Well I'm back to the dilemma of wanting to heal instances in Northrend while I'm leveling, but not wanting to have a spec that does poor damage when I'm questing. Being Protection specked is awesome for grinding speed and completing quests where you just go to kill a bunch of mobs. But my heart still wants to heal :(. I tried a hybrid holy/retro build and did not like it at the end.

So the other night I downloaded the PTR and copied my paladin there. I then proceeded to respect into holy. I then went around killing mobs of my level to see my damage output. I tried it without using the exorcism since you can use it on all mobs now, not just the undead. Well after experimenting with different gear, that is trying the spell damage/intellect gear that I would use for healing, then trying my protection gear with the mace and shield. I finally found the best combination - I've put my prot/dps gear with a two handed weapon, and left a few pices to increase my intellect ( mostly rings and neck). And boom, there is a build you can level with.

Unlike all the other people who recommend for the holy build to rely on spell damage for the DPS, I say not so! It may be true for some great holly pally who is coming geared up epics from BC. I unfortunately only have the questing gear and stuff I can make with my Blacksmithing. So what i found is I don't need to buff my spell damage, it's going to be there automatically. If I add 600 spell damage the spell damaging spells will increase very slightly, but if I put my DPS gear with lots of strength and put my big two hand ax on, I got nice spell damage and a nice white damage from the ax. So it worked well on the PTR. I think today I'll try it on the life and see how well I can still quest with it. Here is the build I'll take, note that I'm putting 5 points into the strength talent so I can do more white damage.

Proposed holly build for questing/healing:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sEA0x0zhVuzxRx0xZVd

I wanted to mention some significant achievements for myself and my guild that happened past weekend. We finally cleared the Military quarter and completed all the others to unlock the Sapphirion on 25 man raid. I got the beatiful Damnation from the 4 horsemen. I have to admit that it was just a bit selfish for me to roll on it since it was a small upgrade from the Staff of Restraint. But it was the only piece I got from that run, and I had my eye on that staff for a long time and only two other people rolled on it.

The Damnation is a really cool staff, and presently is the second best two handler for a warlock in the game. Now there are a lot of people who will argue that one hander and an off hand is better then the two hander. And I agree with them foolheartedly. Unfortunately I still don't have a better combination for the one hand/off hand that is better then this staff. Presently my best combo is Blade of Dormant Memories and Ward of the Violet Citadel. Which I do use when I switch gear for the Sapphirion fight and need more hit. For now just run around with this awesome staff. Pics coming soon by the way.

Well Elirias is 70 and happily continuing to level in Borean Tundra in Northrend. I've remained specked into the protection tree, after trying a retro/holy build. I still like taking a hole bunch of mobs down at the same time.

I've also leveled up my Blackminthing quickly to make the items for level 70 out of the new cobalt sets. They look pretty good and have some nice stamina, strength and defense stats, which are exactly what I'm looking for for my protection spec.

In addition, all the plate pieces I've been making as well as weapons from adamantine and cobalt have been selling quite well at a good premium at the AH. I guess death knights and other plate weathers keep buying them, which is great and will pay for the huge money sink blacksmithing was to get it to 300. It also helps that both adamantine and cobalt were all mined by Moramor and stored in the bank, so I did not have to buy them off the AH.

I've also try to tank by tanking the Utgrade Keep with a PUG group. That went a bit rocky because our healer was a druid, and even though he was healing specked, i don't belive he knew well how to heal. Specifically any burst damage was the end of me. I do have to say that it is quite a lot of work to tank, and I think at 80 I will try to heal instead.

I've been doing some of the Level 78-80 quests, including finishing up my Sons of Hodir chain quets. I also ran some Heroics with my guildies, which was fun and quick. What I'm fininding and quite to my surprise is that you can get pretty well geared by doing those two things to get you ready for raiding.

Since I've had a lot of rest experience, and combine that with a lot of dailies I did while leveling, I got to 80 without doing a lot of the higher end quests. So most of my gearing came from crafting and raiding. My guild was already in full swing with the raids, so it made sense to do that. On the other hand if you got your character who is not part of a raiding guild or if it's an a lot who's not allowed in many guild runs, do the quests. There is some great gear, and you work on your rep (and cash) at the same time.

Also run the heroics. A lot of my initial gear came from there, and a lot of that gear can even compare to some of the gear you get in Nax and OS, especially if it is 10 man versions. In addition you get badges to buy better gear. Example, the other day I got two pieces of gear that were small upgrades for me, while running heroics. Now while small upgrades (a wand and a ring), they were upgrades nonetheless, and I've got most of my gear coming from 25 man raids.