What spec do you guys think is the most self-sufficient healer?

[italyguy]

Lets say you are questing as a healer and come across an elite, who do you think would have the best offensive capability to easily take care of the mob?

Or lets say your tank goes down in a dungeon, which spec do you believe would be able to survive the longest while still trying to keep the group alive?

Or in pvp...which healing spec would you never want to cross paths with, the fear of annihilation seeping through you?

I think it will be fun to see people's opinions on this, or maybe some good arguments and debates

[Grimora88]

Disc is fun, it's DPS (Smite/Holy Fire) and lots of powerful bubbles! (PW:S, etc)

I already have one, and I'm making another for my first Worgen (because it seems everyone wants to melee).

[Caenymh]

I'm actually torn on the answer. For your first point, I've found a holy paladin to be the most capable of handling the situation, though it might be because plate mitigated damage better than leather the last time I tried fighting elites in a healing spec. For your second point, it's definitely a resto druid for me. I've had situations where I've had to keep DPS up after the tank died, or keep myself healed through massive amounts of healing aggro while keeping the rest of the group up.

Regardless, I don't know why anyone would want to level as a healing spec. By the time you can't heal as Shadow/Balance/Elemental (sorry pallies!), Dual Spec is available and significantly cheaper than it used to be.

[italyguy]

Good points now what about that 3rd option? lol

[muto]

Resto Shaman,

Earth Elemental = Tank.

[Facerockker]

I'm actually going to go out on a limb here and say Restoration Shaman. If you really need to kill an elite for a quest or something, BL/Heroism + Fire Elemental Totem = dead mob.

[Themiz2008]

I just recently found out the capabilities of the earth elemental. Tossed Earth shield and riptide on him, threw down magma totem, and just used fire nova and chain lightning on a huge group of mobs, amazing how much survivability it has and aggro control. Saved us in a couple heroics too surprisingly.

[Lr]

In terms of 1 mob needing to die, Shammy definitely has the advantage
In terms of doing it over and over again for something like a heroic, Pallies can't be beaten thanks to plate and ultimate threat gen (and PvP spec being the icing on the cake :P )
In terms of keeping your group up when shit gets real, I'd say Druids and Priests have the best shit hit the fan buttons, but Pallies, Shammies and to some degree Priests, have it much easier when shit really hits the fan for extended periods

[taekvideo]

I've healed in several dungeons since 4.0 where I take less damage as a holy paladin than the (poorly geared) tank and had significantly more hp. In one of those situations the tank died and so I turned on rf and spammed heals on myself until the dps killed the rest of the pack lol.

[Rhosis]

You guys seen the new shockadin specs? Some dudes are doing 6k dps on dummies. Add in the instant heals i dont see a problem with soloing stuff.