Hey Everybody - I just started playing WoW about 3 weeks ago. I was a long time Everquest'er, and recently one of my friends got me to start playing WoW with him as a means to keep in better contact with one another. I mention this for 2 reasons: to let you know that via Everquest, I'm familiar with someconcepts behind WoW, and also to let you know that I will mainly play between that of 'casual' and 'hard core.'
My question for the Alla's Pally community here: As a Prot Pally, what should my gear focus towards? As more background, My Paladin is 'Valorious' on 'Whisperwind' server. Here is a WoW Armory link: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Whisperwind&n=Valorious
Things I should mention:
-I want to be able to group with my friend (plays a mage)
-We will be duo'ing a lot, or making pick up groups from our random, somewhat noob guild.
-For what it's worth I mine, and am working on becoming an 'armorsmith'
-I play in EST
-I want to be a survivable, nearly self-sufficient on tanking/healing paladin. Mainly so when duo'ing, I'll just count on my mage friend to provide dps, and we can get through instances.
-I have limited in game money, I refuse to buy gold, so I'll only have what I can earn
-I've only played for 3 weeks, so WoW specific lingo, abbreviations, and other in-game details may be lost on me
-I made a Protection Paladin because I wanted to make a survivable tanking class to make it as easy as possible for me to stay alive and completing goals in wow. It's always been my preference in MMORPG's (and all RPGs for that matter) to be melee or melee hybrid.
-Anyone that flames my noob post will be doing so in vain. I was (once; always) a Marine, so I have +infinity thick skin of the USMC.
*Stats* I have been focusing on #1 - Armor, #2 - Stamina. At the level I am playing now (low to mid 40's) I haven't really focused on gear, as I have been out growing gear rapidly. Right now, I'm mainly in smithed Heavy Mithril in order to have high armor and stamina. If Armor and Stamina are the stats I should center around, what should I 'minor' in? Intellect for healing? Strength for dps? Agility for Avoidance? Some of this might be personal choice, so I'll mention that I want to make the best tank possible. I want to be able to take as much damage as possible. I'm not very concerned with DPS. I guess really that leaves Intellect or Agility, while Agility could make me better defensively - intellect can allow me to heal and thus stay alive longer.
*Talents* There are a lot of talent models out, I have not subscribed to any one in particular. Obviously I'm focused around Protection tree, but I've dipped a little into Ret, and am considering some things from holy as well. If any models can be given for grouping/duo'ing prot paladins, I would appreciate it, along with any reasoning behind selections so that I can better understand my class and character!
*'other stats'* I have no idea how block rating, resilience, and all of the 'non-base' stats relate to game play. Some of them, I don't even know what effect they are going for. If there is a link to a decent guide on these, and also personal opinions (with support) on why some are more important to others, especially when related to Prot Pallys I would very much appreciate it.
*Thanks* Thanks for everyone on here for your time reading and any future information. Everyone had to start somewhere, so I appreciate any help related to the class that I get.
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New to WoW, Prot PallyFollow
Armor value on items is generally not something we think about. It's important for tanks, but the general assumption is that if you're tanking, you're wearing plate. If you're wearing plate, the armor value looks after itself.
Strength and Stamina are your two main leveling stats for a protection (or even retribution) paladin. Agility does very little for us. Defense rating is a very good stat for tanking paladins (it's actually a mandatory stat for end-game tanking) but you won't be seeing a lot of it on gear until you get to higher levels. Intellect is a major stat for holy paladins, but it tends to just be added fluff for prot/ret.
You'll find that outside of instances you can get away with a lot. In instances, you can tank or you can heal but you'll not likely be doing both at the same time.
As for talents, the majority of cookie cutter builds you'll see floating around are for end-game purposes where you're specializing in one area or another. You can check out some of the stickies at the top of the page here for information on tanking builds but it's very much a personal choice thing until you start focusing on instanced group play as your bread and butter.
Resilience is a PvP stat. It has some benefit in a PvE environment but it's generally not worth having if you're not doing a lot of PvP. Even if you are doing a lot of PvP, you need quite a lot of resilience before it starts to make any real difference.
