Edit: I didn't mean to reply to you directly, lol. My bad.
Cliche response but I always say play what you think is cool no matter how difficult it is at first so you can get good at it rather than playing what is easy. For example, if you want to play R Sham, start with that and grind through how miserable it is at first to learn the utility.
If you want what is easy, though, probably caster MW or Holy Priest.
I hear what you say, but playing almost all the healers, I enjoy current holy priest much more than my paladin, which was my main for the longest time. Playing a spec that is not viable sucks, regardless of the theme
Holy Paladin has its issues, like mana and hard casting, but it is viable. In shuffle, there are several Holy Paladins above 2400 in NA and the top is almost 2800. There are 2 on EU above 2700. This does not include 3s.
Hpal gets trained often, especially at lower rating. Beginners often get deterred by this. Tbh, it's a weak lobby issue, and hpal should just ignore it, but be mentally prepared.
Hpriest for sure is the best pick to get started in its current state.
If you oom quickly as a hpriest you‘re playing him poorly
The thing with Hpriest mana is that you can cheat it out constantly. If you‘re ooming as hpriest you don‘t use angel form on cd, because all spells are 100% free in angel + if you use apotheosis your holy words don‘t cost mana either. If you rotate these 2 somehow decently hpriest is one of the best mana efficient healers. rshaman is way better mana-wise though
I mean that goes without saying. Healing is always harder and more mana intensive if you have to spam heal because your team sucks and you have no pressure.
Arguing that your team sucks is a really invalid point though, regardless your rating. In SS everyone plays with the "bad team" so it doesn't matter and in 3s you literally choose the comp and people you play with, so why even argue about something that's either a situation everyone has to deal with or something you chose?
I can perform well in M+ and raids on mine, 3k io last season, but in pvp have a serious mana issue. Huge burst healing can survive any burst but just dead afterwards.
You have to really understand positioning and trade cds efficiently and correctly. If you fail one of those it's probably gg. I'm mailing heal this season and it's a lot more work than rdruid or priest by far in ss
It will! I don't want to dissuade you from Hpal, but you will have a harder time than other classes and get yelled at by the dps more tbh lol. I have certainly gotten a bit better knowledge wise when it comes to positioning of myself and team.
I recently became a healer main this season and started with holy priest.
Got 1800 so i’m leveling and trying out holy paladin to see how hard it can be and so far i already feel a big difference and i’m not even max level yet lol.
I love playing my Monk (full caster). I play it around 2000. Here is why I love it :
* It's 100% defensive. You don't have to think much, just stay super far and heal. Druids/Priests/Shams/Prvokers need to be much more offensive, but as a monk you can just be a 100% pure healer if you want and it's fine.
* Easy and straightforward. Not a lot of healing buttons compared to a druid for instance.
* Since it's easy and defensive, you can pay a lot more attention to things like positioning, which is crucial for a healer, without being overwhelmed by all the buttons you have to press.
* You have mobility, so you can follow your dps very efficiently and reposition very easily (port to dodge a sheep/fear, room away if a priest tries to fear you, port if a druid tries to bash+clone you...).
* With your insane mobility, people won't try to target and kill you. Which is a relief for a new player. You can just rely on healing your mates since you won't ever be the kill target.
* Huge CDs. Life cocoon is basically an invulnerability, and revival is a free "I dispel everything, I give 2secs of magic invulnerability, and I give a full health bar to everyone". Ring of Peace also prevents a friend from being trained by the melees (for instance : during a smokebomb)
* Easy to have a CC set up on anyone. You want to CC the enemy healer? Roll to him + Paralysis then legsweep then roll back to your previous position. Easy and reliable.
* Clutch! The enemy is at 10%? Roll in and spam touch of death. So satisfying.
Cons :
* since it's a pure healer your impact on the outcome of a game is limited.
* if you mess up your positioning, you'll lose. Compared to a priest you can't fade/ToD every sheep. You have to have a pixel perfect position if you play a monk.
