Healing classes comparison

[Rivellana]

I'm actually quite glad I glanced over here today and saw this thread.

My main through all of Cata was a disc/holy priest that I loved (and miss playing), but when I came back to the game a few weeks after MoP launched and read about how bad they were at that point I set it aside and leveled a fresh mistweaver monk instead as my new main. I finished leveling my holy paladin from 85-90 just last week and am feeling bad that I didn't choose my priest instead.

I was having trouble deciding which of my other characters to level next (85 priest, 85 shaman, 85 druid, 85 mage, 81 hunter) but after reading, and seeing in some LFRs that they've significantly buffed discipline in the past two weeks I have no reservations about getting my priest back up there and at least ready to do alt raids if not be my main again.

[HPLathus]

After a long raiding night with my guild, one of the members claimed that disco priests are currently the worst healer in the game. Disco priest being my main-alt, I rushed to its defense. In the ensuing argument, it was generally agreed upon by many of the guild members that this is the case.

I was wondering where, or according to what, who, why and whatever these claims has been made?
According to LFR (and it doesn't say much, I know) my priest is pretty competitive, and does some damage. On what base has it been thrown to the bottom of the list?

A lot of people think disc is bad right now, it's not.

What is bad are the people who don't know how to utilize the abilities properly.

People think just SPAMMING spirit shell every cooldown is how you do it, wrong. You time it with boss aoe abilities to maximize its use.

---------- Post added 2012-11-24 at 05:03 PM ----------

Monk/Disc > Pally/Shaman > Druid > Holy Priest

You are nuts if you put holy priests on the bottom.


Holy priests = gods of smart heals, you want someone who can save your bad players standing in things? Bring a holy priest, not to mention that a holy priest stacking mastery will help balance out damage spikes on your raid via Echo of Light.

---------- Post added 2012-11-24 at 05:08 PM ----------

Priests are not as good as shamans and paladins on spot healing or single target healing(anymore) and that is pretty much it.

Wrong, and here is why.

Penance = DPS healing or single target healing
PW:S = Disc can still save people very easily
PoM + Glyph = Welcome to single target instant cast healing during raid damage
PoM + Divine Insight = Welcome to holy priest single target healing
Surge of Light = Welcome to single target healing
Holy Word: Serenity = Oh look another single target heal that's instant cast
Lightspring = Do I need to say anymore?
Atonment[Especially come 5.1] = Oh look melee/tank single target healing (AND IT'S A SMART HEAL WUT) come 5.1 = Oh look disc priests can spot heal better then any healer in the game.

You have to know your class to utilize it the best, I have been a holy/disc priest since end of Burning Crusade. I can say I know all the ins and outs of the class and how to use spells in multiple ways.

[Rorschachs]

Wrong, and here is why.

Penance = DPS healing or single target healing
PW:S = Disc can still save people very easily
PoM + Glyph = Welcome to single target instant cast healing during raid damage
PoM + Divine Insight = Welcome to holy priest single target healing
Surge of Light = Welcome to single target healing
Holy Word: Serenity = Oh look another single target heal that's instant cast
Lightspring = Do I need to say anymore?
Atonment[Especially come 5.1] = Oh look melee/tank single target healing (AND IT'S A SMART HEAL WUT) come 5.1 = Oh look disc priests can spot heal better then any healer in the game.

You have to know your class to utilize it the best, I have been a holy/disc priest since end of Burning Crusade. I can say I know all the ins and outs of the class and how to use spells in multiple ways.

Pom glyph is a choice and you can't always know if the person that needs healing will be taking damage soon.
Divine insight+Pom is a pretty good spot heal; but assuming you don't want to lose a second divine insight proc you will pretty much all the time just use it whenever it procs.
Close to nobody uses from darkness comes light and it is still a proc.
I don't find serenity the better chakra to use even if there is only need for spot healing. I wouldn't want to give up my extra circle of healing heals, even if I did and used holy word: serenity it still has a long cooldown and cannot be compared to insane fast hw, ghw + riptide or anything that a holy paladin can do.
Atonement doesn't have a wide range, I am okay with atonement but I don't like the idea of dpsing the boss to save someone who is in trouble and trying to do that might not be a good idea all the time.
Using PW:S without rapture will save people but is very mana expensive.

Overall I didn't really say that priests don't have ANY spot heals. Some classes just happen to have better spot heals.(Because instant and fast heals are the best spot heals and priests don't have a lot of them.)

