Leveling - When/if to Switch to Prot

[mickloven]

When not raiding on my beloved resto Druid, I am leveling a Pally alt. I generally get bogged down with alts around the mid-40's, but my Pally just hit 50 and things only got better (Crusader Strike ftw). I don't feel like spending the 1k gold for dual spec just yet so I was curious when and if I should switch to Prot for leveling. Outlands perhaps? Assuming folks think I should switch to Prot, any suggested builds?

Edit: The reason I would prefer Prot is that I'd like to tank instances as I level.

[Uhlrik]

i leveled to where i am now (56) using Prot and i love it still. i did duel spec ret for pvp, but unless i'm in BG or a hot pvp area (im on a pvp server), i go prot.

[mickloven]

i leveled to where i am now (56) using Prot and i love it still. i did duel spec ret for pvp, but unless i'm in BG or a hot pvp area (im on a pvp server), i go prot.

Mind linking your build? I'd like to take a look.

[On]

prot lvling was good when ret was just insane crap

but since they fixed ret somewhere in TBC, its just as easy to lvl as ret, unless you cba todo quest and just want to farm mobs.

But in outlands you get xp from the quests and doing quests as fast as posible rather then aggro 500 mobs and kill them, so in that case just stay ret since single target dps is lot higher.

+ you still can solo most grp qs as pally anyway

[Deleted]

at around 55, your spec should be like this:

0/44/0

next points goes in shield of the templar, guarded by the light (and at 60) hammer of the righteous.

after that, you can build up to 80 with this spec (mind that reckoning and redoubt are the only reasons prot farming works, so you can't dump either): 0/52/19

at 80, however, you need to switch to the cookie cutter spec for paladins:
0/51/6, with 14 points to spare
and then you can decide whether to place those points in offensive (retri tree) or defensive (JotJ or divine guardian in the prot tree).

[nwo]

Don't switch to prot, ret is faster for leveling.

Grouping with badwagon DKs and running instances is slower than questing. I understand everyone wants to take a break from questing every now and then, but leveling/questing as prot without divine plea would be pretty horrid imo. So, if you really wanna try prot leveling, do it at level 71, when you get divine plea so you can have it up all the time. Prot leveling isn't nearly as bad when you have unlimited mana. You can do the same by using seal of wisdom for leveling, but that will gimp your dps a bit.