Gearing guide 1 - 58 primer

This is a starter guide for gearing as prot levels 1 - 58. I'm not attempting to do a full guide in any way, but seeing that the consolidated gearing guide lacks this part entirely I thought I could as well give something back in return for the fantastic help I've received here. I definitely hope for input in order to clean this guide up so that it can become a proper guide.

The guide, such as it is, is aimed primarily at people making their first serious levelling attempt with any character, which happens to be a PROTECTION paladin. I'm aware that such a person may be unlikely to head over here to Maintankadin to begin with, so the secondary targets are players who are rolling a fresh paladin on a new realm. Those of us who already have raiding capable characters and decide to roll an alt of any class on the same realm are honestly better off with a pure levelling guide, because we have the WoW-economy to make those alts look more like a twink than a levelling main.

Anyway, most general guides advice paladins to level as retribution. They are probably correct as well, but if you plan to switch to protection at around level 80 then you should be reading a 1 - 58 retribution gearing guide instead.

I will make changes to this post as I receive input. If the comments in later threads seems peculiar because they're mismatching this post it's because I've seen where I needed to change the contents in this guide.

It should be noted that this is based on my levelling a (human) paladin on a different realm than my main's, that I thus have no benefit from the WoW-economy that comes with levelling an alt after you already have one or more 80's, and, lastly, that my experience comes from doing this from late April 2009 and onwards. I am levelling on Silvermoon EU, a medium to high pop normal PVE realm. A normal day you'll find around 31k items in the alliance AH.
I'm in no hurry, a bit of a masochist and have thus gone protection from the start. To top it off I run guildless.

First of all, roll a DK if you plan to make a fresh paladin main on a new realm (if you're able to, that is). It does wonders for picking up BoE greens and a bank-toon with an epic mount is priceless. Besides, you will effectively start your career with some 20 gold. If you can't, still make a bank-toon. Being able to post loot, money and items bought from the AH between characters is invaluable.

Second, make sure one of your first professions is a gathering one. However tempting it may be to use the materials gathered to grind up your crafting profession, avoid this the first twenty levels or so. You will need the money received by selling those materials on the AH, and you also need to get an idea of price-levels on the AH. This guide is based on the assumption that you almost always have some 20 gold available spread between your paladin main and bank-toon.

1 - 23:
One note to those making an alt. Get the account-bound PLATE shoulders (Strengthened Stockade Pauldrons http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44099 ) and trinket (Inherited Insignia of the Alliance/Horde http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44098 ) from Wintergrasp. If your paladin is human and your racial seemingly makes the trinket obsolete, still get it. It has numbers on it. Numbers is better than an empty slot. Oh, the plate shoulders will become mail, and thus legal to use, when posted to your level 1 paladin. At level 40 they magically convert to plate (at least my leather/mail shoulders sent to my hunter behaved this way). Those of you with Emblems of Heroism pouring out from your ears can pick the Polished Spaulders of Valor http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42949 shoulders instead.

Back to the general guide.
If it's mail and has higher numericals than what you already have, it's an upgrade. WHAT stats the numbers give is of less importance. Just sum up the +stats and make sure you don't take a dip in armour. You COULD run Deadmines and Stockades (alliance) or Ragefire (horde) for gear, but waiting for pugs to form at these levels can be painful.
There are white shoulders at level 16 - 19 (Outrunner's Pauldrons http://www.wowhead.com/?item=15505 is an example) which are worth to grab for the added armour.

If you're horde, just keep running in the staring area and Ghostlands until you're done with the quests. There's a faction reward vendor there that sells Volunteer's Greaves http://www.wowhead.com/?item=22993 friendly, Tranquillien Defender's Girdle http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28162 honoured, Suncrown Hauberk http://www.wowhead.com/?item=22985 revered and Tranquillien Champion's Cloak http://www.wowhead.com/?item=22990 exalted. The last of these items is a blue cloak that is likely to stay with you for some time.

If you're alliance you clean out your starting area, and after that, as Barathorn, a member here suggested, you head directly for Westfall. Items associated specifically with that area added later. Observe that this doesn't hold true if you're Draenai. The two starting islands are a perfect place to run until your early twenties.