Black rating increases your chance to block (assuming you're wearing a shield). Block value determines how much you actually block. Block rating is one of those "obscure" stats. It shows up as part of your "Block %" stat on your character sheet. The higher your block rating, the higher your % chance to block an attack. When you successfully block an attack, the damage you take will be reduced by an amount equal to your block value.
Strength and Stamina are your two main leveling stats for a protection (or even retribution) paladin. Agility does very little for us. Defense rating is a very good stat for tanking paladins (it's actually a mandatory stat for end-game tanking) but you won't be seeing a lot of it on gear until you get to higher levels. Intellect is a major stat for holy paladins, but it tends to just be added fluff for prot/ret.
You'll find that outside of instances you can get away with a lot. In instances, you can tank or you can heal but you'll not likely be doing both at the same time.
As for talents, the majority of cookie cutter builds you'll see floating around are for end-game purposes where you're specializing in one area or another. You can check out some of the stickies at the top of the page here for information on tanking builds but it's very much a personal choice thing until you start focusing on instanced group play as your bread and butter.
Resilience is a PvP stat. It has some benefit in a PvE environment but it's generally not worth having if you're not doing a lot of PvP. Even if you are doing a lot of PvP, you need quite a lot of resilience before it starts to make any real difference.
Black rating increases your chance to block (assuming you're wearing a shield). Block value determines how much you actually block. Block rating is one of those "obscure" stats. It shows up as part of your "Block %" stat on your character sheet. The higher your block rating, the higher your % chance to block an attack. When you successfully block an attack, the damage you take will be reduced by an amount equal to your block value.
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-I want to be able to group with my friend (plays a mage)
-We will be duo'ing a lot, or making pick up groups from our random, somewhat noob guild.
-We will be duo'ing a lot, or making pick up groups from our random, somewhat noob guild.
That’s fine. For PVE stuff – there is no group that “Doesn’t workâ€â€¦
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-For what it's worth I mine, and am working on becoming an 'armorsmith'
My advice is to not waste your time or money on crafting until you get to 70/80. You can make money by gathering, so the mining is great. Consider Gathering herbs. Blacksmith costs a ton of money and you need that money to level… (A lot of people disagree with me – cause they want to roll play or make their own gear…) Guess what – IMO – It’s a total waste. Nothing you could make is worth anything until end-game…
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-I want to be a survivable, nearly self-sufficient on tanking/healing paladin. Mainly so when duo'ing, I'll just count on my mage friend to provide dps, and we can get through instances.
This will not work. You can 3 man stuff, but having just 2 people at the proper level – you are not going to 2-man an instance. Yeah – if you are like 5-10 lvls above it – you might be able to, but that’s not efficient. Get a 3rd or – as you are totally new – Get 5.
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-I have limited in game money, I refuse to buy gold, so I'll only have what I can earn
This is why you should not focus on Blacksmith.
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*Stats* I have been focusing on #1 - Armor, #2 - Stamina. At the level I am playing now (low to mid 40's) I haven't really focused on gear, as I have been out growing gear rapidly. Right now, I'm mainly in smithed Heavy Mithril in order to have high armor and stamina. If Armor and Stamina are the stats I should center around, what should I 'minor' in? Intellect for healing? Strength for dps? Agility for Avoidance? Some of this might be personal choice, so I'll mention that I want to make the best tank possible. I want to be able to take as much damage as possible. I'm not very concerned with DPS. I guess really that leaves Intellect or Agility, while Agility could make me better defensively - intellect can allow me to heal and thus stay alive longer.
You are in over your head… At lvl 40 – you want to focus on leveling and not really stats/gear. At that lvl you should be getting gear with Stamina, Strength, and even some Intellect (As it means more mana – thus less down time.) DO NOT FOCUS ON ARMOR. Plate gear has armor. It’s a moot point. If you wear plate – your armor will be good. Focus on STA, STR, INT etc…
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*Talents* There are a lot of talent models out, I have not subscribed to any one in particular. Obviously I'm focused around Protection tree, but I've dipped a little into Ret, and am considering some things from holy as well. If any models can be given for grouping/duo'ing prot paladins, I would appreciate it, along with any reasoning behind selections so that I can better understand my class and character!
