You're in a mythic plus +20 key, it all rides on this final boss fight for you to make your timer and get that sweet weekly vault loot! Suddenly the boss drops huge group-wide damage! Nobody interrupted, too busy tunneling the recount meter! Death is almost inevitable, when out of nowhere! A bright light fills the screen! Your healer has come in clutch and saved the day! (and your key) Victory is assured!
Here in this article, we explore the sometimes overlooked and underappreciated role of the group and why it is just so important, let’s face it. You can’t DPS if you’re dead! we rank the healer classes in wow Dragonflight currently and score them based on effectiveness, bear in mind, that all healers are useful and should be well respected in their own right. But some are hitting world firsts and some aren’t at the moment.
There are currently 7 healer specializations and here we are going to rank them based on effectiveness, popularity, and overall playability. Let me address this again, there are no bad healers by any means. This data is taken from current parses of the Amirdrassill Raid tier. We are using a ranking system of good to best.
7. Restoration Druid (Good)
Restoration Druids have been in Wow since the start and have always been a solid pick throughout
This one hurts my heart, as a resto druid main myself, it's a bit of a kick in the teeth to put these at the bottom of the pile, don’t get me wrong, still very viable and if played to a high level. You won’t have any issues at higher content, but the recent nerf to Nature’s vigil and the increased cooldown window of some spells such as Invoke the Spirits and Flourish, means the class is going to struggle a bit with burst healing compared to say discipline priest for example. The heal over time mechanics druids have enables them to heal on the move though which is very useful in a lot of situations, and they are excellent raid group top-up healers, Don’t count them out just yet, and don't reroll your druid, this is probably the closest fight we're going to see between group roles and it is marginal!
Restoration druid Top 5 Abilities
- Rejuvenation - a time-old classic and the bread and butter of the druid's healing arsenal! Heal over time and enhance with other abilities to make this a tick heal for your tanks to remember!
- Lifebloom - once again, another heal over time, perfectly synergized with rejuvenation to help give your target some surprising tick healing
- Wild growth - super powerful group heals! This is the one you want to cast as raid healing when your tranquility cooldown is on, it’s one of the strongest in the druids toolkit and backs it up!
- Adaptive swarm - can be increased to “unbridled swarm” through talents, super effective heal, and potential DPS spell also, it increases your heal over time effects on your target and to top it off, spreads to up to 3 targets on expiration, want free casts without having to press a button? Embrace the swarm!
- Tranquility - was it ever going to be anything else? The druid's “Oh Shit” button is super effective, enabling you to heal through strong raid-wide damage and groups that are too far away for other spells. One of the reasons why druids are favored in raids is because of this spell alone!
Resto druids are excellent healers working off combo-ing their heal over time effects to enable tremendous burst healing, as i said some nerfs have knocked this down the list but don't be surprised to see a druid resurgence with the current patch focussing on their homeworld.
Restoration druid healer score 85/100
6. Preservation Evoker (Good)
Don't be surprised to see these guys climbing the rankings when all the kinks are sorted out
Preservation Evokers were one of the best healers throughout 10.2, they have some of the strongest raid-wide cooldowns such as rewind and dream flight. Still very viable in their own right but one of the things they lack compared to other healers are raid-wide buffs, trying to include them alongside other healers such as paladins (devotion aura) and Mistweaver monks (mystic touch), can sometimes be awkward getting balance for the raid team.
Preservation Evoker's top 5 abilities
- Dream flight - super powerful group-wide ability, fly to a target and heal everything in your path for 400% of your spell power, yes 400%! With a tick-off mechanic too over the next 25 seconds, you can see why it's enormous in group PvE.
- Temporal anomaly - send a vortex to heal 3 players for 65% spell power every second for 8 seconds, it's like having a dream flight as a heal-over-time effect instead. A 6-second cooldown means you can keep this up as long as your mana.
- Spiritbloom - Heals an ally for 565% of your spell power and splits to allies depending upon how much you empower it, up to a maximum of 4 allies.
