I made the decision just over a month ago to level my stale level 40 Paladin alt to 80. This is my first alt ever to reach max level, as I dislike the leveling process.
On top of that, in terms of real life:
- work’s been quite hectic
- we were on a vacation in Maui to celebrate our anniversary
The reason for leveling a Paladin to 80 is simple: I want to play a durable melee in PVP. Initially I thought Retribution might be fun to play, but I’ve been doing some research and watching videos, and I am very intrigued by the “Protribution” spec, which is a Protection / Retribution hybrid. The spec has good CC, good burst, and is very durable. It will suck for healing but you can’t have everything.
So I am splitting my time between gearing up my Paladin (3.5k GearScore, only 4 pieces of epic PVP gear at the moment) and still BG’ing with my Moonkin. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to capture any Moonkin PVP footage that I fight illustrative and compelling. But I’m trying :)
Once I get my Paladin decently geared (i200+ epics in all slots), I’ll try to capture Paladin PVP footage as well.
Stay tuned!
Taugrim's MMO Blog 
Nice work on the pally. Surprised you don’t just make your Boomkin a Feral spec if you really enjoy the whole melee thing. Pally is durable, but WoW is that game that has an endless supply of what works – which means paladins, DKs, mad critting shaman.
I hope you get intot he Rifts beta – or even into SW:ToR.
Surprised you don’t just make your Boomkin a Feral spec if you really enjoy the whole melee thing
I was Feral spec back for almost all my time in TBC. It’s fun to play but flawed for PVP from what I’ve read for WotLK.
I leveled my Paladin partly to mitigate risk – I’ve had a nagging feeling in my gut that I would enjoy it more for PVP than my Druid. And by having a 2nd class when Cata comes I have more options to choose from in terms of mechanics that suit my desired playstyle.
There have already been a few times when I considered just leaving the Paladin as-is and acquiring a full set of Feral PVP gear. But Protribution has me very intrigued, so I hope I have the patience to stick it out. The one issue with Protribution is it requires both good PVE and PVP gear. We shall see!
Best to keep options open since the classes are going to have major overhauls in Cataclysm. I’m working on several old TBC characters and some new ones via the recruit-a-friend mechanic (can get L60 in just a few days).
What kind of sucks is that you have to put a lot of time in at 80 just to get enough gear to know if it is going to work out for you or not. The gear differential is ridiculous for a new 80 this late in an expansion.
Best to keep options open since the classes are going to have major overhauls in Cataclysm
Exactly.
Through 3 versions of WoW, Blizzard has figured out Resto spec in terms of mechanics, but there have always been issues with Feral and Balance specs in PVP. Balance spec in WotLK is the best it’s ever been but still behind other caster classes in terms of counters and survivability.
What kind of sucks is that you have to put a lot of time in at 80 just to get enough gear to know if it is going to work out for you or not. The gear differential is ridiculous for a new 80 this late in an expansion.
Yea it is a significant issue IMO. When my pally dinged 80 he had a 2.5k GS. His damage was pitiful in PVP because most players have a GS in the mid 5k range.
I had to use my experience from 71-79 to get a sense of whether or not I think I’d like pally at endgame for PVP.
Taugrim! I love you! :D I started up my Resto Druid again because of you!!! :D I can’t stand grinding bgs for honor though! How do you do it?! I wouldn’t mind it soo bad if the queues weren’t 8-13 minutes for only like 5k Honor at the most! :( I am leveling a Holy Pally too! :D I hope it’ll do well in PvP! Taugrim I love you! :D Have fun on your trips!!! Are there any little Taugrims yet?!?! I love your voice too! =P