Originally from Soul's bored boards of boarding: http://soulcorruptr.proboards85.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=faq&thread=1196477203&page=1

TLDR beware, this post will be more caustic to you than a nuclear warhead filled with garlic, rosaries, holy water, and mirrors launched at Count Dracula.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

What Healing class is best for me?

This is one that you can't really sum up in a few lines, but more information tends to be better than not enough when you go to roll that new class for the first time. This guide will attempt to explain the different nuances, roles, and overall feel of the four healing classes available: Holy Paladin, Resto Druid, Resto Shaman, and Discipline Priest.

The Holy Paladin

In a Nutshell:

The Paladin is simple, solid, effective, and easy to learn/play. The class doesn't stoop to theatrics and fancy gimmicks, it simply walks in, and makes sure things live forever. It is, by and far, the most valued and efficient healer on a pound for pound basis to any class - the howitzer of WoW healing. It also has the best support buffs, effective defensive cooldowns, and stacking utility. It also tends to be the most mind numbingly boring healer to play.

Defining Features:
- Highest HP/S single target healing.
- Highest single target efficiency.
- Incredible defense (plate armor, shield, immunity bubbles).
- Best buffs.
- Dispels poisons, magic, diseases.
- Few spells, but the ones they have are effective.
- Immobile, with no passive healing, and very limited instant cast healing.
- Very limited offensive capability.

Report Card:
Talent Trees: A
PvE: A
PvP Solo: D
PvP Battlegrounds: A
2v2 Arena: C+
3v3 Arena: B
5v5 Arena: A
Fun Factor: D

The Talent Tree

The Paladin Holy/Prot spec is, possibly, one of the most solid healing trees available in this game. It gives all the necessary basics, such as spell pushback protection, mana efficiency, and more powerful heals, and it does all of these well. It also is the only healer spec that is equally as good for PvP as it is PvE.

The major advantages to the Paladin healing tree:

- 70% pushback protection which can be improved to over 100% with (improved) concentration aura.
- Improved concentration aura adds pushback protection and reduction of silences/interrupts to teammates.
- Blessing of Kings is, overall, probably the best buff in the game (aside salvation for PvE).
- Highest mana efficiency of any healer, facilitated by the fact that each critical heal refunds 60% of the cost of the spell to the Paladin. Support talents are present to boost spell crit as well.
- Highest HP/S raw healing of any healer, facilitated by the fact their long heal is a base 2.5s cast time, and each long heal after that (within 15 seconds, refreshing) is actually a 2.0s cast (.5s longer than a flash heal) thanks to a talent.
- 35% of intellect (a stat that also raises spell crit), is added as damage/healing.
- Only three points at tier 3 to boost the strength of HOly Light and Flash of Light by 12%
- As good in PvP as it is in PvE, and a good choice for people who like to raid and PvP without the hassles and cost of respeccing.

Disadvantages:

- Pushback talent costs 5 points, which is a larger expenditure than the equivalent talent for a Priest (though more can be achieved with conc aura).
- Weakish 31 and 41 point talents.
- Almost no offensive utility available.

PvE

PvE as a Paladin tends to be dead simple - buff the raid, judge the boss if a ret paladin is present, then get assigned to a tank and heal the bejesus out of it. The only deviations that generally happen is situations where they must improvise as raid healing, or the few situational off-roles for them, such as generating spike healing on Tidewalker to attract Murloc aggro.

Their main strength is their staying power - they can heal a single target almost infinitely, and do not have to worry themselves with things like 5 second rule mechanics. They spam, and spam, and spam, and spam heals.

Their weakness in PvE is their inability to heal groups of people effectively. This doesn't really hinder them, however, because if they could heal groups, nobody would ever consider having another type of healer around. Their role is generally considered to be the most crucial, as tank healing is usually always required, whereas AOE healing is situational.

Paladin PvE progression is some of the best, as well. While they often don't need things, like spirit,that tend to be common on gear designed for other classes, they can progress wearing any armor available. If a piece of leather drops that is an upgrade for them, they can use it. Same with mail or cloth. This gives them many options for improving themselves, and makes them one of the easiest healers to get geared from scratch when you're trying to catch up with your guild in progression.

