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Shamans are great -excellent- raid healers.

Shamans are great -excellent- raid healers.

Oh I know this. Just very few can play them so.

Shamans are great -excellent- raid healers.

Oh I know this. Just very few can play them so.

I have this Druid, a Priest, and a Shaman. The Shaman was, by a HUGE margin, the easiest class to heal with and top the meters.

I have this Druid, a Priest, and a Shaman. The Shaman was, by a HUGE margin, the easiest class to heal with and top the meters.

I'd agree - Shaman are definitely the easiest. They don't have to deal with clunky Paladin mechanics or the timing issues Discipline Priests and Resto Druids face.

The other side of the equation is Holy Priests. The other four healers are basically built around a single 'big gun' - a heal that is best-in-class - so the Holy Priest has to know not only their own class but all 4 other healing specs as well, and adapt dynamically to what's going on in terms of how they heal.

I haven't really been active since early WotLK but back then I found Druid healing to be by far the easiest, Pally in close second and Shaman being the hardest. Haven't played Priest since vanilla so I can't comment on that.

Shaman and Paladin are more straightforward, I think Druids and Priests (holy has even more than disc) are more complicated just because they have so many more options. But if you group up basically from the start, you will learn any of them just fine. I would go with the one that you think you will enjoy the most based on what kind of healing they do and their other abilities.

Really your best bet is just going to be to mess around with the different healers and figure out what YOU like, not what WE like. Everyone has a preference, you'll have to find yours though. But if it's opinions your after, I'll throw mine out there. I've got an 80 Holy Pally, 80 Resto Drood, 66 (I think? Idr...) Disc Priest, nubby 43ish Resto Shammy, I think that covers it... Anyways, I love my pally for pvp healing, I haven't tried much pve on it aside from a few heroics and VoA. I think it's the most fun, but that's just me. I also really enjoy my priest in both PvE and PvP, but I haven't played around with Holy yet; I guess I probably should sometime. I haven't really been big on my druid post-patch but at the same time I prefer healing over DPS so I'll just have to take a day or two to figure it out again, regem respec whatever. I only do PvE on that char, though. Yay raid heals. And well let's be honest, as much fun as my shammy can be, it's really too low a lvl for me to say much on it...not that I said much on the others, just what I play most and enjoy. Nothing about specs, casts, anything. That's almost an opinion though c:

Shamans are great -excellent- raid healers.

Oh I know this. Just very few can play them so.

I have this Druid, a Priest, and a Shaman. The Shaman was, by a HUGE margin, the easiest class to heal with and top the meters.

you != everyone.

I explained this earlier.

and i don't believe you anyway. unless your main actually raids in another guild...

Shamans are great -excellent- raid healers.

Oh I know this. Just very few can play them so.

I have this Druid, a Priest, and a Shaman. The Shaman was, by a HUGE margin, the easiest class to heal with and top the meters.

you != everyone.

I explained this earlier.

and i don't believe you anyway. unless your main actually raids in another guild...

You've displayed nothing but class bias, and it makes me laugh. Shaman heals are incredibly easy, you're the only person here who disagrees. If you think Shaman healing is hard, I call you a bad player.

Edit: Look at it this way. When looking at healing like Whack-a-Mole, Shaman don't have to anticipate which mole it going to pop before it actually does. They just react to spike damage. I LOVED healing on my Shaman, it was fun as hell, but beyond easy. Earth Shield the tank, rip tide, and chain heal galore. And yes, I always topped the meters.

Also, to show I'm not class-biased like you, Druid healing is also incredibly easy. But not as easy as Shaman ;)

Shamans are great -excellent- raid healers.

Oh I know this. Just very few can play them so.

I have this Druid, a Priest, and a Shaman. The Shaman was, by a HUGE margin, the easiest class to heal with and top the meters.

you != everyone.

I explained this earlier.

and i don't believe you anyway. unless your main actually raids in another guild...

You've displayed nothing but class bias, and it makes me laugh. Shaman heals are incredibly easy, you're the only person here who disagrees. If you think Shaman healing is hard, I call you a bad player.

Edit: Look at it this way. When looking at healing like Whack-a-Mole, Shaman don't have to anticipate which mole it going to pop before it actually does. They just react to spike damage. I LOVED healing on my Shaman, it was fun as hell, but beyond easy. Earth Shield the tank, rip tide, and chain heal galore. And yes, I always topped the meters.