As a general rule you never pay more than a gold for any item in this level range.

Glyph might. You'll replaced the glyph eventually, but 30 minutes might is better than 10.

Spec 5/5 Divine Strength, 5/5 Anticipation, 3/3 Improved Righteous Fury and 1/5 Toughness, preferably in that order.

At level 16 you get a ranged "attack", and at 20 Consecration. Blessing of Wisdom (lvl 14) will certainly be a blessing for you. Exorcism at 20 makes your ranged attack number two.

24:
Get the Blacksmithing chestpiece (Shining Silver Breastplate http://www.wowhead.com/?item=2870 ). You'll have it for the next ten levels or so. It's THAT good.

Spec 2/5 Toughness.

25 - 30:
This is where you'll get your first headpiece. Probably cloth or leather, but crap is better than an empty slot. At 29 you get a semi-decent helmet from blacksmithing (Green Iron Helmet http://www.wowhead.com/?item=3836 ). An example of a mail helmet you may run across in the AH is Sentry's Headdress http://www.wowhead.com/?item=15533 , but if you're helmetless ANY helmet for a low cost is an upgrade.
By now you should start getting picky about your stats. Stamina and strength (<whatever> of the Bear) are the best options, but any combination of intelligence, stamina and strength is perfectly viable.

Start roaming the AH for any slots giving five or more levels upgrade. 1 - 2 gold should be considered a decent price.

Spec 3/3 Improved Devotion Aura, 4/5 Toughness and 1/1 Blessing of Sanctuary, again in that order. Your combined avoidance/block is so low at this stage that BoSanc returning mana you you is a strictly theoretical affair. Trust me, I tried.

Never leave a town without two stacks of mana drinks. You'll drink one after EVERY battle.

Glyph judgement or exorcism. First minor glyph should be lay on hands.

31:
Get the next blacksmithing chestpiece (Green Iron Hauberk http://www.wowhead.com/?item=3844 ). It's a good upgrade that will follow you to plate.

Spec 5/5 Toughness.

32 - 39:
Just level and don't bother overly much with upgrades unless you just happen to run into them. For once start looking for pugs into Scarlet Monastery as it 1) holds quite a few nice blues and 2) is decently easy to find a group for. An example of a great piece dropping there is the shield Aegis of the Scarlet Commander http://www.wowhead.com/?item=7726 . As a matter of fact, if you're a good group of five, just reset the instances and run them again. The xp and loot is good enough to warrant that. Oh, don't forget to loot the key.
You want to buy the Truesilver Commander's Ring http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29158 at 35 and any decently priced Aquamarine Signet of the <whatever> blue ring at 37.

I'd argue that you should prefer intelligence over agility in this range whenever str/sta isn't available at a low cost.
2 - 3 gold is the price-range you're looking for here. Blue items will cost you over 10, and they're usually worth it as long as you plan to keep them for up to ten levels AND they're placed in slots back, neck, fingers, weapon and possibly shield.

Spec whatever 3 points in the lower tiers you feel like. I grabbed 1/1 Divine Sacrifice and 2/2 Divine Guardian. Most anything except Guardian's Favor could arguably be useful for levelling purposes. Spec 3/3 One-handed Weapon Specialization and 2/2 Sacred Duty.

40 - 42:
Plate. Buy whatever cheap upgrades you can lay your hands on, but WAIT until you're 41 or even 42 before doing so. There's a drastic drop in prices from the plate available from 40. Again stamina and strength are your preferred stats, but don't forget to splash in a generous amount of intelligence. You're going to sit drinking a lot, but going OOM during a fight is bad for your health, and a larger mana-pool certainly helps.
The Steel Plate Helm http://www.wowhead.com/?item=7922 is a cheap blacksmithing blue which will stay with you for a while.

Beornus, one of the members here, suggested you get boosted through the lvl 50 quest Broken Alliances (horde) / Tremors of the Earth (alliance) in Badlands. The quest rewards you with Warforged Chestplate http://www.wowhead.com/?item=11195. If you have the opportunity to get that boost this is certainly a huge upgrade compared to most anything you'll ever see the next ten levels.