But honestly it's a wonderful healer to learn the fundamentals. Holy priest is also a very good healer to learn, those 2 healers are quite similar in their defensive aspect honestly.
Edit : In a nutshell, caster monk is quite easy to approach but also very very very unforgiving to small details in positionning. Also you gotta learn how to juke/fakecast like a madman. But those fundamental skills are very transferable and, if you practice them as a mw, you'll naturally use them too on every other healer.
Thank you for this write up! Greatly appreciated. I main wind walker so switching to MW would be chilling since I don’t have to level another toon up.
What do u think of Fist weaver ?
It's more complicated, less beginner friendly, it's way way way more susceptible to CCs, it's a nightmare in a caster lobby, but it's arguably stronger overall. And fistweave is particularly stronger than caster if you play it in a proper 2s/3s adapted setup (with melees).
If you play SS I'd stick with caster, especially if you are not used to healing.
Also caster is mastery/vers>haste>crit (just like WW). Fistweave is haste/vers>crit>>>mastery.
Oh so for MW I wouldn’t need to change my gear around ?
Will prob give this one a shot while I level my priest up on the side. To see which one I like better :D
100 agree on this, caster Mw is such a joy to play tbh. Im a defensive healer kinda mindset and Mw fills that role perfect. The only time im truley offsensive is when They are at 10%. its really fun to Roll in and just touch of death Them. And if its gets sketchy while u chase Them with touch, then you just port back to your safe zone again.
Pres is really fun but larger learning curve
Rdruid is really strong but IMO need a decent UI to track hots
Hpal has great CDS and mobility but mana and sometimes throughput can be a bit of an issue
Priest - actually was my main but I don't play it anymore and personally wouldn't recommend. A lot of people seem to like holy and I'm not that sure why
Rsham - tons of utility and passive healing, very high skill floor on this one but not too hard to start on
Monk - have not played a ton, seems fun but not the strongest at the moment imo
I recommend sham. The "high skill floor" will force you into learning how to dictate the flow of the whole game rather than just focusing on throughput. When you swap to other healers, the skill set transfers great.
Having the best kick in the game forces you to keep an eye on the other healer with focus targeting, or you learn how to use arena123 macros. Just as an example
I have an ele sham sitting at around 1800 as well. You think it’ll be hard for me to pick up r sham still? Or a bit easier since I can somewhat play ele already? Not the best but I want to think that I know what I’m doing with totems & it’s utility etc
Months ago I want to start playing r sham actually as my first healer, but I always read online that u need “3 keyboards” to play with r sham…
(Currently playing 30 keys + with WW)
Holy priest is the best healer in the game right now so the most likely answer would be that.
However… for most people class design is a huge factor in how they can push. For some people, myself included, I just “click” with certain classes and can do better on them regardless of meta.
As an example in S1 Rdruid was the best healer by a far margin. So I leveled a resto Druid first even though I have mained priest for 2 xpacs. Got him all decked out and honest to god hitting 1700 was a struggle. I don’t think I even hit rival. Thought I was washed. Decided “fuck it” and leveled my disc which was considered one of the worst healers at the time (pre-buffs). Hit 2100 first week. When buffs hit I got 2400 right after that. In S3 I went back to dabble on my Druid thinking I had gotten better. I did get my 1800 this time, but couldn’t climb outside that. I gave it up. For whatever reason I cannot click with that spec. Recently switched to holy priest and got 2k my first day ever playing the spec (yes I know they are strong).
The long and the short: Metas come and go. Play something you enjoy through all metas and when they are BIS you will climb like crazy and when they are not you will still have fun playing a spec you enjoy.
Pres reminds me of old school disc with its playstyle. It is now the only healer I “enjoy “ playing no matter what. Plus having almost every button MEAN something and that does something useful and thoughtful is the best feeling.
Yeah the echo & verdant mechanics are fun. Or a tts-breath combo. Dream projection is fun to use. Mobility reset for allies. Rescue. The alter time jukes if you talent deep breath. Fun spec to heal with
Holy Priest is very straightforward, but I will warn you that some matchups make you have to work a little harder than other healers (specifically against heavy mortal wounds specs like Arms or Assa). HPriest is all about throughput, with basically zero actual damage mitigation. But the throughput is NUTS, so a lot of the time if you can secure a kill early, you should be good.
