An easy to play healer class for my GF

[Thirteen]

I played all the healing classes in high end raiding and have to say that Paladin, monk and (Holy) Priest were the easiest .
Many say Shamans are easy, but my experience was that shamans are very gear dependant. They do fine when having high-end gear, but if not then they have a hard time catching up with other classes. And the totem synergy is also a thing that became somewhat 'harder' now that they changed totems. However, my most shaman experience comes from Firelands hc and Dragonsoul hc. During MoP I have no shaman experience.

I'd say difficulty to be something like this (with holy priest being easiest and druid hardest)
- Holy Priest
- Monk
- Paladin
- Shaman
- Disc Priest
- Druid

But for your situation I'd suggest priest because of the two healing specs. If she doesn't like one she can always try the other one. With the other classes you are kinda stuck to one play-style.

I feel like you've got the two priest specs mixed up.

[zoomgpally]

Resto shaman got a very gentle learning curve

This is also true.
If I can play a resto shaman, anybody can

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Not a priest if you want low keybinds.

Completely new player, i don't think we should assume normal/heroic raids just yet
A disc priest can get pretty far with only smite, penance, holy fire and shield(compared to other healers that will wipe on level 85 quests if they only use 4 buttons)

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I feel like you've got the two priest specs mixed up.

High end raiding. Disc suddenly gets 2000 new buttons once raid difficulty is changed to heroic

[Jackkernaut]

At my first time ever as a raiding healer i was a paladin, i knew nothing about healing in-depth, but it was kinda easier than previously had Priest.
I'd say the foundations of every healer in the game are small,heals,big heals,smart heals,AoE,smart AoE along with always keep casting. It doesn't matter what class you pick it a matter of playstyle. If you seek straight forward classes i'd pick rather R.Shaman or Holydin.

[Rizendragon]

Hey guys,

I'd like to play WoW very casually with my GF; me being some dps class and her the healer.

What healer class would you recommend for a girl who is completely new to WoW and mmorpgs in general?

I know that you'll probably say " let her choose the class she likes the most", which might in fact be the case, but apart from that? Ideally I'm looking for a healer that has:

* possibly the smallest amount of keybindings
* possibly a lot of instant heals ( the more the better)
* an almost horizontal learning curve

Based on that I can already say that it's not going to be a druid ( a lot of shapeshifting, different skills in different forms = hard to get a hang on for a newbie)

So what would you suggest? Thanks for any help

Druids seem to have the most difficult learning curve. Despite having many instant heals the idea of hotting the whole raid to prevent damage is one that is kind of foreign to some people.

Shaman have a decent amount of keybinds, but are fairly easy to play at a mediocre level. (one instant hot, one instant heal that augments your casted heals, 2 casted single target heals, 2 casted AoE heals).

Priests have 2 different styles. A raw healer in holy, and the disc priests that have attonement (damage to heal) and the normal bubble everyone to prevent damage to the raid.

Paladins are another raw throughput healer, but with combo points. Paladins went from my favorite healer to my least favorite after Wrath.

I don't have a whole lot of experience with monks.

I would personally have her try priest, shaman, or druid, but you should really let her try what she wants. Not all women enjoy healing. Let her pick the class she wants. Explain what each class does, how they play, and what roles they perform. If you really want her to play with you that is the only way to get the best results.

[xDarkaix]

Monk is pretty easy to learn and level, doesn't have as many spells to cast as most healers.

[Aliessil]

It sounds like most of the time it's just the two of you, so she won't need to be healing all of the time. In that case I'd look at shaman, druid and priest.

