Holy or Protection

HI guys,

I can not decide which second specialization for my paladin(wotlk).

I play mostly PVE and over time I would play PVP.

I also want to ask what you think is more fun?




Thanks so much for everyone's opinion

It's hard to compare them, as one is a Tank and the other is a Healer.

Both are very powerful specs in their own way, and both tanks and healers are able to find groups quite easily (compared to DPS)
I'd say tanks generally find groups SLIGHTLY easier than healers. To be honest, your biggest deciding factor should be whether you like to tank, or like to heal better.

That said, Prot paladin is a little less viable in PvP than Holy paladin imo(But yes, still viable) - Prot paladin pvp usually excels at 3v3 or 5v5 arena, but can do well in duels and BG's too - Holy Paladins are very powerful healers in both arenas and BG's. IF your Main Spec is Retribution, which is assume is the case from your post, then I'd just say that if you want to play a DPS paladin in PvP, just stick to Ret as you likely have better gear and are more comfortable with that spec.

I can tell you a little bit about their rotations in raids, to see if which one suits your playstyle better:
Holy -
You'll be spamming Holy Light most of the time, and keeping Beacon of Light on one of the tanks. Very simple rotation really. Holy Light uses alot of mana so you prioritize Intellect from your gear to give you more mana so you don't OOM. Otherwise, you need to Judgement of Light the boss every 20 seconds to keep up the Healing buff, or even on Trash fights you need to judgement a random mob once per 1 minute for a haste buff. A very simple rotation, keep beacon up, SPam Holy Lights as needed. Alot of the skill comes from knowing how to manage your mana so that you don't run OOM midway through a boss fight and become useless halfway through a boss fight - But with better gear, your Mana pool becomes very large and it's quite hard to become OOM once you are Best in Slot.

Protection Paladin needs to hold aggro, so I personally find it more fun, as it requires a certain degree of skill. Holy's rotation is a bit monotonous, with the 1 button mashing most of the time.
Prot paladin has 5 main buttons, and needs to alternate pressing them in a certain order. 2 abilities have a 6 second Cooldown, and 3 abilities have a 9 second cooldown. You press the abilities in what's called a 6-9-6-9-6 rotation, where you use a 6 second cd ability, followed by a 9 second cd ability, and you repat in a 6-9-6-9-6 sequence. Add in using cooldowns to reduce damage intake, and it becomes a fairly involved spec to play.

Personally i find that tanks have a very big influence on raids. A good tank helps out the raid alot, and is very rewarding to play. Holy paladins tend to be considered "Tank healers" due to their beacon of light and the fact that Holy Light heals a single target for a large amount. Unfortunately though, most raids only take 1 Holy Paladin, and rarely ever take a 2nd Hpala. So out of the 5 healers in 25man raids, only 1 will be a Hpala.

Prot paladins are also considered the most versatile tank, that can pretty much do anything. It's the most forgiving tank class in terms of abilities, it has 2 taunts, and a death-prevention proc that requires no input called Ardent Defender, so in the case the player or the raid makes a LOT of mistakes, Prot paladins have the most tools to still pull through. This makes alot of groups happy to run 2 Prot Paladins, so you should find it quite easy to find groups as a Prot paladin, no matter if there's already a Prot Paladin in the group already or not.

If you're going to pvp, Protection is not a feasible option unless you like being a troll while not really being productive.

As far as PvE is concerned, there are more healer slots available overall than there are tank slots. That alone makes the likelihood of a raid wanting a Holydin higher. Also, you can't really multi-task as a tank, which is why I usually try to avoid playing a tank. If I don't have multitasking to do, I get bored very easily. A tank generates threat and uses CDs when necessary to mitigate damage. A Prot Paladin can put out blessings and/or buffs while tanking, but that's the limit to their multitasking. When you're tanking and not taking much damage, what do you do? You can't just choose mid-combat to do more damage or start healing people. As a healer, on the other hand, when I'm not needing to heal much, I can proceed to dps. Similar situation with Ret, when I have available globals, I can put out heals and put my Sacred Shield on other people who might need it more, etc.

That's my viewpoint. In the end, I would advise you to not worry about people trying to tell you which is more powerful or useful or needed. Instead, focus on the one you have more fun playing.