Wotlk Classic Best PvP & PvE Healer Classes (Specs) | WoW Wrath Healer Tier List & Ranking

Wotlk Classic Best PvP & PvE Healer Classes (Specs) | WoW Wrath Healer Tier List & Ranking

9/3/2022 2:27:25 PM

With this WoW Wotlk Classic Healer Tier List, we break down the best healing classes and specs for raids, arenas, and battlegrounds in Wrath of the Lich King classic.

Wotlk Classic Healer Tier List - Best Healing Specs

Wrath of the Lich King Classic Healer Class & Specs Ranking

The healing class is a very important spec in World of Warcraft. Whether in raids and dungeons or in arenas and battlegrounds, healers are the strong support of the team, not only to guarantee the survival of teammates but also to output powerful damage when necessary.

Although there are not many classes and specs available for healing in WotLK Classic, you still need to make a comprehensive comparison and consideration when choosing a healer that suits your playstyle and your team, Like do you want single-target or multi-target healing, do you want to specialize in healing or do you want to do more for the team?

Best PVP Healer Classes in WotLK Classic

Before ranking every healer for PvE, we pick up the healer classes that perform best in damage and defense respectively in arenas and battlegrounds:

Best All-Around Healer Classes: Druid, Shaman

With aggressive abilities like horizons for the Shaman or anger and lunar brilliance for the Druid and both having control spells whether, by totems for both via branches, the Druid and shaman are perfect pests on the battlefields. They both have increased travel faculties via their travel and wolf forms. On the other hand, they suffer from exorbitant mana consumption for their respective care. They are usually healers chosen for an escort and/or attack of a point.

Best DPS Healer Class - Priest

Despite his aggressive abilities and even in discipline or sacred specialization and this thanks to his spells of control, dispels and damage, the Priest is a victim very easy to hunt on the battlefields by his equipment but also his mobility. It nevertheless has other assets such as the Mana burn which can be very powerful to dry the mana of the opposing healer when the fight goes in circles.

Best Tank Healer Class - Paladin

The sacred Paladin does not have aggressive abilities compared to other classes but if this may represent a weakness, he is undoubtedly the best healer on the battlefield. With a strong resistance due to his equipment as well as the best protection spells (blessing of freedom, the blessing of protection) but also almost uncontrollable thanks to the blessing of sacrifice and his divine shield, the Paladin fills his offensive gaps to allow his team optimal survival.

WotLK Classic PvP Healer Tier List

Now let's rank up the best PvP healing specs for raids:

1 - Holy Paladin (S-Tier)

Holy Paladin is the best single-target healer in-game. There is a spell called Beacon of Light that marks a friendly target and heals it whenever Paladin heals SOM1, which allows him to heal 2 targets at the same time. If he heals himself, he is healing his partner too, and vice versa. Holy Paladin is simply the king of the arena when it comes to healing. Holy Paladin and Arms Warrior are at the moment in 21 out of 50 top arena comps on Warman in 2s. He is also the only plate armor healer in the game which helps him survive physic damage specs much easier, mechanically also not hard to play. What makes Holy Paladin special is Cleaning Diseases, Plagues, Poisons, and Snares, making you immune to slows, physical DMG, and shielding you. While it is the single target healer, it feels a little boring for some players, other multi-target healers give more fun in battlegrounds.

2 - Discipline Priest (S-Tier)

Discipline Priest is for sure 2nd best healer for arenas next to the holy paladin. It has some advantages in comparison with holy paladin but also have some disadvantages. Things that make discipline better than druid and shaman are defensive CDs. You need to have them be top-tier spec. You can't just rely on pure heals for discipline priests in PvP. Pain Suppression is insane defensive CD that can be cast on both caster and partner. In combination with Power Infusion, it allows priests to pull off some tough situations. What makes priests better than Holy Paladin is better CC (Fear) and much better DPS. Some comps need priest DMG to overcome enemy healers (rogues, hunters, feral, DK). Disc also has a variety of Heals, Improved Shield, Passive Shields, and Damage Reduction Defects which comes throughout talents that make this spec so effective in arenas. The bad side is surely Cloth Armor which is equal to paper in 270+ meta, where warriors and rogues scale insanely. Also, the priest is easier to be CCED than HPALA. PALA can use defensive spells to transfer DMG from partner and break potential poly, blind, sap effects and save trinkets. Both PALA and priest have Dispel which is another reason why are they above other healers, it's important to keep your partner clean from CC and movement IMP, EFF. So this spec is also top tier when we talk about healers, they are also good for BGs with such insane shields.

