Stay Ret until lvl 80. You'll be able to tank everything just fine as long as you pk up tanking gear for when you really need to tank (i.e. instaes). If you want to do a raid when you hit lvl 80, you'll want to go Prot.
YJMark wrote:If you want to do a raid as a tank when you hit lvl 80, you'll want to go Prot. ftfy :) No Ret will be tanking in raids, so if tanking is what you'll eventually want to do, you'll need to be Prot. Rets, with all thehanges being made, are mh more viable as a raid sp then ever, and Ian see Ret Paladins getting raid slots in Wrath. Leveling up though, YJ is right: you should do fine as a Ret sp tanking as long as you have a separate set for tanking purposes. At the very least a swordboard, but some more defense oriented gear would be ne as well. Leveling speed wouldertainly be slower with a Prot build when solo playing. As a group it wouldn't be too mh slower, if at all, due mostly to the Mage you have with you: youould AE things easier and just have the Mage go to town. But, really it's up to your playstyle.
Rating down the poor newbie, you paladins should be ashamed of yourself. Here noobie have aookie *toss* oh and read jk's FAQ.
As some have said, the stkies are somewhat out of date now, however they are still mostlyorrt. Your talent tree will vary wildly depending on WHAT SORT of Paladin you wish to be. It used to be that Holy was for healing, Prottion was for tanking, and Ret was for levelling from 1-60 or so and then getting laughed atfoed to resp. This is no longer thease. Holy is still the best single-tarket healer in the game, and has had some multi-target and heal over time things added rently. Prottion is still a great tank, and has been made even better rently, and Retributionan now DPS with the best of otherlasses as well as having the utility to provide buffs, off-healing, and other trks and treats to help whole partiesraids. So, the question isn't really "what does a Paladin do?", it is more "Ok, I have dided to play a Paladin, what do _I_ want to do?" If you want to be a great healer, read up on Holy and go that route. If you want to be a tank and be able to take on 10-12 mobs at oe and survive, read up on Prottion and go that route. If you want to SMASH FE and still provide buffs, some good healing, emergey buttons to keep others alive, ressurtion when needed, e. then read up on Retribution and go that route. Also, youanhange your talent tree whenever you wish to, but itosts gold to do so, and the more youhange your tree, the more itosts (up to a 50g maximum eh time you makehanges). You may try Retribution and love it, but later dide you want to tank or heal and make a swih. Or your raid group might have an abundae of tanks one day, and even though you are Prottion you go resp Holy and heal for them. All of these roles are pretty gear-dependant (That is, the gear for Holy is different than tanking gear, whh is different from dps gear). In order to be good at all 3 roles late in the game, it is nessary to build up multle sets of gear. Early on in the game (1-60 or so) youan use MOST of the same gear and fulfill any of the roles adequately. (The main eeption to this being that if you are Holy or Prot you want a 1-handed weapon and shield, Retribution a big slow 2-h weapon and no shield.) So, for now, dide what you think you would like to try, read the appropriate and stkies here, and give it a shot! Oe you pk a tree, all of us here would be happy to answer more spif questions about the tree you personallyhose.