[PTR] - Leveling

[Montoya]

I know most people are all geared up about how we exist on the PTR, and our performance at level 80 in the Beta, but I wonder if anybody has taken the time to test out the leveling aspect of the class.

I mean seriously?

They performed a MAJOR overhaul of how Paladins work, regardless of your spec. Talents have been shifted around and it's almost not the same class anymore. Alright, it's the same class, but a lot of people have said that they like the new playstyle of the paladin.

I am worried though about those that are starting new paladins, just joined up to the game, or even the vets who want to make a Paladin Alt. What's leveling going to be like? Has anybody tested it out?

This should probably be done and reported, seeing as the results of the testing could affect the class on a whole.

Can you imagine a couple of weeks after Wrath is released a bunch of new players start making paladins and find out that the scaling and abilities now make it more difficult to play?
It would be a great dissapointment to lose more paladin players over something such as that.

Just a thought.

Anybody willing to make a level 1 character and transfer it over to the PTR to test it out?
Anybody already done so?

Discuss.

[Valari]

Hey! ive lvled a pally while waiting for my main to be copied over.. but as my main is a pally i dont see the hard part in it.. sure they merged some skills together and so on but you will learn it quite fast while youre lvling up..

but thats my look at it... ;D ;D

[Montoya]

I'm talking about something like Seal of Casino.

You can get it as early as 20.

How much AP/SP can/could you have at level 20? It's been so long that I can't remember.

[Valari]

to long ago for me to remember!

sorry..

[Nyraa]

Maybe 300-400? I think.

[Montoya]

That's kinda why I'm looking for someone to do testing, so we can know what it's like.

[Keile]

I made a level 1 dwarf pally on the PTR while my main was being Xfered.

Ok i only got him to level 10, but thats not the point, the point is i never ran below like 90% mana and never had to drink once. On live my pally went through nearly a stack by then >.>

Also they changed some smaller things, like those Frostmane trolls that dwarves have to kill for that starter quest. They look more like ZA trolls now than player trolls. They are more muscular and have the bigger mohawks.

[GT4]

I'm talking about something like Seal of Casino.

You can get it as early as 20.

How much AP/SP can/could you have at level 20? It's been so long that I can't remember.

While having a beta key I'm leveling a Paladin on live realms as my new main in WotLK currently, I have to admit that I didn't _test_ leveling on the PTR/beta server, but I have often calculated through my spells on live vs. my spells after 3.0.
My conclusion using only quested uncommon gear of how leveling will change with 3.0 (as Retribution):
Mana consumption: Much lower; Seals, Judgements and Heals cost approximately the same while leveling as currently, but Seals last four times as long, Judgements don't consume Seals (which effectively makes Judgements around 75% cheaper) and Heals are stronger due to baked in BoL
Damage: for my uncommon quested gear, I get approximately the same damage values for Judgements and Seals, most of the time a bit more after 3.0 - that's before getting the AP to Spellpower talent which increases the Judgement damage by approtimately 20-40% resulting in much higher Judgements even in uncommon quest gear, new Retribution Aura should help with the damage as well (has been ~3-4% of my total damage while leveling, would probably be ~8-10% in 3.0)
Other: due to being able to efficiently use SoL/SoW which you currently cannot really while leveling, downtimes should go down a lot in 3.0

Talents(I also often compared my current build to what I would've specced in 3.0)
In the early levels, talents are pretty similar, 3.0 talents are a bit cheaper and you can now efficiently use Heart of the Crusader.
At level 30 you currently have the option to spec into Sanctity Aura, IMO not worth the talent points as ~60-70% of my damage is white damage and you'd lose Retribution/Devotion Aura, so currently you can skip it. In 3.0 you can improve your Retribution Aura to grant you 2% damage as well, quite worth it.
In these levels you will also lose a bit of white damage due to changed Vengeance and 2h Spec(needs to get unnerfed) but gain a further 50% stronger Retribution aura which should nearly equal the damage lost (Vengeance isn't always up anyway, while leveling you're usually sitting at 10-15% crit including talents).
Excluding Replenishment, Judgements of the wise is approximately 4-5 times as good as the old Sanctified Judgement which is really needed, at these levels you're permanently OOM on live servers while not doing great DPS either, so that's quite a great playstyle change in the late 30s/early 40s.
Until you get CS at level 50, you currently have to get either useless, unspectacular or simply bad leveling talents like Repentance or Fanaticism, in 3.0 you can get much more useful talents at these levels, for example The Art of War or the buffed Repentance that is worth its Mana now.
So you're level 50 now and have everything up to CS, on live realms you can now only spec into more or less useless talents until you're capped (max Fanaticism to get a bit more Judgement damage, 10% Strength out of Holy or whatever). In 3.0 you can now spec deeper into Retribution, further increasing your (Judgement) damage and selfheal capabilities and get a great new ability at 60, Divine Storm.

In conclusion I think Paladin leveling will be much more enjoyable at any level, the only downside of the changes I could notice is that you can level even worse as Holy now as you don't really have spellpower until level 60 and SoR without spellpower or AP doesn't have that high base damage any more. However both leveling specs, (Prot) and Retribution will greatly benefit from the 3.0 changes. I'm really looking forward to 3.0 as leveling a Paladin can be very frustrating currently.

Edit: Usually you can say you have around 10 times your level as AP unbuffed up to level 60 when it starts raising a lot.