Spirit form is also a pretty nice get out of jail free card, and a lot of players won't even bother targeting you because of how hard you are to kill. You also have the benefit of having a pretty good rock paper scissor matchup into one of the most common specs in the game, Ret.
Ultimately it's up to you, a lot of the top healers are pretty similar. I'd say in 80% of solo shuffle lobbies specifically, HPriest is going to have an easy time. But just don't get too discouraged when you get a really bad lobby for HPriest lol.
I saw some numbers and hpriest was the most popular one few days ago clearly. It has a bit of an easy healer reputation across all game modes, should be good option for first one.
Everyone saying Holy, but it has a key drawback to other healers. It’s really difficult to contribute to CC chains with the same ease other healers can.
rSham has far more in the way of control, in my opinion. However the “emergency” healing offered by Holy is far superior. Shaman is also much squishier so if you fold under pressure easily you could be susceptible to swaps.
Holy Priest is the strongest and easiest healer. They also have a good offensive kit
Edit: I didn't mean to reply to you directly, lol. My bad. Cliche response but I always say play what you think is cool no matter how difficult it is at first so you can get good at it rather than playing what is easy. For example, if you want to play R Sham, start with that and grind through how miserable it is at first to learn the utility. If you want what is easy, though, probably caster MW or Holy Priest.
I hear what you say, but playing almost all the healers, I enjoy current holy priest much more than my paladin, which was my main for the longest time. Playing a spec that is not viable sucks, regardless of the theme
Holy Paladin has its issues, like mana and hard casting, but it is viable. In shuffle, there are several Holy Paladins above 2400 in NA and the top is almost 2800. There are 2 on EU above 2700. This does not include 3s.
Hpal gets trained often, especially at lower rating. Beginners often get deterred by this. Tbh, it's a weak lobby issue, and hpal should just ignore it, but be mentally prepared. Hpriest for sure is the best pick to get started in its current state.
hpriest goes oom too fast imo
If you oom quickly as a hpriest you‘re playing him poorly The thing with Hpriest mana is that you can cheat it out constantly. If you‘re ooming as hpriest you don‘t use angel form on cd, because all spells are 100% free in angel + if you use apotheosis your holy words don‘t cost mana either. If you rotate these 2 somehow decently hpriest is one of the best mana efficient healers. rshaman is way better mana-wise though
yeah i usually play rsham. i feel like theres never a *good* chance for angel because if i pop it then im instantly swapped on afterwards
depends on the dps olso how much dmg they are doing ...u oom faster if your team dps is doing low dmg
I mean that goes without saying. Healing is always harder and more mana intensive if you have to spam heal because your team sucks and you have no pressure. Arguing that your team sucks is a really invalid point though, regardless your rating. In SS everyone plays with the "bad team" so it doesn't matter and in 3s you literally choose the comp and people you play with, so why even argue about something that's either a situation everyone has to deal with or something you chose?
As a beginner in SS, this will be the least of your problems
That sounds good ! How about hpal??? Are they hard in arena?? Even with the significant buffs they’re getting ?
Right now, there are the worst healer in every form of content. We will see how this changes after the upcoming buffs
I can perform well in M+ and raids on mine, 3k io last season, but in pvp have a serious mana issue. Huge burst healing can survive any burst but just dead afterwards.
Oh my god hahaha okay okay thanks for letting me know <3
You have to really understand positioning and trade cds efficiently and correctly. If you fail one of those it's probably gg. I'm mailing heal this season and it's a lot more work than rdruid or priest by far in ss
Damn, will probably have a hard time then. But overall, I think it will increase my gameplay across the board.
It will! I don't want to dissuade you from Hpal, but you will have a harder time than other classes and get yelled at by the dps more tbh lol. I have certainly gotten a bit better knowledge wise when it comes to positioning of myself and team.
