Saned

Hey, While getting closer to level 60 you might want to consider about your future as a paladin. For example, at level 55 you spec holy and go healing dungeons, you start getting your pre-raid gear earlier you can as well do quests too that require dungeons, means you save some time at level 60 (at level 60 you will most likely have brd/dm/lbrs and maybe strath+scholo healer gear). Also, you will be overpowered in WPL and EPL, as you'd have Holy Shock and Exorcism while leveling. On the other hand if you continue as ret till you reach level 60 it will take you quite some time and expenses to start healing dungeons. So you should rather get healing gear step by step by leveling and go Holy at some point in late 50's. So my suggestion, go ret or prot till late 50's and start gearing up as a healer (I would say prot grinding is much faster than ret, as I managed to get approx 70k xp/hour while aoe grinding mobs and tons of greens, cloth etc. Level 50-55 took me about 10 hours total, that's including selling stuff on the auction and getting back to leveling spot). Just my opinion, good luck. :) -Saned

It works that way on Anathema realm. For example: Fiery weapon procs, or melee weapon procs (chance on hit deal xxx damage), then it has a chance to proc SoW or SoR, of that I am 100% sure, that it works that way on Anathema. I think there even has been some discussions that it should work that way according to blizz paladin mechanics. To be honest, I think it doesn't proc SoL (got to do some more testing). Wisdom seal proc is not a 100% chance, but a chance on hit, I often see in my combat log, that a melee swing, weapon proc, fiery weapon and SoR restores mana equal to Seals number. Seal of light is also a chance on hit, meaning that out of reckoning unleash in can proc 1,2, 3, 4 or 5 times for every hit. So sometimes you get life back for every hit, sometimes for only one out of five and so on. Weapon "chance on hit do xxx damage" can proc out of reckoning and it works that way on Anathema too. The server you are doing these procs might be just broken, many servers have broken paladin mechanics and developers of them don't even bother fixing it. -Saned

Well if you go prot, you won't be a good dps in dungeons, you can either heal or tank. :) PvP wise, being ret allows you fighting ranged classes and increases the chance of winning against them, while prot struggles as casters crit them rarely and the other sources of paladin damage are poor at distance and has no control. However feral druids, rogues, warriors, enchancement shamans usually overwhelm ret paladins while leveling. On the other hand, melees face real difficulties while they fight prot paladin. Prot paladin has a big chance of winning, you don't really have to sit in PvP while fighting a melee class as they will overwhelm you with hits and crits and you will stack reckoning in no time. Long story short, fighting a melee as prot is fun and easy, fighting any ranged class is frustrating. You can either have Consecration early levels on, or later, it depends on what you plan to do with your paladin. You can do 4-5 mob pulls even without consecration and kill them with smart use of seals and reckoning. Of course it'll be really hard if you want to tank a dungeon (been there, done that). You don't necessarily have to put 3 points in RF, I did that because if I had to tank a dungeon, I would have my threat generator increased. You can never know if you haven't tried. At the end of the day it's just a game and it's purpose is just to entertain people, so you should play it the way you want to and the way it makes you feel good. :) -Saned

The right reckoning/protection build and gear might be one of the fastest ways to farm mobs for gold, well, that's my opinion, that confirmed for me :) Yes "theoretically" weapon procs and enchants work that way. Leveling as prot is not completely aoe grind, you do quests as well, just as you have a quest to do, like killing 15 mobs, you do it fast, as you can pull loads of them at once. Defence rating will keep you healthier while tanking dungeons, since I stack Stam, Str and Int I am much more vulnerable while tanking 3-4 elites at a time. When you sit, you automatically stop the attack and I attack with reckoning charges depending on situation, sometimes fully stacked sometimes not, really depends, only you can figure the best way for youuself. :) Well, firstly I went reckoning (I was solo leveling till like 45 without dungeons I also leveled as ret too, then at some point I got consecration). What do you mean by RF? :) Glas I was able to help you!!! -Saned