There is not perfect lvl’ing spec for PROT. Prot is not a good lvl’ing spec – so saying that you are going prot and need the best spec is sorta not a great way of going about it…. First – the best leveling spec is Retribution (DPS) paly. Second – if you choose to go Prot – you should google “AOE GRIND PALADIN WOW†and look for a “How to†guide on AOE grinding – that’s what you want…
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*'other stats'* I have no idea how block rating, resilience, and all of the 'non-base' stats relate to game play. Some of them, I don't even know what effect they are going for. If there is a link to a decent guide on these, and also personal opinions (with support) on why some are more important to others, especially when related to Prot Pallys I would very much appreciate it.
Read the paly sticky at the top of the page. It will tell you all you need. Resil is a PVP stat. Block rating and block value correspond to shields…. Rating = how often you block. Value = how much damage you block… All that crap will be learned in time.
Read the sticky. Go to “Elitist Jerks†and read the paly info. Google “Wowwiki†and read that stuff on stats.
Your goals, in this order, should be:
Save Money
Get to 80
Get working on gear
Get working on reputation
Begin instances
Buy from the Auction House: Epic Shield, Helm, Boots
Get your Defense to 535 (Through gear and enchants)
Start running Heroics
Buy Badge Gear
Get Defense to 540
Start running Raids
12 posts
With you leveling alongside a mage, Prot might be the way to go actually. Do AoE pulls for regular leveling and you will never need to hunt for a tank when you guys want to do an instance. And I find AoE pulls to be so much more FUN!
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Consider Gathering herbs.
I would advice against this if you also have mining. You cannot have both trackings at the same time (mining nodes/herbing nodes) which would mean that you constantly have to switch between the two OR missing out on multiple nodes of either gathering profession.
For moneymaking through gathering try mining/skinning or herbing skinning. Since the OP is a miner already, the choice is easy.
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There is not perfect lvl’ing spec for PROT. Prot is not a good lvl’ing spec – so saying that you are going prot and need the best spec is sorta not a great way of going about it…. First – the best leveling spec is Retribution (DPS) paly. Second – if you choose to go Prot – you should google “AOE GRIND PALADIN WOW†and look for a “How to†guide on AOE grinding – that’s what you want…
This is true only to an extent. After a certain point Prot can be a very, very effecient leveler. You simply have to level differently than say a ret paladin. Ret paladins can tear up a handful of bad guys. A prot paladin can tear up GROVES of them. If you are specced properly and have decent gear its not uncommon to see a prot paly taking on 10-15 baddies. This is how I leveled through most of Northrend on mine. Get some decent crafted gear in Northrend (ie the cobalt set) and then just go at it. I've solo'd many a group quests on my prot paladin sub-80 that practically any other spec or class would have never been able to do.
The key to a prot paladin is understanding your class enough to tank large quantities of baddies. Knowing which kind of baddies. And then understanding the use of your cooldowns so you properly mitigate damage long enough to kill them. Every time I'd pull I'd aim for no less than 5. In some very insane encounters I had close to 15 bad guys of equal or slightly greater value on me. At this point its really a game of keeping holy shield and consceration up while healing yourself. But it works great.
If you're looking for sheer leveling speed stick to ret until at least 40 or so. Ideally 50, 60, or even 70. The first 40 levels or so as prot are borderline masochistic.
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A prot paladin can tear up GROVES of them. If you are specced properly and have decent gear its not uncommon to see a prot paly taking on 10-15 baddies. This is how I leveled through most of Northrend on mine.
Having lvl'd as Prot I will agree, but like you said - only to an extent. The first chance for you to start pulling really insanely large groups is when you get into WPL (That's the one with scholm right?) and that huge town of Undead - right by the flight point....
Like you said - you really can pull off some crazy stuff. However - From a strictly lvl'ing point - You really can't AOE grind till about 35 (That's how it was for me)... As you go through those levels you eitehr encounter casters or you can't round up enough Melee mobs to really show your true potential.
There are specific locations where you can grind, but they often don't overlap directly with where you want to quest.
Prot is not a lvl'ing spec (Though I did it) - I generally advise people against it because until your 50s - you really can't go crazy... When you get above that - it gets cool, but ---- If I had it all to do over - I'd be RET till 74 (Dalaran). Then start tanking and building my set.
Just My Opinion....
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