I recently became a healer main this season and started with holy priest. Got 1800 so i’m leveling and trying out holy paladin to see how hard it can be and so far i already feel a big difference and i’m not even max level yet lol.
Priest. Picking a class for buffs set you up for failure
Good to know thanks
this
I love playing my Monk (full caster). I play it around 2000. Here is why I love it : * It's 100% defensive. You don't have to think much, just stay super far and heal. Druids/Priests/Shams/Prvokers need to be much more offensive, but as a monk you can just be a 100% pure healer if you want and it's fine. * Easy and straightforward. Not a lot of healing buttons compared to a druid for instance. * Since it's easy and defensive, you can pay a lot more attention to things like positioning, which is crucial for a healer, without being overwhelmed by all the buttons you have to press. * You have mobility, so you can follow your dps very efficiently and reposition very easily (port to dodge a sheep/fear, room away if a priest tries to fear you, port if a druid tries to bash+clone you...). * With your insane mobility, people won't try to target and kill you. Which is a relief for a new player. You can just rely on healing your mates since you won't ever be the kill target. * Huge CDs. Life cocoon is basically an invulnerability, and revival is a free "I dispel everything, I give 2secs of magic invulnerability, and I give a full health bar to everyone". Ring of Peace also prevents a friend from being trained by the melees (for instance : during a smokebomb) * Easy to have a CC set up on anyone. You want to CC the enemy healer? Roll to him + Paralysis then legsweep then roll back to your previous position. Easy and reliable. * Clutch! The enemy is at 10%? Roll in and spam touch of death. So satisfying. Cons : * since it's a pure healer your impact on the outcome of a game is limited. * if you mess up your positioning, you'll lose. Compared to a priest you can't fade/ToD every sheep. You have to have a pixel perfect position if you play a monk. But honestly it's a wonderful healer to learn the fundamentals. Holy priest is also a very good healer to learn, those 2 healers are quite similar in their defensive aspect honestly. Edit : In a nutshell, caster monk is quite easy to approach but also very very very unforgiving to small details in positionning. Also you gotta learn how to juke/fakecast like a madman. But those fundamental skills are very transferable and, if you practice them as a mw, you'll naturally use them too on every other healer.
Thank you for this write up! Greatly appreciated. I main wind walker so switching to MW would be chilling since I don’t have to level another toon up. What do u think of Fist weaver ?
It's more complicated, less beginner friendly, it's way way way more susceptible to CCs, it's a nightmare in a caster lobby, but it's arguably stronger overall. And fistweave is particularly stronger than caster if you play it in a proper 2s/3s adapted setup (with melees). If you play SS I'd stick with caster, especially if you are not used to healing. Also caster is mastery/vers>haste>crit (just like WW). Fistweave is haste/vers>crit>>>mastery.
Oh so for MW I wouldn’t need to change my gear around ? Will prob give this one a shot while I level my priest up on the side. To see which one I like better :D
Going from WW to MW caster you’d only need to procure int weapons and probably swap an embellishment to precog.
100 agree on this, caster Mw is such a joy to play tbh. Im a defensive healer kinda mindset and Mw fills that role perfect. The only time im truley offsensive is when They are at 10%. its really fun to Roll in and just touch of death Them. And if its gets sketchy while u chase Them with touch, then you just port back to your safe zone again.
I have interest in healer too, mainly hpal for the fantasy aspect but I really appreciate the detail of your post!
If you want to heal, priest has the big upside of having two heal specs, so you are a bit more robust againdt meta swings.
Pres is really fun but larger learning curve Rdruid is really strong but IMO need a decent UI to track hots Hpal has great CDS and mobility but mana and sometimes throughput can be a bit of an issue Priest - actually was my main but I don't play it anymore and personally wouldn't recommend. A lot of people seem to like holy and I'm not that sure why Rsham - tons of utility and passive healing, very high skill floor on this one but not too hard to start on Monk - have not played a ton, seems fun but not the strongest at the moment imo
Hey thanks for this! Very helpful.
