Questions about Pally's
 

Couple questions about paladins

1. As a Ret Pally what things (talent, attributes,gear) should I be looking for.

2. After playing as a Ret Pally for 73 levels I am thinking about switching to Protection..what things should I be looking for there and how is my playing going to change?

Retribution 101 -- courtesy of WoW.com This is a very helpful, up to date guide on how to get the most out of being ret Paladin.

If you switch to Prot, you will have significantly reduced time in dungeon queues, but you will have to be more prepared; the group's success or failure will depend on you much much more than it ever has before. Not only will you need to be prepared in terms of talents / gear / glyphs, you will need to be familiar with (a) basic tanking strategies, such as Line-of-sight pulling (not so much anymore, but it's an example), how to control adds, and how to use your cooldowns to keep the most important members of your party alive (usually your healer -- BoP is a godsend) and (b) the instance. You will need to know which parts you can pull large swaths of easy mobs in, and which you need to do 2 or 3 at a time. You need to know boss strategies and be able to explain them to other people. It will also help if you are patient, and able to motivate those with you to follow your lead, rather than run ahead and aggro things that you then must pull off of them. Being a good leader goes hand-in-hand with being a good tank, and being a good tank will indubitably improve your leadership skills, if you are not already confident in that regard.

I don't think WoW.com has a Prot 101 guide up yet, so the best resource I can send you to for what to do in preparation for tanking is the Elitest Jerks guide. It may be a tad bit out of date, but contains much good material.

Good luck! (We always need more good tanks, so I encourage you to make the change)

Everything you need to know can be found here.

For Prot, check here. While the guide is a bit old, the info is still invaluable and will serve as a good guide.;)

Thank you so much!!! A great big help and lots of reading. Awesome!!!:banana::banana:

http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/ is a website dedicated to protection paladins. It has guides on gearing your paladin, threat issues, avoidance, theory crafting etc.

:) I wish that HALF of the tanks I've grouped with had these skills (or cared to learn them in regards to tanking and leading the group).
As a healer of over 10yrs.of healing in various games, in response to compliments on my healing, my reply is: 'I'm only as good as my group' and this is ESPECIALLY true in regards to my tank...give me an aware, patient, informed and motivating tank - and I am in heaven:banana: It's like dancing -the leader makes it look effortless and a joy-to-behold....the reverse is just ,mm..ugly and painful.

/ agree 100%
Pally heals 11/12 ICC 25 (also tank, but always raid as heals)(Elchion ; emerald dream)

Also, if you are in a pretty large guild, there may be someone in there that has an alt Pally Tank that can give you some pointers.

We operate that way in our guild with a kind of mentor system where we have people that have been in the role for years helping those wanting to switch into the role for the first time.

for ret u should be looking for strength,stam and attack and critical strike rating :D and for prot whitch i am now you would be looking for strength stam and defence rating:D