Ask WoW Insider: Best healing class?
by Barb Dybwad 
Jun 22nd 2007 at 4:00PM
Gather 'round for this week's edition of Ask WoW Insider, where we publish your questions for readers to answer. Last week we looked at when it's okay to upgrade an epic, and this week we turn to our second favorite topic after loot: I have been playing a NE Warrior since I started the game, but I hated doing instances. I consider myself to be a horrible tank and I'm sure others would agree. A while back I started a BE priest with some friends and found myself loving instances and the thrill of healing. I was also good at it. I love healing so much that I want to make a healer on my main realm where my warrior is. My question is, what is the best healing class?As Iceman once asked: "Who's the best
I've heard that paladins are doing well and because they can wear plate, they can last longer than cloth wearers. Druids can be good, but I've heard there aren't a lot of leather healing armor. Priests are well, priests and are meant for healing, but because of the improvements on the other classes, may not be as good as they once were. I don't know anything about shaman healing. Thanks!
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Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Ask WoW Insider, Classes
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Rice Apr 30th 2008 9:27AM
Ive got 3 70s, 2 of which are potential healers, my priest and my pali.
I cant speak accurately for shaman and druid, but I stress, and I know some with dissagree, but i stress again, pali healers are nowhere near the standard of priest healers.
Why do I say this? Because paladins have 3 healing spells. (lay on hands so doesnt count). They have an instant heal, holy shock (low output, huge mana waste), a fast heal (flash of light), and a heavy heal (holy light).
On the other hand a deep holy priest has like 10? different healing spells.
We have hots. Do palis have hots? no
We have group heals. Do palis have group heals? No
Various situational heals: prayer of mending, binding heal etc. Palis have nothing
But of course now to the one (and only) defense of pali healers, they take far more beating than a priest.
True true they do. But Im speaking from a completely PVE point of view here, and srsly, there is a clear different between tanking and healing. Any healer should NOT have to put up with being beaten on (though thanks to fade, priests rarely have to worry about that).
Now it may look like im dissing out palis here but dont get me wrong. I love my pali, and I know quite a few decent pali healers. But when it comes down to it, two healers of EQUAL SKILL, priest and pali, the priest will wipe the floor with the pali healer.
For the record my priest has about 2000 bonus healing. My pali is currently tank specced (and omg if it seems like i dont like pali healers, i LOVE pali tanks, but thats for another topic)
Cheers
-Rice
Chris Robb May 6th 2008 10:04AM
I have played a priest with over +1900 healing and I have always had 'most healing done' in all of my raids. While in SSC, druids come very close to beating me, but in the end I'm always at the top.
My tactic is to spam renews across the board to anyone taking damage, get in some large heals, and then wait a few seconds for regen.
Sampaguita May 9th 2008 3:33PM
I played 3 priests into endgame with a 6day raid guild. But since TBC nobody cares for priests anymore. My guild kicked every priest except for the only shadow specced and performs better than ever before (all on farm status).
At some days I couldn't find any group for any instance, neither could many of my other priest friends I know for years. 2 weeks ago a RL friend told me how cool it was to solve Kara with only 1 druid. This really makes my heart bleed. I hate WoW for that, so I stopped playing last December and wait until the next addon comes out. But I somehow doubt, that it will get any better.
glacialfury Jun 3rd 2008 9:50PM
I've seen only a few substantial posts about restoration shamans, so I'll add a few things here.
Pros:
- Chain Heal: the only thing consistently mentioned. Yes, it will make you a god in Alterac Valley and in raids, especially when there are a lot of melee types. It is an incredibly mana efficient heal for larger groups, and will often catapult you to the top of the meters, if that's your thing.
- Earth Shield: Every time the target gets hit, it heals them. Each heal has a chance of critting. All of the threat generated by this healing goes to the target, and not the shaman, so it's a great way to help a tank keep threat and to protect someone from incidental hits long enough for you to get a heal off. On meters, this healing will show up under the target, not under your name.
- Downranked heal with Ancestral Fortitude: there is a talent that will apply a short term buff to your target that increases their armor by 25% when you crit a heal on them. When you heal a mage, this does nothing. When you heal a tank, you've sent them from 12,000 armor to 16,000 armor, and due to the super cheap cost of the rank 1 spell, you can keep this buff on the tank indefinitely. Mana regens faster than you can spend it doing this.
