Gear Planning For My Prot & Holy Paladin
So, I just hit 78 ( well, nearly 1/2 way through 78 now ), and I have been struggling with Ret. First it was pretty bad as I wasn’t using Seal of Corruption ( OOPS ), but the more and more I play, I can’t get out of the mind set of tanking or healing.
Rewinding back to when I first started playing WoW, I played my druid and I tanked. I was a force to be reckoned with both in instances and in the 3 Battle Grounds available at the time. Before Burning Crusade launched, my druid was Exalted with all 3 factions and had hit “Marshal” in the BG rankings ( I was SOO close to Field Marshal, but I just could NOT keep up that level of play ). I eventually got into raiding, and I was an OT and a healer when needed. I had more than enough gold to get me through my play times, so I could respec as necessary by my guild, which tended to be about twice a week ( RIP The Dark Legion ). Once Burning Crusade came out, I wanted to stay resto for raiding but feral for a tank for 5 mans when needed. I’ve never been good at DPS. I understand the concepts, but I always end up watching health bars and trying to protect the squishy ones to be too successful at it I guess. This was the case with my druid, my shaman, my DK, my warrior, and my mage that hasn’t seen beyond level 70.
I started leveling my Paladin again after re-activating my account and have been enjoying leveling in Northrend again ( after a break ) and having the new dual spec was great. I decided I’d go ret/holy and that way could end up healing when needed, but would have the ret spec to quest with. Questing as ret is pretty easy, unless I pull a few too many ( read 5+ ), I usually walk away from a fight at about 98% hp and 90% mana. Not too bad. In groups though, I’m kind of frustrated with my DPS output. Sure, I’m in partial greens and blues and not the IDEAL spec ( I know I screwed up a few points, which I’ll fix come 80 ), but topping out at 1500DPS and getting passed by a hunter that’s a level below me by anywhere from 200-500 DPS is kind of ego bruising. I know part of it is gear ( he was 1/2 in BoA gear and 1/2 70 pvp epic gear ), and I know some of it is b/c I keep looking at bars, and dispelling what I can dispell and taunting off the healer if they pull aggro and blah blah blah, so I decided I need to go prot/holy and just face the music.
Holy build 1 and eventually Holy Build 2
Gear, I’m going to grab crafted items, and perhaps a few BoE items to start my gear sets, along with whatever marginal greens & blues I may already have.
I hit 79 tonight and went holy and still have ret as my “other” spec. I picked up a Titansteel Shield Wall for 300g ( cost of mats ) when it was going for 800g on the AH. Probably should have turned around and tried to sell it and use the profits for other stuff. The LFD tool has been good to me while leveling, I’ve been able to get 16 emblems of triumph so far, 30 will get me new gloves while 25 will get me a new libram ( which I desperately need ). Hopefully, before too long I’ll have the gear to heal the new 5 mans in Icecrown and can start stock piling badges and really gear up quickly. At this point I have a hard time healing lvl 74/75 5 mans, but that’s likely due to a combination of not being used to the healing style and having some pretty piss poor gear at this point.