Holy vs Prot DPS for Leveling, Dailies, Farming

[DanCole42]

1-85 I played Holy (I know, what?).

I tried Ret a little at 85. Didn't care for it.

I'm going Prot/Holy in MoP.

Which of the two specs is going to provide better DPS? I'm thinking in situations like leveling, dailies, and even farming lower level instances.

What's a good Prot DPS rotation?

I know... these seem like stupid questions - "Just go Ret!" But I don't wanna...

[Ryve]

What kind of a question is that? No single target DPS gains are going to outstrip prot's ability to pull more mobs at once. Though, at the end of the day, why not just play the spec you enjoy?

[Deleted]

I tried Ret a little at 85. Didn't care for it.

Seriously, try it again. I've had a great disdain for Ret until 5.0.4 but now find it just flows much better than it did (doing dailies at 85). You have a lot of holy power and it's solo dps is probably three times that of Prot (my main spec) without vengeance. I would prefer to level as Prot, but will quest as Ret in MoP as it will be much more efficient. Ret self-healing is also very strong now, with word of glory.

I'm going Prot/Holy in MoP.

Which of the two specs is going to provide better DPS? I'm thinking in situations like leveling, dailies, and even farming lower level instances.

I'm hearing good stuff about the dps of healers post-patch, so maybe stick with your main spec? Prot is rather slow - it got slower with the patch, I think. The vengeance changes boosted dps in 25 man raids, but lowered it in 5 mans and especially soloing.

What's a good Prot DPS rotation?

I don't think there is a dps rotation that's markedly different from the normal survival rotation. Just use your holy power for shield of the righteous rather than word of glory. I guess you could try the glyph of harsh words - maybe wog will hit harder than shotr.

My understanding of the normal rotation is CS-X-X until you have 5 holy power, then cast a shotr. For the fillers X, I think the priority is J>AS>Cons>HW. J is prioritised because it generates holy power. For AOE, switch CS for HotR and use seal of righteousness; cons will move ahead of AS.

More information is available at:

http://sacredduty.net/2012/08/27/patch-5-0-4-round-up/

[DanCole42]

Well yeah. Would the Prot DPS AoE rotation just be the same as our AoE tanking rotation?

[Deleted]

Well yeah. Would the Prot DPS AoE rotation just be the same as our AoE tanking rotation?

I guess.

Aside from the issue of whether a harsh words glyphed wog is a better finisher for dps than a shotr[1], I'm struggling to see a difference between dps and tanking rotations for us - whether single target or AOE. (With no inquisition anymore, we don't have an AOE finisher, so it's a choice of shotr vs wog for both single and AOE rotations.)

The standard tanking rotations that theckhd computed in the past were based on maximising threat, which is proportional to dps. Things may have changed a little with 5.0.4 when we want to generate holy power for survival. But given that shotr also does decent damage, my hunch is that they still coincide - more holy power = more shotrs = more dps AND more survival.

One obvious point is that if you want to level as prot, wear ret gear (except with shield!), to maximise dps.


[1] Reading theckhd's glyph guide on maintankadin, it appears wog does hit harder than shotr at all levels, even with the arbalester shield glyph.

[silvertitan]

Only real difference in rotation is you replace CS with HotR, as conc/HW are part of our single/aoe rotation now anyway.

[Kerfax]

I leveled through the Beta as Prot and it really wasn't that bad. I made up for lower dps by pulling 3+ mobs and just AoEing things down. Your survivability is obviously your main advantage when leveling as Protection and you need to make sure to use it. A lot of people don't really remember to use their survival cd's while they're leveling, but they give you the ability to either make it through a few pulls without needing to stop to heal or survive a really nasty pull.

As for a prot rotation: CS-Filler-Filler until 5 Holy Power is what I was doing. Prioritize Judgement over other fillers as it also builds HP. You also want to make sure that you use SoTR effectively. Your defense is dependent on it now, so just remember that the spell is more than damage.

[dragconus]

Going prot would be better by far ...just remember to glyph WoG to do damage as well ...get divine purpose and try to stay hit capped...aoe + decent single target damage all day...holy's lose of any aoe damage til lvl 90 has made it by far the least disired spec in game to lvl as imo..unless u just chain randoms but that could take forever and have a major loss of story play. All in all i'd say ret and prot are closer in obtaining an easier time lvling

[Bijin]

I dont try prot for a long time

Now im holy pve and try a shockadin for dailys and some pvp and right now is easy make dps in holy...

Glyph of World of glory and holy shock and ur dps grow a lot...

And two macros for self healing with holy shock and wog and can fight for long time...

[shise]

I never understood people who said leveling as protection was the fastest way even in BC.. hell it NEVER was... sure you could gather a bunch of mobs... is not like you'l always find packs of mobs waiting for you... retri has ALWAYS and will always be the fastst way if that's what you want.

[Tonk]

I never understood people who said leveling as protection was the fastest way even in BC.. hell it NEVER was... sure you could gather a bunch of mobs... is not like you'l always find packs of mobs waiting for you... retri has ALWAYS and will always be the fastst way if that's what you want.

Except in wrath, where you could go in the tunnels in howling fjord, and Aoe the wave after wave of iron dwarves that kept respawning.. You could level 71 - 75ish in a couple hours.

Looting was a challenge though... I wish we had aoe looting back then.

ps yes I know they nurfed that some time ago, but when the content was relevant it was possible.

[changyurassy]

Leveling my prot pally now and it's great ... soloing TBC dungeons in the 60-70 range. Grabbing as many mobs as possible and taking them down at once while questing. I'm thoroughly enjoying the prot leveling experience.

Can't speak to 85+ leveling ... but at lower levels it's pretty OP.

[ipoststuff]

Ret is soo much better than what it used to be. I highly recomend it. If it still doesnt interest you go with what youre planning on playing at 90. Both holy and prot are quite capable.