You may have to pay as much as 10 gold for some greens. Just don't bother with the 25 - 30 gold the best greens are sometimes sold for at the AH unless you're made of money.

Spec 1/1 Holy Shield and 2/2 Spiritual Attunement. Congratulations. You may now start looking for agility instead of intelligence whenever str/sta isn't available. From now on you'll only run out of mana when you're soloplaying. Holy Shield also mitigates the mana-drain whenever you're AoE-grinding. However, just accept that it does nothing good to your mana against a single target.

43 - 46:
Just level and pick up the occasional dirt cheap plate from the AH. You may see an invite to Zul'Farrak and possibly Maraudon. Join in, lose aggro and laugh. DPS running these instances are often of surprisingly high level (48 - 50), and if so they WILL outaggro you. I got myself Ripsaw http://www.wowhead.com/?item=9478 in Zul'Farrak, but we're playing with the RNG here.
Searing Gorge has a neat set of quests which will award you a few Slagplate <whatever>, but you could as well grab almost equal gear from the AH.

Unless you have WoW-gold aplenty I suggest you steer clear of anything costing much more than ten gold. A huge upgrade in one slot (most likely a blue item) could be worth as much as 20, but count on keeping such a piece until you hit Hellfire.

Spec 2/3 Ardent Defender and 2/3 Combat Expertise.

47 - 57:
Blacksmiths level up their skills on the Imperial Plate set. (Imperial Plate Belt http://www.wowhead.com/?item=7922 , Imperial Plate Shoulders http://www.wowhead.com/?item=12428 and Imperial Plate Bracers http://www.wowhead.com/?item=12425 are the really cheap ones) Rather than making your own gear, EVEN if you're a blacksmith I'd advice you to buy the items from the AH. Unless you want to fight for your life to get the materials needed to craft these items yourself you're likely to find out that your blacksmithing (if you're indeed a BS) will lag behind around ten levels.

You're less likely to run across the Imperial Plate Boots http://www.wowhead.com/?item=12426 , Imperial Plate Helm http://www.wowhead.com/?item=12427 , Imperial Plate Chest and Imperial Plate Leggings http://www.wowhead.com/?item=12429 . Now, if your paladin is an alt and you have the means to either get these items crafted or craft them yourself, do so. They may be greens, but they're really, really good pre-outland greens.

You'll end up with a few slots geared with items ten or possibly even twenty levels behind you. It really doesn't matter. Buy upgrades wisely from the AH, stick to stamina, strength and a bit of intelligence, and avoid going bankrupt this close to Outland. There really isn't any reason to push your upgrades in this interval as the first twenty or so quests in Hellfire will force-feed you with upgrades.
Unless you get lucky and hit upon a drop in BRD there's very little reason to push for a blue item in this level-range.

Certainly, if you see a minor upgrade (we're still talking str/sta) for 5 gold or less, go ahead and buy it even if you're level 57.

Spec 3/3 Combat Expertise, 2/3 Redoubt, 1/1 Avengers Shield, 3/3 Touched by the Light, 3/3 Redoubt, 3/3 and Shield of the Templar.
Jumping around in the talent-tree like this makes AS available at level 50. Whenever people talk about how fantastic the paladin is at AoE mobs while leveling, level 50 is the baseline. The protection paladin is decent at AoE before 50, but we start to shine after. The reason is AS. A quite usual situation is where you run into mobs too far away from each other to be properly bodypulled. You AS one pair, taunt a third and exorcise a fourth while running bodily into a fifth.

I'm well aware that this guide is sketchy in the extreme, but the fact is that levelling as prot until Outland doesn't require that your gear is anywhere close to your own level. Of course, if you're gearing up a paladin alt, with a few thousand gold in resources available from your main, then go nuts and buy every piece of blue from the AH. With a flamboyant economy to back you up, then the Stockade Pauldrons http://www.wowhead.com/?item=14552 should be a natural buy at level 50 (unless you're already geared with the account bound shoulders), but I personally can't see myself dumping in excess of 100 gold for anything that will be made obsolete the moment you enter Hellfire.

Last notes:
There are quite a few items with defence rating available from level 40 onwards, but for levelling purposes the penalty in stats usually aren't worth it.

