Where do shamans sit in the healing hierarchy?

[swollenpickles]

I've been leveling a shaman over a period of 12 months or so. I go through stages where I really enjoy it, then just can't be bothered anymore. Anyway, he's up to lvl 76 and lvl80 is within reach if I can muster up the desire to get there. Basically only started healing so I could be more useful to my guild (DPS are dime a dozen), but as I get closer to 80 I'm thinking that 99.9% of the time, if I play the shaman, I'm going to be healing.

So, my question is, where does the shaman fit in the healing hierarchy compared to fellow healers (priests etc)? How sought after are they in 80 heroics and above? Basically where do shamans now sit as a healing class?

[Stelmaria]

I just wrote quite a lot about how shamans are fun to play, have a lot of versatility in the buffs they bring and can pretty much fill any role that currently needs filling in your raid. Then I hit the wrong button and it was all gone, so this is the short version:
Shamans can quite easily change between raid healing & tank healing with just a change of glyphs and the spells you use.
They can choose from a pool of buffs to benefit the raid as much as possible and bring the unique buff Heroism/Bloodlust which is a great boost in most encounters.
Shamans are all about fast choices, especially when raidhealing. Do i cast a Chain Heal or is a Riptide / Lesser Healing Wave combo more efficient; do i sacrifice a few ticks of my hot to supercharge another heal or let it tick?
I simply love healing with my shaman, because it's fast-paced and it's all about interaction between different healing spells.

[Amamaeth]

In heroics, a healer is a healer, it doesn't matter much. In raids, as stated above, they can easily fill any role. They don't excel in either, but quite capable overall. They are most useful for their buffs through totems and heroism. If you enjoy healing on your shaman then stick with it, people will always want healers

[Harmacy]

In heroics, a healer is a healer, it doesn't matter much. In raids, as stated above, they can easily fill any role. They don't excel in either, but quite capable overall. They are most useful for their buffs through totems and heroism. If you enjoy healing on your shaman then stick with it, people will always want healers

Shamans excel in fights where a) there is not a lot of movement, and b) people are clumped together for Chain Heal.

That being said, you are correct, they are very versatile healers (even when moving, they have Riptide for an instant HoT and can stop for a sec to cast a quick LHW) and can fill pretty much whatever role.

[Clementine]

In my experience and feelings, in terms of healing output I rank them....
A Rank - Holy Priest
B Rank - Disc Priest, Holy Paladin
C Rank - Resto druid, Resto Shaman

Resto shaman still have some good tools overall. But they've got pretty much one of the best buffs in the game (Bloodlust/heroism)

[Airowird]

I disagree with above.
It's more like a slider like
Tank Healing [--Paladin--Disc Priest--Shaman--Holy Priest--Druid--] Raid Healing

[HDEagle71]

As a tank I can say I don't care what heals you are as long as you keep everyone alive in a heroic.
That said if you don't enjoy it don't do it. This is a game that you are suppose to enjoy not be pressured into something you don't like. I started a Holy Paladin (main spec is Prot) just to try the otherside I find the difficulty of healing fun and learning when X procs cast this to insure crit etc fun. I enjoy tanking more but if I did not enjoy the healing I would not do it. The downside of DPS my warlock has to wait a long time to get into a heroic unless my wife (heals) is with me. Not everyone can or wants to do tanking and heals so it does take longer to get gear but if that is what you enjoy your guild should find some one else to heal.

[Nicki]

I disagree with above.
It's more like a slider like
Tank Healing [--Paladin--Disc Priest--Shaman--Holy Priest--Druid--] Raid Healing

I disagree with this mostly because while its 'more' like a slider there are alot of variables to consider.

You also can't compare the effect a disc priest raid healing as on other healers thus you can't draw direct priority chains so simplisticly. In most cases its probably more efficient to have the shaman tank heal and the disc priest raid heal but it varies from fight to fight and raid group setup. I guess what im saying is nothing is so clear-cut.

[Clementine]

I disagree with above.
It's more like a slider like
Tank Healing [--Paladin--Disc Priest--Shaman--Holy Priest--Druid--] Raid Healing

I factor in other tools the specs of classes have.

[Njordus]

I can and do fill all roles while healing on my shaman, and do so very well. Shaman are currently very versatile, and it all depends on the player. Need to hit 15k hps on DW? no problem, RT + HW rotations got you covered. Need to tank heal with a pally on festergut? Easy, ES and LHW spam will cover those gaps for holy lights. Chain heal rapes BQL. 1.0 second 11k lesser healing waves are great everywhere.

I can fill any role very well. Your only real weaknesses are healing 2 tanks at once, and raid healing very spread out targets. Shaman mesh well with every healer, and its up to you and your raid to make the most out of your Resto Shaman.

[Kyrane]

They can fill the role of tank healing and raiding healing well enough to allow them to do either in pretty much any situation.

They're not the preferred healers for either, however. Thats more like:

Tank Healing - > Pally > Disc > Shaman/Druid > Holy Priest

Raid Healing - > Holy > Druid > Shaman > Disc > Pally

[Kindralas]

I disagree with above.
It's more like a slider like
Tank Healing [--Paladin--Disc Priest--Shaman--Holy Priest--Druid--] Raid Healing

More or less appropriate, though I would swap the Shaman and Holy Priest on that slider, though the difference is somewhat minimal. With Guardian Spirit, Holy Priests can tank heal a little better than Shamans, while their group healing tools are slightly unwieldy.

