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The seven healing classes inWorld of Warcraftoffer varying degrees of healing throughput, utility, and damage, making some more desirable than others in Season 1 ofThe War Within. While healing throughput often plays a key role in judging healer performance in PvE endgame content, other factors such as raid buffs, team composition, utility, and specific encounter mechanics are just as important.
Season 1 ofThe War Withinplaces a heightened emphasis on healing throughput,not only in Nerub-ar Palacebut especially in Mythic+. The season’s dungeon pool features significant rot damage, which can be challenging for certain healers to manage. Additionally, Curse and Poison dispels, which aren’t available to every healer, are vital in dungeons like Grim Batol, Ara-Kara, and Mists of Tirna Scithe.
Although these tier lists provide a quick overview of healer power levels, it’s important to remember that the best healer choice often depends on the specific team composition and needs of the raid or Mythic+ group. Every healer is viable for all endgame PvE content, capable of clearing Mythic Nerub-ar Palace and doing title-range keys.
Nerub-Ar Palace Raid Healer Rankings
S Tier Raid Healers: Preservation Evoker
Preservation Evokerstands as the sole S-Tier raid healer, thanks to its unmatched healing throughput and its strong raid cooldowns, utility, and damage. The specialization has excellent raid-wide burst-healing potential, especially with theFlameshaper Hero Talentand itsConsume Flameability.
In terms of raid cooldowns, Preservation’sRewindability is incredibly effective against heavy raid-wide damage, whileZephyrandTime Dilationserve to protect a select number of targets. This healer also brings essential buffs likeBlessing of the Bronze,Time Spiral, andSpatial Paradox, which are invaluable in Nerub-ar Palace, where mobility impairments and forced movement are common. Furthermore, Preservation Evokers offer other healers extra mana regeneration and damage throughSource of MagicandPotent Mana.
While Preservation’s primary weakness has traditionally been its shorter range compared to other healers, this is less of a concern in Nerub-ar Palace, especially in a coordinated raid setting. Additionally, itsRescueability is extremely helpful for positional encounters like Nexus-Princess Ky’veza. Despite the strength ofDevastation and Augmentation Evokers, it’s likely to see raids stacking multiple Preservation Evokers, barring any future tuning changes.
A Tier Raid Healers: Holy Paladin, Holy Priest, Discipline Priest, & Restoration Shaman
The healers in A-Tier are still incredibly strong, and players can expect to see them fill out the rest of the raid’s healer composition after Preservation Evokers. While their healing output may not reach Preservation’s level, each of these healers still brings substantial throughput alongside powerful raid-wide cooldowns, buffs, and utility.
Holy Paladins
Holy Paladinsare among the best spot healers in the game, offering excellent utility with abilities likeFreedom,Blessing of Protection, andIntercession. Although their raid-wide healing lags behind Preservation, they excel at keeping tanks and priority targets alive, especially withBlessing of SacrificeandLay on Hands. Additionally, Holy Paladins are the tankiest healers, thanks to their plate armor and the powerful immunity fromDivine Shield. They are also currently the best Paladin specialization to bring forDevotion Aura, which is further enhanced byAura Mastery.
Holy And Discipline Priests
Both Holy and Discipline Priestsare strong raid healers and are highly sought after for theirPower Word: FortitudeandPower Infusion.Holy Priestsboast a flexible healing profile, delivering great output in various situations. While Holy may not excel at any one thing, its versatility and ease of use make it one of the best healers to include in a raid team. Its main weaknesses are a lack of raid-wide mitigation, poor mobility, and relative fragility compared to other healers. Holy Priests also offer decent damage, though this comes at the cost of healing globals, which can be problematic in tight healing situations.
Discipline Priests, on the other hand, bring a powerful damage-reduction cooldown withPower Word: Barrier, along with impressive raid-wide healing. They excel at frequent group burst healing and have the highest passive damage output among healers due toAtonement. However, Discipline can struggle with unexpected incoming damage and spot healing, though they do haveRaptureas a reliable cooldown to help in those situations. Like Holy, Discipline also suffers from low mobility and survivability, but these weaknesses can be mitigated when paired with Preservation Evokers.
With Shadow Priests currently undertuned compared to other DPS specs, both healing Priests are the preferred choices for bringing Power Word: Fortitude and Power Infusion.
Restoration Shaman
Finally,Restoration Shaman is agreat optionfor itsSkyfurybuff and versatility, possessing strong cooldowns and utilities for a range of scenarios. TheirSpirit Link Totemis one of the best cooldowns for mitigating high raid-wide damage and is one of the few abilities that counters healing-reduction effects. They also offer excellent utility withWind Rush Totemfor movement andAncestral Protection Totemfor ‘suicide’ cheese strategies.