[HPLathus]

Pom glyph is a choice and you can't always know if the person that needs healing will be taking damage soon.
Divine insight+Pom is a pretty good spot heal; but assuming you don't want to lose a second divine insight proc you will pretty much all the time just use it whenever it procs.
Close to nobody uses from darkness comes light and it is still a proc.
I don't find serenity the better chakra to use even if there is only need for spot healing. I wouldn't want to give up my extra circle of healing heals, even if I did and used holy word: serenity it still has a long cooldown and cannot be compared to insane fast hw, ghw + riptide or anything that a holy paladin can do.
Atonement doesn't have a wide range, I am okay with atonement but I don't like the idea of dpsing the boss to save someone who is in trouble and trying to do that might not be a good idea all the time.
Using PW:S without rapture will save people but is very mana expensive.

Overall I didn't really say that priests don't have ANY spot heals. Some classes just happen to have better spot heals.(Because instant and fast heals are the best spot heals and priests don't have a lot of them.)

Yea I am not saying any of these are mandatory, just stating what tools are AVAILABLE.

Yes divine insight should almost always be used on proc, but typically in raids there are at least two people needing heals, mainly the tanks.

What disc priest wouldn't use from darkness comes light? I almost always have 2 surge of light procs up when I need them... if you are disc you SHOULD have that talent.

Chakra serenity, there are a few fights {including a few bosses with different phases} where this comes in handy, spirit kings is one of them.

Disc isnt about dpsing dude, it's about knowing how to use atonment properly. People said atonment sucked in the first part of cata, and yet I managed to rank top 50 WOL and even top 10 on maloriak using atonment on the adds during black phase to keep the warlocks that were AOEing alive.


If you know your class, and your abilities you can use different spells for different situations. People need to get out of this mentality of "OMG YOU ONLY USE THIS SPELL AND DONT USE THIS SPELL AND NEVER THISONE etc." thats just nothow you play a priest.

[Noradin]

I'm not going to respond to the rest of your post because I have better things to do than to argue with nonsense babble, but yes, the top 1% of players are what cause class adjustments. This is true for both pve and pvp. Do you really think a world 200 or 300 guild, or lower, is going to sit their holy priest because he can't top charts? The more competitive it gets, the more the differences show.

The top 1% are what causes whining, elitist behaviour and maybe a hotfix (nerf) or two. Most changes will be based on a larger dataset, because just as you say, the more competitive it gets, the more the differences show, but not just the differences that concern balanceing of classes and specs.
Maybe you should read a bit about data, statistics, and using those for design before you baselessly accuse others of "nonsense babble" just because they have an opinion other than your own?
*Oh, and for the record, just claiming to have some rankings even if you have proof somewhere doesn't automatically make others wrong, or even automatically make you right. While knowledge and good performance often coincide they don't have to.

[Deleted]

People simply don't seem to realize healing is a team game between healers as you don't heal alone in a raid. It's about the synergy between the healers being to cover the strengths and weaknesses of each other. Healing to me is not a numbers game as opposed to dps-ing. That said I believe there's very little difference between healers in PVE in terms of viability. The player behind it is way more important.

[Deleted]

You're a disc priest, man up and take the fire. You do a damn site better at keeping the raid alive and preventing damage than they do. You're a symbiotic spec, you make them play better.

[Mooji]

The top 1% are what causes whining, elitist behaviour and maybe a hotfix (nerf) or two. Most changes will be based on a larger dataset, because just as you say, the more competitive it gets, the more the differences show, but not just the differences that concern balanceing of classes and specs.

lol wut? You said "just as you say" but then you contradict the statement. And what exactly does the top 1% have to do with whining, elitist behavior, etc? That sounds to me like a bias you have...

Maybe you should read a bit about data, statistics, and using those for design before you baselessly accuse others of "nonsense babble" just because they have an opinion other than your own?

Once again...lol...go read the post I was responding to and you'll understand my answer. Nearly every line of text has lies and/or inaccuracies.

*Oh, and for the record, just claiming to have some rankings even if you have proof somewhere doesn't automatically make others wrong, or even automatically make you right. While knowledge and good performance often coincide they don't have to.

I didn't say the ranks made him wrong, did I? Once again you're putting words into my mouth. You'd make a good politician though

[Deleted]

What disc priest wouldn't use from darkness comes light? I almost always have 2 surge of light procs up when I need them... if you are disc you SHOULD have that talent.

Glad someone agrees that FDCL is not just "forget that" talent. (like here in sticky Discipline-MoP-Healing-Guide ). It can be your bread and butter talent when you need to be spot healer in your group.

