Can you please make a PvE/PvP distinction?
I'll go with monk being the best healer in both formats.
Don't know the actual ranking because I didn't play the beta actively but I like my resto shaman because of all those new abilities (HST + 2 Totem CDs + Ascendence + Elementals) and I think that they will give us a perfect niche.
I firmly believe that that healing, like any class role comes down to the player and the "best healing class" if you are looking to roll the "best" healer will be the class you are most proficient at and which has mechanics you master.
Being a great healer doesn't mean you play the class with the highest theoretical HPS. I think if you play your class well any of the healing classes can be very effective in the 10 and 25 man raid setting. Some classes have some advantages when it comes to certain fight mechanics (i.e. lots of movement, lots of stacking, lots of being spread out) but in the end all raid bosses will be healable by all healing classes if played well. I think the most important thing to note is healing is a team effort and while one person may have slightly higher HPS it is the synergy of the team that determines whether or not you will be successful on a given encounter. It is unlikely that you see guilds running with all pallys or all priests even if a particular class has a higher theoretical HPS. Guilds run with a varied healer composition because it is the synergy of the different healing classes that makes the healing team effective.
If you are talking about who will rank #1 on WoL that is a different game entirely since you are going strictly for highest HPS(e) possible which can often be impacted by your raid taking controlled but unnecessary damage (i.e. standing in black for Morchok) to pad the meters.
Tis all about the gear anyway /yawn
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Echo: "What?
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Echo: "What?!"
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Indeed it is, thats why the worlds top guilds cleared DS heroic with 0 buff and a relatively low ilevel. They managed to do this even tho progressing guilds still struggle on a 35% debuff with loads of gear. With this in mind, its clear that player skill played no part!
The shit that gets posted on these forums...
From what I heard in sims and such;
Monk > Pally > Shammy > Druid >>>> Priest
For 10m: Monk > Pally > Druid >>>>>>>>>> Priest > Shaman
You obviously didn't catch the meaning of his post. Instead of flaming someone, try comprehending their message first. It was very relevant to this thread and was perfectly relevant as a reply to your original statement. In fact, your original statement: "Tis all about the gear anyway /yawn" was irrelevant.
So for anyone still wanting to ask 'which healer is best?'.
Notice that almost everyone in this thread said something different, and i think you have your answer.
From my experience at both lvl 90 beta healing, and 85 post-patch healing:
PvP:
Monk / Druid > Shaman > Pally >>> Disc (Squishiest, most mana heavy, with least mobility)
PvE:
Druid / Pally
Shaman / Monk (really not enough playing with monk or around monks to make a great placement)
...
Priest
Again, priest is the most mana intensive healer by far, and with throughput that just doesn't match that sort of playstyle. Disc has some great tools, but it just is not at the same level as all the other healers. I don't see it as a failed class, rather just a class requiring a bit of tweaking.
The reason disc priests seem to be pulling up the rear in most people's opinions is most likely due to a lack of sustained aoe throughput. Pretty good reason to be worried about placement in T14 imo.
I see a lot of: from what I've heard, from my experience and just a list of classes without anything to back it up answers. I'm pretty sure the OP is looking for answers with at least some sort of data to back up the answers. I'm at least more confused then when I started reading this thread.
As far as disc priest discussion goes, there is a great thread over in the Priest forums which is discussing the relative place of disc priests in MoP PVE.
Hope it gets some PvP loving too, because there is a wide consensus in the arena community that priest is going to be worse than they were in S9 (which was awful for priest). It's sorta funny that the one class with 2 healing specs is going to be the lowest desired in PvP healing. All will change with time though