Which healing class?

[Koushi]

Planning on rolling a healer just because. Not sure which class. I like druids because I used to play a druid, but they seem like the weakest healing class.



Druid:



Utility: Entangling Roots, Prowl, Bear Form, Travel Form



The problem I see is that most of a druid's utility can't assist others. I loved that when druids were durable and could survive for 30 minutes, but I just can't see that being much good where your average lifespan is less than 20 seconds.



Damage: Wrath, Insect Swarm, Moonfire



Again, when people die so quickly DoTs have limited use, and when you're in a fight that really needs extra DPS, can you afford the GCD not healing? You aren't in the same situation of being rooted and having nothing else to do either, which I suppose is an advantage.



Heals: Nourish, Regrowth, Rejuvination, Swiftmend



Regrowth has limited spamming potential because of the HoT. Nourish sucks. Rejuvenation ticks slowly at 3 seconds, which is an eternity when you could be spamming 1.5s heals. Swiftmend is good, but not spammable. It would be great if druids had a quick spammable heal.



Druid seems like a good secondary healer if you also have a priest, but it doesn't seem that strong by itself.





Paladin:



Utility: Hammer of Justice, Hand of Protection



HoJ is pretty useful. It is a shame druids don't know bash. Hand of protection is very useful in a bracket dominated by hunters as well. Best of all, they're powerful and can be used to assist allies.



Damage: Exorcism, Crusader Strike



Just Exorcism by itself is pretty useful. Not a bad nuke at all. CS is something else to do as well.



Heals: Word of Glory, Holy Shock, Lay on Hands, Flash of Light



6s is a lot more usable than 15s for swiftmend. Add in Word of Glory for another insta-heal. Not as annoying of a requirement either. Then you have LoH, which is ridiculous, and a potential game changer in WSG. Flash of Light is spammable as well.





Priest:



Utility: Psychic Scream, Bubble, (Chastise), Power Word: Fortitude



Both are great. PS can be used to break up a mob, or give you time to pull of some heals. Bubble is like a huge HP/heal buff. Instant ranged stun on a 30 second timer is excellent as well if you go holy. PW:F adds even more HP.



Damage: Mind Blast, Holy Fire, Shadow Word: Pain, Smite



A nice variety of nukes that let you adapt to the situation.



Heals: (Penance), Holy Word Serenity, Flash Heal, Renew



Instant heals, spammable heals, and shields. What isn't to love?





Shaman:



Utility: Purge, Wind Shear, Ghost Wolf, Earthbind



A nice set of tools to counter enemy healers and harass them. But they seem better suited for DPS than a healer.



Damage: Lightning Shield, Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock, Flame totem



A decent mix of situational damage spells.



Heals: Earthshield, Healing Stream, Healing Surge



Healing Surge is spammable at least, and Earthsheild is pretty good if you can rely on that person taking damage.







Priests seem good at buffing a team up to dominate another team, with enough skills to manage very well in smaller encounters as well. Paladins have some pretty amazing cooldown abilities and can definately make a difference when it comes down to healing one person. Shamans have lots of utility under their belt, just not all of it is defensive or support utility. I'd imagine to be a good shaman you ned to do a mix of offsenive and defensive playing. Druids suck as team players, and they can't even spam heals. Their instant heal isn't even that impressive.

 

[Starup]

To make this plain and simple. Paladins do striaght up powerful heals, durable, and have good offensive capabilities. Shaman have a ton of utility in comparison to paladin but still have good heals. Priest do well as a team healer for offense and can handle most 1v1s pretty easily except vs other healers. The ability to bubble, renew, and flash of light combined with mind blast and penance makes a balanced healer. Druids are the weakest healer overall since the burst in this bracket tears apart their HoTs like they are not there. Their utility can be useful but not as much compared to other classes

 

[Mrcer]

Make a Disc priest if ur going Aerie Peak(H). We need more disc priests.

 

[Žae]

I play a holy paladin and HoP + mail provides a lot of survivability. But I have seen some excellent disc priests and the shield really pisses me off... Especially on the EFC.



Try them both out and keep playing with whatever you like best they are both excellent classes.

