Choosing the right healer (Wrath)

I’d like to make a healer alt and would really appreciate some guidance (never healed before). Not sure what class to go for. I want something that’s fun, not too difficult (not sure if any of them are?) and a good all-rounder (dungeons, raids (maybe some pugs and guild alt raids, but won’t be pushing raiding as hard as on my main) and BGs (doubtful I’d arena, but never know)).

I’ll lay out my current thinking / understanding to give a bit more context:

H Paladin - strong in Wrath, but primarily a tank healer, with slow casts. Strong in PvP, but lacking mobility. Sounds like it could be boring to me, but maybe that’s unfair, as Beacon (new in Wrath?) sounds more interesting.

RSham - Sounds like a good mix of strong single target and AoE heals, with amazing utility in terms of totems and lust (albeit the latter becomes raid wide in Wrath, so less need to stack the class). However, I’d want to boost to 58, so sadly this is out.

Resto Dudu - a HoT based raid healer with great AoE heals, instant casts and therefore good mobility. Stuck in Tree form a lot, which is a shame in a way, as can’t enjoy your hard earned gear! I wonder if they’re quite hard to play, as need to keep all the HoTs up to be effective? Are they also the hardest PvP class with the shape-shifting needed etc?

Priest - the most extensive tool kit and therefore most flexible healer. Could be overwhelming in terms of learning the kit? Disc is shield based (requires good knowledge of encounters for pre-shielding, which concerns me having never healed and not having played Wrath before) and is the PvP spec. Holy seems flexible and fun, but sounds like in Wrath you may well get pressured to play Disc as it’s the more powerful spec? Does Holy also have mana issues in Wrath until very well geared?

Is the above in any way accurate?

What would you recommend, bearing in mind the goals / thinking I have shared?

Thanks!

Resto shaman is the most versatile in a sense.

You can heal with disc, hpala, holy priest, resto druid, and even with another resto shaman. Other options doesn't offer that opportunity.

But if you want to PvP and raid.. Disc priest or Holy paladin would be my 1st two options.

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Originally Posted by Vallano

H Paladin - strong in Wrath, but primarily a tank healer, with slow casts. Strong in PvP, but lacking mobility. Sounds like it could be boring to me, but maybe that’s unfair, as Beacon (new in Wrath?) sounds more interesting.

RSham - Sounds like a good mix of strong single target and AoE heals, with amazing utility in terms of totems and lust (albeit the latter becomes raid wide in Wrath, so less need to stack the class). However, I’d want to boost to 58, so sadly this is out.

Resto Dudu - a HoT based raid healer with great AoE heals, instant casts and therefore good mobility. Stuck in Tree form a lot, which is a shame in a way, as can’t enjoy your hard earned gear! I wonder if they’re quite hard to play, as need to keep all the HoTs up to be effective? Are they also the hardest PvP class with the shape-shifting needed etc?

Priest - the most extensive tool kit and therefore most flexible healer. Could be overwhelming in terms of learning the kit? Disc is shield based (requires good knowledge of encounters for pre-shielding, which concerns me having never healed and not having played Wrath before) and is the PvP spec. Holy seems flexible and fun, but sounds like in Wrath you may well get pressured to play Disc as it’s the more powerful spec? Does Holy also have mana issues in Wrath until very well geared?

Thanks!

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Hpala most easiest class, lot of raid need them. To be clear Hpala is strong only because of tanks (bdk, ppladin). If you do a simple calculation, due to their heathpool and talents (ardent defenser and will of necropolis). You 'll see the damage done between the proc of this talent = +- to one crit of holy light. It's one of the reason you see hpala spam heal. Even If it's a dumb way to do it. (Furthermore hpala talent give them crit, as I said it's an easy class. Because you don't have to think about build, ect your talent and class do it for you.)

Rsham good zoner, really nice shield + totems and +10% reduction physical damage when crit. A bit better in mobility than hpala. A bit less easy to play, most of time due to hpala you'll just spam aoe heal, shield.

Resto better aoe healer than Rsham. The goal of them is to absord damage, a bit like a dpriest but with hot. They are in the middle in difficulty, depends raids, boss. They give mana regen to raid with theirs talents. Can be mobile but you need to precast because it's Hot.