Paladin blessings are so powerful (to the point of being overpowered) that they are considered required for raids. A good example of this is the blessing of salvation, which reduces threat generated by 30%, which essentially allows a threat capped DPS class to produce up to 30% more DPS if it is able. Advantages like this were a good reason that alliance PvE progression was so much better than Horde's when Paladins were not available to both sides.

Paladin in-combat mana regeneration is typically poor (being limited to as much MP5 as they can stack, with no synergy with spirit whatsoever), but their efficiency with their spells is so strong that they rarely run out of mana anyways, so this is rarely seen as a deficiency.

PvP

Paladins are considered to be nearly immortal healers with unbeatable efficiency. The impression that one is left with when fighting against something like a Warrior/Paladin team is one of utter futility. It takes a mixture of very coordinated damage in tandem with CC/silencing effects to take down something being healed by a Paladin, and very rarely does an attrition battle win out over the Paladin's efficiency. Paladins are noted as being capable enough to even keep flimsy targets such as Priests and Mages alive for extended periods of time.

Attempting to change tactics and kill the Paladin is also near impossible, thanks to plate armor + shield damage mitigation coupled with immunity shields. They can also remove poisons, magical effects, and disease, and are the only class that can actually remove an effect like Mortal Strike (albeit, on a cooldown). They have defensive auras that can provide a variety of survival-useful effects, and the most effective way of killing them is magic damage, which they aren't at that much of a disadvantage against. They also have 100% pushback protection from attacks against them with concentration aura up.

Paladins can use the exact same talent spec for PvP that they use for PvE, something that no other healing class can get away with. This also means that the gear they get in both situations can be homogenized somewhat. It is not uncommon in the least to see Paladins in PvE gear in the arena, particularly if they've been pulling a problematic DPS team and need stronger heals. If a Priest tried this tactic, the result would be a dead Priest, but Paladins core defense allows them to get away with it to some extent (most teams won't try to down the Paladin unless they know something's up, and it's pretty easy to throw on the Gladiator shoulders/helmet to create the illusion that you are in PvP gear).

Solo Play

Paladins are poor in the solo play category. They are just barely able to defend themselves in healing gear against a single attacker, and do not do well against multiple attackers, due to their weak offense. Almost all Paladin victories solo come from simply outlasting an opponent, and eating away slowly at their health. In many cases, the foes a Paladin can kill will simply up and walk away out of boredom. Other ones will simply eat away at the Paladin's mana (with abilities like mana burn or drain mana) and eventually run the Paladin OOM and worthless.

Battlegrounds

An old saying of mine goes that the team with the better healing Paladins is the one that will win the battleground. Paladins are extremely solid healers, and create the most dire catch-22 for the average BG player - how does one kill, when both the healer and the healed are nigh-invulnerable?

Paladins carry all their arena strengths into a Battleground. Most pugs won't test them, leaving them able to heal unretaliated in any equal numbered fight. They can heal near-forever, particularly when they're on a target with a good amount of HP and resilience that can't be simply burst down. They are immensely useful for point defense of any flag-based objective (they are great carriers in WSG, and a solo Paladin can easily stop a team from capturing a flag in AB long enough to allow a respawn for defense).

Also, most admirably, is the fact that a Paladin can heal in a battleground with little assistance from his teammates, and he will heal a raw amount of damage right on par with the damage output of the BG DPS powerhouses (Warlocks, Hunters, and Warriors w/ heals).

2v2 Arena

Paladins are quite decent in 2v2 arena as healers. A Paladin/Warrior, Paladin/Rogue, or Paladin/Warlock combo is almost guaranteed a 2000 rating in 2v2, regardless of the skill of the participants. They have trouble progressing further because of the presence of heavy CC (usually in the form of Warlocks) which render them unable to heal for extended periods. A team will almost never win a DPS vs Healing war with a Paladin, so these tactics are common, and limit populations of Paladins in this bracket.