 

[ThaCarter]

Holy Paladins can win every 1v1 with LoS. They also have the most throughput and are the most likely to just keep up five people forever (I'm looking at you Goldendays). That being said, priest is insane at 1v1. They have the burst that a hunter does minus the pet (every 15-20 seconds), can heal like champions, and have an insane shield to boot. Both of those are very strong classes. Shamans, I'd say, fall a tier below. You have good heals, earth shield is always nice but you can go OOM quickly if you have to spam surge and you have no offensive ability against anyone good. That being said you're strong as hell in 1v1 duels, you just won't kill anyone in battlegrounds before the rest of the group comes to take you out. Druids... well, druids are druids. Ole is pretty good but other than her, I don't really see many resto druids.

 

[R Prime]

Healadins are awesome... but a dime a dozen in this bracket. I'd say go priest. Really - whatever you see yourself playing consistently and having fun.

 

[Cailith]

To make this plain and simple. Paladins do striaght up powerful heals, durable, and have good offensive capabilities. Shaman have a ton of utility in comparison to paladin but still have good heals. Priest do well as a team healer for offense and can handle most 1v1s pretty easily except vs other healers. The ability to bubble, renew, and flash of light combined with mind blast and penance makes a balanced healer. Druids are the weakest healer overall since the burst in this bracket tears apart their HoTs like they are not there. Their utility can be useful but not as much compared to other classes

This.



Paladins are the best for healing a single target, priests (disc at least) is more of a group healer/offensive healer and can solo hunters/rogues/warriors quite well, even level 24s most of the time. Shamans are a bit tougher to play but can rack up a lot of heals. My friend plays one and he usually does more healing overall than I do while I'm getting in timely bubbles and penances. They suck at doing damage and don't have enough mana or fast enough heals for my playstyle, but they have stronger heals than priests. Nothing is more annoying than an Earthbind totem while you're trying to catch up or get away from someone, and Purge is still awesome against some classes.



Druid heals are just too slow and weak. Their damage isn't that great either. You can still make them work, and as any warrior will tell you, some healing is better than none. I would just rather have any other healer, assuming skill/gear is the same.

 

[Reltney]

If you queue alone, holy paladin is the way to go. Strong heals + defensive cooldowns + mail + shield + Exorcism spam = survivability, throughput and burst damage all in one package.



Disc priests are good backup healers in premades. Bubble spam mixes well with paladin and shaman healing. I wouldn't pug with one, though. The obscene melee damage in this bracket melts them like butter and they don't have the best mana efficiency.

 

[Earlwing]

Obviously play whichever you find fits your play style.



Do you wanna spread the love, keeping up multiple targets and tossing damage around? Priest.

Indestructible healing turret: Paladin.

Utilitarian healing turret: shaman.

Hipster: druid.



A holy paladin is probably the most well off healer in the bracket, however a skilled priest can support many people but will OOM faster. I play my holy paladin with a survivability build, and really... try to kill me, I dare you. Priest is a lot more flexible in a group situation and can play offensively or defensively very well, but I find being in a dress makes you get focused pretty hard, and priests really do have trouble defending themselves against several enemies. Resto shamans are powerful, but TBH I found resto shaman a bit boring. Dropping totems, purging where necessary, and waiting for the right time to windshear are the perks, while you spend 75% of your time spamming surge. Haven't played a resto druid, but I imagine it can't be fun letting people die. Like carter said, when it comes to resto druids, Ole or bust....

 

[Cailith]

If you queue alone, holy paladin is the way to go. Strong heals + defensive cooldowns + mail + shield + Exorcism spam = survivability, throughput and burst damage all in one package.



Disc priests are good backup healers in premades. Bubble spam mixes well with paladin and shaman healing. I wouldn't pug with one, though. The obscene melee damage in this bracket melts them like butter and they don't have the best mana efficiency.

I agree with most of what you're saying, except that I think priests are fine at pugging because I do it 95% of the time. It's not nearly as difficult as puging on my warrior and I can go games without dying sometimes. Fast heals + psychic scream + power word shield and renew + large mana pool + powerful offensive spells = survivability as well. Plus if you're puging, your team will always have +18 stam and that can be huge.

 

[Mrcer]

Their damage isn't that great either

I beg to differ.

 

[Koushi]

Obviously play whichever you find fits your play style.