- Mail armor: obviously this doesn't make or break it, but it doesn't hurt to be able to use a shield and take a few more hits than the clothy.
- Totems: hard to get used to, and near impossible to manage without good organization (there are 25 different totems), but can provide fantastic buffs to your group. Some effects of interest to a healing/caster group: mana regeneration, +100 to healing and spell damage, anti-fear totems, and a mana tide totem which is essentially like a free mana potion to your entire group.
Cons:
- Outside of Nature's Swiftness, you have no instant heals, and no heal-over-time's. If there are big, big spikes going on, sometimes it's hard to get that heal off in time, whereas a priest could shield the target, or a pally could stun the aggressor, to buy themselves time to heal.
- Low mana efficiency: As a shaman, where other classes are balancing their +heal with int and spirit, you are balancing yours with all that and MP/5 (mana regen). Outside of Chain Heal, shaman heals are not mana efficient and a shaman must work harder to have a higher pool of mana than a priest will. Totems will help, but you *will* be drinking mana potions far, far more often than that druid tree walking around near you.
- No outside threat management except for a tranquility totem, which is generally not the most valuable totem you could be using. If you get aggro, better hope someone gets it off you fast, because there is nothing you can do to drop it outside of popping some trinkets.
Overall:
- I think I would have chosen a druid, if I knew from the start I was going to play a healer, but that has more to do with play style than anything else. Shamans are versatile in groups, and because many players do not understand the class, you can be flexible in your role without griping from other players who expect you to do one thing or another.
Math Jun 5th 2008 12:24PM
Funny this is theires no best healing class at all .
i play a 2078 to 2500 +healing resto shaman 11500 mana unbuffed goes up 13.5k in raids i Run any 5 man heroics without a sweat no HOT needed .
Never been beated in any raid and do around 30% of the healing done spread on 6 to 7 healers.
I know my class well and only probleme with shammies is OOM on longer fights wich can be control with times mana pot and mana tide
Best healing class in my opinion but again it is just my opinion.
Healing tanks is hard for shammy best healing class for them well geared pally.
So is there a best healing class i say no only coz theires roll to be fill and each healing class excells at something .
bakunin Jun 12th 2008 6:57PM
I'm a CoH priest. 2200+ healing and 600 spirit.
Holy Priests (not the improved divine spirit holy priests) are the best healers in terms of over-all potential, bar none. Holy priests in equivalent ranked gear can out heal and out perform any other healer class in terms of over-all performance.
The problem is, most holy priests you'll raid with don't do it right.
In a raid, I'll use in between 7-10 healing spells; of these, top 5 spells are doing about 10-30% of the work each.
I am always at the top of the healing meters in any given raid. Put me on the tank in a boss fight and I still have (1) prayer of mending healing 10-25% of my healing total -- helping those in the raid that need it most; and i have (2) renew ticking around 20% on all the tanks most of the time (and the occasional lock or sp). (3) if i get a bit of damage myself, binding heal on the tank and myself. (4) Flash heal in emergencies while (5) greater heal does the heavy lifting.
That example is how i top the charts in the raid even when my healing duties are restricted to healing the main tank.
Put me on the raid, with circle of healing (CoH), I generally top the charts with a significant margin because im still renewing the tanks, PoM the tanks and raid, binding healing if needed, flash healing emergencies, and spamming CoH when its called for.
Holy priests when played right are the best over all healer, we should always top the healing charts and can fill any healing role in the raid very well (which isnt to say specific fights and situations dont have specific healing classes that can do better, we can simply do it well enough WHILE we are doing other things other classes cant.)
rj Jun 20th 2008 10:18PM
It's interesting to see how the responses have changed over time(Along with peoples gear). The ultimate answer?
Skill>Gear>Class
I have seen every class succeed and beat every other class with a skilled person running the character. I've seen under-geared Druids beating decked out Priests and vice versa. Healing is a skill by itself regardless of what class you play that requires you to have situational awareness, know what to and when to do it. "Look how many spells I got" doesn't mean squat if you don't know whats going on or what to do.