Check the AH for REALLY cheap enchants. A gold or so for a few extra points in a stat, or even a bit more armour can be worth it for an item you suspect you'll keep for five or so levels.

If you're a blacksmith, then pick a bladed weapon if possible. Sharpening stones are cheaper to produce than weigh stones. The extra white damage is nice to have, especially against single targets and normally translates to over five levels in difference in weapon-quality (dps-wise).

I made my DK alt scribe/enchanter. Even though it's expensive to level the professions I know it's a huge moneymaker later on. As an added bonus I have more scrolls (str/sta/int/you-name-it)than I can possibly use up.

Get your cooking (and possibly fishing) in some kind of order. Even if you lag behind fifteen levels in cooking you still get a fifteen minute sta/spi boost available more often than not.

Barathorn, a member here, reminded me to mention enchants. Having an enchanter alt helps, but the AH always has SOME kind of really cheap enchants in store. Stamina or strength is preferable, but if the enchant in question costs less than a gold, a permanent buff in just about anything is better than nothing. I'd even go as far as buying a 50 silver enchant boosting spirit, an admittedly pretty worthless stat, if there was nothing else available for a specific slot.
Leatherworkers level their professions with the +8/16/24/32 armor enchants, and you can get those for more or less free.
If you're lucky you'll be in a city when an enchanter announces free enchants (including mats) for those who make the trip to said enchanter.
Remember that one magic level is 35, which means that the item in question requires the user to be level 35. This is what's required for the Outlands enchants. Another magic level is 55, which is the level required for the leatherworker enchants that adds stamina instead of extra armour to a slot.

Of all factions to gain reputation with I've only found one really worth the effort, because I raised reputation while doing the quests I planned to do anyway. That faction is Argent Dawn, which you will run into when you enter paladin heaven, namely Western Plaguelands and Eastern Plaguelands. You very quickly gain access to a combined mana/health drink that's simply outstanding, and they're sold by the quartermaster available in the horde/alliance starting outpost as well as in Light's Hope Chapel. Just don't forget to gear with the Argent Dawn Comission http://www.wowhead.com/?item=12846 that you will be given as soon as you start questing there.

Intelligence is not something to be looking for. Agility is an excellent leveling tanking stat as it gives avoidance, threat and armor. Links to the items you are referring to would help as well.

You should mention that You can pick up BoSanc at lvl 30, SoW at 38 and JotW (deep ret but some may find it better to tank as deep ret at low levels) and SA at 41 and 42.

I should say that you had a easier time tanking then than now since they removed SA in late April from trainers.

Other wise a decent job in an area we hadn't covered well.

Majiben wrote:Intelligence is not something to be looking for. Agility is an excellent leveling tanking stat as it gives avoidance, threat and armor. Links to the items you are referring to would help as well.

I've tried both agility and intelligence (knowledge of how to play the AH makes my WoW-economy far better than if this had truly been my first main), and somewhere after level 30 mana becomes a major issue. I'm happy as long as my mana lasts for the battle, as drinking between battles is a perfectly viable option. However, whenever I tried agility as an "offspec" stat, meaning that the item had str/agi or sta/agi instead of str/int sta/int and I wore zero +int gear, then from time to time I ran out of mana DURING the battle. That almost inevitably resulted in a ghost run.
Now, I prefer AoE-grinding mobs a couple of levels above me, so if a player sticks to mobs of the same level this may never become a problem, in which case agility certainly is a preferred stat.

I'll dig up the links to gear I know I had more than average use of.

Majiben wrote:You should mention that You can pick up BoSanc at lvl 30, SoW at 38 and JotW (deep ret but some may find it better to tank as deep ret at low levels) and SA at 41 and 42.

I should say that you had a easier time tanking then than now since they removed SA in late April from trainers.

Other wise a decent job in an area we hadn't covered well.

Yes, a general levelling guide, including specs and spells would probably be more useful, but does non-gear data (I include some consumables in my definition of gear) have a place in a 1 - 57 gear guide? I mean, the first 19 levels you judge once every ten seconds and between that you watch white damage slowly killing the mob. At 50 you start getting something resembling a rotation. Different tools for killing stuff certainly makes different types of gear more or less useful, but I'm not entirely certain that's enough of a argument to include non-gear information (even though I personally agree with you).

