World of Warcraft®

So I've lived my life as DPS these last few years, and though I'd start a healer up, but I think looking for something simple and straightforward after seeing all the "healing is crazy!" threads out there. I don't necessarily get a kick out of crazy complexity and would rather concentrate on doing a good job healing than playing piano with my keybindings.

It used to be that paladins were the "tanks for beginners". As whimpy as it sounds, is there an healing equivalent out there?

Many Thanks!

I wouldn't play this game if I couldn't play a healer.

It's stressful.

Especially in pvp.

I've only healed with a Priest and Shaman.

Roll a Pally for healing?

It's hard to imagine, especially when first picking a healing class how it can be easy. I have healed with ALL specs and in my opinion they are all fun in their own way (except one which I wont mention incase I bias you)

Having said that they are all easy, I would give a shaman healer to any new healer. They are very powerful dont get me wrong but their learning curve is not as step as others.

Having said that resto druids, disc priests and holy pallys are all super easy to master so pick what you ultimately think looks more fun, if you have no idea, take a shammy

With the recent changes, there really isn't a "simple" healer anymore.

However, priests have a fairly big repertoire of healing spells, which can be a bit daunting, while Blizzard designed holy paladins and resto shamans so that the complexity comes primarily from how a relatively small set of healing spells interact (though, once you start working totems, wind shear, purge, and hand spells into the mix, then even that isn't quite true anymore).

I'm biased here but I would agree with Jacob's assessment that Shaman are more-than-likely the simplest healer to pick up. Earthshield reduces the amount of attention you have to pay to the tank and the ranged spell interrupt / offensive dispel can be useful later on to reduce incoming damage / help the tank position mobs (and keep you awake when you find healing becomes trivial in level-up instances).

A discipline priest would also be a good bet. I'd (personally) avoid druids, as I'm finding having to keep a 3-stack lifebloom rolling without Nourish can get fairly annoying.

In terms of 'ease to learn', I'd rank them: Shaman > Discipline Priest > Druid/Paladin > Holy Priest.

In terms of 'ease to learn', I'd rank them: Shaman > Discipline Priest > Druid/Paladin > Holy Priest.

In terms of 'ease to learn', I'd rank them: Shaman > Discipline Priest > Druid/Paladin > Holy Priest.

Yeah this is exactly and exactly what you are looking for. If i was you i would go for the shammy.

Although now that i think about it, i dont think that the difference of dificultly between Disc priests and Druids is that big.

I think playstyle has a good deal to do with what class a player will find the most natural fit. But I agree that the Shaman now has the most basic healing kit until the latest levels.

Paladins are still the "simplest".

Druid.
At 85 they are a joke. It was so simple I couldn't stand to stay on the toon.

Druid.
At 85 they are a joke. It was so simple I couldn't stand to stay on the toon.

I will say I still think Druids are missing some more involved mechanic(s).

I'm curious as to why many of you think shaman is easier then a Pally.

Not saying you are wrong, but I think they both would be on par with one another. My Pally is a tank, so I could be wrong.

I'm curious as to why many of you think shaman is easier then a Pally.

Not saying you are wrong, but I think they both would be on par with one another. My Pally is a tank, so I could be wrong.

In my opinion, Holy Power added a fair amount of complexity to the basics of Paladin healing, as far as the order of operations. Procs from Tower of Radiance and Eternal Glory also raise the skill cap.

I think Shamans are more straightforward because there's no potential for waste or punishment in their mechanics. Shaman healing is perhaps more natural, because it allows you to move fluidly into using other spells when the situation calls for it. Not using Healing Wave after gaining Tidal Waves isn't necessarily the wrong thing to do, as long as more Chain Heal is the appropriate thing for the situation. Failing to use Word of Glory or Light of Dawn while continuing to gain Holy Power means losing out on potential HPM.

Personally, I would go with a priest or a shaman as your first healer.

Part of the reason is the leveling process. Both priests and shamans can wear spell power gear to level, using a dps spec, and just swap over to a healing, in the same gear, and do just fine healing all the lower level dungeons.

The other part is that both shamans and priests are fairly reactive healers, with many tools in their toolbox to deal with different situations. That makes it easy to just watch for situations as they unfold, and match up a spell to cover that situation.

I would not choose a paladin, because paladins are the worst leveling class for a healer, as they level as ret, in melee plate. Thus, you have to constantly try to keep two sets of gear with you at all times while leveling, which means if your holy gear is out of date, you are SOL when it comes to healing.

I would not choose a druid because I feel druids are a difficult class to learn to heal on, for your first healer. Druids are a preemptive healing class, where you are forced to constantly heal up even minor amounts of damage, because they don't have many tools to "catch up" if they fall behind. This forces them to constantly try to predict incoming damage, and try to get hots off almost before the damage occurs. It's a really, really stressful healing style to learn.

would not choose a paladin, because paladins are the worst leveling class for a healer, as they level as ret, in melee plate. Thus, you have to constantly try to keep two sets of gear with you at all times while leveling, which means if your holy gear is out of date, you are SOL when it comes to healing.

Wrong.
Holy Paladins are the easiest to level (of any class) once they can get 2/2 Denounce. Exorcism is very powerful.

Edit: Easiest healer would be based on how you like to play, Druids focus more on Healing over Time effects, Shamans focus on their Chain Heals and casts, Holy Priests have a good arsenal of AoE heals, Discipline Priests have the damage prevention, as well as some decent healing ability, Paladins focus on utililizing their new resource: Holy Power, by using Holy Shock and their single target/aoe heal associated with it.

My best advice as I have played every healer is to understand if have more or less tools is easier for you.

Disc priest was my first healer and I still find it the easiest. These days throw up a PW:S, have penance ready and smite in melee range if you feel like it. Can't get easier than a disc priest.

Dics priest is actually rather challenging if you really want to explore the ins and outs of the spec. The stuff people do now will make you go oom at 85. There are certain combos you would need to follow. Eg, shield the tank for weakened soul debuff (+10% crit) before penancing them. Using Inner Focus before you use your Greater Heal, smiting will not be your designated spam spell, Heal would be. Manage your Evangelism stacks so you can archangel either when you need to increase your throughput or get mana back. On top of that I believe Disc Priest has the largest amount of buttons to use out of any healing classes and possibly even all of the classes there are.

You can always be a bad/average disc priest and make it easy on yourself and follow some of the above suggestions but with that being said, you can pretty much play any healing class and just be average at it, which in turn would make it easy for you.

Unfortunately there is no such thing as an easy healing class, there are classes which are easier to understand and thus in turn master but really it all requires time, reading of the talent trees/talents and understanding of what works and what doesnt through experiencing it.

And just to prove I am not pulling this out of my back side I have been healing since Vanilla and have leveled and raided with all healing classes/specs.

With all due respect I have played a disc priest since 07 and whilst what you say is true, it is akin to saying a tennis player must keep his eye on the ball, watch where his opponent is, judge the height of the net, decide where to hit the ball and predict where it will be returned.

Takes about 1 second in the mind and then you swing and hit the ball. By listing the buffs like evangelism separately it sounds like a daunting thing but I would hate to think that people are scared away from a beautiful spec by your description. It's like saying holy paladins are hard because they have to manage IoL, JoP, DB, use conviction effectively, keep beacon up, predict a downturn in the encounter to plea without suffering the 50% debuff but popping favor and AW wherever else, and then juggle HS while distributing holy power between LoD and WoG; its not a fair way to represent the class and will scare new people away.

Having said that I will agree that disc priests are not the 'easiest to learn' I would pick shaman.