Having spent the greater part of the weekend trying to level up my protection paladin (whose now happily sitting at lvl 67) I started to think a little about the future of the character.
Initially the idea had been to raise a fully fledged protection paladin that would eventually see the inside of 10-mans and 25-mans alike as a tank / off-tank. However being guildless, with wrath looming in the distance and me having a tendency to play things solo for the most part anyway this goal seems further away now than it ever has.
Refreshing holy shield every 10 seconds while you're standing in between 15 mobs really gives you time to think on a protection paladin. I didn't want to give up the awesomeness that is pally aoe (I have to quest after all), I didn't want to respec ret (I rather like to think that that's more of a warrior thing) and I am no fan of canned healing (receiving it yes but handing it out not so much).
So that left me a in a bit of a pickle. I could do the usual route of 5-mans but the thought of pugging things isn't really appealing for the 'chance' of a drop.
To break the rut of grinding / questing I decided to toss myself into a few battlegrounds and almost immediately noticed that I could occupy quite a few enemies (especially with a healer in tow) without too much trouble.
Granted, I didn't kill anything. But consecrating everything, throwing my shield at everything and doing the occasional spot of self / off-healing meant that even with my crappy outland green/blue gear I was able to fend off more than I expected.
Occupying 3+ people in a WSG turned out to be a huge benefit. Our manouverability increased ten-fold. Unwanted targets were simply dropped off in my range and at some point I even got some backup and we were literally dominating the center field.
It was right there and then that I decided that a protection paladin was indeed viable for PVP. Not from a generic 'must do max damage' perspective but from a tactical perspective.
A protection paladin should do in a BG what a protection paladin does in PVP. Generate as much threat as possible on as many enemies as possible and keep the damage away from those who can't take it.
I may never see the top of any meter with a PVP protection paladin but with a little effort, the right gear choice I can make the first step of turning the unorganized rabble that is the horde into a proper standing army (or at least look spiffy whilst I am standing next to my battle standard).
This may just be the start of a journey into protection PVP.
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