[Ret-PVE] Leveling w/ sword & board

[Brute]

I'm leveling my shammy and I'm seeing a disturbing number of full ret spec paladins using a sword & board instead of a 2h wep, and queuing for randoms as DPS. Needless to say they rank pretty low on damage, usually well under the tank.

Is there a reason for this? Is it good for AOE grinding or something? One I was able to inspect had skipped 2H wep spec and Benediction, taking deflection instead. I'm not trying to flame; I just want to know if this is indeed a viable strategy that I missed or if I should just write these guys off as idiots.

Bear in mind I just hit level 40 yesterday so this has just been seen at low levels.

[lythac]

Skipping 2H weap spec, taking deflection and wearing sword and board may be a tank that queues as both Tank and DPS and is selected to DPS due to an abundance of tanks queing in the dungeon finder at lower levels?

Without me looking at what you can get with 20-30 talent points it doesn't seem unreasonable and for a new player even less so. Woudn't call them idiots, they might be new to the game.

[Brute]

Skipping 2H weap spec, taking deflection and wearing sword and board may be a tank that queues as both Tank and DPS and is selected to DPS due to an abundance of tanks queing in the dungeon finder at lower levels?

I'd agree but if I were doing this I'd still at least keep a 2h in my bags. That and the limiting role in leveling instances is ALWAYS tank on my server. Even when I queue my shaman as a healer I have to wait.

Without me looking at what you can get with 20-30 talent points it doesn't seem unreasonable and for a new player even less so. Woudn't call them idiots, they might be new to the game.

Maybe I'll just start politely telling them they're doing it wrong then.

[Grehn|Skipjack]

There is no reason I can think of to not at least swap to a 2her if you're not tanking.

[Hokahey]

The only reason I can see is that someone has been terribly unlucky in terms of upgrades for their 2h, but manged to pick up a 1h that is actually better that the best 2h they had, and equipped a shield for the sake of not wasting an item slot. Mind you, they could go out and spend some gold at the AH for a nice 2h (or even solo a fair number of dungeons, if they have skill and patience), but considering they're low level, I'd argue they aren't losing all that much in DPS, anyhow.

That being said, there is no particular need or reason to spec for tanking (or even "kinda" tanking) at lower levels. If you want to tank as a Ret Paladin, just keep a spare set of gear for it. Same thing for healing. I'd say you'd be perfectly safe to do offspec tanking this way pretty much to lvl cap, even with mediocre to poor healers for most places.

[blakk]

best reason i can think of for going ret early is SoC. it's accessible at 20 and makes tanking as a paladin in instances faceroll for threat.

[Grehn|Skipjack]

Yeah, I'd actually recommend Ret for tanking and even healing to an extent at least until 60. Prot overtakes Ret with HotR and lower damage intake at that point, but you don't have to respec.

[Kelaan]

Oh, definitely. Holy Shield and BoSanct are neat as heck, but Seal of Command and instant flashes of light are also excellent ... as will be replenishment.

[Mozen]

Seal of Command is really nice. My level 26 full ret with the full BOA set swings so slow it feels like he's not attacking at all in dungeons. But Recount shows that I consistently beat the damage of a level 28 mage in AOE fights.

Although I too have seen full ret in sword and board. And questing with that gear, not tanking dungeons.

I know that when I was playing my first paladin (back when seals were still consumed by judgements), I also switched to sword and board for a few levels. Two-handed weapons swing so slow it felt like I wasn't doing damage. So some of them may really just be new to two-hand weapons in general.

[Brute]

best reason i can think of for going ret early is SoC. it's accessible at 20 and makes tanking as a paladin in instances faceroll for threat.

Well, someone full ret going as tank I can understand. They're bypassing the queue, and if they know what they're doing, who cares.

What these people are doing is going as DPS. That's what makes it confusing.

I started asking people why they're doing this... one run, the paladin (full prot spec, S/S, selected DPS for the role) said he wanted to see the place once before he tanked it, and he was there w/ two friends.

Another, the paladin (full ret spec, S/S, going as DPS) had the quest reward from Bring the Light, a nice slow blue 1h sword, and the Aegis of the Scarlet Commander. So... that one I can see if you don't want to spend money on a 2h... and its quite a run to desolace to get the SM 'kill the bosses' quest so you can get that axe.

A third paladin, full prot spec, said he wanted to hit level 40 before he started tanking. That one was a head scratcher, but at least he wasn't being bad on purpose.

The last one was full ret, S/S there as DPS, didn't bless, and when we tried to kick him he wiped us and left.

So its making a little more sense... 25% bad players vs 100%. more research needed.

[Jedah]

Leveling a paladin is easier than ever these days since the changes from TBC. Going sword & board makes the risk of dying when you make a bad pull (which bad players often do) less risky and easier to handle... just stand there and whack shit until it dies. I can see the appeal for someone who has no clue what they're doing.


tl;dr - Bad players are bad.