Ret paladins in TBC provide unique group / raid dps increases that cannot realistically be provided by non-ret paladins.
So yes, you’re going to want one (1).
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Well, druids are the lowest pop class now so if a bunch of sad warriors, mages, and rogues make a druid it will balance it? maybe?
Warriors are going to have a really hard time in TBC assuming a large portion of the existing playerbase transfers / copies (whatever).
There are WAY TOO MANY warriors in classic. Something like 45% of all wow classic toons are warriors.
It’s not that they aren’t good in TBC, it’s that they cease to be ridiculously OP to the point that you want half you raid to be warriors.
In TBC, if most of the current playerbase takes their existing 60s over, there are just going to be far, far too many warriors and many of them will by necessity wind up being left out.
There is NO dual spec in BC. That was Wrath. Come on, Glaive!
Alas. Coulda sworn.
Oh well, the point stands 
All the answers are there for you. We don’t know what kind of guild comp you will have for BC, so we can’t tell you which role to play. Only you and your guild knows that.
And remember, TBC raids are only 25 people, so spots will be tight compared to what we have now.
Most guilds will have a Prot, a Ret, and a Holy at least, with room for another Holy if thats is what the other healer wants to play.
So ask yourself what role you want to do, then talk to your raid lead about future plans and try to set yourself up as the one to do it.
For posterity sake, it was 3.1 Ulduar patch that gave us the glorious wonders of Dual Spec.
Mages aren’t so sad. They actually top charts at the end of T5 with their set bonus. Mage is a solid top 3/4 dps in BC. You won’t stack mages like you did in Classic, but they certainly will be in your raid and pulling their weight. Most of your rogues will become alts for pvping. Some will get to raid. Some guilds wont’ care about the perfect raid comp or speed running so in those guilds rogue mains will get more opportunity to raid.
Warrior is in a difficult spot. If you’re not currently one of the main tanks, already planning to tank in BC for your guild, or once BC is announced actively looking for a tank spot. Warrior tanks will be prized early during T4 progression as they have better gearing options than paladins or druids, but as BC progresses they peak in gear and are surpassed in gearing by feral and paladin tanks. This is especially true in Sunwell. So you may have 3 or so Kara groups with four or five warrior tanks, but only around two of those will still be tanking come Sunwell.
Warrior DPS doesn’t get any real buff in BC. The blacksmithing weapon is nice. No speed running guild is going to hand their glaives to a warrior so in that realm you’ll have 1 or maybe 2 dps warriors. And many will follow the pointless min/max meta from private servers so finding a DPS warrior raid spot won’t be easy. I think outside of rogues this is the most likely between warrior specs, mages, and rogues needing to reroll for BC.
For druids resto becomes insanely popular due to arenas.
Feral has the least theorycrafted DPS spec in BC. I don’t think that means ferals will be over populated or some massive change in their dps, but I think it’ll mean a slight increase in their DPS. Wolfshead Helm had a passing mention at best on EJ back in the day. Powershifting got all the talk, but we never really brought up the idea of using Wolfshead. Current prevailing thought is we won’t be replacing it until Classic Wrath.
Feral tank gradually becomes the best single target tank over the course of the expansion. It starts from barely being able to handle multiple mobs and incoming damage to reaching armor cap to gearing for threat and dodge. The ability to hit armor cap and then focus on stamina/threat is what makes feral able to basically be a cat in bear form. And no other tank is going to touch a feral in terms of single target threat if the feral can gear in that way. That’s not a terribly difficult concept because it’s like prot-fury now where all the warriors are pushing for threat gear over mitigation sets.
Balance brings a buff that all caster dps wants in their group and dps steps up enough to make it a good combo with a buff.
I’m not the most versed on resto or balance, but know they’ll both see large upticks in players. I know many who wish balance was viable in Classic so they will definitely be playing it in BC.
And in most raiding guilds you will see one of each like paladins. People keep screaming you can only play ret if your Horde. Both sides are bringing balance druids for their utility and buffs and not their dps. Therefore, an Alliance raid can bring one ret and not suffer as much as others think. As a retail BC raider from Kara to Sunwell, we never had perfect raids comps. We have 2 melee groups often. We at most had four shaman in any given raid. The list went on and on, but we still got server and faction firsts. The only place the perfect raid comps will matter is in the speed running guilds. Any other guilds conforming that hard will just hurt their raider retention and pace of progression.
Also BC isn’t as difficult as you think!! I believe those of us that raided retail BC can agree it’s a slight uptick in difficulty from Classic, but if you raided MoP and beyond BC will be fairly simple to you. Your biggest problem will be relying on 9/24 others to play properly. Same issue you have in Classic.
/endinsanelylongpost
Ret brings utility, but if you’re looking at straight dps there are other melee you’d rather have than a ret. I’d say for speed running guilds you may see a ret Horde side, but not so much Alliance side. Speed running will revolve around the meta.
Prot pallies in many guilds will be there simply because they are the best AoE tank in-game. Prot pally is a niche tank. Best dungeon tank. Best trash tank. Best AoE boss tank. Can you clear content without one? Yes. Will the meta guilds run without one? Doubtful. Your warrior tanks will be rerolling. When you roll the meta for an expansion you get to deal with the consequences the next expansion.
For blessings and other utility. I’d say at worst one is required, but that’s with a prot and a ret.
If you’re only taking one you’re gimping your raid. Again your warrior tanks aren’t all going to be able to tank 25s unless you’re going to run multiple 25 mans in your guild.
I was Holy and Prot in BC. Both did just fine.
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If you’re not in a serious raiding guild (meaning doing Tier5+ content regularly), being a Protection Paladin is an excellent spec (or for an alt). Just tanking heroics/attunements for badge gear means all you gotta do is login, post “Pally Tank LFM For Heroic X” and you have a group in <5 minutes.
This time 'round, my Belfadin will be Holy and my Dwarfadin will be Protection.
Thanks for the answer, probably i’ll go Prot or Ret for what you told me.
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Both are good. The plus of Prot is that dungeon soloing! Although Ret can do similar with a respec. Flexibility is the single greatest ability any druid or paladin can have imho.
I’ll just make a recommendation of keeping a healing set on the side. Not so much you’ll respec, but in 25s you could be missing a healer or just lacking in heals. I do similar as a feral in Classic, but mostly on fights like Visc or later in Naxx on Sapph.
You’ll enjoy both. I’d get more out of tanking, but I’m going bear tank. I am deciding if I want to roll a paladin now or wait and roll one in BC. I can’t wait to try Prot tanking in BC. I let my retail BC pally just sit and rot outside of some late leveling. I think BC pally is my second favorite to feral druid. 
Here in my Guild are telling me that Holy is the best D:
You’re more likely to bring 2 holy pallies than two of the others. Let them say what they want. /shrug
Yeah, i’ll do that.
prot is amazing, and if you want to play ret i recommend going horde; unless blizz give both factions Seal of Blood & Seal of Vengeance(which they should).
I’ve seen tons of TBC prep threads about paladins, probably moreso than any other class. There are gonna be a lot of pallies on the bench. The correct answer for this thread may be “not pally” is the best spec.
shtton of war, locks, hunters and druids.
pala is fine
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You people should really pay attention to the developers’ reddit and Twitter accounts. They’ve stated, emphatically and unequivocally, that TBC isn’t going to happen, not in the foreseeable future, and probably never.
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its because playing a weak cleric in classic is not as fun as playing a paladin.