Is it as doom and gloom as people are saying? It seems to tick off the boxes I want in my main - namely utility and overall ‘usefulness’ in a way other classes don’t.
Examples: dispels with afflicted affix, brez, BoP, LoH, etc. Also, since I PuG, all the interrupts are so nice. However, don’t want to commit to it if it’s as bad as people say.
My overall goal in S1 is to hit 3k io.
People doom and gloom over everything. If you find it fun, play it. Everything is viable. WoW society conjures up the “meta” specs and blames Blizzard. If you want to push 3k IO, then you can do it with any class.
I’m sure u will find a way even if u need to kite 
It’ll remind of me Slands S1 as a blood DK then I guess.
It’s not good as is on beta ATM, but it doesn’t mean it will stay like that.
Blizz will make weekly adjustments, especially when the raid will be out.
Does this mean they will make the necessary changes to make it good?
No
It only means that tuning isn’t done.
But prot has design issues beyond the tuning.
I’d recommend reading Lincoln breakdown on the Wowhead article about the hero spec, he does a quick run down at the bottom.
How bad is Prot?
Yes.
Everywhere I look, I see you clinging to this silly idea that everything is magically going to get fixed in tuning. I highly recommend you reflect and count all the seasons that Ret was left behind (among other Paladin specs more recently).
Blizzard has a very strong history of leaving an entire class behind to underperform while other classes have MULTIPLE specs performing at a top level (Hello DK in beta).
Did you forget the tuning of shadowlands and how unequivocally unbalanced Covenant abilities were for YEARS.
The suggestion blizzard ever gets tuning right is an indication you either haven’t paid close attention or haven’t been playing for long.
I’ve been playing Ret since TBC, I know damn well how their tuning has been in the past TYVM.
I wasn’t vocal as much back then because I was a kid and English is not my primary language.
But since legion, I and many other have been speaking up on the forum and elsewhere about the issues of Ret and they FINALLY answered in 10.0.7.
I also know that they’ve done a relatively great job at balancing in DF, with more frequent tuning passes and overall better awareness.
So you will excuse me to preach caution and patience in a context where they seem to have changed their way of operating.
One brief moment to shine after a rework doesn’t make up for many years of neglect and performing very poorly.
As someone who claims to understand their tuning when it comes to ret, its hard to understand why you harbor any idealism at all.
Ironic coming from someone so pessimistic.
Realism > Ignorant copium
I’ve been nothing but level-headed and you’re the one panicking about fictional numbers in a video game.
So tell me about who’s more grounded in reality again?
It’s ironic you’re bringing up ignorant copium considering Yoda is running 12 and 13 keys on the beta with a prot pally, which is higher than 95% of the playerbase will even play at. Copium indeed.
You’re mixing fact and fiction again. What’s fictional about the numbers we’re seeing?
You clinging to some blind hope that everything will magically get fixed with tuning.
Paladin is currently being burdened with serious bugs and tuning issues that will likely take more than just a round of tuning. Blizzard has a long history of having bugs stay in the game for a very long and ret is rife with them at the moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MfNZrVvSO0
Prot is having mana and survivability issues in keys above +15 while other tanks are climbing. Holy is also underperforming after the massive nerf bat - which is a shame considering how low its performance has already been for two seasons.
Why lie about something so easily verifiable? Here’s a whole bunch of prots running 20s…
[Paladin Tanks - World Mythic+ Character Rankings (raider.io)](https://raider.io/mythic-plus-character-rankings/season-df-4/world/paladin/tank)
Second, it’s prepatch, don’t be a lemming.
And lastly, I’ll state it again since you have no rebuttal for it and tried to ignore it the first time.
Other than them forcing me to repick all my talents, I have no complaints.
Paladin tanks are by far my favorite to play solo and/or in groups.
Prot pally should be fine like it usually is. Maybe it won’t be the meta tank, but prot pally usually gets the job done and I don’t think next season will be any different.