I main a Resto Druid and do Heroic Raiding in BFA. Have leveled my Classic Priest to 30.
The healing in Classic WoW feels a lot better / more interesting so far. I like that I have to manage my Mana and have the time and ability to make decisions throughout a dungeon.
In retail I feel like I am playing extreme Wack a Mole. In classic I feel like I am making tactical decisions constantly.
Do I have the mana to heal the life tap Warlock?
Do I need to heal the mage that just took agro from the Mob with 25% health left?
Do I have the mana to use an damage spell or should I save it?
Will I have a chance to drink before the next pull?
Much more fun! This is one area I would like to see Classic influence Retail.
Cheers
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I also enjoy the challenge and the decisions that must be made with each new situation.
Some people complain WoW classic is repetitive and boring, but to me, it’s a new challenge each time, for those reasons.
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First time healing in WoW.
Classic taught me the 5 Second Rule. It also taught me healing spells generate lots of aggro.
I love the challenge.
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Yep - vanilla (classic) healing, how I’ve missed you. You’ve summed it all up really well, OP - those are all decisions that need to be made by you, on the fly, all the time. Ain’t it great? 
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The answer is always no. And this isn’t a feature brought in from new players this has always been a thing. What you do is wand mobs when they are low praying for a spirit tap proc
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You missed that they’re playing a resto druid. No wands, or spirit tap.
I still have trouble with WANTING to help to DPS but knowing, usually, I really can’t afford the mana.
This is why I love my WAND
Oh and I always use multiple ranks of spells.
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I always loved disc priest but didn’t like what it became in MoP till now in retail, with the dps to heal mechanics. Definitely been thinking about going back to it since I was a main healer wotlk -> mop and certainly miss it! would be a great alt
Eh, I’ve healed in every version of the game and I find there was a lot more interesting tactical decisions involved in healing post-vanilla.
Vanilla gets immensely stale in the healing department. Many specs just end up spamming one rank of one spell most of the time.
Priests have a lot more interesting abilities and kit compared to the other classes, so they have a bit more going on than everyone else, but as a druid you’ll end up casting healing touch rank 4 most of the time and probably not feel it’s especially tactical.
TBC+ resto druid healing was a lot more interesting to me. Every single expansion of resto was far more interesting than vanilla (druids in general honestly). Paladins were kind of boring in general for awhile, though they had some more buttons to occasionally press post-vanilla.
Even with priests who had the most interesting kit of healers in vanilla, I’d still say I enjoyed their post-vanilla kit more. PoM is a lot of fun and you don’t get it until TBC (and then they ruined it in WoD by giving it a cast time).
In low level dungeons my classic priest just uses renew and wands 75% of the time.
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Not a druid but I love healing!
Missed the strategy you mentioned as well as the downranking. Wand is awesome when mana is low and allows you to contribute. I also find it cool that sometimes you need those off-heals from another priest/pally/druid/bandage, fostering that sense of group and community.
Druid healing is fun, mark of the wild and thorns help A LOT to tanks in low levels, also faerie fire helps with armored Bosses and, yes healing touch is slow and boring but I find it very relaxing. Also the lack of a ress after a wipe makes it a real challenge to keep everyone alive.
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Just check the maths because on pally lower rank heals are less efficient than higher ones.
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I find it very stressful, retail has trained me to keep everyone at 100% all the time. Damage is very spikey, but you have so many tools to get everyone up, healing feels very fast pace. Obviously classic does not give us that, even spamming heals for a few seconds will get you oom.
Healing in Classic - 5 to 10 Sec rule
Down rank in heals as well.
Try not to Bubble Warriors right away (Rage starve them).
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They did for quite some time.
In Wrath I’d pop righteous fury and heal tank whelps on Sarth 3D.
And while I’m sure that in the higher levels of retail, those strategies do come into play, I suspect they come into play before the fight even begins. You have to spend an hour mapping out the fight, like homework.
Oh, I have em lined up on my toolbar left to right in order of mana cost VS efficiency VS speed.
Gotta pay attention to if you spec into an improved version of something.
ie. Imp Renew costs the same but heals for more, so I can use a downrank renew at a lower cost and almost get the efficiency of the next “normal” rank for less mana.
Healing in Classic is so fun, that I see myself being a Priest for a very, very long time.
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I mained a warlock to 60 on northdale, and while in dungeons I let the healers know to not waste mana on me if I was lifetapping, I always had healthstones to use for it.
Unless of course they had nothing else to heal.
