I’ve played Resto Sham, Resto Druid, and HPal this expansion. I played MW all last xpac so I know them pretty well, played one to 2400 but didn’t get Glad. I’ve played against multiple Disc Priest so I have experience with them.
RSham, MW, and Rdruid need buffs. Rsham slightly but MW and Rdruid need huge buffs. HPal is uncontested the best, it only loses to Disc because it has a lot of utility to counter Hpal which is good because Paladin in general has too much utility for this meta. Sac, MoP, and insta cast top abilities.
I started playing Pally just because it’s better than anything else and it’s by far the easiest healer. The thing is tuning the numbers won’t really matter. The healer meta is so messed up right now because unless they super overtune MW and Rdruid, they won’t be able to compete this expansion with Paladin utility.
Paladin has 4 “oh sh**” buttons that require nothing but clicking on someone. MW has only Cocoon, which is pretty much useless. Druid has NS and Swiftmend.
Make Paladin take some skill. It’s anti fun to play against. What can you do against sac if your dps can’t swap Pally? What can you do against bubble without a Warrior or Priest? There’s no counter play… If you’re playing melee cleave against BoP without dispel, what can you do? What other class can create so many cases of invulnerability?
Buff other healers so they can compete against Paladin. I don’t remember a single season of a healer being so much better than any other. Every rank one healer I’ve seen has rerolled Holy Pal.
I’m sick of playing Paladin because it’s boring. Let me feel viable on one that requires brain power or make them feel not so mechanical.
Your order is flaud. They’re fundamentally different, true. The viability of said classes is dependent on numbers and utility. The fact of the matter right now is Paladin can heal too much across all specs while also having utility every other class lacks. No other class can top their team like Paladin without major CDs and without going oom. If they do ever actually need to cast, one Holy Light tops them. On top of their Heals being greatly overtuned compared to every other healer… They still have multiple abilities to make sure they their teammates don’t die.
Only Pally mains can defend the BS that is Paladin right now. All specs are over tuned.
In terms of raw healing, disc isn’t that great tbh. The reason they’re doing so well is because of how much damage they can burst out to assist their dps. No healers should be doing as much damage as they currently do, and disc priest damage is out of control.
Paladin strength might just be a numbers tuning issue. The spec essentially has too much power locked into instants and Divine Favor fast casts. They don’t cast, they don’t have mana issues until far after all other healers, and they have a lot of “STOP NO MORE FOR AT LEAST 10 SECONDS” buttons. Oh, and they have what feels like infinite wings uptime with a legendary. It is extremely unfun to fight them right now. Feels like the only way to beat them is for them to be wildly bad.
This is a really really really bad oversimplification of healing CDs. Rdruid 0-100 is locked behind like 6 gcds, a 1 minute cd right now, and a crit. Problem is its so much power in a 1min cd it frequently overheals for 10-15k. Rdruid feels right now that it only has 1 tool and that’s it. Shaman’s 0-100% is locked behind at least 3 gcds and a crit.
Anyways this entire thread shouldn’t be about utility fairness. It’s the raw numbers of it. Hpal is miles better than everyone else in arena. If we don’t get any tuning I expect AWC teams to be playing an HPal by every team that has a competent multiclassing healer.