The paladin project

As a follow-up to my Paladin dilemma post, this is where I will explain and detail my final decision on how to approach paladin tanking and healing.

First, I will re-iterate that the comments I received for my dilemma post were great. Thank you all for your insight.

I had reached the same conclusion myself, even before I posted that article. I knew that it would be kind of a waste of time to start another paladin when I already have a fully geared one. I was also aware that I would have to start tanking in a normal dungeon and stay away from heroics until I get some solid experience and also upgraded gear if I were to go with my existing pally.

Having said this, leveling a new character always holds an appeal to me. For most people who raid, the end game is just the beginning. For me, in most cases it means the end of that particular character's career, until the next expansion hits. Case in point: my warlock, paladin and death knight are all retired at the moment.

I like leveling. I like discovering new skills and talents and I like the experience of becoming more powerful. Today, leveling is a different experience compared to the old days. My paladin was the first character I leveled and even though back then I used a prot spec, I had no idea what tanking meant. I just picked something that "worked" for my shield. Needless to say, leveling was extremely slow and painful. Now, it is no longer the case. For one thing, skills and talents are much more streamlined and thus more powerful and efficient. For another, I have accumulated a lot of WoW experience and I know how to blaze through content. Thirdly, the Dungeon Finder makes it extremely easy to run dungeons and get amazing gear and experience, while leveling.

Here's what I suggest. Although common sense says that I should start my paladin tanking / healing career with my level 80 paladin, I have decided to start a new project. The Paladin Project. In a nutshell, I will attempt to level a new paladin to at least level 60 with a protection spec. What follows are the rules that I am imposing on myself.

Paladin project rules

1. I will start a new paladin on a random server and I will make him public so that everybody can watch his progress.
2. I will create him on the Horde side, just to mix things up a bit. In consequence, he will be a Blood Elf.
3. My new paladin will obviously not benefit from any gold or other items from my rich Alliance toons.
4. He will have to earn his own existence and pay for his own stuff. That means he will have to learn 2 gathering professions and will have to sell the stuff he gathers on the AH.
5. As soon as dungeons become available through the Dungeon Finder (I don't know exactly what level that is but I assume it's past level 10), I will start queuing him up for randoms.
6. I will attempt to level him exclusively through random dungeons. The fact that he is prot will help place him instant queues. The only quests that I will do from that point on are the ones that group members can share.
7. I will level him to at least level 60. Why 60? Because at 60 all the major talents in the protection tree become available.
8. I will document each level in my blog, detailing each skill that I learn and each talent that I assign. Also, I will document my dungeon forays and the experiences from them.

Disclaimer: I won't guarantee any of the above but I will strive to obey my own rules. It is very possible that at some point I will become tired, bored or frustrated with my paladin and abandon the whole project. It is also possible that I will put the project on hold for extended periods of time, until I get my mojo back.

Issues that I will encounter

It is already obvious to me that I will encounter some problems with this project. The biggest problem here is that I won't have any gold to deck him out with at least a set of bags. For this reason, he will have to earn his own bread. This means learning 2 gathering professions and selling the gathered stuff on the AH. This also implies creating a bank alt so I won't waste time on my main character.

A first priority is making enough gold to afford 4 Netherweave Bags. This could cost me up to 40 gold which means I will have to hustle some peacebloom and leather quickly.

Another thing is that I will need sufficient gold to train all my skills and professions and be able to afford a mount. Hopefully, once I start gathering my first few stacks of stuff I will easily afford all this.

Then there's equipment. I won't have the luxury of twink or heirloom gear from my high level alts so I will have to buy some stuff from the AH if I'm unlucky with dungeon drops.

A big problem here is that I realized that I will probably have to leave healing for much later. At any rate, healing with the paladin is not a main priority. I am fascinated mostly by the tanking aspect, especially since it is guaranteed to give me an instant spot in any random dungeon. Why I say that healing will have to wait is that I will probably be relatively poor at level 40 when dual specs become available. I doubt I'll be able to raise 1000 gold, considering that I will focus on leveling this guy and not playing the AH.

In conclusion, I've made up my mind to at least attempt this new project. I don't want it to put a lot of pressure on my gaming style so I will do it casually. Probably all my dungeon leveling will be done during the week, hopefully inside an hour. On the weekends I'm still concentrating on my priest. It's meant to be a fun little project and a break from the usual WoW routine.

So what do y'all think?