I can’t wait for classic to finally be here! I’m thinking about maining a healer, but I wasn’t really into the hardcore scene when I played vanilla. I had a priest pocket healer and didn’t quite care about which healer class was the best. Does anyone remember what made each healer class good or bad? Shaman, Druid, Paladin, or Priest. Which was good at raiding? Pvp? Dungeons? Any info would be appreciated!
I played a shaman in Vanilla, gonna play one in Classic. I like healing on them. It’s a matter of finding what you like and go with that.
I am going to make these extremely short and someone could probably clarify a little better if they wanted to.
Paladin-
PVE: You’re the best tank healer period
PVP: King of pvp healer IMO, hardest to kill
Priest-
PVE: Best raid healer, aoe heals and every form of healing possible
PVP: Great pvp healer, you drop like a sack of crap when focused.
Shaman-
PVE: Second best raid healer, your totems are great for buffs.
PVP: Decent pvp healer, very offensive abilities, you also drop fairly quickly when focused
Druid-
PVE: Decent heals not great, you want to stick to down ranking your healing touch as your hots aren’t great. Your buffs and brez is clutch
PVP: The slipperiest healer there is, amazing flag carriers. If you are outside, and you don’t want to die, you won’t.
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Paladin is tanky and has great single target heals, lots of utility.
Priest can shield and heals as good as paladin sometimes better.
Shaman has the only real mass heals with chain heal. Great totems but utility is less than a paladin.
Druid is more mobile has the most efficient heal in the game, but lags behind in throughput
paladin:
impossible to kill and great heals, gameplay is decent at best
priest:
somewhat easy to kill and really strong raid heals, absolutely boring
shaman:
ehhhgggguuhhhhhhgggggggg
druid:
good buffs, mediocre heals, somewhat fun gameplay
Druids make good MT healers if they downrank HT. Their hots make them great raid healers if, and only if, the other healers let the hots do their job. Swiftmend and nature’s swiftness make them the best clutch healers, and their mana pools are virtually limitless.
All that being said, they didn’t really come into their own as healers until TBC imo. Lifebloom was a real game changer.
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Paladin
-PvE: They are the most efficient heals in the game. Also come with buffs. In my opinion, Paladins are arguably the best PvE healer, right up there with priests.
-PvP: Ties for best PVP healer in the game. Has high surivivability, is able to get full heals off pretty easily
Priest
-PvE: Priests are a very good PvE healer in this game, they are definitely the most versatile healer. While Paladins are more efficient, priests are more versatile. Priest buffs are easier to come by than Paladin ones though. Besides fear ward, they don’t have a stand out utility ability like bubble, Reincarnate, Rebirth, Innervate, etc. And that’s the reason why I personally put Paladins over priests in PvE healing.
-PvP: Healing Priests are the worst PvP healer. They are extremely squishy and don’t provide much utility. The only luck you have is if no one is paying attention to you, you are good… but that is a rare occurrence. You will become the prey and slave to PvP shaman… all you can do against them is beg for mercy as they purge and interrupt everything you do.
Shaman
-PvE: Shaman are the best AoE healer in the game. They also are the best buff/utility class for Horde.
-PvP: Healing shaman are not that great, because most of your heals will be interrupted. You aren’t as tanky as a paladin, nor are your heals as strong… and you are not as tanky or as escape artist as a druid. So your totems are the only thing you bring to the table, the moment you are focused on gg.
Druid
-PvE: Have similar efficiency as priests, but have WAY less versatility in your heals, so much so dungeons can be a challenge sometimes; you need to be good at anticipating damage. Druids bring some of the strongest utility abilities in the game… making them invaluable. Rebirth and Innervate are game changers. So they may technically be under priests and paladins, they aren’t really… I’ll never turn down a druid because their utility abilities are so useful.
-PvP: They are tied with paladins as the best pvp healer. Druids have the best mobility in the game and bearform is very tanky and useful. The only challenge is to be able to pull off your biggest heals, instead of HoTs. You couple as a tank(Decoy) and healer at the same time in PvP so it is sort of different.
I could be wrong, but PvP healers in classic boil down to the following:
Throughput; Efficiency; Mobility; Defensives. Pick two.
Priests: Throughput, Efficiency.
Paladins: Efficiency, Defensives.
Shaman: Throughput, Mobility.
Druids: Mobility, Defensives.
People here are saying priest doesn’t do well in pvp as much. I think they do greaf if played right. Mana drain is amazing. So is mind control. Any horde preist can out of mana a paladin healer so freaking fast.
As a resto druid, not having an out of combat rez for 5 mans was a pain. It’s definitely worth bringing a hybrid DPS like a ret or spriest.
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Kargas and other youtubers have made several videos, including leveling guides for every class.
I’d suggest you start with his.
The amount of information you are asking for is rather voluminous.
Druids will have almost no competition for loot and are not responsible for rezzing after a protected wipe!
True, but they and rogues with engineering are responsible for stealthing back after a wipe with trash up. Doesn’t happen too often if you plan well buuuut… it does happen. I can remember doing it in MC on my rogue… didn’t even have engineering I just liked stealthing back to that giant with the two dogs.
I mained priest in vanilla, and most of what I did was pvp. They are the worst healing class in pvp, by quite a bit of a margin… in my opinion.
Mana burn is great and a lot of fun… but it isn’t healing, and more useful for 1v1 situations.
-You are a lot squishier than other healers, and you will be instantly swarmed in pvp every single time.
-You are hard countered by shamans(though not something you have to worry about as horde)
Doesn’t mean you can’t make it work… I am just saying, all the other healing classes do a better job at actually being an effective healer, by actually living longer than 5 seconds.
Though i’d put shaman right there with you, but my gut says shaman healers are a tad bit better. I can see the argument either way though. Shaman have tools for running away, unlike a one trick pony like scream. They also got a shield.
Druid and Paladins are worlds better than both in pvp healing.
The biggest thing I would say to keep in mind. When you are max level you wont be able to kill ****!!!111. Trying to kill any thing is like watching paint dry. So do your self a favor and level up a trade skill that pays well, or another character you can farm on.
If you plan on raiding, I’d go druid. We had so few in my vanilla guild that if we brought one in they would be almost fully geared by the end of the run.
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Except a paladin in pre-bis gear out heals a druid in bis gear.
I didnt see this mentioned, but do you plan to play horde or alaince? Paladins and shaman are faction specific.
Druids had Innervate, which they typically cast on the priests in raids to help their mana Regen. That was valuable.