A lot of Paladin players have a tough time adjusting to the req

Due to their immobility, they tend to park themselves in inopportune places, and make themselves ripe for CC effects. Good Paladins alleviate this issue by LOSing their opponents, but still getting in heals. Sometimes, it may be necessary for the Paladin's partner to disable a CC-enabled opponent so the Paladin can heal unmolested. They do have some options, though, being able to hammer of justice, or simply pre-emptively bubble to guarantee a heal is going to happen. They don't have HOTs, and their only instant heal (Holy Shock) is weakish, so good Paladins have to adjust quickly to this difference in gameplay.

3v3 Arena

Paladins in 3v3 tend to fare a little better than 2v2, because there can be a bit more flexibility in the makeup. The Paladin will have to be vigilant that he doesn't get CCed by the addition of the extra opponent, and kiting might become a bit more difficult, but he also has the extra teammate support to help counter that CC.

Paladins work well in 3v3s, better than 2v2s, because of this. The overall experience is very like 2v2s. They also can ally themselves with a healing hybrid (such as a Priest), to provide them support. The Priest can crossheal, and cross-dispel, shutting down things like Polymorph.

5v5 Arena

This is where Paladins are at their utmost power. Paladins are considered to be the lifeblood and success of a 5v5 team. Paladins are the only healers that can output the sheer amount of healing needed to keep up with a 3-4 DPS team abusing the -50% healing debuff that comes standard with Warriors or Rogues (and now Hunters).

The Paladin's innate defense means that they are rarely tested as the DPS focus target, and their talents are perfectly suited for 5v5 arena. While many spell crits in PvE might translate into overhealing, in PvP, each spell crit is essentially a heal that ignores half of the Mortal Strike debuff. On a top end healing Paladin, their Holy spell crit from talents and gear generally gets to around 30% with Flash of Light, and 34% with Holy Light. Essentially, 1 in 3 Paladin heals refund 60% of their cast cost, and ignore half of the effects of Mortal Strike to boot, creating a very powerful healer.

Paladins are seen in a wide variety of teams, ranging from 3 healer teams, 3 DPS teams, or even solo healing 4 DPS teams. It is a common tactic to pair them with Priests, where the two have a symbiotic relationship: the Paladin keeps the oft-focused Priest alive, while the Priest keeps the Paladin free of CC, offheals when he is silenced, eases the burden on AOE healing, and works to counter the presence of the enemy Paladin with mana burns. Paladin magical dispelling is also viewed as being too weak in the face of a team that spams DOTs, so the Priest is generally tasked with that, allowing the Paladin to concentrate on what they do best - healing.

Fun Factor

Once one gets out of the honeymoon period, complaints abound about the Paladin's formulaic and downright dull gameplay. If it sounds to good to be true, it often is, and fun is a pretty ugly topic for the Paladin.

The crummy solo experience (nobody wants to be reliant on a group constantly) couples with the sheer monotony created by using two buttons over and over to create a terribly unfun class to play.

The short learning curve appeals to the new player, but creates little lasting appeal. The most fun a Paladin usually gets is having to use some of their situational spells, such as judgement of justice, or blessing of wisdom, and even those are short lived. A Paladin who is the final player alive in an arena usually just leaves the arena.

To put it simply - Paladins who are Holy often find themselves speccing into the very mediocre Retribution tree for short periods, not because it's an effective tree, but simply to alleviate the boredom of the Holy tree for awhile.

Paladins usually appeal best to progression minded people who wish to advance their PvE guild or PvP team at any cost, or folks who enjoy simply being the most powerful healer on the scene. They aren't fancy, but they are potent, and for some, that's all that's necessary.

The Resto Druid

In a Nutshell:

In many ways, the Resto Druid is the healing antithesis of the Paladin. Mobile, passive, and crafty, the Druid has a very large bag of tricks that results in healing and efficiency almost as good as the Paladin (Paladins tend to win healing meters on tank-centric bosses, whereas, Druids win them on AOE healing), but with a very different gameplay feel (and some situational advantages/disadvantages over that class).

Defining Features:
- Very strong and numerous HOTs that are difficult to dispel.
- Strong passive healing that can be done on the run.
- High efficiency.
- Somewhat flimsy if cornered, but very difficult to lock down or otherwise catch. Can turtle in bearform and wait out bad periods.
- Only healer that has useful CC.
- Dispels poisons/curses.
- Large palette of spells and abilities to work with. Quite a lot of cooldowns that can be used for various purposes.
- Reasonable offensive capabilities.

