I’m looking at trying the healer role in Shadowlands but wondering which healer fits my playstyle better? I’ve always been a fan of melee classes whenever I can DPS. The two classes I can’t decide from is either my Paladin or my Shaman. I like both off specs for each class so it’s just a matter of which one for me. I don’t really have time to commit to multiple classes so would like to pick the one that suits me more.
I heard Paladin’s are OP right now due to the glimmer build… Will this still be a thing in Shadowlands? I don’t really see myself being able to keep up with a dps rotation while dodging boss mechanics and keeping people healed on top of that.
Shaman’s on the other hand having to keep up with totem management seems like it can be a hassle. Is it anymore difficult in a raid setting?
Out of the two as of right now… Which do you think would be the better choice?
Thanks!
Hmm hard to tell what’s going to feel more fun to you…
Glimmer is staying as a talent but it’s weaker in SL, which makes sense, I think it’s still likely to be the go-to for Raids but it’s not going to make for half of your healing as it does in BFA (I mean a talent that makes for half of your healing would be pretty broken). A significant portion of the healing is re-allocated to the Holy Power spenders now instead of all coming from Holy Shock (Glimmer triggers from Holy Shock too).
As for Shaman vs Paladin, they play very different… The Pally is more of an “in your face” weaving damage and healing spells, it does feel very much as a melee combat healer and it has a pseudo rotation which feels quite “busy” you are mostly using instant cast and are almost GCD locked, very rarely you actually stand still and cast a long spell. It can indeed feel a bit overwhelming at first when you are trying to handle Healing, DPSing, managing cooldowns (Pallys are pretty cooldown reliant), and doing mechanics, but with some practice it gets a lot more natural.
Shaman is more of a sitting back and cast style you weave some direct healing, riptide (HOT), with some totems and utility spells (purging enemies, interrupting, cap totem). The “totem management” part doesn’t really require much management, you can use any totem whenever you want so they work more like regular cooldowns (in the past you could only have one totem per type active), Tidal weaves does require some management (nothing too crazy though). You can weave in DPS which is particularly engaging in 3 target cleave situations (keeping Flame Shock on all, filling with Chain Lightning and instant Lava Surge procs, while also trying to keep up with the healing) but can’t really hit more enemies than that.
Also, the DPS side for Shaman is more of an optional thing not really required as it is for the Pally. This has positives and negatives: on one hand you are not “forced” to DPS but on the other hand you don’t do passive DPS while healing like Paladins do.
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Holy pallies have been a solid A+ pick and borderline overpowered for raids just about forever. For M+ in SL they will likely remain strong too.
The real question is do you like playing a melee healer playstyle, with the “YOU ARE NOT IN RANGE” and dodging AoE issues.
Right now it’s shaman. Holy paladins are looking extremely weak, particularly in 5 mans.
They’ve basically been propped up by borrowed power systems and now that’s been stripped back we’re getting a good look at what’s left over, and it’s not good. The new talented glimmer in Shadowlands is a pale shadow of what Holy has in BFA. You simply can’t generate enough Holy shocks to make it viable, and the alternative hard cast playstyle sorely lacks throughput compared to it’s peers.
Having said that, I can’t imagine that Holy goes into retail in it’s current state on beta. It has to have buffs coming.
LOL, you haven’t played paladins very long, have you?
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Personally, I find the current restoration shaman to be much more fun than the holy paladin. It’s mostly because shaman can shine from anywhere without a mastery forcing you into melee healing. My restoration shaman also has a solid offensive spellcasting repertoire (lightning bolt, chain lightning, lava burst, and flame shock that makes her feel more like a hybrid). Plus, the water animations for healing spells look great.
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In terms of how “good” it’s going to be:
I think Paladin is basically guaranteed to be really good in M+, the kit has everything it needs and the healing “model” that focuses on spot healing with some cleave options trough beacon is perfectly suited for that scenario, Shamans on the other had seem to be more focused around AOE healing and keep getting more of those so while I don’t think they will be terrible I don’t expect them to be much better in M+ than how they are right now.
For Raiding I think Shaman is guaranteed to be good, specially for Mythic. Paladin I believe it will be very good too but it might have a slow start but I mean at worst it’s uldir-levels which wasn’t terribly bad either** was like No.4 healer for Mythic I don’t see how being 4th best is a bad floor to have, some healing specs spend entire expansions wishing they could be No4.
This is mostly based on the kit available for each spec and my understanding on how the game works and how specs are balanced, I don’t know if the numbers at this point are reflecting it or not but I don’t think current numbers matter that much.
** Well I mean Holy Paladin in Uldir was very boring to play imo but I mean it wasn’t that “bad” in terms of viability (for Mythic at least).
Holy is usually always week at the beginning of and xpac. They scale with gear a lot more than other healers