Paladin - Protection - Holy or Retribution?

[Bellator]

I know this really depends on playstyle and interest, but going to ask anyway. Do you play a Paladin and which spec do you play and why? I am still playing my new druid and having a ball. I am thinking of even trying a Paladin since I never have. Since I have played casters, is a Protection or Holy a beefed up caster? Retribution seems very much about tanking with some nice spell backup?

Thanks for your input

Bellator

[seebs]

Ret is not about tanking, ret is about DPS.

I have really enjoyed both holy and protection.

Protection really starts to shine around the 30s -- Sanctuary's the magic cookie. Basically, with good defense and sanctuary, you can kill most mobs slowly -- but it doesn't seem to take longer for larger groups. So, say, it might take me 20 seconds (two glyphed consecrates) to fully kill a mob... And 20 seconds (two glyphed consecrates) to kill a group of 8 or so.

I haven't played on my holydin so much lately. I recall that he was pretty much able to heal for as long as I wanted, but didn't kill very fast.

When he got his first sword, I realized that he'd never trained it... So I just sat there beating a same-level mob (50 or so). For about 15 minutes. Never even came CLOSE to running out of mana or health.

[Pigl33t]

Retribution, DPS
Protection, Tanking
Holy, Healing

I'd leave Holy well enough alone until at least 78. Personally I would probably go for protection since I've already leveled and raided a retribution Paladin. And the reason why is simple, if you ever want to do a dungeon on your way to 80, you already have a tank. Then you just have to find a priest, balance/restoration druid or a elemental/restoration shaman for a healer and you're pretty much set. Sure killing things will be a bit slower in prot then retri but you can kill more at the same time so it evens out.

[Gako]

I have a prot pally, and so far he is definately one of the most fun toons to play. He levels pretty fast as well, due to AoE grinding though you should be [u]very[u] carefull while doing this as one slip up will end you up with a repair bill and my Avatar staring at you.

I've experimented in Ret, and it seems to be a pretty regular melee DPS based spec. For a bit it was insanely overpowered in PvP (I still have sore memories of getting murdered again and again by Draeni paladin twinks in BGs *shudder*). However, Bliz has nerfed em a bit, rightly so, so I would say make a warrior instead of a ret pally.

Holy spec is, well, holy. I love healing, so I specced this for a while, and pally heals hit for less than priests (with the same gear), but are WAY easier to level. All in all, choose what you wanna play.

[Taryble]

Already having a healer/dps caster (Holy/Shadow priest), I recently levelled a Paladin.

Here's the breakdown. None of the specs play like a caster - even Holy only has 1 "attack" spell. Most of the time, you're beating on things with your weapon of choice. Seal of Light + Judgement of Light for soloing elites, Seal of Retribution (or Command if you're Ret spec) until you get Seal of the Martyr. Judgement of Light always, unless they're not hurting you and you're low on mana, then Judge Wisdom.

Holy - most mana efficient healer in the game. Also the most HP and most health of any caster. Slow levelling, but you won't die as long as you have mana. Which you'll always have.

Protection - Die? HAH! AoE grind like never before! Seriously. Unkillable unless you're crazy.

Retribution - Slightly more squishy than the other two. Levels fast. 2-3 targets at a time. Is capable of stupid DPS. Can solo 90% of group quests until you hit Northrend. Believes that killing things is an acceptable substitute for eating and drinking for hp/mana recovery.

I levelled Ret to 78, when 3.1 hit and I went Prot. I levelled EXTREMELY fast (faster than either my hunter or my priest, who levelled shadow). So far, I've only died 20 times on my paladin - and 3 of those were while Prot tanking regular 5-mans, 4 were on unlucky pulls while raiding as Ret. 13 deaths from level 1-80. Pretty freakin' solid.

[shkm]

I play a protection pally as my main. Must say it's great fun, but then you have to enjoy tanking.

I've always found retribution to be one of the dullest DPS specs in the game. I now have it as my offspec because it makes sense, but it still fails to interest me. There's just not much to do.

Have never played holy. Planned to try it as offspec until I went for retri.

For leveling, retri is the way to go. Nothing else comes close.

[Republic]

Originally Posted by Bellator I know this really depends on playstyle and interest, but going to ask anyway. Do you play a Paladin and which spec do you play and why? I am still playing my new druid and having a ball. I am thinking of even trying a Paladin since I never have. Since I have played casters, is a Protection or Holy a beefed up caster? Retribution seems very much about tanking with some nice spell backup? Thanks for your input Bellator

I've played a paladin for almost 4 years and the only thing I wanted to add to this discussion was that now, finally, retribution is a viable choice. They finally fixed "most things" broken with the retribution talent tree. So, my point is, if you want to do dps that's comparable (if not superior) to almost any other "traditional" dps class/role, ret paladins are no longer laughed at.

I prefer tanking as a paladin if you are in a good realm and can get a lot of runs. If not, going retribution makes grinding, questing a little more fun. I'll never heal again as anything, so I'll never recommend holy although I realize it's good and people like it. I spent almost 3 years primarily as a healer and well, it's run its course for me.

Good luck

[Taryble]

I went into an OS and partial Naxx in largely quest blues/greens from Sholazar basin or earlier, and output an overall 1250 dps (per Recount), with dps on some fights being reported as high as 1700. Retribution is an EXTREMELY viable DPS spec now, which is really nice.