Report Card:
Talent Trees: B+
PvE: A
PvP Solo: B+
PvP Battlegrounds: C+
2v2 Arena: A
3v3 Arena: B
5v5 Arena: C+
Fun Factor: A

Talent Trees

Unlike a Paladin, a Druid PvP and PvE healing spec will differ somewhat, but, it is still comfortably possible to get a build that is more than suitable for both in one. The main reason for this is the fact that there are a lot of defensive talents that Druids pick up for PvP. Druid healers will generally spend 8 points in balance (for nature's grasp and control of nature), 11 points into feral (for brutal impact, thick hide, and feral charge), and an additional 3 points in resto for natural perfection (for a total expenditure of 22 points in non-healing productive talents). Conversely, PvPers will frown upon the PvE centered spirit talents, which are absent on Druid arena gear.

Despite this, the talents that Druids do have in their restoration tree are very solid, conferring the following advantages:

- 30% dispel resistance (and 20% less threat) at their tier 3.
- Instant cast Healing Touch (or other nature based spell) once every 3 minutes.
- 20% bonus +healing to Healing Touch for only 2 talent points.
- 20% bonus +healing to their hots (on top of a 15% stronger rejuvenation).
- 10% stronger heals at tier 5.
- Ability to consume a HOT spell and deal the entire healing amount instantly, once every 15 seconds.
- Stacking buff that can reduce incoming damage by 15%.

Disadvantages:

- A PvE progression minded guild will likely balk at their healer having a PvP spec, and vice versa.
- 41 point resto talent is useful only in PvE.
- Quite a few 5 point talent sinks in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tier in the resto tree.

PvE

Resto Druid PvE is an interesting mix. They are quite good at tank healing, albeit a bit slow at times (they generally complain about the faster healers landing their heals, making theirs overheal). Their long heals are indeed long, but absolutely monstrous when they land, thanks to having a very high coefficient. Their main deficiency is the lack of a real "flash" heal. Regrowth is their quickest spell, clocking in at a 2.0s cast, and has a direct healing and HOT component, but is an absolute mana pig that you don't want to make use of unless absolutely necessary. They really shine when raid healing, particularly when they have their 41st point talent, which is hyper specialized for just that job. Druids are very good HOT distribution machines. They have three different types of HOTs, and can directly heal by consuming one of those HOTs. As such, they will actually beat out Paladins when there is a lot of raid healing in an encounter.

They bring good utility to a raid, having an innervate available for themselves, or another high spirit healer (frequently Priests). The innervate in a raid situation is nearly an entire mana bar replenished to a person with high spirit, so it is massively valuable. Their Mark of the Wild buff is considered useful for any class, and they can battle res once with a lengthy cooldown. While they don't have an out of combat resurrection, chances usually are someone else does, and out of combat resurrections haven't saved raids from wiping yet, whereas battle resses have. They tend to work well with spirit, and can take good advantage of the FSR, and their gear has a good amount of spirit available for them to take advantage of this.

PvP

A crafty resto Druid can be even more of a handful to deal with than a Paladin. What they lack in the "stand and deliver" department, they more than make up in the running department. You will not find a class that can escape more dire circumstances than a Druid. It is not an uncommon sight to see a lone Druid in travelform taking off across a battleground landscape, shrugging off snares and roots, and getting a good distance out of reach of a would be zerg that is enraged at their failure to catch and kill the Druid. They are also the only healer in WoW that are gifted with the ability to reliably and effectively crowd control characters.

PvP Solo

Resto Druids are quite capable on their own. Being a hybrid class, and thanks to the changes that came in the 2.3 patch which allowed healers to gain 30% of their healing as spell damage, they can combine their best aspect, healing, with their natural survivability/CC, and use their offensive spells to reliably kill a target. It's also possible to modify the Druid talent build into something even more capable for dealing and healing damage than the template build for arenas, if that's where your tastes take you.