Dpriest is in the middle, depends boss. In many fight they are not really usefull. Their goal is to prevent damage with shield, pain suppresion, +10% reduction physical damage when crit. If you look at healing they suck compare to others. They give mana regen to raid with their talents

hpriest most complicate healer by far. There is 2 differents way to play it, spe reliable more on hot and one others in big heal. The most viable and easy are the first (The one Iqui made on priest section. I tested it). With the first spe they can beat a rdrood at hot, with they second you can beat a hpala at big heal. (depends gear and skill). Mana is not really a matter if you know what you do (beast, mana hymne). They have a lot of stuff, but it's complicate because you need to use them at precise timing. This spe is most of time ignor by people and raid. Most versatile healer in game and most mobile insta healer.

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Originally Posted by phrias

Hpala most easiest class, lot of raid need them. To be clear Hpala is strong only because of tanks (bdk, ppladin). If you do a simple calculation, due to their heathpool and talents (ardent defenser and will of necropolis). You 'll see the damage done between the proc of this talent = +- to one crit of holy light. It's one of the reason you see hpala spam heal. Even If it's a dumb way to do it. (Furthermore hpala talent give them crit, as I said it's an easy class. Because you don't have to think about build, ect your talent and class do it for you.)

Rsham good zoner, really nice shield + totems and +10% reduction physical damage when crit. A bit better in mobility than hpala. A bit less easy to play, most of time due to hpala you'll just spam aoe heal, shield.

Resto better aoe healer than Rsham. The goal of them is to absord damage, a bit like a dpriest but with hot. They are in the middle in difficulty, depends raids, boss. They give mana regen to raid with theirs talents. Can be mobile but you need to precast because it's Hot.

Dpriest is in the middle, depends boss. In many fight they are not really usefull. Their goal is to prevent damage with shield, pain suppresion, +10% reduction physical damage when crit. If you look at healing they suck compare to others. They give mana regen to raid with their talents

hpriest most complicate healer by far. There is 2 differents way to play it, spe reliable more on hot and one others in big heal. The most viable and easy are the first (The one Iqui made on priest section. I tested it). With the first spe they can beat a rdrood at hot, with they second you can beat a hpala at big heal. (depends gear and skill). Mana is not really a matter if you know what you do (beast, mana hymne). They have a lot of stuff, but it's complicate because you need to use them at precise timing. This spe is most of time ignor by people and raid. Most versatile healer in game and most mobile insta healer.

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Thanks for the detailed response. I have decided to go with Priest - disc sounds fun, and it's good to have a 2nd healing spec as back-up! :)

I'd recommend any healer BUT Priest unless you're raiding with your own (friendly) guild. Here's why:
Cloth gear drops and it's an upgrade for you....
Other Cloth Casters: If it has HIT, then you cannot roll for it.
Other Cloth Casters: If it has no HIT and SPIRIT, then you cannot roll for it. CRIT/MP5/HASTE works better for us.
Other Cloth Casters: If it has no HIT and has SPIRIT, we want to roll for it because it is upgrade for us (mages/locks can use spirit).
Other Non-Cloth Healers: It is upgrade for us too, so we too want to roll for it.
So you can only roll on a subset of drops against many people, while everybody else gets to roll on a wider range of loot.
I love playing the Priest class as healer, I have 4 of them (3 raiding) but this has been painful.

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Originally Posted by phrias

Hpala most easiest class, lot of raid need them. To be clear Hpala is strong only because of tanks (bdk, ppladin). If you do a simple calculation, due to their heathpool and talents (ardent defenser and will of necropolis). You 'll see the damage done between the proc of this talent = +- to one crit of holy light. It's one of the reason you see hpala spam heal. Even If it's a dumb way to do it. (Furthermore hpala talent give them crit, as I said it's an easy class. Because you don't have to think about build, ect your talent and class do it for you.)

Rsham good zoner, really nice shield + totems and +10% reduction physical damage when crit. A bit better in mobility than hpala. A bit less easy to play, most of time due to hpala you'll just spam aoe heal, shield.

Resto better aoe healer than Rsham. The goal of them is to absord damage, a bit like a dpriest but with hot. They are in the middle in difficulty, depends raids, boss. They give mana regen to raid with theirs talents. Can be mobile but you need to precast because it's Hot.