If you know your class, and your abilities you can use different spells for different situations. People need to get out of this mentality of "OMG YOU ONLY USE THIS SPELL AND DONT USE THIS SPELL AND NEVER THISONE etc." thats just nothow you play a priest.

Cannot agree more - If you look at forums for guide "how to play priest" and not only for inspiration, do yourself a favor and reroll to other class .

[Deleted]

Healing per mana wise or mana regen wise, I feel like holy paladins are lacking atm.

Currently raiding with holy pally(me), mistweaver and resto druid. Most fights we keep even hp/s wise, but I'm almost always lowest on mana, while also having the least overhealing. Not to mention one of our mana regen abilities are broken atm. (Can't white hit anything while having 2+ eternal flame hots up). Our other mana regen tool nerfs our healing done by 50% for the duration.

I just feel like holy pally mana regen is very lacklustre compared to other healers atm.

As for disc, before we got our mistweaver we had a disc priest. He was doing fine.

Oh, and our only raid cooldown devotion aura feels so lackluster. It only affects magic damage, while any other healing class has cooldowns that helps against any sort of damage.

[Deleted]

Disc makes some hc fights so much easier if the person behind the priest is good enough.
It easily tops meters when played correctly (there's the catch). You have to know the fights, when to bubble alot and when to save some mana.

If someone is telling you discpriests are bad, then he just doesn't have a clue.

[Noradin]

lol wut? You said "just as you say" but then you contradict the statement. And what exactly does the top 1% have to do with whining, elitist behavior, etc? That sounds to me like a bias you have...

The influence of tactics and raid setup will also cause bigger differences in those raids than in less competitive ones (just think of class stacking) and thus might reduce the value of the data for acutal class balancing in regards of normal setups.
Its not necessarily the players in the top 1% progress raids that do the whining, but they are the most visible and often get used as evidence by whiners, disregarding the difference between data and anecdotes.

Once again...lol...go read the post I was responding to and you'll understand my answer. Nearly every line of text has lies and/or inaccuracies.

While the other post might have inaccuracies or might be lacking in other ways, the claim that the game is balanced for the top 1% (in something)
is no better, but basically I just think dismissing someones opinion as "nonsense babble" without giving any base to that claim is just bad style and horribly disrespectful and doesn't belong in a forum.

I didn't say the ranks made him wrong, did I? Once again you're putting words into my mouth. You'd make a good politician though

I never said you did, but I got that impession, so I wrote what I did, to see how you would react. Either you didn't mean it like that, then you could correct the potential missunderstanding just by saying so or you did, than you yourself might want to think about that sentence.
And no I wouldn't make a good politican at all, I'm too open and truthfull about my opinion.

[Outofmana]

You really have to distinquish 10 man and 25mans. I find that a Holy priest becomes 3 times better on 25man (this is actually true for every expansion so far imo) whereas on 10man I feel it is the worst at the moment because on a lot of moments you are casting the weakest spell because of the wrong chakra and you have no time to switch... . 25man always having enough AoE healing to be done to just stay in sanc(or wtf is the healing aoe chakra named anyway, nice of them to invert the colours on them from cata->panda).

[bonzo27]

I feel like holy paladins are one of the strongest, I have both disc and paladin, and using the holy paladin 4piece I can do a large amount of healing for almost no mana. Disc I feel takes the most work, but can preform the best if played correctly.

[HPLathus]

I really think asking a question "Which healing class is better in terms of x y and z" is a very subjective question.

Every person will typically play their healer class a bit differently than the next person.

For example, one person might cast PoH followed by CoH, and the second person might cast CoH + PoH.

When people use trinkets/time abilities. Healing is very much based on what the raid needs in a certain moment so it's really hard to compare a priest to a holy paladin etc etc.

Don't learn to play a priest based on how a holy paladin plays, or what spells they cast when.


Learn by playing your class yourself, doing LFR and practicing tactics that work for YOU. Yes some tactics will be better then others but for the most part the real only way you can learn to heal better is by doing it, not talking about it.

[Playintrafic]

As of right now, good Disc priests shit on absolutely everything

Yeah because Disc priests arent doing 80 hps in lfr.

[HPLathus]

Yeah because Disc priests arent doing 80 hps in lfr.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean.

[Evrx]

Yeah because Disc priests arent doing 80 hps in lfr.

I think Izenheart means that they are really good. "Shitting on something" (someone?) is good. "Being shit" or "being shit on" is bad.

[swmint]

Disc is definitely not a weak option at the moment.

I don't remember a time that any Priest spec hasn't been viable, really.

[HPLathus]

Should really check WoL and see how much disc priests are slaughtering heroic content.