On top of their ability to actually fight, Druids are wonderful at avoiding trouble, or evading it if avoiding it was impossible. Stealth gives them the ability to choose many of their fights, and rapid shifting from forms to travelform, coupled with their instant flight form, provides them easy escape from most World PvP situations.

PvP Battlegrounds

The battleground experience for a healing Druid tends to be a little bit more trying than that of a Paladin (who typically get left alone), however, Druids are well equipped for dealing with any adversity they come across, if they use the resources available to them.

Zergs are dealt with gracefully by simply avoiding the situation via stealth, or running away when things get too out of hand. A Druid can get themselves out of snares, roots, and polymorphing effects, making them difficult to lock down and kill without tremendous spike damage.

Druids can have a tougher time keeping up PUGs than most healers. PUGs tend to be very flimsy, and Druids are very HOT and spike centric (it takes two GCDs to rejuvenate/swiftmend, and swiftmend is on a cooldown). Their lack of an efficient flash heal can also be a problem. They need targets with decent amounts of hitpoints and resilience for their HOT style healing to be truly effective. Landing healing touches can be difficult, as well, if there are a lot of silences flying about.

Resto Druids are best deployed as units designed to turn the tide of battle. Instead of focusing on keeping one person healthy, they can HOT an entire group, then try to pick out single targets for swiftmends. They turn tides, rather than keep a single (usually flimsy) PUG target alive. They work very well in tandem with Paladins, the former keeping the victims of focus fires alive, while the latter make sure that other targets don't get low enough for the enemy attackers to switch to and finish off.

They are also wonderful defense for flag nodes in AB. A Resto Druid can hide stealthed by a flag, pounce a potential capper, or moonfire, heal, and run around evading attackers and preventing captures until the team arrives to support the node. They are also wonderful flag runners in WSG.

2V2 Arena

If Paladins are considered the premiere healer for 5v5, resto Druids are considered to be it for 2v2. The mix of great efficiency, passive healing, mobility + survivability, and crowd control all blend into a healer that works well with almost anything. Resto Druids work very well with Rogues, Warriors, and Warlocks, and are frequently in the top ratings for 2v2.

A Resto Druid is a very hard thing to deal with. The first thing you're presented with is usually nothing - the Druid always starts out stealthed. Often, you engage his ally only to find yourself stunned by the Druid, who pounces on you. The Druid then runs away, and starts performing crowd control abilities, while passively healing his ally. His healing is strong enough that he can play an outlast game, making it difficult to justify trying to DPS the partner. Attempting to kill the Druid provokes a flight reaction, to which they are well suited, allowing the partner to down you at his leisure. Making a kill against such a Druid while he still has mana in his mana bar almost always requires magic damage, constant dispelling, and CC/silencing to prevent him from getting away and casting.

Resto Druids tend to do the best against healer/DPS teams. 2 DPS teams can sometimes kill them off by blanketing them with CC effects. For example, it is still possible for me, as a Disc Priest playing with a Warrior, to isolate and kill a Resto Druid if I add my magical DPS (and dispelling) on top of my Warrior's DPS, rather than focusing on healing. It would be far more difficult (or likely impossible) to defeat him if I didn't, because the Druid, while not escaping, would turtle in bearform, and the magical DPS is needed to maintain a decent amount of burn on the Druid when turtling.

3v3 Arena

Druids make wonderful healers for 3v3, and tend to match up well with teams with a lot of control, so as to minimize the amount of harassment they receive, and keep the need for spike healing to a minimum (the last thing that a Druid wants to do is end up in a situation where he'd have to spam regrowth just to keep someone alive).

They do well with Rogues, Frost Mages, and the like. Their escape abilities prove useful here as well, however, with the added person, it opens up the possibility of two DPS getting on the Druid and isolating him. The Druid's CC abilities are also very useful in 3v3, as he can rotate targets, or get multiple types of CC up, such as cycloning a Priest and rooting a Warrior while his teammates focus on a third target.

5v5 Arena

This is generally where the most complaints come from Resto Druids. Their style is a bit of a rough fit for the requirements of 5v5. 5v5 generally features multiple DPS classes focusing on targets, requiring fast, efficient healing presence almost constantly. The Druid's passivity in their heals can't do it alone like a Paladin's brute force Holy Light crits can, and they have to be supplemented to do well.