3 - Restoration Druid (A-Tier)

This spec feels OP because it isn't cast dependant and has event 3 instant over time heals. Even Regrowth which is casting spells has another heal-over-time effect, so think about having 1.3k resit 4 hots, and using travel form to run away and break slows. A small problem for this spec is the fact that resto is wearing leather armor, which is paper in 270+ iLvl meta for warriors, with shadowmourne. This spec also lacks DEF CDS for itself and especially for its partner, when you compare it with a paladin who has 2-3 insane spells to save his partner. Another important thing to point out is that your hots can be dispelled or purged by the priest, or shaman, this is very bad for arena environment. However, this spec is the best for larger groups and raid healing,, if you love topping charts with numbers on battlegrounds resto is the right choice.

4 - Restoration Shaman (B-Tier)

Resto Shaman is as the name says - healing spec. As we said, elemental mail armor plays the even better role for healers. Resto Shaman has a variety of heals and procs. It has direct heals with long and shorter cast time, healing over time, earth shield which heals on hit. There are specific talents where one heal triggers an effect for the next heal's casting time or critical strike where you can choose which one you need in a certain moment. That helps the shaman to survive and adapt to different situations, Resto shaman is often played with high resilience which is good in combination with Wolf f4rom and stoneclaw totem absorb. Tremor & Cleaning Totemsare passively doing job that some healers have to waste global CD for which is huge+ for shamans. Mana Shield and Upgraded Mana Totem are also worth mentioning. Something resto is also good at is making pressure on other casters and healers with 5 Sec Interrupts. On top of that, he can add some more DMG and help his partner, unlike the paladin. However, resto shaman is highly cast dependant, which is bad against 2 DPS comps.

5 - Holy Priest (D-Tier)

Holy Priest is no doubt least played healing spec in the arena and maybe PVP overall. Discipline Priest is simply better in the arena due to better survivability. Pain suppression on the first place and a much stronger shield. The holy priest doesn't really have some DEF CDs. There is this ultimate, but it is not all about the numbers. You need to have the defensive CD which will reduce DMG income, not increase healing done, this is not PvE to stand freely and heal. What this spec is good at is healing larger groups and having stronger heals. Circle of Healing is one the best spells for BGS with just 6 sec CD. This talent reduces cast time from 2.8 to 1.7sec for Prayer of Healing - One more multi-target heal, now imagine combination with Circle of Healing. This spec is not that viable for the arena, but for BGs, this spec gives ultimate fun and does really great job!

Best PvE Healer Classes in WotLK Classic

Before ranking every healer for PvP, according to the talents of each class, we summarized the most suitable classes for individual healers and group healers in Alliance and Horde.

Best Healer For Single-Target Healing on Alliance - Paladin

For single-target healing, nothing beats the Paladin. Indeed, this one outclasses the other classes for the single-target heal, which certainly led to performing a lot of overheal, its fast heal costs practically nothing for its amount of life restored, combined with its illumination talent which restores 100% of the critical heal spell mana. With the right stuff, it becomes very hard to run out of mana. Not to mention the benefit of the buffs provided by the Paladin, it is by far the best single-target healer at all levels of progression.

