To holy paladins....

[Stosis]

Im looking to play a healing class, mainly and everyone is pointing out to either a Holy paladin, priest, or druid. From your experience which would you guys rather play for an offensive healer, for raiding and pvp?

[Deleted]

Im looking to play a healing class, mainly and everyone is pointing out to either a Holy paladin, priest, or druid. From your experience which would you guys rather play for an offensive healer, for raiding and pvp?

Holy paladins are the LEAST offensive healer of all the classes. They are defensive healers.

[Comprise]

Priest/Druid for offensive-ness kk.

[NotValidAnymore]

The best offensive healer is Shamans, in my opinion. Maybe Druid after that.

[Firecrest]

Why the hell would you want to play an offensive healer for raiding???

[Firecrest]

Maybe if you have an IQ above 10 you would realize that he wants a healer with all three aspects for those three different things.

Retard -.-

Oh right. That totally makes sense when he goes on to list PvP and PvE. He must be using that offensive healing spec for something other than PvP and PvE then, eh? You let me know when you figure out what that is. Apparently I'm missing out on 1/3 of the game.

Personal insults are pretty cool though. Good job on how that makes you look.

[monalin]

So your friend must be smart and give good advice. He narrowed it down to 3 classes to pick from instead of 4.

If you want to heal you should know that in PvE they all have their strengths. If you want to be on top of the healing meters because of some ego thing you have then pick a priest, they usually are on top. That by no means makes them the best healing class but if thats all you look at then pick a priest.
The following rankings will give you some rough ideas of what to expect from the different classes. They are ranked from 1 - 5 with 5 being the best.

AoE healing
Priest - 5
Druid - 4
Shaman 3
Pally 2

Single Target Heals
Pally - 5
Priest - 4
Shaman - 4
Druid - 3

Mobility
Druid - 5
Priest - 4
Shaman - 3
Pally - 2

Raid buffs
Shaman - 5
Pally - 5
Druid - 3
Priest - 2

Overall
Priest - 15
Druid - 15
Shaman - 15
Pally - 14

Its your choice but their all pretty equal

[Phreeze]

druids can singletarget heal at least as good as shamans do put 2-3hots up and nourish...

[monalin]

druids can singletarget heal at least as good as shamans do put 2-3hots up and nourish...

I knew someone would say that. I still don't think that hots are a reliable way to heal a MT who is taking spike damage. Shamans = Earthshield, Riptide then Lesser Healing Wave for quick heals Healing Wave for bigger heals. Anyways people could argue about it all day long thats not the point of my post haha.

[Aldurion]

For PvP I'd take paladin almost blindly, especially that you can put all PvE gear to good use as opposed to all 3 other classes that just must have resilience.

For PvE it doesn't matter, all healing specs seem to do great and differ mostly in playstyle (and thus what kind of skill quality they require).

Hence I play holy paladin and lovin it for the first time in 4 years.


As for "offensive", as far as arenas look today paladins in fact are the most offensive class there is, because all other healers are too busy surviving or healing their team mate, being oom or just dying from few crits.

[Firecrest]

If you want to be on top of the healing meters because of some ego thing you have then pick a priest, they usually are on top.

One thing to bear in mind here is that the "top" healer on the meters is something that will change. Not just per fight, but in the game as a whole. For example, Priests currently are often top of the meters as mentioned. However, this is due in large part to the OPness of the current incarnation of CoH. Next patch when the cooldown is instituted, you can expect to see them slip downward some.

Individual skill is also plays a huge factor in chart topping. I can out AoE heal PUGs all day long, even though I'm a Pally and should be "bad" at that. If you're a terrible healer, you'll never top the charts, no matter what class you play. And if you're a good one, you'll often find yourself beating out classes that are supposedly superior to your own.

[monalin]

Thats why I choose the words "usually" and didn't say always. I know for myself how healing works i use to play a shaman. I have always been high on the charts, higher than other shamans with the same gear. Sometimes priests would beat me, this was back in BC though they wern't quite as OP or the ones i ran with just sucked.

One of the most important things i can say about healing is learn to start heals before people take damage and duck them if its not necessary. Over healing is not bad as long as u don't run out of mana before the end of the fight.

[cerbul]

This thing depends on many aspects.
Is only healer that you want to play?
Paladins and Druids offer the posibility to play as tank, melee dps and healer.
You want your raid slot to be sure?
Shamans are the best option in this situation imo.
You want a nice play style and a class verry interesting to play?
I'd pick a paladin.
You want to be able to grind easy with your dps spec especialy when dual spec comes?
Pick anything but paladin then.
You want a class that does spell damage?
Pick anything but paladin.
You want a class that can be both melee dps and caster dps?
Pick druid or shaman then.

This depends mostly on you and what you want to do.
But from healing point of view, in Wotlk healers are somehow different and they all heal different types of damage.
I've been thinking alot what class I would pick if I wanted to let my pally be a tank. But since dual spec will come, I don't bother. Anyway, what I came to was picking between a priest and a shammy. Priests were atractive to me because of the 2 healing trees and the verry interesting new mechanics for dealing dps. Shamans appeal to me as they are verry useful in raids, and they are the most complete non tanking class.