I have two paladins. One has Azerite gear, which is going away in the future. He’s doing okay for now.
However, the other is at level 40, has no Azerite gear and is squishy AF. Incredibly squishy! Ran the Headless Horseman today, with a weak druid healer. (Who seemed to only cast one spell most of the time, and Ysera’s gift was in the top two healing spells? Geez.)
Nevertheless, I have NEVER, not once, ever died on a Horseman run in all my years with this game. It’s a pro-forma dungeon for loot, which isn’t normally very much of a challenge. I went down, and then my entire team. And it became one long chain of deaths for everyone.
Running dungeons otherwise, I am noticing the same problem. There are DPS and healer specs who could take a hit much better than this pally! (And yes, I do know how to play the spec. I have run 10+ mythics on my other Pally)
i find it hard to believe prot pallys are squishy in any sense atm even on beta they seem fairly strong
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Yea but it’s all coming back in the form of Talents, Legendaires, Conduits, Soulbinds.
First Avenger talent is 2 Azerite traits in 1. It’s an absorb (bulwark) then it AV hits 2 more targets (soaring shield)
Sanctified wrath is longer Wings (lights decree)
Prot has some extremely powerful synergy with Legendaries between SoR and AV reset. Then conduits to maximize them.
Not to mention Kyrian is super powerful in these builds. At the moment there are really fun options. They buffed Conc mitigation and SoR uptime should be better.
I can’t speak as for playing a prot paladin. But I ran with some paladins tanks while leveling and they always seemed to be durable. Maybe it’s just taking time to learn the new abilities and how they interact with the class? Plus I think the HH event is harder then it has been in the past, not hard, but harder.
It’s not just paladins.
Horseman is WAY harder this year than he used to be. I have no problem on my level 50 tanks, but I went in there with my dps alt and wiped repeatedly with a tank who was under max level.
I’m not sure if it’s an issue of the level squish making lower level ranges harder or what.
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I’ve researched the changes to paladins. I’ve applied the talents appropriately.**
It’s just that this 40 Pally doesn’t have the azerite that my well-geared one does. Nor, all of the talents.
But damn it’s crazy. Maybe there’s something to the statement that the Horseman is harder this year? But I’m seeing it in other dungeons too.
** Funny thing? I got talents for some things BEFORE I get the actually ability to use them.
Example: I couldn’t use Blessing of Spellwarding as a talent, because I hadn’t received Blessing of Protection yet!
I haven’t leveled a new pally yet but I can tell you they are one of the better tanks at level 60 in SL which is prob what matters most. I can also say I did headless with my VDH which is a fresh level 50 with no gear at all no azurite traits and he got spanked too. didn’t die but almost did and prob would of had the fight lasted any longer. all my other tanks with even moderate gear complete it without taking almost any damage. My point is I wouldn’t put much stock in how it performs at a stage that means almost nothing and that you wont be at for very long.
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The item level and stat gap between someone in the 40-50 range with low gear [given 45 is seemingly intended to be “end of Legion” level] and someone at 50 who is geared out from Ny’alotha is a fairly noticeable gap. That’s probably what you’re seeing. No amount of scaling can replace that.
Nope. I’m talking about tank balance.
Yes there is a major difference between 40 & 50… I pointed out that I have both in order to illustrate the issue a bit better. On articles comparing the tanks, Paladins have been listed as fairly substandard in many respects.
You’re not going to get Blizzard to care about lowbie balancing, sorry. 
Sucks, but the way it goes.
Paladins are doing fine.