Where one person tells me the only way to get into raids is to spec holy, another one tells me that all paladins are useful for buffs. I’m currently leveling one right now and want to make sure I don’t sink all of this time into leveling a paladin if I can’t get him into any groups…
Every class that can heal is a healer in raid. Druids pretend to be tanks sometimes, but they’re in a dress sooner or later.
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So does that mean paladins have to choose between leveling quickly as ret then paying to respec at 60 to heal and leveling as holy?
Are you having fun?
Is your guild collecting phat lewtz?
That’s all that matters. The opinions of furious milleni-zoomers who have little else to do with themselves than complain about another player NOT PLAYING THE RIGHT WAY are inconsequential.
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Don’t listen to this guy. Paladins being holy or bust isn’t a zoomer opinion, that’s been true going as far back as vanilla. Ret isn’t a real PvE spec, and prot flat out isn’t a real spec; you can’t be a tank with no threat tools and no taunt tools and no resource management whatsoever. The only things paladins do in raid is buff and heal. If you see a paladin not doing this in raid, they’re being carried. If you see a paladin competing with other DPS on the meter, it’s because they’re 10x more geared than them. Imagine everything you know about moonkins and that’s every paladin who isn’t holy spec.
It changes a lot in TBC. Part of me wishes we were playing the TBC prepatch instead of 1.12.
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Yes, don’t listen to the guy telling you to play how you want. LLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Both are the correct answer people bring pally’s for the buffs but while you are there you might as well heal some one
“Play how you want”
It’s a multiplayer game that relies on the multiplayer to progress. Sure, anyone can play how they want, but if they expect anyone to play with them then they can’t be selfish about it. Welcome to the barest fundamentals of getting along with others.
Like I said, furious milleni-zoomers who have little else to do than brow-furrow about somebody playing their Paladin how they want.
You could play a ret pally in raid, a few do. Many raid teams would accept you. They may want you to use Nightfall in return.
But any spec other than holy is subpar. As holy you are a strong healer and have all the utility. As ret you are one of the worst dmg specs in game (maybe the absolute lowest), but have utility. As prot, well, without a taunt its probably pretty tough to raid prot.
Any 60 prot pally tanks may have more insight, but I’ve never seen one.
Based on your question, it will be easiest to get into raids & groups as holy, and is very powerful. It will be more difficult to get into raids as ret, but you should be able to get into 5/10 fairly quickly. It could be impossible to get into raids as prot, but you should be able to get into 5/10 mans fairly quickly.
To add data, WCL shows ret as the bottom 3 DPS at about 1/3rd of rogues/warriors. While it shows holy as 2nd place healing just barely below priests.
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Thanks for all the answers friends! But I’d love some more insight to this up here^^
It depends on your guild…If you have a guild who is willing to take a subpar dps/tank then grats …most will want you to go heals…so for 8/10 cases yes you will have to switch to heals unless you find that guild that dont care. pallys are ok dps and not really good tanks because no tuant and great healers.
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The first respec is very inexpensive, so if you lvl as ret and respec at end game for holy it would be no problem gold wise.
Ret paladin is a super easy way to get into raids under the condition that you find a guild that doesn’t have a single holy paladin to cast salvation.
Otherwise you’ll probably need to go holy or join a super casual guild. Ret paladins simply aren’t worth bringing.
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I play a Protadin (right now I’m PvP spec tho). Prot Paladins are excellent dungeon tanks. I tanked all the 5 man dungeons and ubrs during the early phases of wow classic. People liked me because I was an aoe tank that helped to clear the content fast. Sure there were a few bosses you had to get creative with their threat wipes,but nothing you couldn’t get through.
However I will recognize in raids is where prot struggles the most. In raiding you will either be holy heals or ret dps.
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Yeah, I was speaking more to raiding concerning that.
I was thinking you’d prob get into instances quickly as prot thanks to the AoE meta. Good to know 
You can find a guild that will let you raid as ret, but it’ll take longer. Path of least resistance is healing.
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As some have said above, Paladins get much better in tbc. If you don’t mind staying alliance, you can start leveling one now.
We are still VERY strong raid healers, so no real changes there.
Ret dps becomes viable. It’s still way below pure dps classes (yes, even for you blood elfs) but you bring utility that’s a boon for everyone else. Like keeping up seals judged by other Paladins (imagine being able to keep up light, wisdom, and crusader on the target by yourself) granting the entire raid 3% crit on a target (imp seal of the crusader talent) and granting your group 2% overall dps(imp sanctity aura talent). Most raids will be wanting 1 ret paladin. Not tolerating, but WANTING
And prot tanking is the most beautiful improvement. We get so much better tanking, even for raids. We get better mana management, a taunt, and alliance gets the best tanking seal with amazing tps. I’ve been binge watching videos of Paladins main tanking black temple, sunwell, hyjal, and all that. It’s beautiful.
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Nah dude we have a paladin doing 600dps in blues in my guild, you just need to git Gud as you guys say
and common sense shows that its a game u pay to play so play how you want.everything is on clear and dps is OVERTUNED from wars, mages, and rogues purely based because 15 years ago the vast majority of players clicked, keyboard turned, and high speed was 1 meg down and 500k up.
#nochanges means no nerfs and then people that play overtuned classes think they can tell how to play.