Grogin of Area 52 wanted to know how viable levelling from 60-70 in Outlands as a Protection Paladin is.
Short answer, it's very viable. I levelled from 60 to 70 as Protection. Of course, I level by questing, and very rarely grind for experience, so I don't know any specific spots which are good for AoE grinding while levelling. Once you hit 70, though, you have to go to the Demon Hunter training grounds at the Temple of Karabor in Shadowmoon Valley. It is the Protection Paladin version of Paradise.
However, there are a couple of things to watch out for. There's not a lot of true Protection gear until you hit 70 and Netherstorm. Most paladin quest rewards tend to be str/int/sta/spell damage. Luckily, most quests don't make you choose between warrior tanking gear and paladin gear. So you can use warrior tank quest rewards for your tanking set, and paladin gear for general levelling if you prefer.
Personally, I recommend levelling as Protection/Holy rather than the standard tank build of Protection/Retribution. I find Spiritual Focus invaluable while soloing, especially when undergeared. Also, take Reckoning. It's very good while levelling, especially for regenning mana with Seal/Judgement of Wisdom, though most tanks spec out of it when they hit raid content.
The only other thing about levelling as Prot that I can remember is that you get Seal of Blood/Vengeance at level 64. Try them out and see if you like them better than Righteousness. I tried Vengeance for a bit, decided it was silly, and went back to Righteousness. Vengeance can give more damage, but half the time it falls off. Righteousness is always reliable.
If you're bored, you can "twist" Vengeance and Righteousness. Cast SoV, after 10s Judge it, and then switch to SoR. You'll get SoR damage while the Vengeance debuff continues to tick. It's decent extra damage for the last part of the fight.
Anyways, as long as you save the warrior tank quest rewards, you should also be able to tank any of the instances as you level.
Hope that helps!
Personally I hit a brick wall at level 67 in Nagrand where mobs are too spaced out to AoE with any kind of efficiency. After trying out Ret and realizing I was geared totally wrong for it, I combed together all spell damage I had and went shockadin for a while. I either tanked or healed all instances before that (carrying two sets of gear around).
ReplyDeleteI've done all my leveling as Protection (I don't really like spec dancing much, I'd rather get my build the first time), and so far Outland has been very good with it. There was a drag from 60 to 61, but after that things started to breeze by. Tanking instances is an excellent way to level.
ReplyDeleteAs well, I've never really had this problem with SoV "falling off", but I guess it's because all the low level tanking weapons have such a high swing speed that it's close enough to the PPM. SoV, I think I saw, is about 20 PPM, so a 3 speed weapon should proc every swing.
I leveled from 20-70 as prot. I buried myself deep into the prot tree also. But I finally learned the art of the AOE grinding in WPL and EPL. But the few tricks of the trade I learned was for 1-3 mobs, was choose the last mob that you picked up judge that mob with SoC. Concencrate then Holy Shield. Switch back to the first mob and then apply SoR. For those that are a bit bigger Use SoL judge it on a mob you plan to focus on then reapply SoL again so you are basically healing yourself and throw HS and Concencrate when needed to speed to process along.
ReplyDeleteBut if they where spaced out too far, I would just chain kill. Where you walk backwards and just pick up mobs as you go, but not to go to far where they start running away. When you get runners, I'd let them run, they will come back, if they bring friends, great.
That's my spin on it, it helps ya manage mobs and kind of practice for tanking in dungeons too. I think it is just more mana efficient to grab 6 mobs, believe it or not. I think it takes about the same amount of time for other classes to take down the same 6 as a pally can do at once.
Like rj above, I also leveled as Protection to 70. My server has a large enough pool of people in the 60s range that I leveled exclusively through tanking instances. I only did a few quests for tanking gear upgrades.
ReplyDeletePlaying as a Prot has two advantages that are not so obvious. First, spending 10 levels instancing will give a player a very solid understanding of how the instances behave once they move onto heroic mode. Even if you respec at 70, this is invaluable information.
The second is that you're forced to build your social skills. Learning how to quickly form groups and building a friends list full of skilled players is a huge boon. It's too tempting as Ret and Holy to take the easy route and quest your way to 70, imo.
Winnea had some great points, and I'll just add this: If you want to be a Tankadin, you have to be a self-starter. You really, really need to know your gear, and know how to tank. I would definitely do as much levelling as possible by running instances.
ReplyDeleteI ran as much as I could with my guild, but I also ran with PUGs whenever I couldn't get a guild group. I made a lot of friends, some of whom ended up joining my guild. I got the gear I needed, and got invaluable experience.
I agree with everyone else, but i much rather say that it was actually a little tough going from 60-63 as Prot. if you need, have a friend help you quest it makes things allot easier because u wont have those extra's coming after you and then you have to use all your mana to take out 2 mobs.
ReplyDeleteI love my lvl70 Prot pally, tanking is the funnest part, and i agree when you start to tank instances it does get you prepaired for Heroic Dungeons. Just make sure if ur prot to have the right gear, because it will deffinetly kill you.
Stop by The Underbog(PvP) sometime, message Evanpally :) Gl!
After reading everyones thoughts and opinions on prot pally leveling i figured id contribute. Ive got ret up until about 64 (current) the i just speced prot and kinda bit the bullet and got some intell/spell damage/stam gear from the AH. Honestly I dont know how I managed being ret and leveling, when now that im prot i find myself soloing about 5-6 guys a pull with no problems. (all about the spell damage for grinding) imo. And ive never had a funner time then tanking instances now. Always been a damage unit but now the prot pallie has opend my eyes! O.o haha. Anywayz It's a real fun spec.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently a level 53 Prot Pally attempting to levl to 80, and I was wondering if anyone could clarify for me what type of stats I should be looking for on Armor yo improve my tanking ability? I currently have Strength>Stamina>Intellect>Spell Power, but this is more from the coincidence of picking up gear upgrades than any sort of personal planning. Do I need to reevaluate my Stat priorities?
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