Most fun healer?

[Squashed]

In my opinion, a warrior tank is the most fun tank - yes I am biased. Between multiple offensive abilities like Shield Slam, Revenge...Reactive abilties like spell reflect and shield bash, mobility in warbringer & intevene - its just very involved and fun. Don't forget - warriors are also extremely versatile and effective at any tanking role.

With that being said - what do you think is the most fun class to heal as? Priests seem to have the same diversity of abilities. Paladins & druids are very defined (single target vs. hots). To me shaman seem somewhere in the middle of those two.

I've healed up through level 60 on my druid, priest & paladin - and those tenets hold true, to that level. I have no expereince end-game with any of them.

Thoughts?

[Furi]

In order: Priest (Holy), Priest (lolsmite), Druid (Resto), Shammy (Resto), Pally (Holy).

I like playing a Priest because of the options at my disposal. I think a Druid competes for that title (shapeshifting into different roles is certainly a huge bonus), but overall I like the Priest.

However, if you ever burn out on healing, Druids offer the most healing-spec alternatives - melee DPS, ranged DPS, tank, and their overall gameplay is fun as well.

[Dorinos]

I haven't made another healer, but personally i would suggest a resto druid like i have. They're fast, they don't require as much +healing as others, and they can do just about any healing assignment. I can raid heal with wild growth, which is easy and does a few thousand to everyone i put it on. Or i can go single target and keep up the tank pretty easily. They have a ton of HoTs and short casts that do lots of healing. Plus, they have a couple instant moves like swiftmend and nature's swiftness that can help you catch a tank who's going down. (nature's swiftness=instant healing touch for around 9k and swiftmend=instant regrowth or rejuvenation for about 6.5k)

My only complaint is that i do burn up mana pretty quickly. I'm not sure if that's just me or if it's a class thing. It could be because i use so many HoTs i guess but that's why they have innervate. It's up to you, but a druid is my pick, and like he said you could always go balance or feral if you don't like it but i doubt that. Also you can check out my spec if you want, there's a couple that some people change here and there but i think mine is about the way to go.

Whatever class u pick i think healing is pretty cool. I was always bored DPSing, but healing always keeps you involved. GL

[blackhand]

I think Druid healing is tied with Priests. They both have a lot of cool tools to use. What makes druids so much fun is that you can do so much while still being so mobile. It was tough in BC when we had to 30% slow but now that we walk like everyone else boss fights where you have to heal on the go are great fun.

[tobarstep]

Well, I guess Priest is indeed the most versatile, but I'm going to put in my vote for Shaman as #2. Properly spec'd and glyphed, a Shaman can MT heal just fine up through Heroics and obviously still has the awesomeness of Chain Heal for raids. Shamans also have a ton of utility with their totems and with the changes to spellpower can actually throw out half-way respectable dps even while in their healing gear.

[Healixor]

1. Priest (pre-TBC I used to be 31/20/0 which was cool, now I love 31/40/0)
2. Druid (tree over dreamstate)
3. Paladin (not really fun, 2 (ok 3) spells you use)

Never played shaman.


I like priest most because of all the spells, I used to be a great fan of GH1, but there is no more downranking. So now you do need to use all (far more) different spells. I got Glyph of Holy nova, which will rock when CoH gets the 6sec CD. The only spell I don't use is: Binding Heal. The rest I use.

[Fayre]

While a paladin might not have a variety of heals, nowadays it's a micro-management game with judgements and all sorts of short cooldown abilities, so its not true to say you only use a couple of spells I like the interaction with mobs, which very few other healers get. But for the most versatile healing game, it would be a priest or druid.

[drug]

When it comes to versatility I'd go with the priest too. But I have to stick up for the shamans a bit.

-If you start endgame healing now as a shaman you'll find it much more versatile than you thought it would be thanks to tidal waves and other new talent spells.

-Buffing your group with totems can be very rewarding. And as they are static and range limited it's somewhat challenging to buff your raid which I really like. Still a little bit sad WF totem had to go, every melee loved us for it.

-We wear mail. Paladins surely will agree with me, it's great not to wear cloth, be it for getting new items, be it for not dying of every loose mob.

-Chainheal is one of the coolest spells in the whole game. As a member of a horde guild with many shamans, aoe damage heavy fights are pure joy to watch.

Priests: Did raid with my priest. Fantastic class. Huge arsenal of spells. If I wouldn't love to offspec as enhancement that much priest would be my second choice.

Druid: Healed only karazhan and ZA and healing as a druid does not suit me. Healing with hots and having to press a button every global cooldown is a healing style I don't like, it's just somewhat too hectic for me.

Pally: No idea

[Raiss]

3. Paladin (not really fun, 2 (ok 3) spells you use)

Never played shaman.

