1 day left...Which healer is the best for Mythic + and PVP? Still undecided on Healer

[NordWitcher]

I really do enjoy healing in WoW or at least enjoyed healing in the past. After returning to WoW since MoP I wanted to get back in to healing but right now it just feels clunky and you are kinda forced into DPSing when you are not healing. Some of the specs don't really suit that play style maybe besides Disc Priests.

I've so far tried Druids, Mistweavers, Disc Priests and Holy Paladin. Druids are kinda cool but I feel that I lack when I need those big heals. Stacking lifebloom it seems is a thing of the past. You only get 1 charge of Lifebloom and you can't even refresh it other than casting it again. Swiftmend is on a 15 sec CD as well and it feels like I lost a lot of the druid heals from Cata/MoP. Even wild growth has a cast time when it was instant. Also shape lifting into cat form to DPS just feels terrible. Still feels the easiest of all the healers I've played yet. For dual spec, I would most likely go Balance since I hate tanking and not a fan of Feral. Again never played Balance and not sure how strong the class is in SL.

Disc Priests go OOOM soo fast. Since you have to DPS to heal, you just burn through mana. Also feels like I am not playing the class right. No matter how much DPS I do, it just feels like the heals are not big or fast enough. Also since it has no "healing" rotation you just got to apply tonement and put out as much DPS as you can. Has a good off spec in Shadow so am considering Priests for its dual specs.

Paladins feel good as Holy but then having to weave in crusader strikes and melee enemies and the boss just feels terrible again. Ret is a strong off spec but Holy Paladin literally sums up the problem with healers right now; they are healers, not DPS and it feels clunky.

Mistweavers are definitely one of the most fun healers I've played since returning however I just don't like the "class" or the whole idea of Monks and its play style. Not a fan of its off specs especially Windwalker.

Shamans are a class I've probably got the least experience with having never really played the class in WoW.

So am wondering what would be a good and safe class to pick going into Shadowlands with a decent off spec? I would prefer my off spec being range so that I can share gear.

[Santti]

There is absolutely no point in wondering who or what might be the best, for anything, at the launch of a new expansion. Tuning is always somewhat fucked. Just pick whatever seems like fun for the time being.

Bound to get a few "Reduced/incresed the effectiveness of X by 500%", or something along those lines.

Ask again after few months.

[Saltysquidoon]

Ask again after few months.

M+ opens in 16 days (from today 15 from launch), Mythic castle in 23 anyone planning to wait months to pick a main is going to miss the first tier of prog.

[dacoolist]

I will say this: HPal (since I play it) I can tell you we won't be shit in M+

As for PVP, it's possible.. but I think Pali's will be middle of the pack for everything this go around. They were 'too strong' in BFA due to corruption.. but hey nerf them into the abyss idgaf

I would go for priest, they seem like they are OP AF in everything - next: Drood, they really look solid

Stay away from Shamen Monk and if you can HPAL. You want to aim for Priest or Drood

[Skorpionss]

Priest because it seems like a safer bet then the rest, having 2 healing specs, at least 1 has to be at least decent, although I think they'll both be in the top.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Disc is pretty godly at everything right now. Most people have it figured for flavor of the month. Which means it's probably going to be "tuned" during the first content run here.

[Lucetia]

M+ opens in 16 days (from today 15 from launch), Mythic castle in 23 anyone planning to wait months to pick a main is going to miss the first tier of prog.

Exactly. So the person you quoted was correct in stating months. It will open in December and it will take Blizzard several weeks to balance the classes not to mention holidays are coming up so they will be less worried about constantly balancing. We won't have a good idea of where classes will fall at until probably mid-January.

[Cyi]

I actually feel like Blizzard has done an amazing job with both tank and healer balance. There isn’t anything you can’t accomplish with any of the specs.

[munkeyinorbit]

Just level all of them. It shouldn't be that hard to get them "raid ready" 40 mythic dungeons twice in the first 2.week plus 50 hours leveling shouldn't be too taxing.

Or just play disc.

- - - Updated - - -

Exactly. So the person you quoted was correct in stating months. It will open in December and it will take Blizzard several weeks to balance the classes not to mention holidays are coming up so they will be less worried about constantly balancing. We won't have a good idea of where classes will fall at until probably mid-January.

Blizzard does a balance pre mythic and one a few weeks after world first race. Waiting till Jan may be too late.

[Lucetia]

Blizzard does a balance pre mythic and one a few weeks after world first race. Waiting till Jan may be too late.

Yes, they do that, but they also keep balancing them over several weeks so by the time they are done balancing for raids it'll be roughly January. The first pass will be based on data they got from M+ / dungeons as I don't think they'll have testing on the PTR for raids still. Then the week mythic raids unlock they'll do another pass based on data from the raids. Then over the course of the next few weeks continue to tweak until they get it closer to where they want. The first raid of the expansion is usually the longest that takes to balance for them. Future patches they usually "nail" where they want them to be within the first week or two.

[munkeyinorbit]

Yes, they do that, but they also keep balancing them over several weeks so by the time they are done balancing for raids it'll be roughly January. The first pass will be based on data they got from M+ / dungeons as I don't think they'll have testing on the PTR for raids still. Then the week mythic raids unlock they'll do another pass based on data from the raids. Then over the course of the next few weeks continue to tweak until they get it closer to where they want. The first raid of the expansion is usually the longest that takes to balance for them. Future patches they usually "nail" where they want them to be within the first week or two.

They don't do any balancing during the raid as this will affect world first strategy. Once this is over in about 4 weeks then the second phase of tuning begins and is very minor. Only classes that are outliersand are not a mage, or shamans get a nerf here. At this point anyone who is flavor of the month has already been left behind. Or you know. Raid on 5 classes for the first month of raiding as well as clearing a few 15s for each character.

[Lucetia]

They don't do any balancing during the raid as this will affect world first strategy. Once this is over in about 4 weeks then the second phase of tuning begins and is very minor. Only classes that are outliersand are not a mage, or shamans get a nerf here. At this point anyone who is flavor of the month has already been left behind. Or you know. Raid on 5 classes for the first month of raiding as well as clearing a few 15s for each character.

Yeah they try not to if they can, but if something game breaking happens then they'll adjust it (like something interacting oddly with mythic mechanics).
With that said though the intro raid is usually cleared first week so balance changes will usually happen Week 2+ of Mythic if needed. One of the reasons they probably have the first raid be a bit easier so they can finish tuning things.

Though similar to what you said ultimately it doesn't matter for most people. The ones who will want/need to play the best will be playing multiple classes anyway and have them raid ready. Everyone else will just adjust to whatever the FotM ends up being and going from there.