No problem at all. :) Weapon stats like stam and str are better if you're a tank. You stack defense, stamina, strenght, agility, for defensive purposes, you also need a faster weapon for threat generation (you don't need threat generation while leveling and 2.7 speed weapon is enough for 5 man tanking when leveling). While leveling as ret, your first priority must be the weapon speed (the slower, the better 3.50-4.00) and top end weapon damage, stats like str/stam are not as important as damage, well but it's not a topic about ret. :) Yes, damage dealing enchant and weapon procs like "chance on hit, deal xxx fire/nature/frost/shadow damage", or "wounds the target for xxx damage (of this I'm not 100% positive, but the mechanic should work this way too)" could cause another seal proc to go off. For example, you're using Seal of Wisdom, you could get 3 procs out of one melee swing, just because the weapon procs, the enchant procs and melee swing hits. You don't need reckoning if you stack defence and tank 10 mans, 20 mans, or some 40 man bosses, because, as you say, you're a tank and tanks don't get crit. Let's be honest - while you level a protection paladin, you don't need any +defence stat as it reduces the change you are being critically hit, meaning you lose damage that could be dealt to the same mob afterwards. You don't need that talent that increases your defence. On this I am positive. To level a prot paladin efficiently you must invest time (getting some important gadgets) and gold (buying decent stuff from AH). It is worth /sitting while wanting to stack Reckoning as only 1 mob will crit you at a time (you stand up automatically after you receive damage). Four sits takes you a few seconds. You receive little more damage than usually due to crits, however the life you get back sometimes exceeds the damage you have received. You will notice that after killing off 70% mobs your life will get closer and closer to 100%. I am telling you this from my personal experience. While leveling prot reckoning, you always /sit. :) And now I see the problem, why you do struggle with 4-5 mobs. You have no damage, none at all. You cannot level a paladin fast and joyfully if you're a tank, because it will be slow, frustrating and time consuming. Protection paladin can be very, very offensive form of leveling if you do it all right. Warriors, druids, have enough skills for damage dealing that we do not. We only depend on our Melee swing, Judgement and Reflective damage. Of course, you can save your gold and go on with the spec you have (even more, if you plan on tanking at level 60) OR get some trinkets, get a weapon that procs damage as well with weapon enchant that does the same AND respec and enjoy the last 10 levels until you hit level 60, I am using this spec: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#sxVzZVhthczE next step is I plan on taking the Holy Shield at level 52. Yes we can meet in game and I could show you a trick or two if we're both on the same realm (Anathema here). -Saned

Hello, I'm afraid you must be doing something wrong regarding taking on more than 4-5 mobs at the time. Of course, you can't spec protection and expect to wreck the whole world without knowing how to use this solid weapon. As a level 50 prot paladin you can take 5-10 mobs that are your level, 1-2 levels higher or lower, without the need of bubble or potions or any other long term cooldowns. It is not super easy, but it's easy enough. Some tips: Get a weapon that procs instant damage, like http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=9651 or http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=811 enchant it with Fiery weapon. Why? Weapon procs and enchant procs make the seal proc as well. What is more, it procs off of reckoning, so if you have your reckoning stacked to full, you might get 5 weapon procs (for this example - Nature Damage, it can crit as well), 5 Fiery weapon procs (that can crit), 5 melee swings and 5 seal procs. Even if you only have 1 reckoning charge, you can do some heavy damage. That's quite cool, isn't it? Use Retribution aura. Wear plate armor that provides you with Stamina, Intellect and Strength. Combination of "...of the Eagle" or "...of the Bear". Get these trinkets: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=17774 + http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=11302, For Mark of the Chosen, you can solo the first three bosses that are outside the instance, of course do a Maraudon run with a group for the rest of those bosses (of course don't forget to get The Princess quest for http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=17705 if you can't afford the weapons I mentioned previously; however it's not as good as those (Thrash Blade does not proc so good for a paladin due auto-hit only attacks and the main factor: it does not proc off of reckoning) . Well, for Uther's Strength it depends if you're lucky enough to get it from the AH for 10-15g (it's really really worth it, procs more than 5 times during the bigger Aoe Pulls). :) You must play smart, choosing the right seal is your way of survival and doing the most efficient damage. Conserve your mana, always have enough for seal switching. Do not drain your mana pool with consecration, use the highest rank two-three times and use Rank 1 afterwards for the rest of the fight (remember, keep enough mana for seal switching). Do not use SoR when fighting more than 4-5 mobs at a time (or use it wisely), use Seal of Light instead. Why seal of light? Because of reckoning. Using /sit stacks your reckoning (while you sit, a mob will land a melee critical hit on you(you can't stack reckoning off of grey mobs tho, as they cannot crit you)). When you unleash your reckoning while Seal of Light is active, you should get few hundreds of your HP back, repeat that until you kill the last of mobs (you should end up with 70-90% of your hp and 5-10% of your mana). You might want to kill 1-2 mobs fast with SoR using /sit and reckoning combo. Use Seal of Light /sit combo afterwards for fast healing, as there is no way to cast Flash of Light while dealing with so many mobs. You don't have to Judge mobs while fighting many of them, as they will die fast enough without worthy benefit. Unless you're doing fast SoR /sit combo then SoR judgement shortens the time you need to kill a mob. Choose mobs that do not cast damage doing spells, as you cannot use it for your benefits, mobs doing melee damage is the way of Aoe Grind Leveling. I am myself leveling a prot paladin, it's level 51 now with 3k hp/mana and I can guarantee that, by playing it smart it works damn well! Killing 10~ mobs usually takes like 3-4 minutes. So basically every 4-5 minutes you are ready for a new pull. Also, a prot paladin with a heavy 1h weapon that procs is a nightmare for any melee class PvP wise while leveling. You just wreck them, really... even the ones that are few more levels higher than you. Not so easy dealing with casters tho. :) I really hope this helps! -Saned