Resto Druid vs Shaman and Priest in Legion

[UnholyAvatar]

So I'm currently trying to decide between Resto Druid, RShaman and Hpriest as my main for Legion and I'm having trouble making up my mind. Anyone able to provide some input in regards to how these 3 are going to compare to each other in both 5 man and raid situations? Thanks.

[Aggrophobic]

Both shaman and druid are doing really well.
I find shaman to be better in 5 mans but I'm a bit of a poor/biased judge fo9r that as I've played shaman as my main alt for years and only played druid for one tier back in Cata.
Our resto druid seems to do better in raids though, especially on encounters where the raid is spread out. Shaman really needs your team to be stacked if you want it to shine.
Druid also have a great tank CD and thats something the shaman lacks.

Can't say much about the priest though. Disc was cool but felt weak when I tried it (was a few patches ago) and holy is the most boring healing spec ever (personal opinion) so I don't go near that crap. Holy does seem to do well if you like the playstyle however.

[Tomali]

In a raid environment, you won't be stacking any of those classes, and they all have their place. They will all be viable for 5 mans and raids.

Resto Shaman has the most utility and bring a lot of different cooldowns to use. RDruid and HPriest are more similar in what they bring to a raid, but vary in playstyle. If you like being more mobile with instant casts and helping with DPS, RDruid is for you. If you like casting big heals and hard casting in general, HPriest is probably better. I wouldn't worry about tuning but what you would rather play.

[Tygerlily177]

Druids: Resto druids have two distinct builds that offer some versatility - one that revolves around their mastery and the various talents that provide additional HoTs (primarily cultivation), and one that revolves around haste/crit and wild growth (soul of the forest). Druids will likely use the first build in 5-mans and the second in raids. Resto druids no longer have genesis and nature's swiftness so they lost some burst healing capacity; however, they gained the ability to cast tranq on the move (artifact trait), which effectively removed one of their worst weaknesses. Tranq is now one of the best raid CDs in the game. They also bring a single target innervate (not to be confused with the former innervate), which lets a healer cast without a mana cost for 10 seconds. Finally, druids still have ironbark, albeit on a slightly longer cooldown.

Shamans: Resto shamans bring by far the most utility: two powerful raid cooldowns (healing tide and spirit link), a totem that is the equivalent of stampeding roar, and another totem that will automatically battle rez someone who is within its range. Shamans also regained ancestral vigor, a talent that adds a 10% health buff to the raid, which is likely to give them a de facto raid spot. Chain heal is not as affected by distance as others make it out to be. I never felt hopeless with a split raid; spirit link is the only spell that I found difficult to use in these situations. In 5-mans, I felt like I could use a tank healing CD, especially if I was in mythic+ dungeons with monk tanks (by far the weakest tanks in my opinion). Spirit link was not always reliable to save the tanks. Other than that, the spec was completely viable in both raids and 5-mans.

HPriests: Holy priests provide powerful burst healing via their new holy word spells, but they are on long cooldowns (1 minute each). In between those spells, I felt that the spec was somewhat bland. Renew is not as strong as it used to be, so priests have to time their other spells appropriately. Hymn is still a strong raid CD but not castable on the move, and guardian spirit is still excellent. Finally, H priests bring symbol of hope, a raid-wide innervate.

After playing a disc/holy priest for 11 years, I am main swapping for the first time. I have played all healers in mythic+10 dungeons on the beta, and resto druid is by far the most enjoyable for me. Our team will most likely be using two resto druids, a shaman, and a paladin for our core. We will have a shadow priest flex to healing if a fifth is needed.

[UnholyAvatar]

Druids: Resto druids have two distinct builds that offer some versatility - one that revolves around their mastery and the various talents that provide additional HoTs (primarily cultivation), and one that revolves around haste/crit and wild growth (soul of the forest). Druids will likely use the first build in 5-mans and the second in raids. Resto druids no longer have genesis and nature's swiftness so they lost some burst healing capacity; however, they gained the ability to cast tranq on the move (artifact trait), which effectively removed one of their worst weaknesses. Tranq is now one of the best raid CDs in the game. They also bring a single target innervate (not to be confused with the former innervate), which lets a healer cast without a mana cost for 10 seconds. Finally, druids still have ironbark, albeit on a slightly longer cooldown.

Shamans: Resto shamans bring by far the most utility: two powerful raid cooldowns (healing tide and spirit link), a totem that is the equivalent of stampeding roar, and another totem that will automatically battle rez someone who is within its range. Shamans also regained ancestral vigor, a talent that adds a 10% health buff to the raid, which is likely to give them a de facto raid spot. Chain heal is not as affected by distance as others make it out to be. I never felt hopeless with a split raid; spirit link is the only spell that I found difficult to use in these situations. In 5-mans, I felt like I could use a tank healing CD, especially if I was in mythic+ dungeons with monk tanks (by far the weakest tanks in my opinion). Spirit link was not always reliable to save the tanks. Other than that, the spec was completely viable in both raids and 5-mans.

HPriests: Holy priests provide powerful burst healing via their new holy word spells, but they are on long cooldowns (1 minute each). In between those spells, I felt that the spec was somewhat bland. Renew is not as strong as it used to be, so priests have to time their other spells appropriately. Hymn is still a strong raid CD but not castable on the move, and guardian spirit is still excellent. Finally, H priests bring symbol of hope, a raid-wide innervate.

After playing a disc/holy priest for 11 years, I am main swapping for the first time. I have played all healers in mythic+10 dungeons on the beta, and resto druid is by far the most enjoyable for me. Our team will most likely be using two resto druids, a shaman, and a paladin for our core. We will have a shadow priest flex to healing if a fifth is needed.

Yeah, based on this I'm leaning more towards maining Druid and having Shaman as an alt. I've mained a Disc Priest for about 5 or 6 years, but I pug the majority of my progression due to an inability to commit to raid times (school / work), and I feel as though throughput healers will be more useful in pugs where things are likely going to be a bit harder due to a lack of organization. Cheers for the input.