Shaman
+ Can do some healing in Elemental spec
+ Can spam lightning bolt for mana in healing spec, when you don't need to heal
+ Good AOE heal options
+ Totems and elementals give her plenty to learn without being vital
+ Ghost wolf
- Single-target heal toolkit's small; not many options

Druid
+ Can do some healing in e.g. Balance spec
+ The shapeshifting's fun and pretty useful. Instant flightform's great!
+ HOTs are pretty powerful and easy
+ Great tools for escaping trouble
+ Can play as all 4 roles, if you want
- Non-HOT healing is really limited

Priest
+ As Disc, can do good damage with smart heals
+ Huge toolkit to explore
+ Several different healing styles to try out, and 2 healing specs
+ Lifegrip's fun
+ The most race options
+ Shields!
- If you want to go DPS your only option is Shadow (which I don't like much)


While I love my priest, it's an alt. As a first toon, I'd go for either the shaman or druid.

[Deleted]

Druid is the perfect class for a first timer.

The overall number of abilities is high, but you can skip 3/4 of them since you only have to stay in one form to be useful. If she ever gets tired of healing, or wants to try something new, she can be feral at lvl 15, tank at lvl 25, ranged at lvl 45, or whatever she decides. Been playing my druid in various specs for years now.. never felt I had to level an alt, just respec

[Deleted]

I've played all healer classes and to be honest i'd choose the shaman at first sight. Because you have one the strongest fast healing spells when leveling : Healing surge. At low level she won't spend all here mana this way. Then she has the healing totem to help her. And shamans look cool with that mana shield floating around them so she might this class good-looking ( which, let's face it, most new players find attractive : they are going to choose a class / spec which has good looks.)

But she could also choose a Rdrood, the shape-shifting can be something she finds interesting : i've once more recently up a Rdrood and even a rejuv is more than enough to keep people alive. Once she'll be lvl 25 you can buy her the glyph of the tree form, i'm pretty confident she'll find that even cooler.

[bionics]

Whichever one she feels like putting the most time and dedication into.

She can learn any of the healer classes; there's not one that's really much "easier" to play than the others when you get down to it.

[Snakez]

Unless she goes hardcore they are all easy...

[Deleted]

Atonement healing disc priest. My dog can probably heal with that "spec".

[Deleted]

Disc priest is really easy. Shaman is also easy, but being good at it is not so easy. An easy way to spot a bad resto shaman is if he's stacking crit.

[Deleted]

Shaman. Most of the healing comes from passive and cd's.

[zealo]

Shaman is probably the easiest class to grasp and do ok with at its basics but is it you or her that decided she should roll a healer? I would let her decide her own class and what role she wants to play herself if its the former tbh.

[Moondance]

Let her be a monk, so she can heal AND be a badass tank or dps.

My Monk is BM/WW, and I really like those two.

[Deleted]

Most healers are easy to learn but impossible to master really, so I would suggest she just makes whichever class she enjoys playing the most

[Azutael]

No way to know before she tries them out a bit.

I love healing as well, but I can't stand healing as priest or shaman (not since they removed the totem bar). I prefer druid, it's for me the most relaxing and also the healer I know the best. Which makes it the easiest for me.

[Sageofthe10paths]

Since I got 2 of each class to 90 and I know how to play ever class + spec in the game I think I'm best suited to answer this. Here's a break down of easiest to hardest healer spec to play in WoW.

Monk<Paladin<Shaman<Holy<Discapline<Druid

Druid has lots of ins and outs about that's why it's the most complicated. Monk is the most simple because it's got tons of smart heals and almost everything is instant heals.

[anisadora]

Excuse me, girls dont need to be handed "easy classes". Girls are just as competent, if they want to be doing what theyre doing. You do know Mione is female, right? The DK (mostly) that keeps coming out with amazing solo videos?

Let the poor girl play what she wants, or stop dragging her into something she's only doing because she's trying to spend more time with you. Jesus. You don't need to get a girlfriend to have a pocket healer.

[Louis CK]

Excuse me, girls dont need to be handed "easy classes". Girls are just as competent, if they want to be doing what theyre doing. You do know Mione is female, right? The DK (mostly) that keeps coming out with amazing solo videos?

Let the poor girl play what she wants, or stop dragging her into something she's only doing because she's trying to spend more time with you. Jesus. You don't need to get a girlfriend to have a pocket healer.

And the winner is??? ^^^^