For the record I have a 70 Paladin with +2300 unbuffed healing and around 9-10k mana/health I dont know or care because I never run out of either. My experience is through TK/SSC. I top the charts whenever I want but I honestly stopped caring about that a long time ago. Single-healing Kara has been my current challenge.
I primarily raid heal; for PvP it is a different story. That depends on the particular changes they have for that arena season. But still I have seen people do arenas naked and BG's in greens just to prove a point.
One last note: Since this post was started Blizzard has made many changes that drastically altered the classes and the state of healing raids. They have made gear available for Priests and Druids that makes them much stronger healers. They have gimped Paladins relatively but they also removed a lot of the necessity of having certain classes in certain fights(Nightbane no longer runs amok when he fears the tank for example)
So pick any class you like: They are all good and it is more important to be a good healer than to "Be a certain class".
Johnsom Jul 31st 2008 3:20AM
Pallies spam flash of light shamans spam Healing wave druids spam rejuvenation and life bloom. Priests have prayer of mending, prayer of healing, greater heal, renew, mass dispel, Flash heal, fade, circle of healing, PW:sheild, Binding heal. You tell me what is the best choice the other classes may have the edge on the meters but do you really want to sit in kara for 5 hours spamming 1 on your tank.
rperkins1211 Jan 5th 2010 6:37AM
okay let me take what you said and put it in my favor so you can see how obserd you sound. Pallies spam flash of light, shamans spam healing wave priests spam flash heal and greater heal. Druids have treeform (immune to polymorph effects and 12% heal increase) they use rejuv and regrowth for hots, and while those greatly reduce the speed that the targets health they still have many other healing moves like lifebloom, swift mend, wild growth, nourish, tranquillity and healing touch. You tell me what is the best choice the other classes may have the edge on the meters but do you really want to sit in kara for 5 hours spamming 1 on your tank.
Thuhle Sep 15th 2008 11:18PM
Resto shaman are THE healers when it comes to big raids....i roll a 2k+ heals shaman and i usually find myself at 1-2nd on the healing meters for 25mans.....however for 5 mans i like seeing CoH priests especially for AoE bosses and trash.
nickkeys Sep 23rd 2008 6:34AM
The best healing class is priest.
circle of healing spec for raid healing is almost as efficient as chain heal
instant cast/greater heal spec for tank healing is almost as efficient as paladin heals
discipline/holy spec for mana mitigation can't be topped
priests are the best class based on complete variety of the raid healing, whether your assigned to a tank or assigned to raid heal
Shamans, Druids and Pallys' are master of one aspect
Priests can almost be masters of every aspect
Noh Nov 2nd 2008 3:57AM
Priest..... is made to heal. As someone had stated above. We can't do anything else without getting weird looks from others (Who are you shadow priests looking at? Don't tell me you didn't get asked to heal before...) This can be a bad thing, as many people have stated before me...... Or it can be a good thing. :D I picked priest as my main, and even leveled him in holy (Yes, it's painful... Thus I leveled my second priest as shadow... :D), not because of how good priest healing is, but instead, the "atmosphere" that comes with a healing priest. When we chose to play a (healing) priest, we basically gave up the opportunity to wear plate, mail or even leather, gave up the leveling speed, gave up the variety of roles to play in a group, and strictly limited ourselves as casters - casters that don't do as much damage as other casters --- essentially we made a choice that gave us no back up plans but healing. (OK, maybe shadow as a back up. XD) I do not have the confidence (or the gear) to say that I'm the BEST healer, but because of the sacrifices that I made (smiting down the 75% spell damage reduction BEs anyone? T_T) , I can confidently address myself as a DEDICATED healer --- And THAT is the feeling that I want when I'm healing. In the end it's really your call, I have all 4 healing classes and the big green numbers really aren't that different as long as you are not a hardcore/semi-professional gamer --- I'd suggest you finding out the more sentimental side of what you want instead of asking the healing meter. :D After all, the reason that you liked healing more than tanking in the first place cannot be described numerically right? :D
aslak Nov 11th 2008 10:23PM
Priests are the best 5 man instance heals around. Problem is most don't know how to use what they have. Priests that know how to beat the 5 second rule are great party healers. Inner fire with the proper talents is great for keeping the priest out of the 5 second rule. Great hot spells big heal spells and aoe heals both channeled and instant casts along with shadow fiend, bubble, inner fire, fade, prayer of mending, etc etc. The most versatile heals in the game hands down. Shaman are great healers for raids. With guardian spirit on the tank and a mere 1000 spell power, my priest can crit the tank for 13k. People that say priests aren't the best healers are either jealous or have had a priest healer that didn't know how to play the priest to it's full potential period.
