levelling in WotLK

[Kroda]

I levelled my Paladin as prot almost all of the way after the 30's. I ae'd all the way to 70 and had a blast doing it.

Will that still be viable in the expansion, or is Ret the best way to level now?

thanks for any help

also, if I do go prot is the blacksmithing epic hammer (2nd version) a decent weapon in the expansion?

[Elsie]

Yes, ret is easier and faster questing. There seem to be very few AOE spots and many people will be in the area making aoe much less feasible.
Prot is viable to level with, but nearly as fast or efficient.

It's decent enough, but not really worth making. You can get post-kara level gear fairly quickly.

[Daine]

I think levelling through the first zones as Prot will prove to be rather tedious. I didn't enjoy it much thus far, especially with the amount of people scrounging around for the same mobs/items. It'll prove pretty impossible to AoE grind anything, but being stubborn as I am I imagine I'll run instances a lot and quest later when people are in bed, otherwise as said it'll prove tedious in my opinion.

[Chunes]

General concensus is that ret is the way to go, but take that with a grain of salt as it's pretty OP in its current form (at least prior to paladins breaking in the xp). Likely ret will receive some more balancing so it's hard to say at present which will be the better way to go.

I'd put my money on ret, but i'd imagine they will tune it closer to prot for actual release.

[Ashmadai]

Just like it is now, Ret will be faster for questing. Honestly, unless you just really love being Prot and have no ret gear, it'll be pointless to level as Prot in my opinion. Especially if you have good gear for both ret and prot, you'd be better off just going Ret, questing insanely faster, then just throwing on tank gear for 5 mans. Normal 5 mans are ridiculously easy to tank in a Ret spec. As an added bonus, you have Judgements of the wise so you will probably be able to tank them faster than if you were specced for Prot.

That's what I'll be doing at least.

[Soltyr]

I levelled my Paladin as prot almost all of the way after the 30's. I ae'd all the way to 70 and had a blast doing it.

Will that still be viable in the expansion, or is Ret the best way to level now?

thanks for any help

also, if I do go prot is the blacksmithing epic hammer (2nd version) a decent weapon in the expansion?

Leveled as prot since first steps in Howling Fjord (lev 76 now) and it's pretty viable, quests are short and funny, kill tasks are filler and nothing more than 10 kills. By the time you reach lev 75, there will be a nice ShoR to help you with greater kill tasks and/or single target kill.

With the SoW/JoW mana return there is nothing you can't use as dps-spell: Seal/Jud, HS, HotR/ShoR, Avenger's (not just for pull), Cons, HoW, Exo/HW, Ret Aura.

SoW is the main seal, sometime SoV/M is better against caster with less hp.
BoM is the main Blessing (better if Improved).
With the new pushback changes I can cast HL easily even with 3/4 mob hitting me (if crited I get my HP bar full ).

ps: so bad I got ShoR with the Jud broken tho, the JoW alone was not enough, but the loss is noticeable and I'm unable to use SoL healing.

[amunstorr]

im staying prot... after the expansion everyone is going to be on the same quest so im gonna get groups and group quest. Cant wait to see some level75 mobs!!!

[Kroda]

opinions are split, I was hoping for a concensus.

I'll probably go Ret simply because I can upgrade that gear playing solo and my prot gear is all khara level pretty much. When the expansion comes out I"ll make prot my 2nd spec.

To the arenas and bgs!

any advice on a Ret spec when 3.0 happens?

[Andryana]

Been prot from 1 to 70 and i'm not gonna change now.

[Sartuk]

I have no doubt that Ret will be, all around, the easiest leveling spec, even if you're doing mostly all 5 mans. Still, I'll probably spec prot just for the hell of it, since it really doesn't seem like it'll be that big of a problem.

[Truelight]

Ret just had the nice leveing patched out of them on yesterdays build (the QQing in the forums is funny) I have been leveling prot on test and its been ok. as of yesterdays build its been great! the New BOS has eleimated my need to drink if i can get 2 melee mobs on me at once (casters still suck) I am useing DPS war gear with prot tallents and in the area where i can get 5-10 melee on me at once i swap to my tanking gear (kara set) and have a bang up time. Now heres a tip there is ZERO defense plate till grizzly hills (74 ish) in GH there is a nice set of blue tanking gear quest that is better then my kara gear. I would suggest tanks have 3 sets of Netherclef and there aldor/scyer shoulder enchants ready to go at launch. to tide you over till there level 80 counterparts.