I've never done ret. Holy, yes, but never ret. Don't ask me why, but whenever I feel like playing ret I log on my Blood-specced DK. Laziness from my part I guess.

Removed SA from trainers? You're referring to SA going into the talent tree? My levelling of this toon started less than two months ago, so I'd argue that my expereince is comparatively fresh.
On a non-gear note -- I talented 2/2 SA to at least have decent mana while doing actual tank-jobs, and I'm running as fast down the prot-tree, blithely jumping mandatory talents whenever the alternative allowed me to go deeper into the tree (you REALLY want that frisbee at 50).
Anyway, at 54 mana is still a major issue while soloing quests, especially as it becomes increasingly easy to get "proper" tanking gear with str/sta only. Seeing that I'll get HotR at 61 this problem is unlikely to get much mitigated until after that as 1% more parry per level for five levels helps BoSanc kicking in. After that I guess I have to slug myself through levels 67 - 72 before mana ceases to be an issue.

I now see that I've forgotten to mention the glyphing gymnastics I've done while levelling. 30 minutes BoM was nice until I got BoW, for example.

Thanks for the constructive input.

Good work yappo, it was something that had been on my to do list for ages so thank you for doing it. Can we get some links for the equipment mentioned in the guide and then I will incorperate it.

I seem to remember that the Thrash Blade and Reckoning worked well while levelling. Any cheap +strength enchants are worth buying, as are the armor kits that give + stamina/armor that people level up their leatherworking on. A good shield is an absolute godsend for AoE leveling and it is often worth investing in a blue shield for 6 levels rather than changing your green shield every 2 levels.

I'll add more as the coffee clears up the grey matter this morning

Thanks yappo.

Barathorn

I've started the cleaning up. Links (in a format you may dislike, but I don't know the forum-format for making true links) will be added continuously, and after that I'll rectify spelling and grammatical errors.

I recommend that once a Tank hits 40 that they go to the Badlands and run the Broken Alliances quest to get the Warforged chest peice. The quest is hard for that level but having run it just a month or 2 ago, there are lots of folks doing it at any given time and you can easily group or find some Uldaman runners to give a hand for 15 minutes. I would go there on a regular basis in the high 40s to farm the dragonkin and would help anyone running the quest and there were others there doing the same.

543 Armor and +24 STR at lvl 40 is great and will last you a long time. You can live with this until your 50s and put your AH money in other upgrades to get the STAM.

The guide has now reached a point where I start to depend upon input to add more data.

As it is based on my own experience it lacks information on items gained from places I skipped. For example Kalimdor equals Felwood, Tanaris and Feralas, whereas I've been running Redridge, Hillsbrad, Duskwood, Arathi, Alterac, Stranglethorn, Hinterlands and WPL in Eastern Kingdoms. This is a result of my main being a Belf pally, which makes me next to clueless when it comes to Desolace, Ashenvale and the zone that is a hole in the ground between Desolace, Mulgore and Ashenvale.

Btw, what's with the nerf? I don't remember being able to beat up an elite my own level to pulp while levelling my first paladin. With this one they're just added xp, and it's not like I have great gear.

It is worth doing Desolace simply for the kill 30 Skeletons quest [very easy for a paladin] that you get from the Scarlett Crusade envoy in the Inn at the Alliance base. There is a prequest to this you get at level 35 from underneath SW Cathedral to journey to Desolace. This chain then culminates in a 'slay the leaders of the Scarlett Monastry' quest which rewards you with a blue item [spell damage sword?] and is added xp as you are likely to be running the SM for items anyway.

Ashenvale does require a huge amount of running around and I don't remember [it was a while ago] any decent drops there although there are demons aplenty [again easy xp for paladins]. There are a couple of nice drops in BFD for tanks but they can be passed over easily enough.

Alliance wise at early levels it is definately worth doing the westfall chain for the blue reward at the end of it [plus the defias storyline is awesome] as the DM's also have some nice low level blues [the cloak off van cleef is really good].

Barathorn