I don't understand why everybody is discussing about how much retri paladins suck/don't suck. This thread was made to help a person decide what spec should he/she go on his/her paladin. Please stop arguing on such stupid things, after all it's just a game. Just to make things clear, each spec is as good as the other one!! There is no best spec, it all depends on how you want to play your paladin.
I am a pally and I've experimented with each spec.
So, you should chose protection if you like to tank. Protection is a very fun spec if you have nice gear and you know how to play. It only gets boring if you play it too much. Even though I think that paladins and warriors are equal in tanking, most guilds wouldn't let a paladin be MT (even though I know some raiding guilds with a paladin as MT, but they have very good gear and are very skilled). Protadins tank with holy damage, so that means you will need good spell damage and mana + you need to be resistant so you'll need nice hp, defence, block/dodge/parry chance. You should use a shield and a 1 handed weapon. Just to tell you there isn't many tanking gear with spell damage on (only tiers + a couple of other items that drop I don't know where, even though there are some boots in BT...).
If you like dps you should go retribution (there are other builds for dps but I don't really know them well). Retribution requires very good gear + skill in order to dps well. Retribution is also fun but it's very very hard to get the right gear to be a good dpser in PvE. It's true that you can outdps mages as retri but as I said you need great gear and skills. For retri I think you will need quite a lot of different stats, spell damage, crit chance, attack power, intelect, strength, spell crit rating. You should use 2 handed weapons for retri. Retri gear that drops is rare too, so you should go for arena/tier/BG items.
Ok, now holy. I personally hate healing. I find it boring like hell. But as holy you have great chances of entering a raiding guild as healers are needed in many raiding guilds. I have no idea if it's fun or not but I know some people that enjoy it... You can find holy gear everywhere (ok not everywhere, but it's easy to find and most instances/raid instances have AT LEAST 1 little plate item with + healing, mana, spell crit rating and whatever a holy paladin needs to be happy, lol)
You need to know that all specs are gear dependent, and with crappy gear you won't get anything done.
Good luck with your paladin :)
/Loganwar, the idiot that thinks paladins can tank (Moonglade EU, used to be on Agamaggan)
P.S. sorry if I have any spelling/grammar mistakes, I'm not English :D
I am a pally and I've experimented with each spec.
So, you should chose protection if you like to tank. Protection is a very fun spec if you have nice gear and you know how to play. It only gets boring if you play it too much. Even though I think that paladins and warriors are equal in tanking, most guilds wouldn't let a paladin be MT (even though I know some raiding guilds with a paladin as MT, but they have very good gear and are very skilled). Protadins tank with holy damage, so that means you will need good spell damage and mana + you need to be resistant so you'll need nice hp, defence, block/dodge/parry chance. You should use a shield and a 1 handed weapon. Just to tell you there isn't many tanking gear with spell damage on (only tiers + a couple of other items that drop I don't know where, even though there are some boots in BT...).
If you like dps you should go retribution (there are other builds for dps but I don't really know them well). Retribution requires very good gear + skill in order to dps well. Retribution is also fun but it's very very hard to get the right gear to be a good dpser in PvE. It's true that you can outdps mages as retri but as I said you need great gear and skills. For retri I think you will need quite a lot of different stats, spell damage, crit chance, attack power, intelect, strength, spell crit rating. You should use 2 handed weapons for retri. Retri gear that drops is rare too, so you should go for arena/tier/BG items.
Ok, now holy. I personally hate healing. I find it boring like hell. But as holy you have great chances of entering a raiding guild as healers are needed in many raiding guilds. I have no idea if it's fun or not but I know some people that enjoy it... You can find holy gear everywhere (ok not everywhere, but it's easy to find and most instances/raid instances have AT LEAST 1 little plate item with + healing, mana, spell crit rating and whatever a holy paladin needs to be happy, lol)
You need to know that all specs are gear dependent, and with crappy gear you won't get anything done.
Good luck with your paladin :)
/Loganwar, the idiot that thinks paladins can tank (Moonglade EU, used to be on Agamaggan)
P.S. sorry if I have any spelling/grammar mistakes, I'm not English :D