I quit Classic back in September last year when I hit 51. I was burned out after playing Classic Beta then jumping right into Classic. Well, I started back up again about a week ago. I played Ret to 50, Holy from 50-51, and prot from 51-56, which is where I am.
I remember ret not being very good in terms of DPS, but good enough to solo. Holy was ok, but soloing was a pain. I’ve had some success tanking as prot, but others in the group need to understand how pally tanks work for it to be successful. Soloing is ok, but much better against the undead.
Now, what to do? My guild has a bunch of holy paladins. There are no max-level prot or ret paladins in the guild. What is my best bet now that I’m 56?
fastest way to level is pay for zg boosts. aside from that, i would solo grind mobs in sorrow hill in the downtime between peak grouping hours.
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Thank you for the suggestions, but I am looking for advice on spec.
Ret and prot are both meme specs. Holy is the only real spec if you want to raid.
If your guild takes you as ret, understand that you will be lowest priority for gear, other than maybe paladin tier cause its awful and no one wants it anyway.
Prot quite simply can’t raid 40 mans, but i have seen a successful super try hard prot tank ZG before. I’m talking consumes, multiple sets for different jobs like tanking mobs, and a different set for tanking bosses.
Ret and prot both have poorly itemized gear in general. There are a few pieces here and there that will have strength agi and intel but far and few in between.
TLDR. Holy is the only viable option. The other 2 specs are for memes. Most groups dislike or straight up won’t take you as ret or prot.
the best spec for grouping is full holy take holy shock, then dump the rest of the points into protection for blessing of kings
Put on your dress. Meme specs just get the hate here.
If you want to raid, find a guild that needs holy paladin. I’m sure there’s more than a few in need.
Sad thing is that even Holy Paladins have garbage gear itemization in Vanilla/Classic & you will end up wearing cloth instead of plate if you want want a decent level of “hardcore” gear optimization. Since I’m not hardcore, I will stick to plate (or perhaps some mail) only & make due.
It’s either holy for raiding or just have fun with low expectations
level to 58-59 and wait for tbc
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Plunk 20 into Holy to shut everyone else up.
Use the remaining points wherever you want.
Both Ret and Prot are viable, just not optimal.
I used to raid with a protection paladin main tank. With the best gear, Thunderfury, and lots of consumables she could perform at the level of most warrior tanks. Nefarian is a really good fight for them since the warrior class call does not screw you over. Except for perhaps one or two fights where we had to use warrior tanks (threat swapping) it worked decently enough.
Ret paladins can be middle of the pack in dps, but they need to try harder than everyone else. And a lot of them do (there are some super sweaty rets out there), however if trying three times as hard as everyone else just to pull “adequate” dps doesn’t appeal to you, then don’t do it. Hunters do somewhat higher dps than ret but it does feel frustrating from my experience to have to spend a lot of gold to be up there with the yellows and browns.
If your guild or raid group says they have enough healers and are willing to let you experiment then jump on the opportunity. Otherwise you’d probably find more success as a holy paladin.
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For leveling as a pally, gear matters more than talent points generally. I’d say if you’re planning on mostly single targeting, go ret. If you want to AOE more, get consecrate in holy, then go down prot. The rest is really all gearing. Grouping up, don’t go prot unless you play with people who know how pally works.
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I would go holy and spam dungeons and start gearing before level cap. If nobody does dungeons, I would level solo as ret until 60 and then respec into holy, and try to get into pug MCs and ZG runs.
I like my ret. He just turned 20. I looked dumb in Warsong last night with my store bought executioner blade 3.4 swing.
I know it’s a meme, but I’m just solo anyway…hoping to get one toon to 60 at least to join the TBC party if there ever will be one.
RL will not let me raid. Too crazy. And I’d switch to heals if I could unless I found some super casual guild looking to meme bosses.
Rerolling by what you just said, prot isnt viable. Just because one people want to struggle through boss fights to make one person feel special doesn’t mean its viable. It means it is possible.
Ret is a joke, the only way you can even play ret is to loot cabal yourself all the bis items and still be worse then pretty much everyone, btw you will need three to four priests rotating PI on you.
Rerolling.
Have you tried priest? At least a shadow priest buffs warlocks, even if gettting in a guild would be a hassle and you would have to flask every week.
Otherwise play mage.
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Have your feelings changed re: blowing your hype load on pointless betas?
Talk to your guild leadership and see what they need. If they don’t care then whatever.
If you want to do more than just heal, you need a hybrid spec. There are two, generally.
Both put 20/21 points in holy. This covers the main talent in holy. The real power comes from your gear, which you would need for raid no matter what spec you are.
The remaining points up to 31/30 in your “offspec” would be protection or Ret. This is a personal choice. Generally speaking prot (31) can grind better and tank for any 5 man, and Ret can dps group, tank (just not as well) and pvp. With Ret you can actually go just 30 points if you like Divine Favor over Repentance (which should be an attack, but that’s another story).
The hybrid builds can be loads of fun as you can both heal and tank or dps. I personally think 21/0/30 is good in a raid setting so you can swat at things when your not needed in heals, and holy build covers Kings, but that’s imho.
If you go 31/x/x you’re pretty gimped for damage and boring unless you just like healing in all content that much. It’s a raidlogger build.
Up to you.
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