I want to roll a healer, but which class?

[Deleted]

Shaman
(*) Not much changing in Cataclysm

What? I'd say the restoration shaman changes in cataclysm are some of the most drastic of all. First of all "Healing Rain", which sounds like a Blizzard-for-Healers to me, and I thought they wanted to bring Spirit Link back? I don't know much about druids, but do they even get a new spell in comparision?

@topic: I was in the same situation as you, playing a mage since release. I always wanted to play a healing class more seriously, and I decided to start a resto shaman when BC was launched. While I don't regret this decision a minute, I do think, priests are more versatile. I'd still choose the shaman though. They are for me (PvE raiding only) a bit like an "AC/DC approach" - doing more with less. You still need to be a good player to succeed, but you must do so without all the toys a priest or druid has. It's much more minimalistic. But you get your equipment pretty easy (like paladins), and in cataclysm I think the gameplay of the class might change a bit.

[Fortuitous]

What? I'd say the restoration shaman changes in cataclysm are some of the most drastic of all. First of all "Healing Rain", which sounds like a Blizzard-for-Healers to me, and I thought they wanted to bring Spirit Link back? I don't know much about druids, but do they even get a new spell in comparision?

Druids aren't getting any new restoration spells. As for what I said, I meant in terms of specific "shaman's are lacking this, or too strong at this" changes Blizzard may be doing. Healing Rain doesn't really drastically change the abilities of a shaman or fill a massive hole in the class. Sure is a damn nice ability though.

In comparison, Holy paladins are getting better at AoE healing (With an activated buff that heals those nearby) which is severely lacking at the moment. Essentially filling a large hole in the class design. That's the kind of thing I was looking at. In the end, it was all entirely my opinion which holds about 2 grains of salt in the grand scheme of things.

[Kikiyodragon]

I've a holy paladin and a discipline priest, who was also holy for some time too. I find the three specs all quite fun, though I don't PvP and can't help you there.

[Firience]

I have an alt of all healing classes, and I would say paladin and shaman are most fun, druids gets really really boring specially in hcs

[muto]

I find druid and holy priest to be the most fun.

[Googolplex]

priest. by far the strongest healer in all aspects of gameplay.

highest survivability. capable of preventing damage on top of tremendous healing.

[Rist]

shamanananananamananan!

[draynay]

I vote shaman because I can just chain heal through the tank while watching tv or having a bite to eat

[Maleficious]

Go for a Druid, they are quite fun class to play its almost impossible to die if you know what you are doing.

[Fudge65]

ive lvld a priest (main in bc) to 80, pally to 60 and shaman 64, using nothing but the random dungeon, and i have to say pally is BORING for pve, shaman seems very much like a priest both very fun to me, havent had the chance to rolla druid yet but from what i hear you either like hots or you hate, i would say priest is the easier plus easiest to gear cause all cloth has the needed stats

leather mail and plate dont always have what you need,

[msdos]

in pvp, it depends.

are you a BG person or mostly arena or both perhaps?

arena: disc priest. a disc priest may be more difficult to play than a resto druid, but i think the learning curve is much smaller. yeah you dont have mobility, but you have straight forward abilities that don't necessarily rely on a a cast time.

if you don't care about difficulty or anything then go for resto druid in arena. they're freakin mana batteries with a boss-like CC.

for BGs: nothing beats the durability of a good holy paladin. a lot of fun due to being able to bubble out of hairy situations, BoP people on the fly and freedom that rogue/warrior that you see is plowing. dont forget kings.

if you prefer something with mobility and offensive toolsets, i suggest a resto shaman. unsnarable, dispelling, high armor, interrupting, pain in the asses if you ask me. sit back and chain heal snipe a zerg or riptide earthshield a melee then run around in circles kiting.

bit of both? then i'd go with holy pally or resto druid. these classes have solid defensive tools, solid mobility, good buffs, great mana efficiency and are well represented in arena, so you shouldn't have any problem finding a team if you're good.

[Deleted]

Druids aren't getting any new restoration spells. As for what I said, I meant in terms of specific "shaman's are lacking this, or too strong at this" changes Blizzard may be doing. Healing Rain doesn't really drastically change the abilities of a shaman or fill a massive hole in the class. Sure is a damn nice ability though.

In comparison, Holy paladins are getting better at AoE healing (With an activated buff that heals those nearby) which is severely lacking at the moment. Essentially filling a large hole in the class design. That's the kind of thing I was looking at. In the end, it was all entirely my opinion which holds about 2 grains of salt in the grand scheme of things.

Yes, I agree to some point. Healing Rain is just "another Raid Healing spell" like CoH for Priests. But if you look at the changes Resto shaman got since vanilla, I think the Cataclysm changes sound pretty amazing.

I think what made Resto shamans awesome in BC was downranking + theorycrafting. But in WotLK it became kinda boring. In 25 man raids you just spam your max chain heal, and in 10 man raids it always feels sort of "wrong" since LHW isn't really anything special or efficient. If you look at it from this point of view, even if it doesn't change your "niche" as a raid healer, it just promises to make your job interesting again. And that's about as much as you could ask.