Additionally, Restoration Shaman is quite sturdy and mobile, with several abilities that help them survive various encounters. However, their main weakness is high mana consumption, which can become an issue during long fights if not properly managed. Furthermore, some of their healing relies on ground-based effects, which can be a drawback in movement-heavy encounters.
B Tier Raid Healers: Mistweaver Monk, Restoration Druid
Mistweaver Monk and Restoration Druid are both great healers, but they currently lack the healing throughput and utility to rank higher compared to other healers. Despite being lower on this list, both are fully capable of handling the challenges presented in Nerub-ab Palace.
Mistweaver Monk
Mistweaver Monkpossesses several powerful healing cooldowns, including the raid-wide heal and dispel fromRevival. Additionally, Mistweavers deal respectable damage, which also gets converted into healing, making them highly efficient at performing both simultaneously—similar to Discipline Priests. They are also quite durable and mobile, with multiple personal defensive cooldowns likeFortifying Brewand movement abilities likeTiger’s Lust,Roll, andTranscendence. While Mistweavers provideMystic Touch, it’s considered one of the weaker raid buffs, and can also be brought byBrewmastersorWindwalkers.
Unfortunately, Mistweavers lack a raid-wide defensive cooldown, making their raid spot more dependent on their healing throughput, which is currently tuned lower. Moreover, Mistweavers can be difficult to play efficiently due to their need to remain in melee range to heal effectively.
Brewmasters are currently a popular raid tank choice, which may discourage bringing a Mistweaver to avoid class overlaps.
Restoration Druids
Restoration Druidsare in a similar position to Mistweaver Monks, boasting several powerful healing cooldowns but lacking a raid-wide defensive ability. While they offerMark of the Wild, which is widely regarded as the best raid buff, other Druid specializations are generally considered more desirable at the moment.
Despite this, Restoration Druids still provide valuable utility with abilities likeInnervateandStampeding Roar. They are also exceptionally mobile and durable thanks toCat FormandBear Form. Restoration Druids are also capable of producing some of the highest damage compared to other healers. With improved healing throughput, Restoration Druids could see a higher placement on this list, but for now, their relative strength compared to other healers, unfortunately, places them at the bottom.
Season 1 Mythic+ Healer Rankings
S Tier Mythic+ Healers: Restoration Shaman
Restoration Shamanranks as the top healerforMythic+, offering high healing throughput and a versatile healing profile. They have access to powerful cooldowns likeSpirit Link Totem, which also counters health-reducing mechanics. Not only do they excel in various healing situations, but they also provide significant crowd control and utility with abilities likeCapacitor Totem,Thunderstorm,Bloodlust,Tremor Totem, andWind Rush Totem. Additionally, Restoration Shamans are among the few classes that can dispel bothCursesandPoisons, making them especially valuable for the Season 1 Mythic+ Dungeon pool.
Their raid buff,Skyfury, is highly sought after, particularly when paired withFrost Death Knight, currently one of the top-performing DPS specializations. Restoration Shamans also boast the shortest cooldown interrupt in the game withWind Shearat just 12 seconds, giving groups an edge in covering more interrupts compared to other healers.
Skyfury was a major addition for Shamans heading intoThe War Within, as they previously lacked a raid buff.
While they don’t have a defensive external cooldown likeIronbarkorPain Suppression,Earthen Harmony-enhancedEarth Shieldsoffer tanks a valuable 3% damage reduction, which is particularly useful this season given the high amount of melee swing damage from mobs. Additionally,Ancestral Vigorprovides a consistent health increase for the group, arguably more powerful thanWarrior’s Rallying Cry.
Restoration Shamans themselves are durable and mobile, with multiple defensive and movement abilities at their disposal. They are relatively easy to play despite having a large toolkit, allowing players to focus more on dungeon mechanics. Their one notable weakness is high mana consumption, though this is somewhat mitigated by theirSeason 1 Tier Set’s 4-piecebonus.
A Tier Mythic+ Healers: Preservation Evoker, Discipline Priest
Healers in A Tier are excellent choices for Mythic+ and have the potential to match the performance of Restoration Shaman when played in certain group compositions or coordinated teams.
Preservation Evoker
Preservation Evokerexcels with the highest healing throughput among all healers, while also offering solid damage output. Not only do they top off health bars faster than any other healer, but they also bring powerful damage reduction tools likeTime Dilation,Zephyr, andRescue. Preservation also possesses incredible AoE crowd control and pack-skipping potential withSleep Walk. Additionally, they can dispel Poisons, and although on a longer cooldown,Cauterizing Flameallows them to remove Bleeds, Curses, and Diseases.