Also, to show I'm not class-biased like you, Druid healing is also incredibly easy. But not as easy as Shaman ;)

I'm not a bad healer, in fact Im statistically one of the best shaman healers in the world if you care about that sort of thing.. Set dozens of world ranked parses in non gimmik setups. So believe me, I don't say shaman is the hardest because I'm not good with it. When it comes to shammy output, there are few in the world who can match me.

The reason I say it's the hardest is common sense. Anyone can spam chain and do respectable numbers. But VERY FEW (i've met 4, 3 from my guild) have I ever seen do very well. Again, shaman are EASY to learn and cast. The way to properly heal with them is simplicity itself. But just because you know how to play them properly, doesn't mean you are good at it. You have 3 things working against you that all other raid healers will barely ever have to deal with.

1) we're a turrent healer, When we move, we need to plan ahead to have as little downtime as possible. Druids and priests can keep hps levels basically full while on the move.

2) We're reactive. Every heal is in response to damage. Meaning we have a microfraction of a second to respond to the healing situation at the start of _every_ cast. Druids and priests don't have near this restriction as a HUGE amount of their healing is just going down the list blanketing the raid.

3) Our core spell has restrictions the other classes don't have. Granted the range buffs we received make of for this somewhat, but still. We require the most raid awareness. A chain that doesn't hop, or only hops once is a wasted chain. We need to know every time we cast chain where the raid is situated and if chain will hop to them and continue so it's not a wasted cast. Druids and Priests have this mechanic WAY less restricted.

And topping meters in a guild thats never killed lich king means nothing. I could enter your raid, and do more healing than the rest of your team combined. Hell, I've done as much more times than I can count. It doesnt mean anything to me. My experience with shaman is thus: Of the dozens, if not hundreds I've raided with, it's rare when Ill find one that will even do half the healing Im doing. Normally I'm well over double what any other shaman will do in a raid with me. (non guild of course) Ive yet to see one thats ever came close. However, Ive actually had competition from the other healing classes. My only conclusion is that shaman are just harder to play well. Granted this is anecdotal, but I've heard as much from other healers and it sure bears out from experience..

The best way I can explain shaman is this way. They are the easiest class to learn to play properly due to their simple spell selection and learning curve. But the hardest to play "good" once you know the basics.

And topping meters in a guild thats never killed lich king means nothing.

He's been down in 10 and 25 for quite some time, not sure where you're getting your information. Anyways, like I said, you're filled with class bias. Shaman healing is easy-mode, and like I said you're the only one who disagrees.

Also, looking at all that shiny heroic gear, saying you can outheal me isn't exactly proving any kind of a point....

And topping meters in a guild thats never killed lich king means nothing.

He's been down in 10 and 25 for quite some time, not sure where you're getting your information. Anyways, like I said, you're filled with class bias. Shaman healing is easy-mode, and like I said you're the only one who disagrees.

Also, looking at all that shiny heroic gear, saying you can outheal me isn't exactly proving any kind of a point....

I looked at his guild, didn't see any 25man kills in the 3 that i looked at. It's possible I missed them, or his main is in another guild. If so thats my bad.

And i'm not the only one who disagrees. It's been brought up many times before, and I've always had more than a few people who agree with me. Just this round seems to be different for some reason. The only thing I can say is please explain why it's the easiest vs other classes. I gave 3 very solid reasons as to why its harder. Seems most of you are just offering opinion with no backing..

I looked at his guild, didn't see any 25man kills in the 3 that i looked at. It's possible I missed them, or his main is in another guild. If so thats my bad.

And i'm not the only one who disagrees. It's been brought up many times before, and I've always had more than a few people who agree with me. Just this round seems to be different for some reason. The only thing I can say is please explain why it's the easiest vs other classes. I gave 3 very solid reasons as to why its harder. Seems most of you are just offering opinion with no backing..

Yeah we've had LK 25 and 10 down for a while, no point in lying. He's not hard. Anyways, I found Shaman healing to be the easiest (at least when I played my Shaman pre-4.0) that Earthliving, Earth Shield, Ancestral Awakening, and Healing Totem work by themselves. That's a good amount of healing right there. In 25 ICC with the AoE-style damage that is so constant, the only thing a Shaman does is pop Riptide, on a cooldown, and the no-cooldown Chainheal for absurd healing wtfcrits. If you're feeling super-productive, keep Nature's Swiftness and GHW on cooldown.