Best Healer for Multi-target Healing on Alliance - Priest

To ensure the best multi-target performance, unfortunately, only one option is open to you to be effective. The Priest is indeed the only Alliance side that can do group healing. Distributed in the right groups, according to the fights, he is the only one who can quickly get back together a group in danger. For multi-target care, only one option is unfortunately open to you. The Priest is indeed the only Alliance side to be able to do group care. Divided into the right groups, according to the fights he is the only one who can quickly raise a group in danger.

Best Healer For Single-Target Healing on Horde - Priest

You want to play on the side of the Horde and be focused on single-target care (Tank) and this by being competitive in terms of care performed in relation to your mana consumption. The Priest is made for you, despite his multi-target abilities, he will be widely preferred to other healers to make mono-target in a Horde raid composition.

Best Healer For Multi-Target Healing on Horde - Shaman

Here two choices are available to you. You can of course play Priest who has very good multi-target care faculties. But here the alternative is rather oriented towards the Shaman who, just like the Paladin, brings his series of buffs for his raid... but also has the best multi-target care capacity. If you prefer to treat the raid rather than treat the tank, the Shaman offers itself as an effective alternative.

WotLK Classic PvE Healer Tier List

Now let's rank up the best PvE healing specs for raids:

1 - Restoration Druid (S-Tier)

Resto tree heals up to five friendly party or raid members over seven seconds so it's hot the amount of healed healing is applied quickly at first and then slows down as it reaches its full duration, it is instant cast with a six-second cooldown.

Tree of Life - Apply this to the whole raid, so the whole raid is getting a 6% increased healing, there's that utility as if druids did not have enough already with battle res and innervate.
Nourish - This basically heals an additional 20% if you have a rejuvenation regrowth life bloom or wild growth effect active on the target, so put on a hot and then nourish spam for emergency heals.
Druids have a lot powerful abilities, they can do a ton of healing per second good raid heals, not a lot of like absorb effects but amazing healing over time. When it comes to healing over time the first thought that comes to your mind should be resto druid.

2 - Restoration Shaman (S-Tier)

Resto shamans are an incredible healing class, bring tons of utility that's because of totems (You've got mana spring, the wrath of air, wind fury, a healing stream, mana tide, all of these amazing totems), and they can also all be cast at the same time in one GCD in Wrath the Lich King. Shamans can also now decurse in WotLK with the cleanse spirit talent in the restroom tree that's going to remove a cursed disease and a poison.

Earth Shield - they've got a decent shielding ability which is earth shield not technically absorbing anything but it is considered a shield.
Ancestral Awakening - This is another talent that provides some passive raid healing very nice
Shamans actually have very of they already kind of had it in TBC, but even more raid healing, and then, of course, they also have a 10 physical damage reduction buff talent in the resto tree called Ancestral Healing after you critically heal, so shaman again bringing that same utility is actually holy priests surprisingly.
Heroism Bloodlust - The best utility of the shaman is Heroism Bloodlust, this increases melee range and spell casting speed by 30% for all party and raid members for 40 whole seconds, this does give the exhausting effect and you cannot benefit from it for another 10 minutes.
Earth Living Weapon - This is the new resto-specific weapon enhancement that imbues the shaman's weapon with earthen life, it increases healing done by 150% and each heal has a 20% chance to proc earth living on the target healing an additional 652 over 12 seconds, the imbue lasts for 30 minutes.
Rip Tide - this heals a friendly target for a certain amount and an additional amount over 15 seconds, so it's an instant heal plus a hot, and your next chain heel cast on that primary target within 15 seconds will consume that healing over time effect and increase the amount of the chain heal by 25%.

