Leveling to 85 as a paladin

[Brashara]

I'm wondering what everyone thinks is the best way to level to 85. I've heard horror stories from people on the beta about ret's survivability, and i've also heard (as seen on live) plenty of positives to protections ability to self heal nearly endlessly.

What do you guys think? Would it better to level as ret in a ret spec, or in all ret gear with a shield and a one-hander in prot spec? Obviously ret would kill faster, but do mobs hit hard enough to justify protection for less downtime? Assume 264/277 gear.

[Svenok]

i would go with ret/prot if you like the ret abilities.
for myself, i will go prot all the way as i have up to now.

[Ryme]

Word of Glory is all you need for survivability in PvE, if you are somehow still struggling, switch to Seal of Insight for a bit.

[Deleted]

Ret def faster

[Giants]

Rettttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

[Brashara]

Thanks for the replies. I've been wondering since I heard stories of level 84 mobs crushing people or w/e. Anyone on the beta who can confirm this is no longer the case?

[Ryme]

Remember to stay in your level range, with only 5 level gap this expansion consider each mob level to be at least twice what you'd normally expect.

You wouldn't march into a group of level 74 or 76s with your level 70, so don't attempt 82 or 83 with your 80.

[Bether]

I'll be leveling as prot so I can tag multiple mobs at once.

[Weektwo]

Going ret all the way to 85. Might spec into Eternal Glory if i find i need more healing than usual but from the looks of it, wont be needed.

[Thorzon]

I'll personally be trying a shockadin spec. If that doesn't work out well, I'll just go Ret.

[Wonderboy]

Ret is pretty fast and im not sure about people saying survivability issues, personally I got jumped by that volcano turtle Nemesis (~250k health) and managed to solo him with little problems. Mobs die in about 5s and mana is usually always at full, theres no downtime at all. Judge>CS>HW/Exo>CS>Dead>Repeat.

[Rivin]

Thanks for the replies. I've been wondering since I heard stories of level 84 mobs crushing people or w/e. Anyone on the beta who can confirm this is no longer the case?

That was true a couple months ago, yes, but since they started fixing Ret's damage that situation pretty much vanished overnight.

[Fiercon]

Given the choices you present I'd go ret.

In fact I'll play Holy though.

[Deleted]

going retribution for leveling, on 85 i'll be ret/prot .

[Critterbot]

Probably going ret, it's what I've allways been, I'm also missing gear for anything else, I never bothered collecting it and I'm sure not going to start now. About survivability, when I leveled on beta if I pulled more than 2 mobs I'd have a hard time killing them without spamming WoG and popping some cd's like bubble, but I remember reading something about blizz planning to add some kind of talent that would make DL become instant cast after a kill that (or would) award exp. I havent been on beta for a while or paid much attention to the build notes so I'm not sure if it's NYI or not or if they scrapped the idea.

[nwo]

Since both specs have instant free heals and infinite mana pools, I would say ret is the clear winner since it does way more (burst) dps. AOE grinding won't be an option for the first couple of weeks, so leveling (questing) as prot will be pointless.