On the flip side, a team will use a Priest (an inferior healer) in the place of a Druid because of the fact that the Priest fulfills the necessary dispel role, has decent instant cast healing, and can work as a counter to the enemy Paladin by mana burning, or popping the odd bubble.

Druids in the arena tend to be focused a lot, so they tend to spend a lot of time in bearform. Against multiple attackers, they have less of a chance to live than even Priests if the Druid isn't in bearform, and that means that they aren't doing anything. Their escape abilities are not effective when they're being absolutely spammed by stuns, snares, and roots coming from 3 people (and flat out dangerous to use, considering you could be stuck in caster form while stunned, and take a real beating).

Fun Factor

Resto Druids have a high level of depth, and are very fun, providing a lot of unique things that other healers simply do not have access to (such as stealth, or useful CC). They can get their hands into almost anything, and get themselves out of almost anything, making them a good choice for people who want a powerful healer that can do more than just heal.

The Resto Shaman

In a Nutshell:

Resto Shaman embody the true nature of a hybrid healer, even moreso than Resto Druids. Physically tough, thanks to mail armor and a shield, they have good healing capabilities, combined with support that is useful both for both offensive and defensive situations, Shaman mix well with almost anything.

Defining Features:
- Bloodlust cooldown is one of the most fearsome things you can be witness to in an arena, particularly in a 5v5.
- Earthshield buff provides passive healing and spell pushback protection.
- Dispels poisons and diseases.
- Can offensively dispel two magic effects.
- Can place totems, which provide a wide array of offensive and defensive benefits.
- Mana tide totem provides spot mana restoration for the entire team.
- Good direct healing, with flash healing almost as good as a Priest.
- 2nd toughest healer, aside Paladins.
- Can shock an enemy every few seconds, snaring them or interrupting their spell cast
- Reasonable efficiency.
- Good offensive capabilities, some of which are enabled through their restoration tree.
- Good AOE healing facilitated by the Chain Heal spell.

Report Card:
Talent Trees: B+
PvE: B
PvP Solo: B+
PvP Battlegrounds: B+
2v2 Arena: B
3v3 Arena: B
5v5 Arena: B
Fun Factor: B+

Talent Trees

Shaman's restoration tree has seen significant revision over time, and has gone from something that barely helped them heal into a tree that significantly enables them to heal right on par with any restoration class, even despite the fact they are hybrids. Their talents are fairly useful for both PvE and PvP specs. They gain the following advantages:

- Totem mana cost can be talented down by a significant degree.
- Subsequent castings of the Shaman's long heal actually improves the power of said heal, stacking 3 times for a total of 18% more healed (this is pretty powerful for long term healing of a target).
- Instant cast Healing Wave (or other nature based spell) once every 3 minutes.
- Can reduce the duration of silences and interrupts by 30%.
- Critical heals can add 25% armor to a target for a short duration.
- 30% of intellect is added as damage/healing.
- Can summon a totem that restores 24% of the total mana of each party member over 12 seconds (generally around 1900-2400 mana).
- Earthshield buff heals passively (like a HOT) when the buffed target is being attacked, and provides 35% spell pushback protection (when used on the Shaman himself gives 100% pushback protection, or can be cast on another class such as a Priest to give them that benefit).
- Most of the same talents that are suitable for PvE are also useful in PvP.

Disadvantages:

- Restoration tree is a mess of 5 point talents, that will quickly bleed you dry of available talent points, giving few options into going into other trees (especially considering how useful their 21, 31 and 41 point talents are).
- Talents are very plain, and there isn't much in the way of defensive utility present here.
- Many things that other classes get better versions of cost the same amount of talent points for Shaman (ie. Divine Fury vs Improved Healing Wave, Shaman healing focus vs Priest healing focus, etc.)
- Not much offered in the way of mana cost reductions to their spells.