Dpriest is in the middle, depends boss. In many fight they are not really usefull. Their goal is to prevent damage with shield, pain suppresion, +10% reduction physical damage when crit. If you look at healing they suck compare to others. They give mana regen to raid with their talents

hpriest most complicate healer by far. There is 2 differents way to play it, spe reliable more on hot and one others in big heal. The most viable and easy are the first (The one Iqui made on priest section. I tested it). With the first spe they can beat a rdrood at hot, with they second you can beat a hpala at big heal. (depends gear and skill). Mana is not really a matter if you know what you do (beast, mana hymne). They have a lot of stuff, but it's complicate because you need to use them at precise timing. This spe is most of time ignor by people and raid. Most versatile healer in game and most mobile insta healer.

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Sorry but this is very *****ic. Half of this is not even true or incomplete and very vague.
Already the first sentence: Hpal the easiest healer? Really? In the sense of rotation, every healer is easy, since most spam not more than 1-2 buttons, with the only difference that hpal needs to manage cds like sacred shield and especially beacon, and 1 bad cd usage or beacon refresh and the tank dies, making it the least forgiving healer, really not for beginners.
The absolutely easiest healer for starters would probably be restoshaman or discpriest, and discpriest also only if you understand the sense of the spec. i've seen disc priest shield some people and then spam flash heal, please don't do that.

the rshaman description is very vague. the whole sense of rshamans is that theyre versatile and that they can burst aoe heal to stablize huge damage spikes onto the raid, otherwise a restodruid or holypriest will always outheal shamans in the long run on consistent healing.

the rdruid revitalize doesnt only restore mana, it also restores energy, rune power, rage etc, which not only increases the mana but also the dps.

you forgot that discpriest basically gives a (renewed hope) 3% reduction to all damage permanently, and that disc priests are also needed in every 25man raid. and discpriests are useful in EVERY fight. sometimes more, sometimes less, but in every fight where somebody could die to mechanics (= every fight) they are useful due to shields preventing oneshots and deaths.

hpriest isnt complicated, it just has the most buttons. and there is 3 ways to play it, you forgot the hybrid spec, which is actually even the most common one, combining renew talents and glyphs with serendipity and going for about 800-900 haste.

the biggest skillcap probably has hpriest tho just because they have a lot of potential and are so different in the ways you can play them.

My very first healer was resto druid, tree form is just a very fun look. Very easy to follow hots if you setup Grid2 well, also if you get bored of healing you can e either a tank, caster or melee DPS. The only one class with combat resurrection.

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Originally Posted by maci

My very first healer was resto druid, tree form is just a very fun look. Very easy to follow hots if you setup Grid2 well, also if you get bored of healing you can e either a tank, caster or melee DPS. The only one class with combat resurrection.

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Don't death knights have Raise Ally? Or am I tripping

"Raise Ally is a death knight ability learned at level 72. It can be used while in combat to bring a dead player back to life."

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Originally Posted by Symbolized

Don't death knights have Raise Ally? Or am I tripping

"Raise Ally is a death knight ability learned at level 72. It can be used while in combat to bring a dead player back to life."

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Yeah but you raise him as a ghoul not as a real character. He then controls the ghoul and attacks with it. Unfortunately, most people stay afk when they get ghoul summoned. They think it's a troll.

On the other side, I had most easiest healing with Hpala. I think this is the easiest healer out of all. With disc priest I had trouble because so many abilities to do. Others didn't even try.

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Originally Posted by KnusprigerC

Sorry but this is very *****ic. Half of this is not even true or incomplete and very vague.
Already the first sentence: Hpal the easiest healer? Really? In the sense of rotation, every healer is easy, since most spam not more than 1-2 buttons, with the only difference that hpal needs to manage cds like sacred shield and especially beacon, and 1 bad cd usage or beacon refresh and the tank dies, making it the least forgiving healer, really not for beginners.
The absolutely easiest healer for starters would probably be restoshaman or discpriest, and discpriest also only if you understand the sense of the spec. i've seen disc priest shield some people and then spam flash heal, please don't do that.

the rshaman description is very vague. the whole sense of rshamans is that theyre versatile and that they can burst aoe heal to stablize huge damage spikes onto the raid, otherwise a restodruid or holypriest will always outheal shamans in the long run on consistent healing.

