Noob question: Ret or Prot for leveling?

If I was going to do 60-70 all over again, I'd spec ret, keep my tank gear up to date, and tank instances as ret when I wasn't questing. There's not a ton of pulls that need AOE tanking in the pre-70 instances, so it's definately workable.
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Sweeney: 70 Paladin, Runetotem

I'd go prot but then I leveled from 40-70 almost entirely in Instances. Rested exp+fast instance runs=amazing leveling speed. Leveled faster than my hunter did for those levels.
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I leveled from 60-70 as prot, but ret would be more efficient.

You can't quite do the AoE thing as much, but if you are doing the quests, which you should for cash and fast exp, ret slices through every mob with unbelievable ease. The advantage to prot would be the ease of getting groups for instances, if you are going to do a bunch of instances, then you may want to go prot, but the speed of which you tear through mobs of any type as ret more than outpaces the few times you'll take advantage of AoE farming as prot.
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Thanks for all the helpful responses! The atmosphere here is a huge improvement from the official forums.

Based on what's been said so far, i guess I'd be OK leveling as either spec, but I think I'll stick with ret until 40, then respec prot at that point. This should give me time to start familiarizing myself with the playstyle so i can be better used to the "tank" role by the time I hit 60 and start my gear-up phase.
I've noticed that the paladin is a lot tougher than my hunter was and I have no problems handling 3-4 mobs at once. My main difficulty has been runners, and the resulting adds... lack of effective CC is the main problem here. I do have HoJ and grenades from engineering, but the CDs on both are rather long, and no effective ranged attacks is another problem there. Any strategies that y'all use to keep things from spiraling out of control with the adds?
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Moderation in all things... including moderation.

I was ret till 35 or 40. I made sure i had holy shield when i switched. the levels absolutely flew by. all i did was solo quests in felwood, winterspring, and ungoro. all 3 of those places have many "kill X mobs" quests or quests with low drop rates where its best to pull 4-9 at a time anyway.

I loved it so much so that i stayed in winterspring all the way to 60. partially so i could continue to pick up thorium for my blacksmithing, and partially because i remembered how much of a shock it was going into BC in nothing but greens at 58 on my mage. my first char was a cakewalk as i was in all epics and the guild was all working together the first week of release.

the old world mobs to BC mobs was an even bigger shock on my paladin than the mage. I find my paladin regularly runs out of mana every pull. I'm never quite sure which gear to wear when questing. the + spell damage plate? or the + stamina plate.

I finally got a really fast attack speed main hand near the end of last night. that made a huge difference on mana.

if i was to switch to ret to take advantage of the new quest exp, other than switching to a 2 hander, what gear should take priority? STR? AGI?

oh my paladin just made 62 last night, and I'm still working on hellfire quests.

I switched back and forth a number of times while I was leveling, partially because I wasn't satisfied with one aspect of either spec (relative fragility in ret, taking a week to kill single mobs as prot) and partially just to learn both specs. Overall I think it went faster as ret especially once I hit Outland. Either spec requires a fair amount of gear to be as good as they can be.
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Considering the ease of getting ret-friendly gear as you level up (every warrior-friendly piece is ret-friendly as well), I'd recommend that for soloing. That said,if you can get Reckoning + SoCommand, Prot isn't so bad for leveling in retribution-style (2H vs 1-2 mobs), and feels MUCH less squishy. You can ALWAYS swap to a shield, and abuse holy shield/BoSanctuary when you get unexpected adds.

Ret: Slices through 1-2 mobs at a time like butter. Can die really easily (or burns more cooldowns) if you get 3-5. (Or, that was my experience at levels ~35-40ish.) Befriend a mage for drinks?

Prot: Slow and steady, but You Won't Die. Reckoning + SoCommand procs are a thing of beauty, and allow very mana-efficient grinding. It's slow, and very low-brain-power. I could literally get up and get a drink while fighting one mob, and come back alive. (Not so easy when you are trying to AOE tank them down -- it's much more interactive.) I liked this, as I was juggling a new baby at the time. I do believe it's slower, though, than either aoe fighting or Ret style.

for all around leveling I say ret till Holy shield is available then prot. Prot once you can put out some dmg isnt horrible but till you get your damage tools like rec, HS, Sanctuary, 1 hand spec, etc its kind of gimped (not that it cant be done). normal grinds against melee mobs are quicker, while spread out mobs or casters is slower so it prob washes. one thing that is nice is that with a prot spec and some patience you can do quests that are much higher level so soloing group quests is better then (still long though).

Until Holy shield you can practice tanking as ret and do fine, once you can get it spec for it and start to practice using it. before holy shield there is really no difference tanking as ret or prot except your more effective as prot, and its not important at lower levels anyway. specing at HS level will give you plenty of time to practice with the tools you need, and will make the leveling go faster.
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Real Dwarves tank in Crusader Aura

I leveled exclusively in prot, and I found it very enjoyable. I could AoE for some quests, solo group quests (I find I can typically handle single elites 2-3 levels above me) and when you do have to fight single mobs, you can always do something else while fighting (this is a great time to do laundry, browse the internet, watch TV, read a book, do dishes cook food, etc.). I also found that by focusing on prot, I could do the odd instance or two (and all the quests associated with it) and learn how to be a pally tank.

If you can find a friend with a DPS class to level with, all the better.

I leveled as prot aswell. Took me just over 10days 1-70 /played (before 2.3)
I really enjoyed running instances between boring questing.
While soloing the extra staying power is comes in really handy and you dont need to drink every 2 or 3 mobs, and even with full prot-spec most mobs die within 30seks or so, except you want to regen hp/mana^^
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1-35 = ret
35-58 = prot
58-70 = ret

that is the easiest way to level a pally

I leveled Bettiepage as Ret and then respec'd her to prot at 60. This time with Omaktavia, I am going Prot from the start. I started him last weekend and he hit 40 today. Does it seem slow? Not really. To me, I think it might be about the same leveling time (and boy did I die a lot) when I was Ret.
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I am the arm of the Light in battle. I know my path, can you say the same?

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Greymane&n=Bettiepage