Hey, back again asking a bunch of questions of folks who know better than me. I’m looking into healing today, and I’m curious to know what you healers out there have to say.
I’ve got a few questions for you kind folks:
- What’s your favorite healer and why?
- What healer would you recommend for a beginner?
- How would you recommend getting into healing? I’m nervous!
The questions are really just talking points. I’m really just looking for input on what healers to play. Looking forward to hearing from you all!
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Shaman.
I love how AOE is so natural to the spec, and I enjoy how the heals linger. Not quite HoTs which is Resto Druid’s thing, but ground effects, such as Totems and Healing Rain. It allows me to take my focus off the raid frames and focus on the fight, and where I’m at in the room, etc. which is something I struggle to find time to do on other healers.
Shaman for the same reason.
Also, the DPS rotation feels fluid and natural. You don’t have to go out of your way to DPS.
LFR. You’re not the sole healer, so if you’re slacking generally people wont notice.
Epic BGs for a similar reason.
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Resto shaman.
Least clumsy to play, godlike utility, visually appealing, reasonably durable and doing damage in high stress situations is easy.
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Holy Priest.
It’s the most forgiving, and has the best Oh crap! mass heal in the game. I particularly like it in battlegrounds and fighting open world rares because its superior AoE healing works good in an unorganized group.
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um the one that keeps me alive…
Disco priest because Disco 
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Holy paladin for pvp, Resto druid for PvE.
Holy strong and resiliant with great burst heal.
Resto great sustain, no mana issue, and aoe is better than most.
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Apparently Mistweaver monks do most healing out of any healer in PvE (if you go by Icy Veins) so even though my most most played healer is a priest I shelved him for monk and so far don’t regret it.
Holy priest, I love the fantasy of the purely HPS back line. Then with lifegrip and PI it’s just cherries.
For newbies I would say either Holy priest or Resto Shaman.
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FF14 was inspired by the disc spec and created the sage which is actually fun and amazing. Now WoW should fix disc inspired by Sage and both games can have great dps / healer hybrids.
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I like the concept of Paladin the most, but Blizzard keeps implementing single talents/powers that drastically change the gameplay and are basically mandatory. ie: Eternal Flame in MoP was mandatory for raiding, and it resulted in you spamming 1-HP HoTs all over the raid like a crappy off-brand Druid. Now it’s Glimmer of Light, where you do the exact same thing but with Holy Shock acting as a manual HoT on however many people you can slap it on within a 30s duration.
The spec NEEDS its own built-in AoE Healing kit. It currently lacks one, so it gets slapped with these “optional” talents that aren’t really optional. It needs to be more direct healing, less HoT. Paladin is up front punching things while healing. Healing slowly over time feels like the opposite of what we should be doing.
But if you do mostly 5-man content, it’s not as big of a deal because of Beacon and solid single target abilities. My issues with the spec come into play in larger group sizes, mostly.
If not Paladin, due to its weird struggles with its AoE kit, I’d say Holy Priest. It’s a very straightforward reactive healer, but the interaction with spammable spells reducing the CD of Holy Words is interesting, I like the Kyrian covenant ability (especially with this season’s +10 affix), and the spec can talent into a 2nd major raid CD for large-group content, which is really nice.
I actively dislike Mistweaver Monk, FWIW. I haven’t put any real time into Resto Druid but I suspect I’d feel the same, given the amount of overlap in how the specs work. I’m just really not big on throwing HoTs all over and lacking spammable AoE healing.
I kind of want to try bubble disc because I never played it seriously, but in general I think that WoW’s take on a healer/dps hybrid is pretty much how they designed holy paladin, at least you build resources for heals from your dps and vice versa.
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My Druid is my favorite healer for many reasons.
Being a Healer that can Stealth is nice.
Being able to switch specs to Tank if I feel like Tanking is great.
Druid healing is the most mobile. You can run around alot. Heal and move.
Shapeshifting to break snares and slows is great.
Bres is good.
Stampede is good.
Other healers have their tools and tricks, but the Druid’s tool kit has stuff I enjoy. Druid healers can go on stealth missions with Rogues and do all sorts of fun stuff.
Pallies have Bubble, Shaman have Spirit Link and Ankh, but those are the only healing spells I miss on my Druid. Monks can pump out heals. But Stealth makes a Druid pretty neat.
My favorite healer is one that keeps me alive. but it also helps when i stay out of mechanics. I’ve dabbled in tanking and main dps. I don’t have the mental strength to accept the responsibility of healing. and it was stressful trying out tanking.
The bubble isn’t that special anymore in pve 
its just there. Which is very sad its now more about atonement and keeping atonement on those that need to be healed as you deal damage. With your only actual heal being penance and dark mend.
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My favorite is paladin, mostly because I like the fantasy of being a plate-wearing healer and we bring some of the strongest CDs in the game. As for a healer to play, I would say try out the ones that interest you and pick the one that feels right to you.
Resto shaman. Great utility, all around feels good and I like the aesthetic.
Probably holy priest, they are just really straight forward. But I also think you should just learn on the spec that you want to play.
I learned to heal by making a level 1 and leveled only by healing dungeons, start with classic dungeons! Then once at max level I started learning to raid heal in LFR.
I hope you try it, it can be really fun and has some good perks. Also don’t forget to heal yourself!
Monk. Because I like a challenge and I find their healing system to be fun.
Probably Druid, if only for the fact of having so many alternate specs to play with.
Make a Druid, check out the proper rotations and when you get to a decent level with a good heal selection, do a dungeon. Whats the worst that can happen…other player characters die? You learn as much from failing as you do from not, and sometimes difficult groups provide the challenge you need to get better.