I actually made this character specifically because I won’t suffer ret in Classic. I didn’t even like how the class played until Wrath, I think, even if it wasn’t that suboptimal I’m pretty sure I’ll pass and just roll my mage instead as planned.
Ya you can get into a raid team as ret. But don’t be shocked if before it’s all over you are sitting in half plate and wearing a dress casting judgment of light / wiz, and FoL / HL with an occasional cleanse.
gol
10 characters
Greater Blessings are in 1.12, so it’s 15 minutes and class wide for the raid.
Blockquote
Did you raid back in Vanilla? Don’t you remember what it was like trying to raid as a pally? I’m not trying to tell people they can’t do something, but if it’s anything like it was back in Vanilla it’s sure going to be a major uphill battle to do group content as anything besides holy.
It’s great if you have a guild and they let you run however you want, but anyone else will almost always take another pure dps or tank over a ret/prot pally. I’m hoping it’s different than what I remember, but if it isn’t then you better get used to being turned down flat by groups.
I enjoy playing all the specs, and did so for random pvp and solo activities, but anything involving a group pretty much meant I had to be Holy if I was going to get any sort of invite.
Learn how to play holy. That is how you play Paladin in Vanilla and anyone else telling you otherwise is:
- Really bad
- Getting carried by their guild
- Sleeping with the guild leader
Raiding in vanilla is irrelevant.
In vanilla you didn’t even heal because you were too busy buffing 40 people individually with 5 minute buffs.
In classic there will be greater blessings which means people can start out in whatever spec they want and not have to go through half of the life cycle in one spec because you had to spend all your time buffing people.
If you want “AoTC” which was not a vanilla thing then you are aiming for a hard core progressive guild. And for that you need to be heals.
My son was a holy pally in vanilla and was in a top guild and was the MT healer. They got through MC/BWL …don’t recall if they got into Naxx. He never had to sit out .
I got to see those raids first hand as a casual with me sitting next to him watching on his raid nights !!!
This topic is so boring. Get Nightfall. Problem solved.
Exactly this. We were about 1/3 through Naxx by then end of Vanilla and that was my role - MT healer, holy. We never had a ret or prot in our raids. Not because people didn’t want to play them, but because your raid had options that were so much better it wasn’t even a consideration to bring them.
Holy in Vanilla was fun though (I thought) although I drew the line at wearing cloth or leather. If it was going to be a dress it better at least be plate.
A big thing to realize for Classic is you play a Class and not a Spec unlike Live.
If you play a Paladin you’re a Paladin, not a Ret Paladin or a Prot Paladin, etc. Unlike Live Hybrids kept all their base skills no matter how they specced. So someone who goes deep Ret will still have access to all the baseline heals, Blessings, Auras and Cleanse and you’ll be expected to use them.
Hybrids in Vanilla were never brought to just DPS. They were there to help with heals, to cleanse debuffs and bring utility. Even in a 5 man you were expected to use your full kit.
Here’s the thing. Any spec is technically fine for 5 mans, but we know there’s more to PvE than that. When it comes to raiding, you CAN raid as ret or prot. The problem you’re going to face is that played equally, it’s better to be on a rogue or a warrior. No matter how great your damage is as a ret pally, if you played a mage just as well your damage would be even better. And same with tanking, you can be the best paladin tank in all of WoW… but equally skilled, you’d be so much better on a warrior. Because of this, your biggest uphill battle is going to be convincing someone to bring you. You’re going to have limited options on who you can raid with. You’re going to have to convince that guild that taking you as a prot paladin is a better choice than taking a warrior when an equally skilled warrior will run circles on a paladin.
raynorr…hah…my son had cloth shoulders/belt and also drew the line at wearing a cloth dress.
I remember having an oomkin in my raiding guild on a server we do not speaketh of. He did average dps…nothing special, but he did it. He was competitive & got a spot and gear. Never doubt yourself & your abilities… unless your’e a no good spellpower rogue.