Preservation’s main weakness lies in its shorter cast range, which can make it challenging in spread-heavy fights like the final bosses ofThe Necrotic WakeandThe Stonevault. While this can be tricky in pugs, positioning becomes less of an issue in organized teams. Preservation also has a relatively long cooldown interrupt, at 40 seconds, which is not ideal in a Mythic+ setting. The other main concern for Preservation is Augmentation, which is looking to be the more desired Evoker specializationin +12 keys and above dueto the survivability they provide for the tank and the group.
Discipline Priest
Discipline Priest has incredible healing output in 5-man groups and possesses high uncapped AoE damage. They are particularly strong at healing group-wide rot damage and preventing potential one-shots with shields,Pain Suppression,Power Word: Barrier, andRapture.Power Word: FortitudeandPower Infusionare also highly desirable buffs to bring to Mythic+.
Discipline’s main weakness is its lack of useful utility in this pool of dungeons. Without an interrupt skill and the ability to dispel Poisons and Curses, their utility feels somewhat limited in this season. Their only AoE crowd control ability,Psychic Scream, is also quite weak. While Discipline Priest hasMass DispelandMind Soothe, they aren’t as essential this season compared to Dragonflight.Additionally, Discipline Priestsare one of the least mobile classes and are more fragile than other healers. Despite these shortcomings, in well-coordinated groups, Discipline remains an exceptional healer choice.
B Tier Mythic+ Healers: Holy Paladin, Mistweaver Monk, Restoration Druid
The healers in B Tier are solid options that can perform well in certain group compositions but generally fall behind the higher-ranked healers in terms of healing throughput, utility, or damage.
Holy Paladin
Holy Paladin is a reliable healer with great utility, including a melee interrupt, battle resurrection, and a Poison dispel. They excel in spot healing and provide numerous defensive cooldowns such asBlessing of Sacrifice,Blessing of Protection, andDevotion Aura. As one of the tankiest healers, Holy Paladins have excellent survivability, but they lack mobility outside of Divine Steed. What holds Holy Paladin back from ranking higher is its overall healing throughput in dungeons, which can struggle to keep up with periods of intense group-wide damage, especially when key cooldowns are unavailable.
Mistweaver Monks offer excellent healing output, excelling in both single-target and AoE healing. Their kit enables them to handle passive damage through “fist-weaving” and effectively manage periods of high group damage with powerful cooldowns likeRevival,Celestial Conduit,Sheilun’s Gift, andFaeline Stomp. They boast strong personal survivability and mobility, along with decent utility such as a melee interrupt, AoE stun,Ring of Peace, andTiger’s Lust.
However, Mistweaver lacks strong external cooldowns for the group, withLife Cocoonbeing relatively weak, especially for tanks. Their raid buff,Mystic Touch, is also less impactful, and they lack a Curse dispel. Additionally, Mistweavers can be challenging to play, as they need to remain in melee range to heal efficiently, and their damage output is lower compared to other healers. Overall, Mistweaver are strong healers, but their utility isn’t desirable enough in most situations to bring over S and A Tier healers, unless their healing gets significantly overturned.
Since Life Cocoon is primarily an absorb rather than a damage reduction, it can be depleted quickly on tanks like Blood Death Knights, often buying them only a global or two of time.
Restoration Druid
Restoration Druid provides a varietyof useful utility and crowd control, such asStampeding Roar,Rebirth,Soothe,Ursol’s Vortex,Entangling Roots, and the highly desiredMark of the Wild. They are also one of the few healers that can dispel both Curses and Poisons withRemove Corruption. While their damage is among the highest for healers, it requires significant effort to produce outside their healing globals.
The main issue with Restoration is their healing output, which can struggle to keep up with high group damage in higher keys. Additionally, their healing requires a fair amount of ramp-up time, making unexpected damage challenging to handle. However, in a coordinated group that manages mechanics well, Restoration can still be a solid healer.
C Tier Mythic+ Healers: Holy Priest
Holy Priest, unfortunately, underperforms in Mythic+ compared to its Discipline counterpart, sharing the same lack of utility and mobility. While Holy has a respectable healing output, its lack of group-wide defensive cooldowns makes it difficult to manage higher key levels. The spec can also struggle with balancing damage and healing, as its high damage output comes at the cost of healing globals, which can be risky in higher keys.
Despite these drawbacks, Holy Priest remains a solid choice for lower to mid-level keys and is especially friendly for players new to healing due to its straightforward playstyle.
