which healing class in 3.2

[Reignz]

I am an addicted wow player for 4 years now. I always played dps-classes like mage, rogue and hunter because i liked the idea of shredding other players to pieces.
However after 4 years of playing dps classes i am kinda bored with it. So i want to reroll and go hardcore arena with a healing class.
Because i am not able to play at the ptr i am looking for someone that can tell me something about which healing class is most fun and viable in 3.2? I heard alot about shammies beeing very powerfull in 3.2 butt still palla's that are able to reroll tot retri's also sound pretty fun. Any constructive replies are appreciated.

[Angeal]

Druid or D/priest imo. There what I have most trouble with anyway. They should still be good in 3.2 also

[Stilgarr]

Dusted my old Priest off last week, switched him to Disc healing and whacked on the crafted set.

Early on with <350res you'll last a couple of seconds, but as the kit improves (run VoA and do WG) things start to get better.

Been a week since I started BG's and Arena and with 2 parts of honor kit I'm starting to last a bit longer and get used to the healing / offensive stuff as Disc and tbh having a right laugh at the same time.

It's also taking a bit longer to kill me now too. Definatley worth trying out for sure.

[Ordin]

All 4 healers have a significantly different style of play. They are all good for different reasons and can be successful in all brackets with different teammates.

Do you know what classes your teammates are going to be? That will make choosing a class much easier.

If you do not have partners already lined up, then you may want to go with a more versatile healer like paladin or druid, they work with virtually every teammate. If you know you'll be grouping with a class that is good at getting opponents off of you (like a rogue or dk), then priests are an extremely powerful class.

Coming from playing DPS classes, you may like to play an offensive style healer which would be a priest or shaman.

But if you're looking for something totally different, then druids and paladins are more defensive healers.

[Reignz]

First of all thanks for the replies.

I am not sure what i will be teaming up with yet. I play a rogue in a mage/ rogue set up so maybe i will be teaming with him.
I know he almost finished leveling up a palladin, to go retri with or maybe holy. So then would rolling a priest be a good idea.

However seeming the changes to the 2 vs 2 bracket i rather go for a healer that's very versitile in 3 v 3 and 5 v 5 and able to go dps and be succesfull in arena as an offspecc.
Maybe with the buffs to shadow priest, priest would still be an option then butt retri is too and ele or enhance shammans aswell...Don't know about moonkins or ferals...dont think they are as good in arena as the first two i mentioned.
Arghh cant choose....really difficult descision

Edit: Also i would like to know something about racials for healing i would preffer to stay alliance then i assume its human palla, drainei shaman, ne drood and dwarf priest are best for arena?

[Floness]

If you are going to be new to the class (which I think you are) I would strongly suggest against gong Shaman. It has a much higher skill cap than the other 3 healing classes. My suggestion would be priest. Disc is a pretty user friendly class, meaning it doesnt take much knowledge or skill to be decent, but it still gives you room to show your skill. Another reason to go Disc, is it really opens you up to tons of comps to play. I have a feeling with resil changes your going to again see double healer teams become popular. Disc can be played as a mana burn machine to success with another healer in 3v3. More options imo.

[rathok]

I play a resto sham and for a while I was all like "QQ, druids are OP and sooo much better" (and factually, they are) but once i started playing mine I found that i actually much prefered shaman's style of healing. idk, i think shaman will be great in 3.2 but who knows with the riptide changes. That will be a serious kick in the nutz in terms of our ability to tank melee (hopefully the sexy GW changes are enough to match that).

[Angeal]

Well if your looking for 3v3 or 5v5 also then I would still say druid, atleast then you can still use Cyclone too help your team mates. Sure other healers have some good offensive abilities also but id say druid, You also have good Healing with multiple DoTs on team mates.

[Balduvian]

Shaman if you want to be able to get a decent rating before getting nerfed into the ground again.

Paladin if you want to be able to get a more decent rating, aswell as being able to respec for another ''shred someone apart class''.

DiscPriest if you want to be able to get a great rating while being an offensive healer.

RestoDruid if you want to be able to get a even greater rating while never going oom and making someone go /enrage irl because of your Cyclone/Root Spam while your HoT's are doing all the work.

That's my POV :P

[Aniria22]

Druid or D/priest imo.

[Ewyndall]

Shaman if you want to be able to get a decent rating before getting nerfed into the ground again.

Paladin if you want to be able to get a more decent rating, aswell as being able to respec for another ''shred someone apart class''.

DiscPriest if you want to be able to get a great rating while being an offensive healer.

RestoDruid if you want to be able to get a even greater rating while never going oom and making someone go /enrage irl because of your Cyclone/Root Spam while your HoT's are doing all the work.

This. Short yet tells exactly how the different healing classes are ^-^

I play a paladin for 4 years, dps and healing roles.
As dps I have the least trouble with shamans,
Disc priests are fun to fight, they last very long and also do damage, fighting them tends to be the most interresting to me.
As for trees...they simply tend to make me want to hang myself...yeah on a tree lol...