[Unbornchild]

Hello guys i recently made my own paly but been Ret since i made it at lvl 60 now tired of waiting too long for grps as dps and want to try out tanking but cant find a good solid spec any of you can link me a site where i can find a nice tanking talent tree and glyphs please will apreciate it TY in advance

[zero-kill]

http://elitistjerks.com/f76/ --- paladin forums

[Petrah]

I like the sick DPS output that the ret pally can do. Even at low levels the DPS is extreme hehe. With the right heirloom gear, blues from the LFR's, and the right talent spec w/glyphs (Elitist Jerks has that info) these little pallies are just too hot. Mine just hit level 50 yesterday, and I am having a complete blast learning what he (my first male character that I'm leveling) can do.

[us2006027321]

The most I can say for Prot is that it tanks like a beast. I haven't played it, so I can't say much else beyond that. As a healer, I have nothing but high praise for Prot Palies.

My off spec is Ret, and I can tell you from experience that Ret can't tank to save anyone's life, not even its own. I would sooner have a Holy Paly off-spec tank than a Ret Paly. Ret does silly amounts of dps, however, and it's fun to watch things fall over after one has essentially face-rolled his keyboard.

I play a Holy Paladin, and I have leveled that way since I got my first talent point at 10. Having come to the class directly from Mage, I can tell you that if Holy is played properly, it is exactly like being a Mage with the added bonuses that you can wear plate, you have heals, and your melee swings are worth a d*mn. At 80 I will be experimenting with Shockadin (a dps build that centers around Holy Shock). I know it will be worthless in raids, but it'll be a ton of fun. If you do pursue healing as a Holy Paly, stack Int. Lots and lots of Int... Paly heals work way differently than any other healer, and if you try to build its stats like other healers, you will fail. When one is stat-stacking properly, Pali heals hit loads harder than any other class's heals will (to include Priests). You won't group heal as well as the other heal classes, but you'll rock socks on single target healing way better than any of them. Resto Druids will give you a good run for your money, but don't be daunted by them. You don't have to do nearly as much work to do all the healing they're doing in trying to keep up with you. ~_^ HoTs can only do so much. :P

[Petrah]

Nate!

/puts hands on hips and taps foot....

Where the heck have you been?

[Taryble]

Coming back to this 8 months or so after my original post in here - Prot pallies are insane amounts of fun at 80, so is Retribution.

I still haven't done holy, but as a Protadin, I absolutely adore Pally healers for 5-mans or as the MT healer in raids. My Holy Priest is absolutely jealous of the sheer throughput they get on their healing spells.

[Zyonin]

I leveled my Pally as Prot. It's insanely fun to pull an entire mob camp and kill them all yet remain standing. Sure the fist couple of mobs may take a bit to go down but by the time you get their buddies, the extras are already half dead thanks to Consecration, Holy Shield (once you get it), Ret Aura, a shield spike plus other abilities that cause meleers to basically kill themselves. Thus they go down that much quicker. And runners? No big deal unless they bring along casters/ranged mobs. If they bring melee, then my task is easer as I don't have to hunt them down.

Against melee mobs, Prot shines as a leveling spec. Against, casters/ranged, not so much since you have to goto them (at least until you get Avenger's Shield + Rank 3 Shield of the Templar) while the mobs throw more pain at you. Fortunately, while leveling you mostly encounter melee mobs. Plus with Seal of Wisdom and Blessing of Sanctuary, a leveling Tankadin's downtime is pretty minimal.

In PvP, I like to bait in Rogues and Feral Druids by casting heals on other targets. Said mark thinks n00b Holy Paladin then proceed to kill themselves with a bit of help from me. While on my Druid, I tend to avoid Prot Pallys for that reason.

Ret on the other hand is pure fun when it comes to huge numbers and killing things fast.

[us2006027321]

Petrah, I feel like I've committed a crime! To remain somewhat on topic, I've been leveling a healer. ~_^

[Petrah]

Originally Posted by us2006027321 Petrah, I feel like I've committed a crime! To remain somewhat on topic, I've been leveling a healer. ~_^

lol Sorry. It's just that, well, you've been missed!

Yes yes I know I'm off topic.

[cdg82]

I've been playing Holy paladin for about 50 levels now and I couldnt be more thrilled. I know the game "warned" me that this wasnt a tanking character but I went for it anyway and I got the HOLY spec anyway...against my friends advice.
"play either retribution or protection" he said but I felt the need to help people and clicked on HOLY.
The thing is that the holy paladin was kinda not kicking a lot of butt UNTIL I got the DENOUNCE spell, and that is when things changed. At level 50, on average the denounce is hitting with 700 damage with 17% haste with a comfy 3000 armor. I dont have a frame of reference for this so I wanted your opinion on this.

By the by, In duels I've beaten 4 retribution paladins and 1 protection paladins and havent lost yet. Pretty neat eh? The trick, REBUKE, it stops other paladins from healing. >)

In terms of questing, you dont have to worry about potions or debuffs cause youre one huge walking hospital so you CAN take your time with bosses even on your own.
Im taking this Paladin al the way to the bank...well, to the auction house.