Viable healers for Raids - Priest or Druid?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Hey friends,

I have recently been having a little dilemma. I have decided that I want to heal in classic wow. I really really like the idea of playing a druid but all my friends are telling me it’s not a viable class and I should go priest instead. I am not completely opposed to the idea but I would like to play a druid. Will I be able to find raid guilds that want a druid? Will it be overpopulated?

Also, when Classic comes out I might be busy at times and might not be able to attend every raid. I will be able to do the vast majority but might miss one or two. Will this be a problem?

Thank you all in advance for your help!

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Get new friends.

I raided as a Druid Healer for the majority of my Vanilla experience. In no way are they “not viable”.

Definitely not, mainly because of the people your friends are listening to.

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Any healer is fine my dude

It’s also ok to have a life outside of wow :wink:

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Of course. All healers are viable. A raid will typically only take a few Druids, but slots are there.

Priests are vastly more versatile than Druids, but Druids do have innervate/brez for progression runs that makes them useful. Play what you like as a healer. They will all get slots.

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Druid is viable but you will need every single consumable just to keep up with a Priest that isn’t using any consumables. Also guilds will want you to innervate the Priests. Druids will be one of the least played classes on Alliance, and the least played class on Horde. It will be in demand. Only 2-3 slots per raid but still hard to find.
Edit that “slot count” is just a general guideline. Some guilds will have more or less.

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Here’s what I would say:

Priest are definitively better raw healers and will get you a raid spot easier, but druids are very unique in classic and are apparently pretty fun to level/play (and are also fine healers among other things). If you’re dedicated/hardcore enough you can get a raid spot as either druid/priest but obviously it’s gonna be a lot easier as a priest.

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What I would say… a GOOD Druid is worth way more than a mediocre Priest… and most priests will be mediocre. If you are dedicated and put in the effort, you will most definitely reap the rewards as a Druid healer.

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Resto druids play in a very similar way to holy priests.
Priests just have a bigger toolkit when it comes to healing. Druids will be brought to raids but usually not in large quantities because of HoTs not stacking and healing touch having a longer cast time than greater heal.

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As long as tanks occasionally die and other healers run out of mana, druids will always have a spot for battle rez and innervate. Druids fill a niche and will have spots. If you want to be the best healer in straight healing per second then go priest but if you want to play a druid then play a druid. I mained resto druid from MC through to the end of TBC and never had a problem.

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If anything: Druids are better because even though there is less need in Raids compared to the main healers as Druids were basically only brought into raids for their buffs. But if you get yourself in the core raiding team of a guild or just get yourself in the druid slot: you will be perfectly fine. They give really nice HoTs.

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Raided as a resto all through Vanilla. Was perfectly viable but not as strong as priest in output.

However, your motw and brez will get you a spot. Your healing is fine as well.

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There’s a reason druids were required to cast innervate on the priests and not allowed to use it on themselves during raids.

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The only thing with 5mans is the fact you might want to try to run with dps that have a true rez spell. Druids have a brez which is cool but no straight resurrection can be annoying at times.

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Healers are always wanted and all classes are wanted. You can’t go wrong with a healer choice.

You’ll have more fun playing the class you enjoy, play that.

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Wow thank you all for the replies guys and gals! I think I might go a Druid since they seem to be a lot more viable than other people made them sound. I hope you all have a wonderful time in Classic and maybe see you around if you are on Oceanic! have fun everyone!

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I mained a Holy Priest in vanilla raids all the way up to AQ40, and I ALWAYS loved having a couple of druids in our raids. Their HOTs helped keep the raid alive so I could focus on MT/OT heals, and their innervates were invaluable in helping keep the priest’s mana up. Add the Battle Rez, and you have a very essential class for guilds that are raiding - especially if they’re just starting out the raids and don’t have a ton of geared up toons.

To be honest, back in Vanilla, I often played with the idea of rolling a druid just to have that additional healer slot in case one of my guild’s druids was out for the night, but we had enough pally/priest healers. I never ended up needing to thanks to BC+ other expacs, but it’s on my shortlist of classes to level as a main in Classic. :smiley:

Also, see you in the Oceanic Time zone! (American in Hong Kong)

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Druids as healers have two things going for them, or rather, one thing going for them twice.

They’re rare. The entire class is.

That means less competition for loot, and it means less competition for raid slots.

As for raid healing, they’re perfectly viable. They have the best clutch healing in the game, and seldom have mana issues.

The down side is that you’re going to spend your whole time alternating between casting rank 3 and rank 4 healing touch.

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All of the healers are fine in raids.

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Your friends are totally ignorant. Druid healer was not only viable, but almost a necessity. Druid’s innervate is crucial in raids.

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I think druid will be one of the most, if not the most, unplayed class in classic, and because healers love innervate, i hardly doubt you’ll have any kind of problem finding group as one.
And even after that, I ask you: will you be playing classic to have fun or to make other people to have fun? Because if it’s the first one, you should play what you would enjoy the most.

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