You probably never had played a holy paladin too, rofl. Or, if you had, you did it terribly.

Well, I think a topic like this could be great, but since everyone will be biased it will be more like a war. But, as a holy paladin that plays (or try to) sometimes as other classes, i will try.

Paladins are fun (IMO, again), because we don't use mp5, normally we just cast non-stop heals, and fat heals. I used to play as a healer on other game and I was used to have fat heals and no hots, so i loved it.

But, when i play a resto shamman or a druid, i think it is more relaxing, aoe heals are just great to use, you don't have to go crazy trying to heal everyone with single heals like a paladins needs to. Faster ways to dispell poisons are just perfect too. (/me hates aoe poisons)

So, if you like only fat heals, you are going to hate druids (ok norish is great, but it's still a hot healer). If you think it's boring to focus on only few targets, you won't like paladins.

Never played a priest, but i think i would love it: nice dispells, hots, shields, aoe heal and fat heals (of course that depends on spec). Maybe one day i shall try it. ;D

[qygibo]

I'm going to throw out some bias and show some love to having a holy pally. A lot of people don't seem to like holy pallies because we don't seem to have the highest of healing numbers or get cool aoe or HoT spells, but here's why I love my holy pally:

Buffs: I would have to say that pallies are the 2nd most diverse when it comes to buffs and have the most long lasting of those diverse buffs (I'm going to go ahead and count the shaman totems as buffs).

Sure, priests have Fortitude and Spirit buffs, and druids have Mark of the Wild, but I've yet to meet a tank who'll take those buffs over my Blessing of Kings. Plus our auras are just cooler--Dev aura, specced right, for an extra 6% of healing and more armor to boot (beat that druids :P), Ret aura giving some extra threat to tanks, Concentration aura loved by casters to avoid spell pushback, frost, fire, and shadow resistance that beat what other healing classes can give, and Crusader aura, because who else makes your mount run faster healing class wise?

And finally, we can also target specific people to reduce their threat if they're pulling too much with Hand of Salvation and Hand of Protection.

Survivability: Plate helps a great deal when it comes to surviving hits. Divine Shield is also godly, and if specced for it you can absorb 30% damage that everyone in your party is taking while Divine Shield is up--and who else can do that? Plus, when soloing, I can take out quite a number of mobs that other classes wouldn't be able to solo so well.

Healing: We're still the most mana efficient healers, so when all other healers are down, we're still up, especially more so with new spells like Divine Plea. People may get bummed out since we don't excel at aoe healing, but I've honestly accepted that because I know my role is single target healing. Plus it frees me up for some dps--I had fun in Heroic Drak'Theron Keep dpsing as holy spec and doing a respectable 700 dps (guild run, and we had a shaman healer in there also, thus leaving me open to having some fun).

In short, we have some good qualities to us

[Lythyum]

I picked a druid for a few reasons.

1.) easy to level, mele or ranged
2.) AoE, HoT's, Instant casts. I think I use one non-instant cast spell.
3.) If the healer gets stunned... the tank is still being healed. A lot. This is great for Naxx spider boss, H UP, etc.

I'd have to say Priest is a close second. A raid with a good tank, holy priest and resto druid = win.

[Lunestone]

<3 Shammies

I don't understand why there's a such a shortage of them right now... but it's great for me since there's a ridiculous amount of tanks on my server so i've decided to make my Shammy my main now. I had only got her up to 70 right before the expansion came out but getting her to 80 was sooo much easier than my tank... not that it was really that bad leveling my warrior but it was ridiculous easy on my shammy.

Just love the versatility of them... granted I need more experience with raid healing but it's been a nice change so far.

[Paliee]

Druid/Shaman(Priest)-for group healing
Pally/Priest-Main healing
It's up to you what kind of healer you want to be.

[NewfieDave]

The only spell I don't use is: Binding Heal. The rest I use.

Binding Heal is a major part of the Priest toolbox. You should use it whenever it is relevant (you and another target are both damaged).

I like playing a Disc Priest because it is a very active (and proactive) style of healing.

[Baceramus]

Call it little man syndrome but I love to put other healers to shame with my shaman. Yeah, we're not the optimal healers any more, we've got problems. But shutting down healers that out-gear you and have bigger benefits is just tasty.

[Bajumba]

Paladin

We're the most survivable healer and the most able to keep up with a fast paced group. Dying is not fun. Having to scream for mana breaks (or worse wipe because you can't keep up with the pace) is not fun.

For survivability we have plate, innate lower healing threat (half what other healers do before talents), bubble, lay of hands, beacon of light, hand of salv and other great tools. I find myself dying much less on my Holy Paladin than I remember doing on other healers at 60 and 70. This survivability extends to all areas of WoW including raids, 5 mans, soloing and pvp.