On a healing perspective, I think paladins have more "space" to experiment with. You can go full holy, you can go half holy half retri, or simply spec deep into prot and put on a holy gear. All of them are viable. I think you cant do this with the other healing classes, never heard of a half shadow half disc healer, or a half balance half resto druid, could go on. But it's just probably just me ^-^
Anyhow, have fun on the healing side, finally you do something that requires attention .)

[TheOne]

Resto shaman in my opinion (my main). You have three basic healing tools; earthshield, riptide, and lesser healing wave. A polymorph; Hex, but it does have a long cooldown. An interrupt; wind shock, which is getting some changes in 3.2. All very good tools and not very hard or complicated to master. Shaman have great abilities that aren't difficult to get used to. Not saying other healing classes don't, I have also played a disc priest, but have always found my shaman to be more fun and easier to manage.

[Balduvian]

As for trees...they simply tend to make me want to hang myself...yeah on a tree lol...

Lol'd.

I think you cant do this with the other healing classes, never heard of a half shadow half disc healer, or a half balance half resto druid, could go on.

Half Balance, half Resto was the primary spec in S3-4 if I'm right, and mostly used in S5 even. Correct me if I'm wrong. Also, half Feral/Half Resto did exist (till Leader of the Pack for the rogue/warrior in your party) and Heart of the Wild gives you a huge Int boost, but furthermore, the talents just plain suck for resto.

But indeed, there are different viable healing ways for Paladin, which aren't there for any other class right now

[Yeorgaki]

Prot Paladin for sure.

[Yeorgaki]

Resto druids are OP as hell too.

[Snowf0x]

Shaman if you want to be able to get a decent rating before getting nerfed into the ground again.

Paladin if you want to be able to get a more decent rating, aswell as being able to respec for another ''shred someone apart class''.

DiscPriest if you want to be able to get a great rating while being an offensive healer.

RestoDruid if you want to be able to get a even greater rating while never going oom and making someone go /enrage irl because of your Cyclone/Root Spam while your HoT's are doing all the work.

That's my POV :P

obviously a shaman luls, I play resto druid myself and I think most people complain about resto druids is because they don't know how to effectively play against one

[xGenshinx]

Shaman if you want to be able to get a decent rating before getting nerfed into the ground again.

Paladin if you want to be able to get a more decent rating, aswell as being able to respec for another ''shred someone apart class''.

DiscPriest if you want to be able to get a great rating while being an offensive healer.

RestoDruid if you want to be able to get a even greater rating while never going oom and making someone go /enrage irl because of your Cyclone/Root Spam while your HoT's are doing all the work.

That's my POV :P

Oh so true

[rathok]

obviously a shaman luls, I play resto druid myself and I think most people complain about resto druids is because they don't know how to effectively play against one

Shaman have less healing throughput and are much easier to interrupt, less mobility, much worse CC, much less survivability because of the previously mentioned deficiencies, no active defensive cooldowns and worse mana regen. I'm sure you just happen to outplay all those shaman you find, right?

Honestly, i rejoice when i see shaman healers as mage/rogue, they are a free win cause they can't do anything to even begin to compete with the damage we can put out and CCing their partner is generally not an issue. Even wearing 925 resil my shaman has died in a cheepshot without ES on to a ret+rogue. It's kind of pathetic.

It's like I play my mage and...
I am a skilled PVP ninja!, then... i logon to my DK and...
I am a skilled PVP ninja!, then... i logo to my shaman and...
I suck... wtf... so i go back to my mage and...
My skills have retured! Glorious is the day! then... i logon to my DK and
I am a skilled PVP ninja!, then... i logo to my shaman and...
I suck... wtf... so i go back to my mage and.......

[Snowf0x]

Shaman have less healing throughput and are much easier to interrupt, less mobility, much worse CC, much less survivability because of the previously mentioned deficiencies, no active defensive cooldowns and worse mana regen. I'm sure you just happen to outplay all those shaman you find, right?

Honestly, i rejoice when i see shaman healers as mage/rogue, they are a free win cause they can't do anything to even begin to compete with the damage we can put out and CCing their partner is generally not an issue. Even wearing 925 resil my shaman has died in a cheepshot without ES on to a ret+rogue. It's kind of pathetic.

It's like I play my mage and...
I am a skilled PVP ninja!, then... i logon to my DK and...
I am a skilled PVP ninja!, then... i logo to my shaman and...
I suck... wtf... so i go back to my mage and...
My skills have retured! Glorious is the day! then... i logon to my DK and
I am a skilled PVP ninja!, then... i logo to my shaman and...
I suck... wtf... so i go back to my mage and.......

never said anything negative about shamans, i know they have it tough in arena, but my point was that resto druids aren't immortal or have endless mana like some people make it look like. it's all about knowing how to counter one

[Zebraz]

i am kinda bored with it. So i want to reroll and go hardcore arena with a healing class.

Resto druid no contest.