Shaman or Druid healer in WotLK?

[Nyel]

Title. I don't recall anything from WotLK's healers as I was playing DPS back then, but what was the overall better healer for heroic dungeons and raids? Shaman or Druid?

I'm thinking about starting fresh with the new servers next week and I'm about to choose either of the two.

[Konteil]

both of them are fantastic. shaman for chain heal and hero/lust as well as stoneshield i think it is for tanks ins awesome. druids are far and away some of teh best raid healing you can get as well as mana regen for casters i cant remember what it is called tho. and druid hots are OP as hell after geting even a littel gear. so imo either one is great.

[OnlineSamantha]

both of them are fantastic. shaman for chain heal and hero/lust as well as stoneshield i think it is for tanks ins awesome. druids are far and away some of teh best raid healing you can get as well as mana regen for casters i cant remember what it is called tho. and druid hots are OP as hell after geting even a littel gear. so imo either one is great.

You're thinking of Earth Shield and Innervate I think, respectively.

To the OP: both are fantastic healers and would do well. It all depends on what you like. Shaman are very stationary healers and don't lend themselves well to movement, whereas druids are the opposite. So do you want stationary chain heals or movement focused heals over time?

[Somic]

Here’s the great thing about wotlk, everything is viable and good. Unless you’re really trying to get weird and play like sub rogue in pve then yeah maybe not. But honest to god, every healer is viable. Any kind of healer will be needed in a raid. You need to just watch videos on which one looks more fun to you. Do you want instant heals while spamming chain heals and using totems or do you want to be casting hots over the whole raid.

[w0nderd0g]

Druids have the added benefit of being able to dual spec as tank, melee or caster (and you can share a lot of gear between boomie and resto as well). Replenishment is amazing and gives people a 15% chance to regain a flat percentage of mana, or some energy, fury or runic power from every tick of your HoT's, which provides a substancial passive damage boost (due to everyone having more resources to spend on attacks) to your raid which is often forgotten about. A lot of your spells are usable on the move as well, and you bring a combat res and innervate.

Shamans have awesome turret healing, lots of customisable buffs from their various totems, bloodlust, and even as a healer can pump some decent lightning bolt damage out when healing isn't required. Chain heal is also absurdly easy to use and powerful.

Really, neither is a bad choice - I'd weigh up your preferred off-spec.

[Konteil]

You're thinking of Earth Shield and Innervate I think, respectively.

To the OP: both are fantastic healers and would do well. It all depends on what you like. Shaman are very stationary healers and don't lend themselves well to movement, whereas druids are the opposite. So do you want stationary chain heals or movement focused heals over time?

yep thems was it. havent played either in a long bit so i couldnt remember. i personally am leveling a shaman alt for wrath duel spec Enh/resto gonna be pretty fun methinks

[melzas]

How I remember wotlk shaman healing is you spend most of the time casting chain heal. Like 80% of your healing is chain heal. Personally I think it was extremely boring but I know some people who genuinely enjoyed that so maybe that's your cup of tea. Resto druid was ok though you sit in treant form 24/7 (again some people liked that, I personally hated it).

[VinceVega]

Honestly doesn't matter much.
Shamans are a bit boring in WOtlk.

Druids start to get actually interesting in Wotlk and i think are overall the most fun healer in wotlk. But there are millions of druids.

In the end the question is do you like blue or orange?

[marulol]

Honestly doesn't matter much.
Shamans are a bit boring in WOtlk.

Druids start to get actually interesting in Wotlk and i think are overall the most fun healer in wotlk. But there are millions of druids.

In the end the question is do you like blue or orange?

you'll be wanted in almost every 10 man raid as a resto shaman. Because enhancement and elementals damage suffers over the course of the expansion. 10 mans will want a resto shaman paladin as the biggest heal combo.

[Biomega]

It's been a while since WotLK but I do remember Shamans being just stupidly good in ICC. Sit there and spam Chain Heal, and everything sort of takes care of itself.

[Nyel]

Yeah, Riptide and Earthliving Weapon are great additions to the Chain Heal spam that's been the major Resto Shaman playstyle in TBC as well. Now you just get more flavor to it while still being the Chain Heal spambot, which I really don't mind that much.

[Mendzia]

Play whatever you want.
The beauty of WotLK is that every single spec can be good.
Some of them are above and some below the line but you can choose anything.

[mercutiouk]

Chain heal still goes brrrr but... yeah, either is good
I've not had the feel (playing wrath beta) like I did in TBC where SOME healers weren't so great at keeping tanks nuke healed through tough spots. I used to have a bit of a "uh oh" feel with a druid/shammy heal on a slightly weak pally tank, nothing like now, even harder/crazier bits are fine.

[Maruka]

Druids are the better healer in every aspect but both are viable.

[csguba]

you'll be wanted in almost every 10 man raid as a resto shaman. Because enhancement and elementals damage suffers over the course of the expansion. 10 mans will want a resto shaman paladin as the biggest heal combo.

Errrr no. Enhancement pumps harder and harder throughout the expansion. In ICC they are among the highest dps (played correctly). Not that I disagree Resto shamans are highly desired because they are.

I'd play Shaman myself from a multi spec point of view but I think Resto Druid is a lot more fun than Resto Shaman in isolation to pve group/raid healing.

[Pendraeg]

Druid. I MT'ed a competitive guild back then and had a pocket druid healer.

[Kraenen]

Shaman is a little narrow in playstyle, and changes little, while Druid gets a lot of new toys like Nourish and Wildgrowth (aoe heals). I think Resto Druid will end up being more versatile.

[Exkrementor]

Honestly, resto shaman is unplayable until ICC and you have no unique support. Dont let people tell you that "everything is viable". They have no idea what they are talking about. If you want to be wanted play Holypaladin. Druid is fine though.

Resto shaman is neither a good tank healer nor a good raid healer.

[MrKnubbles]

It's been a long time but here's what I remember. I played a Holy Pally in 10-man raids. I raided with an amazing Resto Shaman and the two of us rocked ICC. I think we only switched to 3 healers for Valithria. I would sometimes also raid with a Resto Druid and we were also unstoppable. Both were amazing options when paired with a Holy Pally since Pally was all single-target healing.

I guess it depends on what your group needs. Will Lust/Hero be covered? Do you need the stats buff? Are you doing 5 man dungeons only?

[Nyel]

Resto shaman is neither a good tank healer nor a good raid healer.

This is the only statement in this thread I highly doubt. Earthshield + Riptide + Earthliving + Healing Wave (Tidal Waves) makes for an amazing ST healing and spreading Riptide + Earthliving Weapon while Chain Healing the raid makes for a great raid healer plus the added utility via 4 totems and Bloodlust / Heroism.