the rdruid revitalize doesnt only restore mana, it also restores energy, rune power, rage etc, which not only increases the mana but also the dps.

you forgot that discpriest basically gives a (renewed hope) 3% reduction to all damage permanently, and that disc priests are also needed in every 25man raid. and discpriests are useful in EVERY fight. sometimes more, sometimes less, but in every fight where somebody could die to mechanics (= every fight) they are useful due to shields preventing oneshots and deaths.

hpriest isnt complicated, it just has the most buttons. and there is 3 ways to play it, you forgot the hybrid spec, which is actually even the most common one, combining renew talents and glyphs with serendipity and going for about 800-900 haste.

the biggest skillcap probably has hpriest tho just because they have a lot of potential and are so different in the ways you can play them.

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In case you don't understand. The goal was to explain quickly and easily a class (it's difficult) for a beginner. And what's it's provide to raid.

No hpala is not hard, managing cds is for all classes. Even dps manage it to max out their dps. Due to how Hpala play (and tanks) on this server others healers are impact. This is why most of time others healers 'll just spam heal raid or spam shield.

Hpriest is not complicate jsut because it got many spells. Your hybrid spe with renew is actually the first and the common way hpriest heal. The glyph of renew is only use with end gear otherswise you 'll lack spellpower, and haste. Furthermore this glyph is a matter on anub fight. It's tend to overheal way to much. If you are talking about proccing serendipity with renew, it's don't work at all. https://wotlkdb.com/?spell=63737

(It's even a matter to heal only with renew with haste and glyph because the glyph reduce the duration. Cumulate with hight haste your hot is even short.)

To be more clear hpriest is complicate because you have to try to keep serendipity x3 on you, crit because when your spells crit you gain holy concentration, surge and light and your target got a bonus of physical damage reduction. For that you need to cast, but not overheal for nothing (like all hpala does, aka 20M overheal at rs). Think and prevent your hot, like mending prayers + renew to be able to move whith raid, ect. Then do what your are suppose to do that mean mitigate damage with your gardian spirit. For that you mean to prehot yourself and heal you and the target (depends raid) to max out the mitigation. And for that you need to know boss ability and your tank because the most powerfull way to use it. It when your tank are out of def cd or use less def cd (to mitigate big damage). Witch give more flexibility to tank. All of that is waht all hpriest want to do and try/tend to do in a perfect world, but you play with others players so it's even more complicate.

All of that need well gear caractere with correct stats.

The spe I don't talk is the spe base on guardian spirit + val'anyr and trinket to absord soul reaper. (so basicaly only for lk fight, like all guild kill lk at the beginning)

It's not because you play and like hapala that made it complicate or whatever. You can like it, they still are usefulll. But that don't change they are not hard to play.


p.s: Like actually I'm testing protladin. Even if I think they are easy and stupid.

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Originally Posted by starscream2413

Yeah but you raise him as a ghoul not as a real character. He then controls the ghoul and attacks with it. Unfortunately, most people stay afk when they get ghoul summoned. They think it's a troll.

On the other side, I had most easiest healing with Hpala. I think this is the easiest healer out of all. With disc priest I had trouble because so many abilities to do. Others didn't even try.

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Ahh, that's it! Perhaps it's a later patch when it becomes an actual battle rez

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On topic: I've been away from WoW from a few years now and recently came back. Started playing my ret which I already had on Warmane but had a craving to play a healer again which I used to enjoy playing on retail, so I went with rdudu. I personally love playing rdudu.

So far I've just been spamming some rdf hc's and running a couple bg's to gear myself up. Being able to always have HoTs up on each party member is great, rdudu's have great healing without really needing to actually having to spend time waiting on a cast bar. If you happen to have a tank which is overgeared then it's even more fun! It's time to dish out that dps, there's been a couple times where I've done more damage then one of the dps, being able to hurricane and cause some huge aoe damage.

I especially love playing rdudu in bgs, whacking up my HoTs on everyone in a huge crowd fight - Being immune to polymorphs, breaking free of every slow put on me and going into travel form to run away from anyway who tries to attack me. Druids have such great mobility and in bg's you feel like a true hero sprinting in and saving an entire group with aoe healing.

I can't say too much on the raiding side of things - I haven't done any raiding in a long long, long time!