As a healer it's a real drag to die. In 5 mans you may be the only resser so there's the long lonely run back while everyone else gets bored. In raids if you die you feel like a passenger if the boss dies or feel culpable if you wipe. I've completely messed up the timing of my Safety Dance several times and kept myself up with Holy Shock, Fire Res aura, Lay on Hands and/or bubble. Being hard to kill helps a lot, watching the rest of the raid while dead is not fun.

In terms of speed we have Divine Plea which gives you a large amount of mana back. In both raids and 5 mans I rarely need to drink, even more so if Replenishment is available. (Replenishment is better for Paladins and Shamans because we are Int based, the other two are Int/Spirit based so have lower total Int). You can also fit the +15% move speed buff into your build. It's pretty satisfying to keep an aggressive raid tank up with Divine Favoured-Holy Shock while the rest of the healers are whining about mana breaks.

The healing abilities are actually pretty fun to use. Judgment of Light is an offensive heal, Beacon of light is a tactical mini-game all of its own and our main heals (Flash of Light and Holy Light) are simply better than other classes' single target heals. Holy Light is pretty fast for a big heal, certainly faster than the Priest one. FoL is amazingly mana efficient, to the point where if you can keep the group up with FoL mana is a non-issue.

We do miss a aoe heal (glyph of holy light makes that an aoe heal of a kind but the aoe effect is low). However that just creates a whack-a-mole minigame where you keep Beacon on some suitable tank and FoL whoever needs a heal. I've been assigned to raid healing and it's fun even though it's not considered a class strength.

For those who value meter performance we do pretty well. Heal aggressively and use Beaconed HL a lot and you'll be at or near the top. CoH Priests can beat us but have a world of mana issues we don't face and an incoming nerf.

Another advantage is that we are the easiest to gear up as we can wear all 4 armour types without it being much of an issue to our healing performance.

[Pizzashark]

I loves my Holy Pally.

The changes that 3.x brought really made the class more enjoyable to play. We just don't die - high base HP, plate armor, bubbles, and all that jazz - and we don't really go OOM, either. Divine Plea, used correctly (hint: early and often), almost guarantees you'll never have to scream for mana breaks. That translates to much faster instance runs; we four-manned regular DtK in 18 minutes today. Four times. I never once went below 50% MP.

Our single-target heals plain cannot be beat. Nothing is more fun than dropping 12k heals on people and watching their reaction. Yes, I can drop 12k heals already at Lv.74. Consistently. Flash of Light is extremely efficient, critting for about 3000-3200 for me, it casts fast, and because of its low cost, you're apt to stay above 85% MP for even a long fight if you're able to get by using nothing else.

The new, revamped Holy Shock and Infusion of Light make healing much easier. It's very easy and effective to tack on a Holy Shock at the end of your Flash of Light, and that together ends up healing almost as much as a Holy Light does. Infusion of Light is a great way to squeeze off a Holy Light in a hurry to keep that Light's Grace buff going.

40 yd judgements allow us to interact with monsters a lot more, and keeping judgement of light up on the target pretty much negates small, frequent damage to the party, like auras and the like.

Cleanse lets us knock out most any dangerous debuff. Hand of Freedom ensures the tank will never worry about not being able to stay on top of mobs that get away and Hand of Protection keeps people alive. I don't actually use Hand of Salvation (and in fact I'd forgotten about it until I saw it mentioned here) right now, but I'm sure I'll use it when I start raiding.

I'm told bacon is quite good, but I'm running a PvP spec and don't have it. Keeping everyone up isn't very difficult even without it; I do plan on respeccing to a normal Holy/Prot PvE spec for serious heroic grinding and raids, though.

Playing whack-a-mole is actually pretty fun.

[Duckfooted]

I leveled my druid to 70 as resto, boomkin offspec'd for questing. Mana efficiency was never a problem I ran into (except as balance), especially with Innervate. I would find that even while undergeared, healing terrible groups in Auchindoun instances (particularly Crypts against Shirrak) I was coming out of fights with 70%+ mana, no problem. On trash I would regen faster than I could cast practically. You would have to try to screw up druid healing IMO. Maybe it's that way with every healing class. That's was my experience anyway, and I never got into raiding on that toon and haven't played a lot since. Wild growth was pretty broken at that point

Leather isn't nearly as tough as mail or plate, though. Droodz are not nuke healers, that's for sure. I'm going to level a shaman soon. The versatility that totems add to any group is sure to be amazing, not to mention huge CH's and not having to compete for loot with feral druids that ninja your Ironstaff of Regeneration because they're going "balance."

[CreatureDYFO]

Druid! <3

[Korvid]

Love my resto shammy... so fun!

I tried to lvl a priest but was too squish for my tastes. But I think that any healing class, like the tanking classes, is is fun in its own right, give each classes nuances.