Debating between Prevoker, Holy Priest, and R Druid for casual raiding and M+
The criteria I’m looking for in “easy”
Raid and M+ builds similar so it’s not like learning 2 different specs (my brain cells are slowly depleting to mush and can’t retain knowledge/muscle memory like they used to)
Easily able to add some OK dmg to the group (would rather do easy average dmg than hard optimal dmg that I’ll likely just screw up)
Not too many keybindings (old man fingers)
Straight forward/easy to use utility (I’d prefer just straight throughput versus having to hit x y and z modifiers and use a b and c cooldowns at the right time to get to optimal healing)
I recently leveled my first healer and everyone told me that Holy Priest is a good healer to learn first, due to it being straight forward and reactionary.
I think the builds are different for M+ and raid, but I believe all of them are going to differ a bit.
There are a decent amount of keybinds, but the normal rotation are only like 4-5 with some big CD buttons and quick reactions when DPS stand in something they shouldn’t.
All this to say, I’ve been playing Holy Priest for a couple weeks as my first healer and it’s pretty straight forward… However, the other two options you listed are currently better in thruput. So take it all with a grain of salt.
Avoid discipline. Tons of buttons, damage priorities easy to mess up and look like an idiot.
I’m pretty sure you’re on the right track. Holy seems pretty chill. Maybe consider shaman? I haven’t looked at it recently, but it’s healing kit is around 4 buttons and some cds, damage primarily through rain so no need to really optimize around your other damage spells on the casual end.
idk if any of those 3 fit. rdruid is fairly different but at the end of the day its all hots. not sure about the other 2.
prevoker and rsham
rdruid has a lot of keybinds and multiple forms
hpriest is a bit button bloated but not too many core buttons
prevoker isn’t too bloated
for healing, straight thoroughput would be hpriest. rdruid and evoker have tricks.
as for util, hpriest doesnt have much but prevoker and rdruid have decent options that arent too difficult to use.
I think many people will give the legacy answer to this question and say Holy Priest, but I’m going to disagree.
I think it you want a really bread-n-butter healer that has a very simple rotation, but lots of ceiling to get very skillful, I’d pick Resto Shaman.
Some pros:
very simple toolkit for doing well in keys. Riptide and Healing Surge will get you very far.
passive damage (this is what makes it stand out). Healing Rain is going to pump, even if you never press another DPS button, you’ll do fine with damage.
Good mobility with Spirit Walkers Grace and wolf
Cons:
can talent into a ridiculous amount of keybinds
totemic recall can be hard to do, I’d just not even talent into it
no tank cooldown
I agree with the guy that said RDruid is very easy to heal people once you get used to it. However I’d say it’s by far the hardest healer to do damage with.
I’m not sure any healers quite fit into all of the criteria you’re look for, really. I’d also strongly consider looking at Shaman, as it might be a decent fit as well.
I think with the new trees pretty much every healer has differences between raid and M+ builds, but I don’t pay that much attention to the raid builds myself. I think Prevoker was the most similar between the two, but with the big ol’ nerf Temporal Anomaly took, it looks like they might be diverging again, but I’m not really sure.
Shaman and Evoker here definitely. Druid can get complicated, but for an easy mode version, you can honestly just keep Sunfire up on a group of mobs and be contributing.
Factoring in utility and damage, all healers have a pretty expansive key bind repertoire. Prevoker is probably the least bloated here. Holy Priest has a lot, but if you opt for “easy damage” and not every active ability, you can get by without everything available.
Definitely Holy Priest or Shaman here. Druid isn’t too hard to heal with, but layering HoTs does take a bit of keeping track of and you do have to make an effort to set up your throughput. Evoker has a lot of tricks involved with Echo usage, and managing this is really key to surviving while waiting for your big Empowered spells to come off of CD.
Holy Priest has long been a fairly good “easy healer;” they have a very intuitive healing kit. Resto Shaman is, I think, just as good of an option, if not better. The kit isn’t really any less intuitive, and the CDs are pretty easy to work with, but you have a lot of room to grow and express skill with it. Shaman can also add a good amount of damage very easily.
Any healer is going to require proper ramping and cd timings to have top of the line throughput, but this is no required for most forms of content.
Honestly, resto druid or pres evoker is probably going to be the best pick here.
Holy priest has CDs that need to be used that apply modifications to your spells or your throughput is very bad.
Disc priest is entirely cd/timing based and requires a proper dps rotation, one of the harder healers to play in most forms of content.
Mistweaver has quite a few buttons and multiple keys due to fistweaving
Hpal is similar to mistweaver due to melee cleaving and they also have a lot of CDs (bop, sac, bubble, lay, etc)
Shaman is pretty straight forward but has some extra buttons due to totems
As for the other 2
Resto druid can use the same build in raid/m+ (it’s not optimal but raid build in m+ is totally fine, actually heals for more you just do a bit less damage). You can dps by just pressing natures vigil (you can do a lot more than that but this button alone will add enough in most forms of content). While druid has a lot of spells most of these are tied to a form meaning you can share keybinds on 1 hot bar for cat/bear/etc.
Pres evoker is a simple class that is straight forward to understand and play. The empowered abilities, stasis, and echo add an additional layer to modifiers/cd management but it is pretty straight forward and they do great damage.
Raid and M+ builds similar so it’s not like learning 2 different specs (my brain cells are slowly depleting to mush and can’t retain knowledge/muscle memory like they used to)
against druid/pres evoker can run same builds in each - it’s not optimal but it will get the job done just fine for heroic raid and keys up to around the 20 range if you have decent ilvl
Easily able to add some OK dmg to the group (would rather do easy average dmg than hard optimal dmg that I’ll likely just screw up)
Natures vigil on druid is 1 button and does decent dps
Pres evoker fire breath and deep breath do massive damage on aoe
Not too many keybindings (old man fingers)
Both have a minimal amount of buttons that will be press often.
Straight forward/easy to use utility (I’d prefer just straight throughput versus having to hit x y and z modifiers and use a b and c cooldowns at the right time to get to optimal healing)
Resto druid is all hots and has great throughput with that alone. Convoke and flourish are really the only cds/modifiers and you can pretty much just press them whenever you want and they’ll still do something as they aren’t really modifers. That being said there is an optimal way to use both of them but doesn’t matter much in most forms of content.
Pres evoker has large burst healing as well as some hots - same deal here pretty much only modifiers/cds is statis and echo management.
I second this. My shaman is a blast because it just feels simple. A lot of the totem and other talents are optional if you don’t use them. The healign totems are extremely good and the damage both aoe and single target is amazing. I actually quest sometimes as a resto shaman and I have zero issues killing quest mobs. I cannot say the same thing about a holy priest.
If we are talking a raid setting, I can agree with this. If we are talking M+ type content, however, than no, disc tends to be easier than holy in these situations both because Radiance is an amazing AoE heal, but you are also pumping out constant AoE healing via atonement while doing significantly more damage than holy making the dungeon runs much quicker, resulting in much less healing actually being needed.
Holy is much easier in raids, however, where healer damage isn’t really relevant and it also doesn’t have to worry near as much as Disc does about ramp up and prep time for big AoE hits and can pretty much just react to any AoE that comes.