Is Prot still a fairly viable levelling spec?

[Saranas]

Hey there,
Just wanted to ask if Prot was still a fairly viable levelling spec for Paladins (as it is Warrior's) or should I just level as Ret? Is there much speed difference and if it is still viable is there a minimum level I should spec into Prot or should I put points in there as soon as I hit level 10?
Thanks.

[Mythicchaos]

I've been leveling through lfg as Prot and its going rather quickly.

[RodneyStanger]

at level 10 it really doesn't matter. If you have a lvl 80, get 2h BoA and lvl as ret, or if you have plenty of embelms, get 1h (w/crusader) and you'll have to get shields from qs and such. When you hit ~60 get 2h BoA wep and go ret instead. Reason for this is the possibilities for AOE lvling reduce in outland and northrend compared to Azeroth (excluding northrend ofc). For example westfal lvl 30ish there are gnoll camps with about 7-8 mobs who respawn very rapidly, with crusader on my wep I could kill around 20 gnolls in 1 fight, really efficient lvling right there.

EDIT: Prot is a million times faster for LFG aswell, as Mythicchaos stated.

[Saranas]

Thanks for the replies guys, I cant do all the BoA things you mentioned as I'm rolling this character on a new server with some irl friends ready for Cataclysm so this is my only character here.

[MerinPally]

I leveled as prot in TBC with 30 second seals etc so can't give huge amounts of advice there, but i would presume now that with the BoS changes, that prot leveling would become efficient right then and there. Holy Shield would be a bonus but i spose it wouldn't be a necessity. I leveled as prot 70-80 though, so more toys to play with but same mana regen issues - i found that Seal of Vengeance (Righteousness) was good if i judged Wisdom, didn't mind not hitting a button every GCD, and if i kept Blessing of Wisdom up on myself i could go more all-out style of leveling, with every GCD utilized.

May sound odd but if you use BoW i can't see any reason why this wouldn't work - unless you spammed consecrate, this is where prot becomes good at 40 ish (i think) with Sanctuary + Consecration + 20 mobs + Holy shield.

I would also imagine ret to be weak leveling before level 45 ish i think? Need some checking, but without any attack other than HoR for pull, Judge, Exo, you're pretty stuffed, and no mana regen cos no Judgements of the Wise. Otherwise, you sit there auto attacking - same goes for prot but we can level just as fast without a damage seal whereas ret will struggle.

Long time since i leveled a paladin but just thinking about it, use a Sword + Shield and go prot until you can get Crusader Strike. Also, at high levels prot is as fast if not faster. I was a tank in T5 and they were ret paladins in T6 (friends from school) who took days off to power level 70-80, and played more than me - i still beat them all to 80.

Edit - seeing as you are starting afresh, i would suggest prot for both if you plan to level using instances or for complete solo - i leveled 1-80 essentally as prot and did that pretty damn fast - hell, server first 80 paladin on my server did it as HOLY so once you hit outlands you can do absolutely anything you want tihout a huge amount if time difference it would appear.

[Hwangchung]

I've leveled 2 pallies recently, one as prot and the other as ret. Being a prot pally at heart, I didn't think ret could match the aoe capabilities of prot and would therefore be slower. I was wrong. While ret may not be able to pull 15 (in some cases it can)mobs, it can destroy a group of five much faster than prot. Is it still viable? Very much so, but my ret pally leveled much faster than prot.

However, if you are leveling from instance queues, prot will be much faster since you don't have to wait more than 2 seconds to get a group.

[belfpala]

I've leveled 2 pallies recently, one as prot and the other as ret. Being a prot pally at heart, I didn't think ret could match the aoe capabilities of prot and would therefore be slower. I was wrong. While ret may not be able to pull 15 (in some cases it can)mobs, it can destroy a group of five much faster than prot. My ret pally levelled much faster than prot.

However, if you are levelling from instance queues, prot will be much faster since you don't have to wait more than 2 seconds to get a group.

This. Ret gets Seal of Command at level 20 and can handle multiple mob pulls very efficiently. By level 60, Ret can take on 4+ mob pulls, about the maximum size you can realistically get in most places while questing

Just my opinion... go Ret if you plan on questing, or mostly questing with some LFG. Go prot if you intend to do LFG 100%.

[Nikoll]

ret tank instances until you get good prot talents, like hs/bos. you can wear a shield if you want, but with a good healer it wont be necessary.

[Seramore]

Leveling as prot to 70-80 was pretty fast. Nearly instant queues for randoms and just gathering up a bunch of random mobs for questing. Extremely fast in my opinion.

[rfd111]

it is seriously great pally spec to level u get in random easy can have so much health it isnt funny plus they just can solo great ;D

[pcx226]

imo ret till seal of command(get the glyph)
then prot. no mana problems and u can tank shit.

then again...u get to press 1 button till 20...so it doesnt really matter

[Gallahadd]

Prot is great for leveling, I've leveled this guy since creation as prot, and will continue to do so into Cata. you're maybe SLIGHTLY slower at single target kill quests than you would be as ret, but you've got infinitly more survivability, plus if you get bored you can grab like the whole maps worth of mobs and AoE grind em down

plus it makes LFG a joke :P would be interesting to see if you could get a char from ~10 (whatever level the first dungeon is) to 80 only using dungeon :P

[Crazhr]

Prot is still, when you got some key talents like bos and hs, an amazing spec to aoe with. IF you like to do alot of grinding and not much questing then prot is quite a nice spec IF you make sure to pull alot of mobs every single time. I cant remember the times I have seen prot palas pulling a single mob and then killing it in 30min.

If you like to do alot of questing then especially from Outlands then ret is a nice choice the single target killing speed is faster and you often have problems pulling more then 2-3mobs in a decent amount of time.

If you LOVE 5mans and just want to dungeon your way to 80 then prot is again a decent option. BUT its not worth it before you get to lvl 40ish spend your points in ret get seal of cleave get a giant 2h and autoattack your way to atleast 40 maybe 60.

It all depends on what you like and how you want to play your pala.

[dexter_984]

Questing = Ret, Instances = Prot
You won't have any downtime as ret and you will kill things much faster.