Paladin MT question

[Rocky Rhode]

Thus far I have been merrily working my way through the old world content with my Paladin spec’ing along the Ret tree. We just finished off SM last night; still have not had any issues with holding agro and/or keeping her alive. My group team – Pally tank, Ele Shaman, Ele Shaman, BM tree Hunter, balance Druid. I have the three who can heal set up on a macro to toss heals when conditional alt is used, otherwise continue to throw dps at the target. To be honest, I love the damage the Pally is currently dishing out; can this team make it to 80 with the pally spec Ret? If not when should I re-spec down the Protection tree?

Thanks for your insight…

[Ughmahedhurtz]

The only time you'll need to dual-spec for protection is when you want to go run instances in Northrend. There's only one quest that would need a prot spec to finish that isn't an instance, and that's Sarathstra at 75ish.

[Marious]

Agreed for the most part only in Northrend. If you look at gear in the 60's it is mainly aimed at Ret tree when it comes to a pally and very little to do with Prot, I would carry a shield and kind of a tank set for some stuff just to be on the safe side but mostly you have to worry about Prot spec until later, now if your going into say an instance where the mobs are 2-4 levels higher that is different but if there about the same you should be fine with Ret.

[Rocky Rhode]

My plan through Outlands was to simply quest for the most part; hit a few instance for the achievements. Once I land in Northrend I would like to become better at team synergy, still I want to get the team to 80 before I devote a focus of attention to instance grinding. Good to hear that the Pally can continue to function as Ret spec and still perform against equal level mobs during the instance runs for the achievements.

[elsegundo]

The only time you'll need to dual-spec for protection is when you want to go run instances in Northrend. There's only one quest that would need a prot spec to finish that isn't an instance, and that's Sarathstra at 75ish.
a pally friend of mine solo'ed her as holy. at 76 i think.
but yea, she's a tough cookie.

Rhode: for leveling.... why not go prot? any reason you wanna stay ret? dps? but you have four others? i dont think it should matter what the pally is dishing out so long as your four dps can one-hit mobs in northrend. i mean all i'll be seeing is pally taking half the mobs health and then four different dps chime in for 3,000-4,000 overkill damage. for me, that makes no sense. once you hit instances, yea, try to be prot tho. just remember that prot shines with multiple mobs and your mana regen is from dodge/blocks/parries. its also a great time to try chainlightning, volley, and hurricane. =]

[Marious]

Very true. At my gear level, not that great but ok mostly 213 for the tank and a few 200's for anything normal even the group dailies its cake and his prot, and yup getting beat up is where they shine :). In the end use what you find more fun.

[Rocky Rhode]

Good points here; thank you.

Still fairly new to the whole team concept; you are correct that other then when we do instances most of the stuff is dead before it ever reaches the Pally. I guess deep down having her spec Ret made me feel like she could in some way contribute to the groups success rather then sit by pretty and polish her nails, while the Shamans and Druid blow stuff up. We should hit Outlands in the next few days – I will change her over to Protection; grab a pretty shield to match her nails.

Thank again all…

[Bigfish]

"Tanking" as ret out and about the world is fine. Nothing hits hard enough to matter. In instances, I would say keep going with Ret until you hit the wall. If you never hit, more power to you. The only thing I would really worry about were I you would be the learning curve of a new spec.

[Marious]

Totally agree with you Bigfish about the learning curve of a new spec. I would say if you got the gold Dual Spec pally and try it out you can always switch back and forth. I have always been prot on the pally and have never ever tried to do Ret on him, while Prot does not output a whole heck of a lot of damage they do end up doing decent damage. I tried Ret on my other pally (holy pally) and I sucked at it of course it was back in the day when Ret stood for Retarded not Retribution lol.

[Khatovar]

Personally, I really enjoy my pally being prot out in the world. Collect 60 buzzard wings? Pshht, no sweat, I'll just kill them all at once! Kill voidwalkers until you get 200 shards? Cakewalk!

Just set my team up in a nice clear space, mount up, gather mobs till they dismount me, consecrate every so often while I gather up enough so that I can't see anymore and head back to my waiting AOE spam {consecrate/hurricane/rain of fire/fire totems and chain lightning for the win. And lets not forget thorns and ret aura ;) }. I think my current team finished all the gathering quests in Hellfire faster than any of my singles did due to the massive amounts of slaughter I can inflict by tanking half the zone, heh.