Leveling through NorthrendFollow

Just wondering which spec you rage-starved lot find/found more enjoyable while leveling 70-80. I'm rocking Stormherald/Merciless axe at the moment so weapon choices are very flexible. Also have a T4-level set of prot gear (5/5 wooh!) so my options are open.

So, my plate-wearing friends, did you find arms, fury or prot the most fun to level as?

Prot lets you slide through the levels with very little problems. Sometimes you can't do those 3 man quests solo. Big deal, find a DPS and healer who can't solo it either and get 'er done.

I switched to arms for a level, and found it slower than prot, even while most of the gear that comes from questing is not specific to prot gear. It's mostly, Str, sta, hit, crit and haste gear. While prot spec and leveling, I put on most of that gear to level anyways.

I'd debated this over and over again in my head, to the extent that I actually never started my journey to level 80 with my warrior, taking my mage instead while I deliberated which spec to take to 80. I had even decided that I would wait for the Dual-Spec feature to be released before going ahead with my warrior, just so that I could be able to spec either way at the drop of a hat.

Another reason is that I love Fury, always have done, and now with TG, that love affair has turned into something outlandishly obscene. I even went off and crafted Bloodmoon (cost a bloody fortune) in preparation for when the expansion dropped, so I would be as uber as I could manage - this is a single, pretty highly ranked reason for me not to want to drop fury, as I have no intention of wasting that effort and gold.

Eventually, my impatience got the better of me, and I started leveling again ... as Fury. Almost immediately, I realised that this was going to be a blast .. I cleared HF .. including all 3 man group quests (ok, the Runed Stone Giants are all but impossible as simple melee - dk's probably being the only ones who could do it) ... and haven't really looked back. I'm now 75, I've cleared BT as well now (the final group quest proved too tough for me though), but I've had zero problems ... pretty much zero downtime as well, Bloodthirst and Blood Craze heals keeping me adequately topped up with health.

As for prot, I spec'd prot at around 73 to give it a bash. Don't get me wrong, it's an enjoyable spec, and pretty easy to level with, downtime being zero ... literally ... but I found the pace waaay slower. Things died, and I lost less health than with Fury (not much less, but less nevertheless), but they died a lot slower.

The big bonus is pulling 3,4 or 5 mobs at the same time, and handling them all - but I don't like doing that, call me crazy, but that seems too premeditated with the intention of simply getting more kill XP from one pull - I prefer to take things a little more as they come instead of actively seeking out situations that fit my spec. Probably why I'll never level a pally prot, or a mage as AOE spec'd frost - not my style. Prot lasted about 2 hours, and I was back as fury ... immediately enjoying my class again.

I tried Arms post 3.0.2, pre-expansion ... and didn't like it. Again, not a bad leveling spec, but I found it not as fast paced as Fury, but not as solid as Prot ... more of a wishy-washy in-between that I just couldn't get into.

Ultimately, I've decided that I'll take the possibility of more downtime, and maybe even a death or 2 if things go bad, simply because of the awesome feeling of absolutely obliterating the mobs. I've had a few occasions when crits go right for me, where my fight DPS on a mob is well over 2k - that's a fantastic thing to see (even though it's largely meaningless ;->), and something that really touches something deep inside of me ;-D

So, overall ... I would say it's a matter of play style - safe and sure with a sword and a shield = Prot, Raging Barbarian with 2 massive weapons = Fury, skilled weaponmaster with a single 2 hander = Arms ... pick what you prefer, and run with it.