- Dream breath - heals allies in a cone in front of you, the plain jane of your healing arsenal but will more than likely be your most used ability.
- Rewind - Reverse 50% of the damage taken by all allies within 40 yards, preservation talent but if you want to raid. You need this!
- Whilst preservation evokers are not top of the food chain currently, they have the toolkit to be.. The lack of a raid-wide buff is a small letdown but their raid-wide omega heals make up for it in most cases, not specifically the strongest in either single target or multi, still a solid choice as all healers are.
Preservation Evoker Healing score 85/100
5. Holy Priest (Good)
The holy priest has been a staple amongst raid teams and groups since the beginning of talent trees, it is no doubt a strong healing class. Unfortunately due to recent nerfs to the spells symbol of hope(increasing the cooldowns on major cd spells from 30 seconds to 60 seconds). The increase of CDR from Holy word: salvation is also a big hit to the holy priest's arsenal, they do recoup some of their value through Holy fire passive damage but at this current moment, the discipline priest knocks this out of the meta with gusto.
Top 5 holy priest abilities
- Power word: fortitude - that beautiful white square with a diamond in the middle, a welcome sight to the raid team, boosts the health of all allies in the raid, very valuable
- Renew - the basic but effective healing spell of the holy priest, always useful. Basic healing over time spell, but I wouldn’t want to be without it!
- Prayer of healing - heal up to 5 targets simultaneously as well as reduce cooldowns of some big heavy-hitting healing spells
- Holy word: sanctify - huge AOE heal, this is the spell to expect during raid-wide damage! The short cooldown is reduced by using other spells (prayer of healing for example)
- Divine hymn - this is a raid-wide cooldown but its effect is that it adds bonus healing onto allies per tick, combo this with sanctify for example and you have a huge burst of healing able to get through most raid-wide damage.
As I've already said, all healers are viable in one way or another, this is the closest competition between roles. Unfortunately at the moment, the discipline priest is surpassing the holy priest on most levels and thus seems the more logical choice, but don't despair. Holy Priest is still the most popular healing class in the game used by players and that surely must mean something. Ease of use and playstyle make this class an effective healer for those starting out with the ability to hold their own.
Holy Priest healer score 85/100
4. Restoration shaman (Good)
Now in a lot of cases, resto shamans tend to be overlooked. Seen as more elemental but want a spot in the raid group type by most players, but behold! They are pretty damn good at what they do. Solid healing throughout but seen more as an efficient top-up healer rather than clutch, don’t get me wrong though. Playing around riptide and fully stacked…resto shamans can hit some surprising numbers and really pull the group up, the only downside is that like some other classes, they don't have a raid-wide buff. This makes fighting for places a little harder but not impossible.
Top 5 restoration shaman abilities
- Riptide - this will be your go-to for healing as a shaman, effective, small instant heal with a heal over time. The standard but a high one at that
- Ancestral protection totem - in a nutshell...a battle res without going against your in-game count, completely broken! Blizzard, please don't patch this.
- Chain heal - you're going to see and be using a lot of this, heal up to 3 allies with the target being healed for a larger portion, but still a strong group heal nonetheless. Imagine a druid’s wild growth but all at once rather than over time
- Earth shield - heals a target whenever they’re hit, up to 9 times. Excellent for your tanks as pre-emptive healing.
- Cloud-burst totem - when used correctly, this can hit omega levels of healing and soaks a portion of all your healing spells done so that when it expires, explodes for group-wide healing totaling what it absorbed, use this during heroism and you’ll heal through pretty much any raid-wide damage.
Not much else to say on these totem-wielding badasses’. Strong, and effective, just lacking the buff, unfortunately. But don't let it deter you from giving these guys a go!