Do you wanna spread the love, keeping up multiple targets and tossing damage around? Priest.

Indestructible healing turret: Paladin.

Utilitarian healing turret: shaman.

Hipster: druid.

Thanks for the advice. I played a druid before they were cool.

(am I cool/hipster yet?)



Actually that's just the problem. I'd be inclined to roll a druid if they didn't seem so bad in comparison. I played a druid when they were considered the weakest class in WoW, but at least they were broken in several respects, like having 5 times as many utility skills as any other class and being able to survive or run from anything short of a PoM pyro.

 

[Mrcer]

Druids are fine and make great offhealers if u decide to go boomkin. But you will oom faster than all the other healing classes if you try to go straight healing.

 

[C O T U S]

Planning on rolling a healer just because. Not sure which class. I like druids because I used to play a druid, but they seem like the weakest healing class.



Druid:



Utility: Entangling Roots, Prowl, Bear Form, Travel Form



The problem I see is that most of a druid's utility can't assist others. I loved that when druids were durable and could survive for 30 minutes, but I just can't see that being much good where your average lifespan is less than 20 seconds.



Damage: Wrath, Insect Swarm, Moonfire



Again, when people die so quickly DoTs have limited use, and when you're in a fight that really needs extra DPS, can you afford the GCD not healing? You aren't in the same situation of being rooted and having nothing else to do either, which I suppose is an advantage.



Heals: Nourish, Regrowth, Rejuvination, Swiftmend



Regrowth has limited spamming potential because of the HoT. Nourish sucks. Rejuvenation ticks slowly at 3 seconds, which is an eternity when you could be spamming 1.5s heals. Swiftmend is good, but not spammable. It would be great if druids had a quick spammable heal.



Druid seems like a good secondary healer if you also have a priest, but it doesn't seem that strong by itself.





Paladin:



Utility: Hammer of Justice, Hand of Protection



HoJ is pretty useful. It is a shame druids don't know bash. Hand of protection is very useful in a bracket dominated by hunters as well. Best of all, they're powerful and can be used to assist allies.



Damage: Exorcism, Crusader Strike



Just Exorcism by itself is pretty useful. Not a bad nuke at all. CS is something else to do as well.



Heals: Word of Glory, Holy Shock, Lay on Hands, Flash of Light



6s is a lot more usable than 15s for swiftmend. Add in Word of Glory for another insta-heal. Not as annoying of a requirement either. Then you have LoH, which is ridiculous, and a potential game changer in WSG. Flash of Light is spammable as well.





Priest:



Utility: Psychic Scream, Bubble, (Chastise), Power Word: Fortitude



Both are great. PS can be used to break up a mob, or give you time to pull of some heals. Bubble is like a huge HP/heal buff. Instant ranged stun on a 30 second timer is excellent as well if you go holy. PW:F adds even more HP.



Damage: Mind Blast, Holy Fire, Shadow Word: Pain, Smite



A nice variety of nukes that let you adapt to the situation.



Heals: (Penance), Holy Word Serenity, Flash Heal, Renew



Instant heals, spammable heals, and shields. What isn't to love?





Shaman:



Utility: Purge, Wind Shear, Ghost Wolf, Earthbind



A nice set of tools to counter enemy healers and harass them. But they seem better suited for DPS than a healer.



Damage: Lightning Shield, Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock, Flame totem



A decent mix of situational damage spells.



Heals: Earthshield, Healing Stream, Healing Surge



Healing Surge is spammable at least, and Earthsheild is pretty good if you can rely on that person taking damage.







Priests seem good at buffing a team up to dominate another team, with enough skills to manage very well in smaller encounters as well. Paladins have some pretty amazing cooldown abilities and can definately make a difference when it comes down to healing one person. Shamans have lots of utility under their belt, just not all of it is defensive or support utility. I'd imagine to be a good shaman you ned to do a mix of offsenive and defensive playing. Druids suck as team players, and they can't even spam heals. Their instant heal isn't even that impressive.

why did you make this thread? clearly you already know all about each of these classes at this level. just choose one. hell, just make one of each at 20 and play all of them, then choose which one you like the most and gear him/her out

 

[Gorillamode]

why did you make this thread? clearly you already know all about each of these classes at this level. just choose one. hell, just make one of each at 20 and play all of them, then choose which one you like the most and gear him/her out

Looks like this player wants some feedback from others. Just because his analysis is right on the money doesn't discount the value of second, third, and fourth opinions.

