World of Warcraft™

I just decided to start healing and I was wondering what the best healer class was. I'm planning to eventually heal raids and stuff so I want one of the most useful classes that aren't super hard to play.

warlock

/edit [seriously though, all are easy to play. I recommend discpriest for leveling cause they can dps while they heal. Druid and shaman are also good because if you have BOAs, Priests, Druids and Shamans can share caster gear with their healing and dps specs, but Paladins cannot.

I'm not gonna get BOAs and I'm not really interesting on dpsing while healing. I also want a class that is kind of fun with lots of utility/buttons to press so it's not just one or two button spam.

priest has the most tools and has two healing specs two choose from,
some paladins are one hit wonders but they don't HAVE to be, you could use their various hand tools that a lot of leveling paladins ignore.

druids i might not recommend if you don't like boring heals. I feel my heals are very fluid and easy and i personally love this character as a healer, but druids are not very complicated and not utility based at all.

Okay I guess being a priest would be the best choice and is it okay if I be holy while leveling because I don't want to just make a barrier and then do damage.

Yeah go what you want. I think the only reason I suggest Disc for leveling is it is faster soloing than shadow at low levels when shadow has crazy mana problems, and it makes your 5 mans run faster because it is like having 4 dps.

I play a druid and a priest. I would say for healing's sake the priest is the best way to go. You have so many choices and options whereas with the resto druid there's really only one or two ways to heal. Good luck with whichever class and spec you choose. Just remember give one a try, and if you don't like it you can always reroll.

12/22/2011 07:47 AMPosted by Grimkiller

I'm not gonna get BOAs and I'm not really interesting on dpsing while healing. I also want a class that is kind of fun with lots of utility/buttons to press so it's not just one or two button spam.

Go shammy. its fun.

12/22/2011 10:58 AMPosted by Agyrem

Okay I guess being a priest would be the best choice and is it okay if I be holy while leveling because I don't want to just make a barrier and then do damage.

Since all healing classes were made raid viable beginning with Burning Crusade, priests have had a wild ride. They have varied between completely unimportant (most of TBC) to impotent (Wrath in 3.2 and 3.3) to what begins to feel like overpowered (4.3). I say this to emphasize that a choice of healing class should not be based on "what is the best RIGHT NOW" because the history of WoW has shown us that no class has remained at the top of the throughput ladder forever. You should choose a healing class based on characteristics that appeal to you.

Keep in mind too that with each expansion, all healing classes are converging upon the same healing model. In Cataclysm, healing classes are more alike than they have ever been before. You can expect going forward that class differences will no longer distinguish healers as strongly as they once did. Every class will have a raid cooldown; every class will have a tank cooldown; every class now uses the same single-target healing model; every class has acquired more and more robust AoE healing; in the next expansion all healing classes will use the same resource model. Although this was probably inevitable from the beginning, at least with respect to healing classes, Blizzard has worked hard to take RPG out of MMORPG.

I have leveled all 4 classes as healers. And even done a paladin twice. I like pally healing while leveling to be honest.

Good paladins have the most buttons to push, average paladins, are average.

edit: but i main a shaman

I'm not an experienced player, but I've enjoyed leveling my Disc priest. In comparison to other healers when I play in PvP, most heals ends up being either me or another Disc priest. Not all the time, of course. But I'm probably biased =P I love my shield and the variety of ways to heal depending on the situation and level of urgency.

Go for a priest. Contrary to Sanctimonius' opinion, a good Disc priest is almost always guaranteed a spot on any raid team, and priests definitely have a high skill cap.

Holy is a different matter altogether, of course.

I think I have decided to make a holy priest as you can see and I'm gonna duel spec as disc Is so I can be even more viable to raid teams. The one thing that I really like about priests is that their aoe heal can go to 30 yards and not just 10 yards.

Any class or spec. Until you actually try healing, take a toon to 85, gear it for raiding, then raid competitively for progression (not LFR), and then try the same thing on another class/spec, you really have no basis for comparison as to which will be particularly better for you. While one spec may perform better or be brought more to raids, its meaningless if you don't perform exceptionally with that role compared to others that play it. You may level the FoTM class to 85, and find out that you are below average with that class while considerably above average with another. Moreover, you may just flat out not like it.

There may be people that clear the end boss early on heroic mode in each tier that will tell you otherwise, but that's them and their exceptional raid awareness and aptitude. It may be right for them to just use that different class. My personal experience is that certain players tend to do better with certain specs than others and have an innate grasp for providing what is demanded to excel at that role.

I've healed with all 4 classes and they all have their niche to fill. Priests seem to have a higher skill cap, if only because they have two healing specs and more buttons to press vs other classes.

I never did like paladins, loved my druid (still love it), and shaman is really growing on me.

All personal opinion though...

wat are u referring to when talkiing about skill cap? ie last post "priests seem to have a higher skill cap" not sure what that peice of wow jargin means?

There's a bigger difference between poorly played priests and well played priests, that's what a skill cap basically means. Skill floor is used to denote how easy it is to pick up a class - for example, the skill floor of an Arcane Mage is very low.

12/23/2011 03:41 PMPosted by Celestestar

wat are u referring to when talkiing about skill cap? ie last post "priests seem to have a higher skill cap" not sure what that peice of wow jargin means?

It's just a general statement on how easy it is to play a priest from the get-go.
The factors include
their amount of spells (the class arguably has a bigger tool box than the other healers),
abilities to juggle (again, big tool box, plus Holy's chakra system),
two specs to master (for the most benefit),
Disc's Proactive healing style,
and Holy's mana capabilities.

shaman all the way

TL;DR: I want to play a healer that has all the upsides of all of them, and the flaws of none of them.