. casters. But, I have been leveling in WoTLK on Prot thus far so I can tank instances along the way, and I can definitely attest to some of the things that people have been posting here.

Gear-wise, it's simple on both. Prot, you get spell damage via your Stamina, and Strength/AP is a lot better for you than it used to be, so I would focus on those stats. You can toss on a spell damage weapon/set if you want, but I've been using a higher DPS sword for better HoRs. Ret is still just STR/critical strike/hit - no need for spell damage, because of talents.

I was at 71 and goofing around with about 1 million exp in blue bar and I decided to hit the Borean Tundra. There are rhinos in the southern part and prot pallies can absolutely massacre them, ending with full hp/mana. I was able to clear 1 bar every 5 minutes.

My record pull was 28 mobs at once at which point they start to die while training from one group to the next. You'll get a lot of rhino meat which will level your cooking up and several gold's worth of junk; just come with empty bags. Skinners/leather workers will benefit too and at several points, I had a few skinners following me around, dancing and cheering me on which was amusing.

It did feel a bit ironic slaughtering these mobs and then doing all of the DEHTA quests a few minutes later; a quick dip in the lake by Nesingwary's men cleans the blood right off, though!

Well I have been prot since level 11, never respecced at all. From 70-78 so far, really no problems, I mostly have Badge/kara gear. But what i have done is put on about half of my (what was badge healing gear) spell damage right at 800. Lots of aoe damage, multiple mobs. Only a couple of upgrades so far. Don't get to play to much only couple hours a day. Hopefully hit 80 Before thanksgiving.

Then start worring about gear for tanking again. You shouldn't be fighting any mobs more then 3 levels higher then you. As long as you stay in area's close to you level.