With healing, it's not about who can put up the best numbers, it's about who can get the job done. In healing, you truly bring the player and not the toon. Our resident Priest (who swaps between Disc and Holy and is generally amazing) rerolled a Paladin, and sufficiently healed a first-wing ICC run without wiping. Speaking purely as classes, all of them can get the job done, primarily because everyone has similar tools. The only exceptions to that rule are the Paladin and Disc Priest, who end up being tank healers primarily by virtue of not having a raid healing tool.

It's "mash group/quick casting heals to heal raid" or "mash maximum throughput HPS to heal tank," regardless of what class you play.

[Chamenas]

Just don't forget that any class can effectively tank heal and raid heal. The environments where that becomes less true tend to be in 25 man progression, especially in hard modes. But a good Paladin can raid heal quite effectively, and a good Druid can Tank heal effectively. I actually am considering trying to solo heal 10m Toravon at some point before I vastly outgear it.

[Finelle]

Resto shaman are really versatile. Ancestral Healing makes tanks take 10% less damage. Chain Heal and Riptide with 2pc T10 are amazing for raid healing. With one spec, you can freely switch roles as needed.

[CorruptFaith]

KK shamans are only beaten by druids in ten mans and if ur a good shaman healer u cant be touched in a 25 man if u wanna check out my shaman on wow heroes hes coruptfaith on demon soul us. There fun as hell and hard to beat in healing and there totems is not whats cool about shamans they seriously rip heals and besides druids cant be touched if u know what ur doing...not only that but i get into alot of raids where im the only shaman or only shaman heals every raid needs um and there not over populated by any means so gear is usually fairly easy to come by...if u have any questions u can always ask me in game if u need insperation

[CorruptFaith]

i also disagree with kyranes post it also depends on wether or not its 25 or 10 man holy priests for one are not better raid healers then shamans and shamans are def. prefered raid healers in a ten man there beat by druids but in 25s there not touched i heal against all healers obove 3kgs wow-heroes so the competition is fairly tough and there probly the overall 1st or 2nd best heals period...druid/shamans are untouchable right now i think druids have us slightly beat tho

[Sicx707]

I've played a Priest/Paladin/Shaman all as Healers. Was playing the Priest and Shaman end game (Right before ToC came out, and right before I quit.) And I must say playing a Resto Shaman was by far the most enjoyable in terms of a healer out of those 3 classes. But like other people have stated, if you dont like it dont do it. Im currently in the process of grinding another Resto Shaman up to 80 from level 1. Thats how much I enjoyed my Shaman.

[KnThrak]

We shamans sit directly on the center of Awesomeland, really.

But anyways, I think my biggest strength is that with just a few glyphs I can change from able raidhealer to competent tankhealer. I'm much less pigeonholed than the other healers (even if J0 Average Ze Pugm4ster would like me to believe that). I usually end up as a tankhealer (we have ~0,2 active Holy Pallies and 1 active Disc Priest and Disc Priests are not good single-role healers) and I got used to it and I would like to think I do a fairly awesome job at it. Could a Holy Pally keep my tank up better?
Actually no, I doubt it. He could keep the tank up "Virtually as well", and do the exact same healing on a second tank. But he won't keep the main target up as well as I can, I got superior speed and power on that.

[Charonites]

I've recently done abit of research on this and in terms of HPS, Shamans rank pretty lowly. For a Shaman to hit top of the HPS, you either need to massively outgear your other healers, be extremely good at your class or your other healers be especially bad.

A Druid will always out-heal you due to their Heal-over-time effects and a Paladin will always out-heal anyone, but this will generally be on a very limited number of targets.

I play my guild's main Restoration Shaman, and we do roll with a Restoration Druid, a Paladin and myself. We also use a Shadow Priest for abit of healing there also. The Paladin plays the role of Tank healing, the Druid plays Raid healer and I play a hybrid of both, supporting whoever needs it. I find that as a Shaman, the raid "utility", I bring, far outweighs everything else.

My totems, and Bloodlust can change the cause of a battle, and that for me, is more rewarding then playing any other class.

I do also play a Holy Paladin also, and whilst I do enjoy more powerful, and higher HPS, I enjoy my Shaman much more, and my guild prefers my Shaman to my Paladin also.

I was in an ICC25 group, and I was the lowest HPS healer in the raid, and one of the other healers whispered me saying, "Consider yourself as being carried", and my reply was, "Would you rather do this without my totems and Bloodlust?" and his reply was a simple, "No." So don't focus to much on your HPS, you're much more then a HPS bot.

[KnThrak]

I've recently done abit of research on this and in terms of HPS, Shamans rank pretty lowly. For a Shaman to hit top of the HPS, you either need to massively outgear your other healers, be extremely good at your class or your other healers be especially bad.

*twitches*

Tell me, are you by chance a DPSer rerolling a Healer? :S

A druid's superior raid-HPS doesn't mean much in itself, because to keep Rejuv rolling and place WG he gets no free global cooldowns. His reaction speed to actual killing damage is virtually inexistant (or his raidhealing will suffer, badly). Hence the HPS just doesn't make for any comparability. The Druid spams the raid to counter the baseline raid damage - so there is one. The Shammy then uses RT, CH and LHW to heal up the spike damage. The HPS of the two healers is entirely irrelevant because they completent each other instead of competing with each other, and a second Resto Druid would not be able to do the job as well as a Shaman. The only thing where the HPS would be important in a way is the total HPS of the raid vs the total DPS of the boss. But again, just stacking Paladins and Druids will not necessarily get you to a kill then, and even if it won't be a smooth one. Despite maximum HPS.

(Similar considerations apply for tankhealing)