PvE

Resto Shaman are quite desirable for PvE, as they combine just the right amount of healing, group utility, and healing versatility. Totems, while not as outright powerful as Paladin raid blessings, are unique, desired, and can be configured to benefit almost any group. For example, a Shaman can buff a melee group by placing a Windfury Totem and a Strength of Earth totem, but they are not limited there, as they are just as useful in a caster group, with Mana Spring totem and Totem of Wrath. A Shaman can be easily fielded in the group that needs them the most. Mana Tide totem and Bloodlust are also useful cooldowns that they bring to the fray, and they even have more totems that have not been mentioned.

Shaman healing is also quite useful. Healing Way empowers their long heals quite a bit, making them good for tank healing, however, even more pined after is their Chain Heal ability, which many guilds consider necessary for fights with lots of concentrated AoE damage (Void Reaver is a good example of the kind of damage that favors Chain Heal). Shaman actually can sometimes steal the show from Priests and Druids with Chain Heal, though those classes tend to be better when the damage is not simply concentrated in one area (such as Al'ar).

PvP Solo

Resto Shaman have been notorious for being good duellers even before spellpower was granted damage, and it only makes sense that they'd be doing even better now. It's a little tougher to venture up the elemental tree for some supplemental damage talents, simply because the Restoration tree is so point hungry, and has talents all the way up the tree that you want to pick up.

Resto Shaman tend to have a pretty good palette for World PvP. Their defenses are useful against both casters and physical DPS. They can intercept spells via their grounding totem, and prevent fear effects with their tremor totem. Their armor and strong healing ability keep them alive against melee damage, while they get some passive damage through their searing totem. Their damaging spells are also potent enough to be deadly.

PvP Battlegrounds

Shaman are a bit of a mixed bag in battlegrounds. Their healing and damage are quite good, but they have a bit of a penchant for not being able to get themselves out of rough situations. They can weather a storm fairly well, but when it comes down to a zerg on the Shaman, unless they've made a quick change to ghost wolf form and are already running away, they're likely stuck in a stunlock and not getting away. PUGs tend to be more apt to focus healing Shaman, as they don't have the supersticous fear of immunity bubbles from Shaman that they get from Paladins.

Totems are also somewhat annoying in battlegrounds, as it's almost impossible to coordinate with your group to make sure that everyone gets in on the benefits. Quite often, the only one that the Shaman's totems are servicing is the Shaman himself.

They are still quite fun to battleground with, because of the fact they offer good healing coupled with good damage, making them a strong match for any class on a 1:1 basis.

They can be somewhat servicable as flag runners with their Ghost Wolf ability, however, this form is actually dispellable, so the Shaman can be countered if the enemy is using their brain at all.

2V2 Arena

Resto Shaman are good in 2v2, but tend to be a little limited in the partners they can run with, almost all of the high rated teams being Warrior/Shaman combos. The reason for that being that the Warrior is the best class to take advantage of the buff provided by their Windfury totem. While a Rogue might look like a decent partner, the Rogue actually can't take advantage of Windfury due to the fact they poison their weapons (which disallows the Windfury buff). Other classes that could take advantage of the totem (such as Ret Paladins), are generally not considered viable. Every once in awhile, a Resto Shaman will do well with a SL/SL Warlock.

The Shaman's role in these pairing is usually one that involves them taking damage, ensuring their support totems are up, healing, and shocking enemy healers. If they encounter Priests, they generally will chase the Priest around spamming him with purge, which makes Shaman a very strong counter to healing Priests.

They do not have anything that stops CC, so the Shaman must be continually on the lookout for attempts to CC himself, and has to be able to heal long enough that the Warrior can make a kill (particularly troublesome if the enemy is fielding something like a frost mage). In this case, the only reason the Shaman/Warrior team has a chance against a Paladin/Warrior team is the fact that the Shaman buffs the Warrior's damage to a higher degree than the Paladin does, offsetting the Paladin's mitigation/healing advantage.

It's advised that if you want to do 2v2s with a Resto Shaman that you have a good Warrior handy, or at least a good SL/SL Warlock.

3v3 Arena

Resto Shaman are a bit more common in 3v3s than they are 2v2s, being popular in 2 healer or 2 DPS teams. They work with all kinds of combinations, such as Paladin/Shaman/Warrior, Shaman/Rogue/Priest, Shaman/Rogue/Mage, etc. 3v3 can probably be considered the best bracket for Shaman, as it is the best mix of where they can apply their abilities vs the demand for them.