Seriously, man, I'm not saying that Shaman are terrible or not fun, I'm saying the class is redic ez.

Edit: As for chains not hopping, in a 25 you hit the tank and it will obviously hop to the meelee, every time. If ranged is hurt, position yourself near them and hop it off yourself. It's.so.easy.it.hurts.

I think the conflict here is that there are two claims:

Shaman healing is easy.
Shaman healing is not easy to do well.

Both of these can actually coexist, and in my opinion do. There's been a lot of talk about how hard it is to differentiate good and bad players within a spec if the spec is easy - I believe it used to be that Ret was something terrible players could do well, and great players could do only a very tiny amount better. I think that's the part that's being overlooked in this argument: Shaman healing is easy, but it's hard to do significantly better than Jo Schmo Shaman.

All of the healing specs are difficult to truly excel at. Only a few healing specs are easy to get by with. So, it's harder to stand out as a great shaman healer, because there's not as big a discrepancy between great and mediocre as there is with a priest, for example. I think that's the point Jynus is trying to make.

If you know how to play a Shaman resto healer, it is easy. In my opinion, pally healers are not easy, people claim they are, but how many people die under their care? Alot. I will say though that I have been bored with my holy pally since the latest patch. Too easy, and I love a challenge.

Hi,

I am a casual player and the role I would like to play is healing. I was wondering out of Priest, Druid and Paladin which class is easiest to heal with?

Thanks.

Hey there :) I'm going to agree with most everyone on here also and repeat that there really is no "easiest" healing class. Considering the new talent changes, any healing class you start with will get it's core attributes around level 10 now, so you will feel more like that class's healer.

That being said, I have a priest, druid, and shaman healer. My priest was my first main, then I leveled a paladin. I wanted one of each healing class because healing is ultimately my favorite play style. I like being the supporter and in some cases, playing God with tanks that are less than friendly :P

While priest healing was at one point, the most fun for me, I tried Holy on my paladin and could NOT get the hang of it. Several epic fails later, healing with her was no longer fun, but frustrating. However, I also leveled her as prot and switched to holy at 80, thinking it would be like a priest. Bad choices. I leveled my druid and my shaman as resto, and of the 3 healers I ultimately have, I have to agree with most that druid healing is the most fun. With the 4.01 changes, I was bummed a little, but after a few heroics for practice, it still remains my favorite. Extremely mana efficient and very hard for your group members to die. (Also, because of this mana efficiency and powerful HoTs, its easy in 5 mans , raids if you are good at it, to throw a little dps into the mix on the side. The same can be said for Shamans, too.This adds to the fun of your healing. Just don't go balls to the wall and forget what your role is ;)


The lesson here is this. If you want an "easy" or "Fun" healer by the time you are finished, level it that way so that their healing specialty becomes natural to you. If you dont like it from the start, get a new class healer, it's probably not the class for you. But skill does come with practice, so try to level as a healer.

But srsly, druids ftw :)

I think the conflict here is that there are two claims:

Shaman healing is easy.
Shaman healing is not easy to do well.

I think that's probably the gist of it. As Jynus pointed out, Restoration shaman have poor mobility and Chain Heal loses a lot of its efficiency if you don't target it so that it can jump multiple times. They also don't really have much that can prebuffer a target against incoming spike damage. These are limitations that are fairly unique to Restoration shaman and, in certain situations, make them more difficult to play than other healers.

At the same time, though, Restoration shaman benefit from a lot of passive or semi-passive healing, don't have to watch a lot of timers or cooldowns and can handle most raid damage with simple Chain Heal spam, which, in certain situations, makes them easier to play than other healers.

So are they the hardest healer to play or the easiest? I don't really know. I don't really care, either.

I am a restor druid it is a great spec and class but once you get to the higher lvl (60-90) it is SOOO much harder your mana will drop a lot more than it used to so if you wants to smurf or have a good low lvl heal then change spec at a higher lvl be my guest its fun and you will most likely enjoy it

I am a restor druid it is a great spec and class but once you get to the higher lvl (60-90) it is SOOO much harder your mana will drop a lot more than it used to so if you wants to smurf or have a good low lvl heal then change spec at a higher lvl be my guest its fun and you will most likely enjoy it

Note original post from 2010. I would hope he's picked one by now /wink.

Now THAT is a necro.....holy crap.