Arwydd Dec 12th 2008 12:08PM
Priests, with hands tied behind their backs, rolled in duct tape WITH a target on their back.
Anyone who says otherwise does not know how to use them and should switch to another class. Please! Stop giving us a bad name!
I out heal EVERY other Druid, Pally and Shaman in my guild, regardless of their talents or what they're wearing. It doesn't matter if it's PvP or PvE. Yeah, I die fast in PvP... but not before I get a ton of healing off on that warrior.
Lvling has never been a problem, cause my guild backs me up and gives me a hand.
I will agree, though, that I am NOTHING without a kickass party to back me up. The Protection Pally that I usually party with is my hero.
BT Apr 14th 2009 7:19PM
If I am only interested in healing instances and raids, and not doing PvP, would I be better off with a Pally or Priest? I am happy to heal and do not need to join the fray with my mace flying.
dsemiraro Jul 18th 2009 10:20PM
As previously mentioned by others whom had commented it is all circumstantial.
Priests generally are the most well rounded healer. Well rounded referring to their ability to heal efficiently, given it be a raid or instance. Pvp, although not optimal because of their armor; if respeced discipline they can make quite good pvp healers.
Druids, also well rounded healers lack some of the efficiency of the priest. Hots, although instant; tick over time and often end up overhealing a target after that target has been topped off. Swiftmend consumes a hot, however is mana inefficient. And because swiftmend and hots both work on a gcd, in the time it takes you to cast them both a lesser more efficient heal could have been cast. Because of these pro's and cons druids work best in Pvp and dungeons rather then larger raids.
Shamans are not quite as diverse as other healers, because of their ability to heal multiple targets they primarily strive in larger raid situations. In a smaller party they lack the characteristics of other healers because of inability to get the most of their ability to heal multiple targets.
Paladins play a similar role to that of a priest. Although they don't have hots which make them ultimately lacking in a pvp situation, they make that up with their ridiculous amounts of armor. Paladins strive most mt healing because their ability to cast quick heals on a direct target.
Tyndale Nov 5th 2009 12:14AM
Though this post is probably long dead, I feel not much has been said about the Mitigation angle of the Priest. I would argue that it is the most misunderstood "healing" spec. of all, and yet, fulfills a vital role.
Disc Priests are by far the best Single Target/Small Party healers on the market. I don't care how you slice it, mitigation is way more efficient than healing. For this reason, Disc priests are often ushered out of the limelight - especially in the face of Holy Priests or (in raids), Shammies.
But if one were to stop and think of what the actual goal of healing is, the idea of mitigation becomes much more tenable. Healing is about keeping things alive. The beauty of the various classes is that they all go about this in various ways. Thus, as has been posted here many times already, each class fulfills specific roles.
But the Disc priest has been largely left out. Perhaps it is because it is not truly considered "healing". I contend that a Disc priest is, hands down, the best MT healer and small group healer around, mainly because he has the ability to quickly deal with situations - faster than even a pally. Moreover, Disc priests tend to be on par with Pally's for mana efficiency, because they are not spamming heals.
Who then, is the Disc priest for? (This sort of question, IMO, is the most important question when considering rolling a healer) What kind of healing do you want to engage in is the big question. Do you like big numbers flashing all over the screen, or the responsibility of many characters at once? Questions like these should be the basis of class choices.
The Disc priest is for the person who likes clutch situations. You will rarely (if ever), top a healing chart, but you don't need to. The Disc priest runs on two principles: PW:Shield and Penance. Throw in renew here and there and flash heals in a tight space and call it a day. Why waste mana healing when you can have a bloody shield in the way? That is the Disc priest mentality. Disc priests will often have the fastest response times to critical situations, not because they throw down a heal (necessarily), but a shield.