Restoration shaman healer score 90/100
3. Mistweaver monk (Great)
When monks first arrived from Pandaria, we weren’t sure where they were going to fall in the pecking order. Brewmasters were so-so and more situational rather than out-and-out tanks, windwalkers were great dps until they got hit and crumpled like a paper ball. Now Mistweavers were interesting, capable of huge healing and some pretty hefty defensive cooldowns, they were definitely worth a look and with some knowledge and practice, began topping the charts for a long time. In Dragonflight they are still very much the same, just missing out on the top spot but still landing a podium finish due to their incredible skill set albeit a high skill ceiling.
Top 5 Mistweaver monk abilities
- Soothing mist - the bread and butter healing strikes again! Can’t heal without having this in the mix. Low mana cost, admittedly low healing but can be boosted with talents and combo spells
- Enveloping mist - a spell with a long cast time, that increases the amount of healing the target receives from all sources whilst healing over time, a nice combo heal for sure.
- Renewing mist - a heal over time spell, if it is to overheal it will spread to an injured teammate within 20 yards and begin healing them, a great healing top up spell
- Invoke yu’lon the jade serpent - Big raid-wide spell, heals in a path directed by the healer, increases healing from all sources. The ultimate healing boost for your Mistweaver, don't rely on it solely for healing but use it to increase everything ten-fold.
Mistweaver monk healer score 90/100
2. Holy Paladin (Great)
Paladins, being a long favored class in wow have always been patched and nerfed constantly, but one thing has been a guarantee throughout the life of the paladin class - They are the best tank healers in the game! This class relies on huge shielding combined with ridiculously strong single-target spot healing. Let’s also take into account that they themselves are incredibly durable, and can survive and keep healing in situations where most healers would be running back from the graveyard and we can’t forget the omega raid-wide buff these plate-wearing warriors of light bring to the table!
Holy Paladin top 5 abilities
- Flash of light - very strong single target heal, very quick cast. Watch your mana though!
- Word of glory - spend holy power to deliver massive healing to the target, and I mean MASSIVE
- Beacon of light - heal the target for 25% of what you heal on others, excellent for dual tank healing.
- Aura’s - concentration, devotion, retribution - The team will have them all if they could, but just simply having one is enough to get you into the raid team just for the amazing bonuses they bring!
- Lay on hands - The holy paladin's “oh shit” button! Full health heal, instant cast. It's basically a nuclear heal, if something doesn't insta-kill you, this will definitely save you from everything else.
Holy paladins are in a great place at the moment, favored in all groups and all sizes, super strong single target healing, and just simply the preferred tank healers. Whilst holding their own in-group healing somewhat, these truly shine in the huge tank damage scenario!
Discipline Priest (Best)
Discipline priests are just amazing in this current expansion
The current reigning champs of the healer division! What sets this class apart from the others is whilst topping the healing meters from huge shielding and an excellent arsenal of both heal over time spells as well as spot heals…they may also be putting your DPS to shame on the recount meters. They have the highest passive DPS of all healers whilst also providing some huge numbers to keep your teams alive. Shielding and damage reduction are on par with paladins and the heals alone are enough for you to want one in the team. Combo-ing all that with talents like twins of the sun priestess, your performance is enhanced as well as your targets, 20% haste all round!? What's not to love about it? Top 5 discipline priest abilities
- Evangelism - 20% haste boost which when combined with talents also helps you, more haste means more healing. It’s a win-win for everybody!
- Pain suppression - a 40% damage reduction boost for 8 seconds and you can use it whilst stunned? Sold...to every tank in wow!
- Holy Nova - want to DPS and heal at the same time? This is your AOE go-to!
- Leap of faith - pull an ally quite literally away from death, save that over-enthusiastic rogue or demon hunter from killing your team or depleting your mythic plus key.
- Power word: shield - places a big shield on the target, great for instigating the fight or keeping your tank topped up as you heal them whilst the shield soaks the damage.
Discipline priest healer score 100/100
In conclusion, there are no “bad” healers on this list, all are strong in their own right and if wielded by the right player. They can be formidable in every aspect, some lack the raid-wide buffs, and some in this patch are just broken, but don’t be surprised to see an eclectic selection of healers in your raid team as variety is the spice of life!
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