3 - Holy Paladin (S-Tier)

We've got some incredible additions for Holy Paladin in Wrath of the Lich King, when it comes to a healing per second and efficiency point of view, the paladin is argued as the best healer for these reasons:

Beacon of Light - Primarily the final talent in the holy tree, we have a beacon of light - The target becomes a beacon of light to all members of your party or raid, any heels you cast on party or raid members will also heal the beacon for 100% of the amount healed only one target can be the beacon of light. This enables the holy paladin to heal both the main tank and the off tank, double tank healing is only reserved for holy paladins.
Divine Illumination - Holy Paladins have Divine Illumination which also is a three-minute cooldown instant cast that reduces the mana cost of all spells by 50% for 15 seconds Holy Shock - This is a nice instant cast heal with a 6-second cooldown
Divine Sacrifice - They have in the proc tree a new talent divine sacrifice, it allows the paladin to redirect 30 of all damage taken by party members, to be redirected to them up to a max of 40% of the paladin's health. This is almost like an absorb effect
Improved Lay on Hands - This gives a 20% reduced physical damage buff
Sacred Shield - This actually gives paladins an absorb effect some shielding here, so each time the target takes damage, they gain a sacred shield absorbing 500 damage and increasing the paladin's chance to critically hit with a flash of light by 50% for up to six seconds. You can only put this on one target at a time, so they're not like new disc priests or anything, but it is some nice shielding that they can offer.

4 - Holy Priest (A-Tier)

Holy Priests are very good in general, they've got lots of utility and good abilities to bring to the raid:

Guardian Spirit - Makes Holy Priest stand out is the guardian spirit this is at the end of the holy tree you call upon a guardian spirit to watch over the friendly target, the spirit increases the healing received by the target by 40% and also prevents the target from dying by sacrificing itself, this sacrifice terminates the effect but heals the target of 50% of their maximum health.
Circle of Healing - Holy Priest has a three-minute cooldown and only lasts ten seconds, so you have to have some anticipation and some gamer skills going on there, but a very good ability many people consider holy priests to be the king of AOE heals that is in part due to circle of healing. This is a talent that heals up to five friendly party or raid members within 15 yards of the target for a certain amount
Inspiration - What makes holy priest really stand out and very necessary we would say is inspiration, this is a talent that reduces your target's physical damage taken by 10% for 15 seconds after basically getting a critical heal on any of your healing abilities, so that is an amazing talent.

5 - Discipline Priest (A-Tier)

Priests, of course, are the iconic healing class in World of Warcraft, they've got power word shields, and have tons of healing abilities. Now priests in Wrath of the Lich King have some new abilities and specifically, we're going to talk about some disc or discipline abilities:

Penance - this is a 12-second cooldown discipline at the end of the tree, launches a volley of holy light at the target causing holy damage to an enemy or causing healing to an ally instantly every one second for two seconds, so it's a channeled spell that can either do damage or heal, it's actually very nice does a very good amount of healing
Pain Suppression - this instantly reduces a friendly target's threat by 5%, but the big thing is that it reduces all damage taken by 40% which is really big, also it lasts eight seconds and has a three-minute cooldown some very nice utility
Power Infusion - This spell infuses the target with power increasing spell casting speed by 20% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%.
Renewed Hope - This increases the critical effect chance of your flash heal, greater heal and penance spells, by 4% on targets afflicted by the weakened soul effect. So you can see kind of how disciplined priests are going to be playing, lots of power word shield and of course once you cast powered shield on someone they get that weakened soul effect, the talent continues, you have a 100% chance to reduce all damage taken by 3% for one minute to all friendly party and raid targets when you cast power word shield, and it does have a 15-second cooldown.
Rapture - This is another amazing disciplined talent, when your power word shield is completely absorbed or dispelled, you are instantly energized with 2.5% of your total mana and have a 100% chance to energize your shielded target with 2% mana, 8 fits of rage, 16 energy, or 32 runic power. There is even more utility for the disciplined priest helping out pretty much any class by putting on those powered shields giving the whole raid sort of infused with more resources, so rapture is an incredible talent for the disciplined priest.
Grace - This gives your healing spells, some of them at least a 100% chance to bless the target with grace, increasing all healing received from the priest by 3% and stacks up to three times, so that's 9% almost 10% bonus healing
Divine Aegis - This is another protective shield that disciplined priests have, critical heals will create this shield on the target absorbing 30% of the amount healed last 12 seconds
Discipline Priests (absorption is the name of the game for them) have some other abilities but these are really the discipline priest-specific things