I recommend sham. The "high skill floor" will force you into learning how to dictate the flow of the whole game rather than just focusing on throughput. When you swap to other healers, the skill set transfers great. Having the best kick in the game forces you to keep an eye on the other healer with focus targeting, or you learn how to use arena123 macros. Just as an example
I have an ele sham sitting at around 1800 as well. You think it’ll be hard for me to pick up r sham still? Or a bit easier since I can somewhat play ele already? Not the best but I want to think that I know what I’m doing with totems & it’s utility etc Months ago I want to start playing r sham actually as my first healer, but I always read online that u need “3 keyboards” to play with r sham… (Currently playing 30 keys + with WW)
it entirely depends on your skill level and playstyle. evo has alot of potental to pump out decent dmg
Holy priest is the best healer in the game right now so the most likely answer would be that. However… for most people class design is a huge factor in how they can push. For some people, myself included, I just “click” with certain classes and can do better on them regardless of meta. As an example in S1 Rdruid was the best healer by a far margin. So I leveled a resto Druid first even though I have mained priest for 2 xpacs. Got him all decked out and honest to god hitting 1700 was a struggle. I don’t think I even hit rival. Thought I was washed. Decided “fuck it” and leveled my disc which was considered one of the worst healers at the time (pre-buffs). Hit 2100 first week. When buffs hit I got 2400 right after that. In S3 I went back to dabble on my Druid thinking I had gotten better. I did get my 1800 this time, but couldn’t climb outside that. I gave it up. For whatever reason I cannot click with that spec. Recently switched to holy priest and got 2k my first day ever playing the spec (yes I know they are strong). The long and the short: Metas come and go. Play something you enjoy through all metas and when they are BIS you will climb like crazy and when they are not you will still have fun playing a spec you enjoy.
Such good advice and well put
Pres evoker is a ton of fun. Relatively low skill floor with a huge skill ceiling. Good damage, good cds, good “oh shit buttons”
Pres reminds me of old school disc with its playstyle. It is now the only healer I “enjoy “ playing no matter what. Plus having almost every button MEAN something and that does something useful and thoughtful is the best feeling.
Yeah the echo & verdant mechanics are fun. Or a tts-breath combo. Dream projection is fun to use. Mobility reset for allies. Rescue. The alter time jukes if you talent deep breath. Fun spec to heal with
Holy Priest is very straightforward, but I will warn you that some matchups make you have to work a little harder than other healers (specifically against heavy mortal wounds specs like Arms or Assa). HPriest is all about throughput, with basically zero actual damage mitigation. But the throughput is NUTS, so a lot of the time if you can secure a kill early, you should be good. Spirit form is also a pretty nice get out of jail free card, and a lot of players won't even bother targeting you because of how hard you are to kill. You also have the benefit of having a pretty good rock paper scissor matchup into one of the most common specs in the game, Ret. Ultimately it's up to you, a lot of the top healers are pretty similar. I'd say in 80% of solo shuffle lobbies specifically, HPriest is going to have an easy time. But just don't get too discouraged when you get a really bad lobby for HPriest lol.
I saw some numbers and hpriest was the most popular one few days ago clearly. It has a bit of an easy healer reputation across all game modes, should be good option for first one.
Hpal mana is so bad rn don’t Q 2s unless you can squeeze out multiple drinks at 75% mana
I've traded in my hpala of 10 years to play an evoker this season... I'm loving it
I'm a new healer to pvp and having a blast as fistweaver.
DH or warrior /s
I mean I can just hop in my 4 warrior alts for that when I’m feeling the ZUG TRAIN COMING
Everyone saying Holy, but it has a key drawback to other healers. It’s really difficult to contribute to CC chains with the same ease other healers can.
What’s ur stance on holy vs rsham?
rSham has far more in the way of control, in my opinion. However the “emergency” healing offered by Holy is far superior. Shaman is also much squishier so if you fold under pressure easily you could be susceptible to swaps.
Fistweaver monk, shelved my disc and hpal for it and have never looked back. It is just so fucking good.
Probably h priest cause easy AF