Finally got an upgrade in beta

Finished a rather epic quest chain involving Arthas, and got the
Betrayer's Choker. I cut an Enduring Dark Jade for it, and it proc'ed a perfect cut. So it's quite the lovely item now.

Questing 70+ as Protection Paladin

Just wanted to let everyone know that dps has increased for the Protection tree.  My spelldamage has doubled due to Touched by Light.  I switched to a quest green 1H so I could get more dps from Hammer of the Righteous, and it does put out some good damage.  I'm anxious to try tanking with this new setup.

Other than my main hand I haven't upgraded a single piece of gear and I'm now level 73.

My bad, Ring of the Stalwart Protector *is* better than the Violet Signet

I dunno why I waited so long.  Finally compared the rings using tankpoints and ratingbuster.  There's no question the Stalwart is better.  Spent the badges, now self buffing with Kings I'm 16k+ health.  Not bad.

Using Elemental Shaman gear when not tanking with Protection Paladin spec

Long title, but it sums it all up.

At some point in a tanks career they realize that having just one set of gear isn't going to be enough.  Maybe it's the first time they're asking to dps cause there's a better tank, maybe it's when loot drops that noone wants, or you come up against your first boss where resistance matters.  So being a good tank, and a good raider, you grab itemrack/closetgnome or any mod that will let you keep multiple sets organized easily, and proceed to be a loot whore.

I've done some research at maintankadin on this, and it seems most people feel you should get a decent healing set for when you need to heal on fights that only require one tank (and let the Prot Warrior tank it).  However when it comes to dps there really is no unified answer that I've found - other than some configuration referred to as 'loldps'.

Well since tankadins stack spell damage anyways, I figured I'd play around a bit and went the spelldamage route for dps.  Anything with spelldamage that was going to be sharded I would free roll on, and eventually got a up a decent set (mostly shammy and shockadin pieces).  I heal reasonably well in it, so ultimately this saved me inventory slots from having to have separate dps/heal sets.  It's actually worked so well that I'm now using my badges to get elemental shaman badge gear to improve my offgear set since I no longer need badges for tanking.

To give a little more insight into the gear set, the stats I focus on are spelldamage and spell crit.  While not quite up to par with a holy paladin, I never will be not specced into it anyways.  But put enough spelldamage and spell crit on, and you'll do just find as a raid healer or helping on the main tank.  And since Exorcism and Judgement of Righteousness still crit, you'll get the benefits there too.

By focusing this way I can maintain a raid viable set via enchants and gems without breaking the bank that will still perform whether I need to help dps or heal a fight.  Obviously I'm usually tanking, but in BT you will find yourself in many other roles.  If anyone else has success stories of going the spelldamage/spell crit route with dps for Protection Paladins I'd love to hear from you.