So, is prot viable for solo compared to ret now?..

[Shainey]

I really feel like I am playing a paladin.

this

[Sabindeus]

In reality, the difference is slim between the specs.

Not that I care whatsoever what spec you level as, but I guarantee you I can kill 3 mobs for every 1 you kill as Prot spec.

It's not a slim difference in killing speed between the specs. More power to you if you prefer to stay Prot. I never specced anything but Prot a single time until well after I was fully epiced at 70 and just decided to play around with Ret and Holy, so I know where you're coming from. I think everybody will just be fine if they just spec however they want and not worry about what other people do. =P

quoted for accuracy

If you think there's only a slim difference between Prot and Ret, you may have terrible Ret gear, or be doing it wrong in some other way.

Not that I care what spec you level at, but as uke said, ret kills shit faster and this is an undeniable fact. Please stop denying it based on your own personal observations which may be skewed in various ways.

[Mouse]

not only does ret kill faster but art of war, sheath of light, and JotW makes me finish every pull, no matter how many mobs with 100% life and mana.


Prot is quite effective, but ret is MORE effective. It has no drawbacks as far as I am concerned. I can tank 5 mans lvling as ret, I have more pvp viability, I have less downtime, more killing speed. I may not be able to solo elite as well, we ll see, but thats it.

[Egtheridon]

Just using the training dummies, self buffed as ret I was hitting 1.4k, as prot i was hitting 1.6k dps, due to hammer of the righteous hitting all three of the training dummies. This is wearing full dps gear with both sets and just switching to sword/shield as prot. On top of that a large portion of my dps comes from hammer of the righteous, and i'm using suneater a very poor dps weapon, compared to the badge axe for my ret gear.

Only problem I was having as prot was going oom which will be solved from blessing of sanctuary(I'll probably be sealing light or corruption during leveling).

When leveling I'm most likely to level prot because I don't want to hit 80 without any instance tank gear and I only roll in instances for the spec i currently am. During BC it was more important to just hit 70 because I got into BC kinda late and you get geared up relatively fast, with everyone racing to 80, I think not getting the instance gear can be a disadvantage upon hitting 80.

Back on the topic of ret dps vs prot dps, single target ret wins, multi target under two targets ret wins, at three mobs I think ret and prot equalize(i hit 1.6k dps and from what i read hammer of the righteous is having its dps increased, cause the multiplier for dps is going up to 4 from 3).

Prots biggest disadvantage leveling 1-70 was single target killing, now thats not really a problem. If we use the same methods to level (grabbing as much mobs as possible and killing them at the same time) I think prot will level just as fast as ret in most situations.

edit:: There is not downtime in prot if you seal correctly, or you pull a few mobs with blessing of sanc*

[crabcrouton]

Divine Storm kinda leaves Hammer of the Righteous in the dust though.

[unboundarea52]

Prot will be plenty good at leveling, if ret wasn't so much better (at least to start with at 70 in Northrend) I would stay prot. Leveling "fast" isn't my goal, but killing things fast is. The less time I spend trying to kill x of y mob the better.

[Orms]

prot in ret gear is awesome for soloing. I usally grab 3-5+ mobs and can kill them as fast as I kill a single mob. Mounting and nabbing a few mobs is a breeze. Mana is a problem soloing though, I thought BoSanc would have been more help, but I still have some mana issues.

[Sabindeus]

prot in ret gear is awesome for soloing. I usally grab 3-5+ mobs and can kill them as fast as I kill a single mob. Mounting and nabbing a few mobs is a breeze. Mana is a problem soloing though, I thought BoSanc would have been more help, but I still have some mana issues.

This is pretty much what I do as Ret, except I don't run out of mana. Ever.

[EvilNuff]

prot in ret gear is awesome for soloing. I usally grab 3-5+ mobs and can kill them as fast as I kill a single mob. Mounting and nabbing a few mobs is a breeze. Mana is a problem soloing though, I thought BoSanc would have been more help, but I still have some mana issues.

I do this on beta as a Ret in Ret gear and grab 3-5 mobs and kill them in about half the time it takes me as Prot in Ret gear. I never run out of health or mana. I instant heal off procs, I plea my mana back. I haven't eaten food or drunk water since level 74.

Prot is absolutely 100% viable for leveling. I think there really is no question about that. However, IMO, anyone who thinks that Prot spec no matter the gear or play style isn't significantly slower than Ret is deluding themselves.

[Andryana]

prot in ret gear is awesome for soloing. I usally grab 3-5+ mobs and can kill them as fast as I kill a single mob. Mounting and nabbing a few mobs is a breeze. Mana is a problem soloing though, I thought BoSanc would have been more help, but I still have some mana issues.

Doesn't divine plea help though?

In the end of the day is just playstyles.. ret will be faster without a doubt but prot this time around is really viable, i enjoy more the style of prot and i'm not in a hurry to hit 80 so i'll stick with it

[Embher]

I prefer aoe tanking stuff with ret aura/ holy shield, hammer of rightoues, conc and getting mana back with sanc, if its possible, but some quests, the mobs are so far away from each other, it's hard to do that becaues they deaggro.

[mavfin]

They say 3.1 is done, and includes dual specs.

If they dump that to us on expansion launch, then all of this is academic discussion. Get a prot spec and a ret spec, and use whichever is appropriate at the time.

[Drak]

I'm still going to stay prot simply to be able to tank instances on top of solo questing. However, if dual spec is released soon after wotlk hits (i.e. before I hit 80), hello ret, here I come!

[Sheherezade]

I'm currently feeling like it will be rather easy to lvl in wotlk with our ew talents with the damage I'm dishing out in my ret gear atm...

but what's with the HotR being deflected as much as it is???

[crabcrouton]

Put on the Shard of Contempt for fewer deflects. Seems to work fine for me (trinket + talents + human racial = no deflections).

Leveling as Ret is good, it's really really good. I mean I leveled multiple Paladins to 70 and 80 as Prot and Ret is just insanely faster. I can also grab 3-5 mobs as Ret because Divine Storm heals for quite a bit. When mobs are melting under my gaze, they don't live long to do much damage anyways.

If someone likes the Prot playstyle, I can't touch that. But saying that Prot is anywhere near Ret, even in the same gear, is untrue. Give Ret a try and see if it's not just as much fun.