Holy Priests get a lot of praise for topping charts and Group Heals, which they deserve. But, remember the priest who saves everyone with a well timed shield/flash-heal and penance. Think of the Shield (aside from all of the awesome procs. like aegis) as an instant heal that keeps on giving.
Because, if we were honest, "healer efficiency" is a problem for all healers. Druids overheal with HOTs. Shamans in small raids are not so useful with chain-heal. Pallys can't decide whether to spam flash heal or go greater, or stun the target... Holy's, same boat (shield to weak IMO). But the Disc has it easy. Throw down a shield, and take a breath, decide whether to flash or throw a greater, or penance, or whatever!
Moreover, Disc Priests have notoriously large mana pools - which means you can finally tap into the INT stat bonuses on cloth gear without sweating major balance shifts, etc... Why? Disc Priests, in addition to some nice talent bonuses to stats, don't carry the burden of spamming heal spells. A Disc Priest doesn't rely on mana regen because he is often outside of the Mp5 rule. Rather, you can afford to gather a huge mana pool and +crit gear to help you outlast pallys and respond to tight situations. Those who say regen is everything, paradoxically, are those who often find themselves at the bottom of their mana pools, quaffing pots. The Disc Priest does not have this problem. So grab +INT and don't sweat it! Rejoice! Large mana pool = win.
What is the downside? AOE heals are not up to snuff, so you will not be asked to be a raid healer. PVP - better than Holy as far as survivabiliy goes, and your utility will be helpful, but still, not comparable with a Shammy. And if you have ever tried to level a Disc priest (a trial that will ultimately make you a better healer...), you know how terribly frustrating it can be.
Rewards? Peace of mind. As a Disc Priest, more often than not, you can be proactive rather than reactive. PW:Shield is simply the best "healing" spell in the game. Besides all of the potential procs and glyph bonuses, it is the heal that absorbs EXACTLY the amount of damage incoming. Moreover, it is an instant (cast while moving - take that Druids/Shammies! ;) ) You want efficiency? There it is. Add Pain Suppression into the mix and you are laughing. All incoming damage is accounted for in the most efficient way possible.
Honestly, roll a Disc Priest (shadow level if you have to), and see how often you get asked to MT heal (a job that, quite honestly, lets you enjoy an instance run, talk with your friends, and still help pesky rogues and mages out. Or better yet, drop 1k g and dual spec as a Disc Priest. Loads of fun!
Soul Jan 10th 2010 12:10PM
I perfer pallys cuz we can heal two ppl at the same time =D. Plus i never go oom and i out heal any holy priests. plus when the tank does something stupid like aggros tons of mobs and we all die i usually make it out of the instance and i could rez the ppl that die instead of walking their(priests would of died cuz of their lack of defence).I personally thing pally are the best cuz they can heal two ppl at once and the most chance of surviving. If ppl get damage by aoe u can heal two ppl at once so that will help.(pallys r rlly fun to play =DDD)
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David Feb 11th 2011 12:38AM
Hands down druids are the new jesus when it comes to healing. I am an exclusive healer, already have a priest and a paladin at 85. I just today got my resto druid up to 80 and started cata instances. There is NO question in my mind about whether druids are superior or not. As all healers have noticed mp conservation is the new name of the game. Finding ways to make that mp go farther is what denotes a good healer. The cost of some heal spells are a little beyond ridiculous, not so with druids. The healing cost of druid spells did NOT scale to cata, only the major CoD spells even break 1k mp, whereas with a priest a flash heal is 6k, and a pali it's 7k. So the combination of practically free spells and replenishment there is no competition, you can spam heal, overheal, look away and smash button.... I'm INCREDIBLY bored healing with a druid, but it will give that extra edge in raiding. Sadly my priest, my fave toon, and main since BC, is now getting bumped :( Perhaps this wont always be the case, but for now blizz has every healing class (but druids) bent over the counter and are givin it to em good. Druids have yet to become the healing b***s of blizzards cata changes.