 

[Freeranged]

Thanks for the advice. I played a druid before they were cool.

(am I cool/hipster yet?)



Actually that's just the problem. I'd be inclined to roll a druid if they didn't seem so bad in comparison. I played a druid when they were considered the weakest class in WoW, but at least they were broken in several respects, like having 5 times as many utility skills as any other class and being able to survive or run from anything short of a PoM pyro.

You know who plays most like a vanilla Druid? Hpal.



The 2 defining features of a Rdruid in vanilla were mobility and the ability to keep himself and others alive simultaneously thanks to HoTs.



Hpals have the most mobility of all the healers (Disc priests can throw out bubbles, but our instant heals are stronger), and can easily keep themselves topped under heavy spread damage. I was Rdruid to R13 in Vanilla, and R1 S2...Hpal is the most fun class in the bracket to me.



PS. Rdruids at 20 don't have the HoT power to be compared to old Rdruids.

 

[Starup]

You know who plays most like a vanilla Druid? Hpal.



The 2 defining features of a Rdruid in vanilla were mobility and the ability to keep himself and others alive simultaneously thanks to HoTs.



Hpals have the most mobility of all the healers (Disc priests can throw out bubbles, but our instant heals are stronger), and can easily keep themselves topped under heavy spread damage. I was Rdruid to R13 in Vanilla, and R1 S2...Hpal is the most fun class in the bracket to me.



PS. Rdruids at 20 don't have the HoT power to be compared to old Rdruids.

Yes very true. Holy Shock, and word of glory just heal so much in comparison to the druids in this bracket. THe burst is so powerful that HoTs arent very good imo. Its all about instant casts and huge numbers.

 

[Gorillamode]

http://chardev.org/?profile=282973



I am also rolling a healer, as the warrior I made on AP seems to be of pretty limited use and AP is horrendously overpopulated for a free account. This seems to be the best set up I could come up with for a healy priest pre-BOA and pre-LFH (I work sundays at 3PM so it's going to take me a while I have a feeling to get the hat). I will be getting my BOA robe from DMF and the PVP BOA staff and PVP boa shoulders. I will have AGM upon dinging 20 (4/12 at lvl 11) and will go for a second AGM after I've gotten the rest of my gear.



If I am missing anything let me know!

 

[SabXXX]

http://chardev.org/?profile=282973



I am also rolling a healer, as the warrior I made on AP seems to be of pretty limited use and AP is horrendously overpopulated for a free account. This seems to be the best set up I could come up with for a healy priest pre-BOA and pre-LFH (I work sundays at 3PM so it's going to take me a while I have a feeling to get the hat). I will be getting my BOA robe from DMF and the PVP BOA staff and PVP boa shoulders. I will have AGM upon dinging 20 (4/12 at lvl 11) and will go for a second AGM after I've gotten the rest of my gear.



If I am missing anything let me know!

You could have: 125 spell power, 15.40% crit, 1114 hp and hit capped...



If you replace: WBFH with Flying Tiger Goggles, BFD chest with Noble's Robes, WSG staff with Emberstsone Staff, BFD belt with Belt of the Hero, hit wand with Durak's wand and use PvP trinket + AGM (I'm assuming you have AGM already edit: good luck with AGM pre- 20!

). You obviously have to sacrifice one profession slot to Engineering (and perhaps keep mining for the +3 stam).



Maybe this looks better to you? I know that's how I would gear my priest if the change to the goggles was live before I got BoA's.

 

[Gorillamode]

Not being hit capped does annoy me, but I generally gear my healers defensively, and since this toon is not on AP I will be pugging most of my games. I therefor place a greater importance on stamina as it is is always there for you. I am debating between engy for the goggles vs alchemy + WBFH for minor fort elixirs and the albeit weak healing pots of alchemy until I get my LFH. I'm leaning more towards alchemy but I'll have to give it some consideration.



Those are all pieces of gear that I would definitely not mind having around should I ever be in a Pugmade situation where peels/cc are guaranteed and I can focus a little less on survivability. Thanks for the input!