My paladin, which is right now my favorite alt, recently hit 30. Besides getting my cool free mount, I've also decided to give AOE grinding a try. Up to level 30 I was leveling as Retribution. Having some nice gear from Shadowfang keep, which I ran with my level 70 friend, was decently fun. But, I was really curious about AOE after I hit level 30.


My previous AOE experience was not very pleasant. It was with my mage, around levels 26-28 and of course it involved frost. I hated it. My mage was so fragile, and I started to hate frost in general. So I was very skeptical of paladin AOE grinding.

In addition, most of websites I've read will recommend that you don't start at least 35 when you got 5 points into reckoning. Many others tell you to wait until 40. Well, following some advice on wowwiki.com, I respecked into it at 30, attached a basic shield spike to my SFK blue shield, and pulled my one hander sword (also from SFK). I have to say, i've never had so much fun! I can also survive better now, which of course is the whole point of protection.

I began grinding in the . This place in general is very annoying since there are numerous random mobs clustered around all roads, so when you run around you always pull a hyena, a tiger and something else. I could easily handle two or three mobs of the same level. A bit more mobs I would sometimes had to chug a potion or bubble heal and then continue. However, it was still a lot of fun, and very effective.

Now at level 32, i have a little more experience, a couple points into reckoning, and also a new weapon that has a fast speed on it. The faster the weapon, the better since you then get more healing pocs. I can also handle any single mob without even flinching. Where before, as a retribution pally i would finish the fight quickly but had to heal a bit, now the fight takes a bit more time, but i finish with full mana and health. I'd compare this build to my priest when i was leveling discipline, and would finish every fight with full mana and health.