SL Leveling as Ret or Prot

What do you think will be most efficient or fun for leveling in SL: Ret or Prot?

I know in the past, pulling the world as prot has been a blast, but leveling nowadays often isn’t just “Kill 15 Innocent Animals” anymore, and may not lean towards prot’s strength of large pulls. That said, I haven’t played the beta, so I don’t really know.

I’m gearing up now and am debating which to focus on getting the best hear for (essences, weapons, corruptions, etc.). I know it’s not a big difference, but I also just got my thinking about which one I’d want to use.

Thoughts?

Bear in mind corruption is going away during prepatch and Azerite essences a d armor don’t work once we cross over in SL. They will work in old content but not in the new. I leveled as Prot on the beta and it was not significantly faster or slower. Never felt like I was in danger even on the rare named mobs. They just took a bit longer to kill.

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I really enjoyed the leveling I did on beta as Prot. My dps seemed very decent bu5 my survivability was awesome.

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Thanks for your responses. I appreciate getting to hear from people who have actually leveled in SL.

Did you all try Ret by comparison? Is Ret much squishier?

And are the leveling mobs pretty challenging? Or is survivability not really an issue?

As long as my Paladin’s current gear level (470) lasts for several levels, I’m sure I’ll blow things down quickly as Ret with no problems until the last few levels. I also plan to run dungeons in all thee specs too.

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I generally level doing dungeons. At least if they are available to me. So Prot in that case.

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I haven’t tried the current build of Ret yet but when I did the leveling it was worse than BFA Ret. Lack of Azerite powers and essences really showed the gaps in the rotation. I found it boring honestly. Prot was more dynamic with more buttons to push. I found Torghast a lot easier as Prot especially with the ridiculous power upgrades you can pick up. I’ve read good things about the talent rework for Ret so hopefully it’s looking better.

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Appreciate the feedback, everyone. I think I’m leaning towards prot. It does look like a ton of fun. And, like mentioned above, there’s always the option of dungeons and Torghast along the way.

Thanks again!