It's time for a respec

I decided after reading this forum...I am going to respec away from ret and into prot. Any hints on the best way to start the respec?

I am at work so I cant access the armory right now, but my name is:

Phacade on Hakkar.

I am lvl 23 so I am not too far down the tree, but I could use any pointers that you have for me.

I know I need a good shield and a 1h now.

We suggest you don't spec prot till you get Holy shield, level ret till that point.
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Majiben
If we wanted Ret to be a joke, we would have just left the tree as it was, and maybe kicked it a little for good measure. -GC

Well you won't have much block chance before HS which is why I still heavily recommend getting HS before going prot. If you're not blocking you're eating lots of damage and not regening much through BoS. As soon as your get HS you will regen which as much mana as before.
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Majiben
If we wanted Ret to be a joke, we would have just left the tree as it was, and maybe kicked it a little for good measure. -GC

I hit lvl 30 last night. should I remain in my ret spec for lvling purposes? or should I make the change over to prot now?

Well, consider this:

How much tanking do you expect to actually do, and how often do you regularly run with someone?

I elected to respec prot on hitting 58 and Outland because that was when gear became something to consider seriously. I also routinely run with my girlfriend and I have very reliable healers and DPS to instance with. All these took the sting out of slower prot levelling.

Prot will be quite slow levelling compared to ret until you get HOTR, and still slow until 75 and ShoR(yuken!), and if you can't compensate for that with help or instances, you may be setting yourself up for frustration.

My advice would be to bang through as ret until you reach the spot where being prot will do you the most good. Where that is, of course, depends entirely on you and your situation.
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"Our only hope is revolution. I'll put up a sign-up sheet. We need one person to bring pitchforks, one person to bring torches.... am I thinking of revolution, or killing Frankenstein monsters?"