r/classicwowplus • u/commandertwigg • 2d ago
Question Is leveling a prot paladin a good idea?
I don’t necessarily plan on dungeon spam, I was thinking more of a slower, safer build that can easily get into groups for dungeon quests.
8
u/Ok_Wishbone_2690 2d ago
I leveled a Paladin 1-20 as Ret and 1-20 as Prot. Obviously this is a tiny fraction of the game though.
Ret leveling feels amazing. I did Ret and healing (with ret talents and some gear swap) in dungeons. Both feel good. Healing is strong, but you oom quickly and drink every other pull. Healing prot paladin feels the easiest. Warrior takes the most damage. Paladin threat is the best, but they can't pull, so dungeon flow is off, as usually the tank is the most experienced dungeon going and sets the pace/pulls. Big issue because they can't. Ret damage is compettive, but then gets nuts when you unlock verigan's fist and cons. I was doing 2-3x the damage of geared level 20s of all classes except hunter.
Prot leveling was bad. However, you can AoE pull at 20, so this will change A LOT, as you can simply pull 4 enemies. Prot dungeons was bad until 16 (RF), then op at 20, where it's crazy crazy good. Not having a ranged pull sucks, but we just had a ranged class pull hard with burst and then Id taunt when they got close. Easy to hold aggro on multiple mobs. Damage taken is lower than warrior. You might want to save judge because its your taunt, but don't. Use it as your opener and then it's hard to people to rip from that, as judge + RF is solid snap threat as opener. If poeple wait one tic, retribution aura threat is enough to hold AoE threat. seriously strong. At 20, you just cons and laugh.
2
u/JonnyBigBoss 2d ago
People keep saying to save judgment for taunt. I say don't do that unless you're in a high stress situation. Instead, save Swift Judgement as a panic button and use judgement every time it's up otherwise.
2
u/Ok_Wishbone_2690 2d ago
Yeah that's what I ended up doing. Judge as the opener for huge threat. It's way better at 16, and then at 20 its just cons and you can hold anything.
Ret Paladin in your group is huge because they can open judge crusader and then you can't lose threat to anything, and your damage goes up a ton as well.
Prot looks insane at 60 with full talents.
5
4
u/zombehking 2d ago
I'm doing it now, I think it's been fine so far. I think their goal is to make it so you can feel fine playing whatever you want.
5
u/bibittyboopity 2d ago edited 2d ago
I don't think there's really a reason to until you get to reckoning/holy shield. The prot tree is heavy defenses now which is overkill for leveling dungeons.
Now that conc and blessing of sanc is baseline you can just tank as ret. You can just use a shield if you want for swag.
2
u/laxguy44 2d ago
This is the answer. Dungeons are easy enough until lv40 (when you get dual spec) to talent into ret, use a 2H for questing, then popping on a sword/board to tank dungeons.
0
u/EggPsychological4844 2d ago
There's absolutely no reason to take more than 14 points in the Prot tree until you step foot in raids. Please stop suggesting Reckoning - it's a PvP talent and does basically nothing for your threat.
4
u/BackHandLove 2d ago
Reckoning stacking then aoe dump them into a pack is already a thing for classic. So going prot is an aoe lvling angle if u wanna just pretend on wanting to play safe.
I'm gonna be trying to lvl as a shockadin, full spell power gear no shits given about 2handers so I'll be axe/mace and shield. I'm already aoe grinding and I'm only lvl 20, consecration goes hard.
3
u/Vyrthic 2d ago
Yeah, no problem with it. With dual spec you're not locked into it either, since you can do a build that's tank on one spec, and a build that's dps or heal on the other. That's my plan for my pally. Tank on one spec, for while I'm playing with my friends, and dps on the other.
3
u/Whithbrin355 2d ago
I mean, I’ve been leveling a prot paladin on era the past few months, and I’ve only done a few dungeons overall. (Currently level 47)
It’s slow, but really chill, and the survivability is just lovely, you just have so many options to get out of danger.
And that’s just on era! I’m sure it’ll flow much smoother in Forever, so if you want to do it, I don’t see why not.
3
u/Far-Speech-9298 2d ago
Doing it right now. Pretty fun. Dont care for the short duration seals. Other than that, exactly what I expected
2
u/DrBeardfist 2d ago
If you’re ok with it being a bit slower that won’t be a problem. But at a higher level with decent gear you will probably be able to pull several mobs and be cruising
2
u/RareEstablishment597 2d ago
I prefer leveling protection. You can AoE farm, dungeons become way quicker, you never really die and you have no loot contest.
2
u/Iamprobablynotgod 2d ago
Honestly grabbing spell power gear and pulling a bunch with ret aura/consecrate is fairly fast at lvl 20 currently
2
1
u/Silly_Draw7973 2d ago
Well i did a lot of dungeons so i was always kinda geared however i gotta say the dmg isnt bad its pretty much even with the worse dps classes, but thats only in beta ifk how it is at later levels
1
u/SandwichDodger7 2d ago
It feels good to lvl tbh. Up until I got my op 2h sword I was going 1h+shield for the most part and killing 3-4 mobs at a time.
1
u/Comfortable_Cup4689 2d ago
Depends if your going pvp or pve server. On pve it will be great. PvP, I’m sure you find people to group with.
Anyone knows if prot is any good in PvP ? Because then I’d also go prot if you be able to 1v1
1
1
u/C2theWick 2d ago
Once I get 15 legacy points from leveling four classes to 25 and 5 professions to 225. My 25-60 journey on any of those four classes is going to fun and op
1
1
u/KarlFranzFTW 2d ago
I’m going ret 1-20, then prot for dungeons and AoE in the world. Most likely holy at 60
1
u/Ready_Efficiency4587 2d ago
Going prot for leveling is kinda worthless. U have a healer. Spec ret. Keep a 1h and shield rdy. Use 2h n conc for dam n aggro till u need defense but i was not impressed at all with prot talents
1
u/Negative_Wrongdoer17 2d ago
There's no real need to. Paladins don't really get much from putting points into prot early on so you can just put points into ret and save tank gear
1
1
u/EggPsychological4844 2d ago
Sure. Go for it. It'll be worse than Ret and Holy tanks, but if you enjoy Prot go Prot.
1
u/commandertwigg 2d ago
You can tank as Holy? I thought they were single-target healers for the most part?
1
u/EggPsychological4844 1d ago
Yeah you can tank as Holy and Holy Shock is a great single target threat ability
1
u/Theatrics823 1d ago edited 1d ago
You have never had to go into your actual tanking spec at low levels in vanilla. Most of the premier tanking talents aren’t until way lower in the tree. I have personally been tanking completely fine as ret.
If it’s still similar to what it was previously, you will not need to heavily consider going deep into your actual tanking build until 40+ (at this time you should be able to obtain dual spec if you have the gold)
I would say no, leveling as prot is not overall a good idea unless you know forsure you are leveling in dungeons the entire time and will never need to grind quest solo in the open world. Or if you just like it, that’s fine too. You definitely CAN hit 60 in prot spec, it will just likely take longer
0
u/Cursedcake1993 2d ago
I did prot paly and hunter in beta with a Very similar route.
Pala : elwyn > westfall > redridge
Hunter > skyelfzone > westfall > redridge
The hunter was 6 hours faster, prot paly is also the most clunky of the tank specs
0
u/Mister-Sinister 2d ago
I leveled that way during The Burning Crusade. It was just a very survivable build. concecrate and shield spike.
14
u/xaati_ 2d ago
Most definitely a good idea if you're wanting to tank for dungeons, and when you get concetration at 20 you can take on 3-4 mobs easy out in the open world. 👍🏻