The overall strategy is the same as 2v2 - heal teammates, keep totems up, shock healers. It's also valuable to keep an Earthbind totem up, allowing teammates to kite through it as necessary. Purging is also important, as classes like Priests can be fairly easily killed if constant purge presence is on them.

5v5 Arena

Despite what the Shaman has to offer a 5v5, they tend to have to compete for their spot with Priests and Paladins. Paladins are almost a shoe-in, having more sustainability and HP/S than the Shaman, and the Priest spot is also difficult to take, considering defensive dispels are required to keep crowd control in check. As such, Shaman tend to be featured on less optimized "alternative" teams, appearing as the solo healer for a 4 DPS (bloodlust enhanced), or appearing as a healer for a 3 healer, 2 DPS team (Priest/Shaman/Paladin/Warrior/Warrior being an example).

They do pull their weight in a 5v5, despite the hard competition. Their purges are cheaper than the Priest's offensive dispel, allowing them to focus on the offensive purges while the Priest concentrates on the defensive dispels. Bloodlust is a very powerful cooldown for a 5v5 group, as is Mana Tide totem (particularly with 3 healers). They can be included in an interrupt rotation on the enemy healer, and quite often are actually targetted by the enemy DPS, freeing up the Priest to mana burn.

Fun Factor

Shaman are fun to some, not so fun to others. Despite having only direct heals (earthshield aside), they are a lot more "busy" than Paladins. They enjoy a good overall performance in almost anything they do, and have a reasonable chance to succeed against almost any kind of adversity. The totem system provides an interesting level of depth, and they are good team support, and good on their own, making them a wise choice for people who enjoy a wide variety of experiences.

The Discipline Priest

In a Nutshell:

Discipline Priests exist as sort of a paradox within themselves - they are considered a jack of all heals, yet are a highly specialized tool in certain situations.

The Priest game is completely varied, depending on what you plan to do with it. The PvE game is often nothing resembling the PvP game. In fact, it's impossible for a Priest to have a specialized PvE/PvP spec in the same build, as both situations have different demands of the class.

Priests tend to follow the motif that "I am only as useful as my teammates allow me to be", and require a lot of work and cooperation from those they are affiliated with.

Defining Features:

- Able to perform healing duties in almost any environment, whether it calls for tank healing, or AoE healing.
- Large amount of instant cast healing abilities lend some mobility to the class.
- Moderate healing power.
- Can dispel two magical both offensively and defensively, for a small amount more mana than a Shaman's purge if 8 talent points are dedicated to that purpose.
- Can dispel diseases.
- Commands a certain respect in the arenas for their offensive utility (dispel, mana burn)
- Poor defense.
- Poor mana efficiency.
- Large repritoire of healing spells to choose from.
- Moderate offensive capability against melee.
- Good offensive capability against casters.

Report Card:
Talent Trees: C-
PvE: B-
PvP Solo: C+
PvP Battlegrounds: C-
2v2 Arena: C
3v3 Arena: B
5v5 Arena: B+
Fun Factor: C+

Talent Trees

Priests have recently had their Discipline talent tree buffed, and it has helped a good deal to provide them with more viable survival options in PvP, with just a hint of raid utility with the cooldowned talents. Priests enjoy the following from their talent trees:

- Can impart 40% damage reduction and 65% dispel resistance to a target for 8 seconds every 2 minutes.
- Can impart 20% increased damage and healing to a target for 15 seconds every 3 minutes.
- Can make their next spell cast cost 100% less mana and have a 25% increased crit chance.
- Dispel Magic's mana cost can be reduced by 25%.
- Can reduce damage by 15% and increase healing done to the Priest by 30% for 6 seconds by a stacking buff that occurs when the Priest takes hits.
- Can gain up to 20% dispel resistance.
- Can reduce the mana cost of Greater Heal by 15%.
- Can reduce the mana cost of instant cast spells by 10%.
- Critical heals can increase the armor of the target by 25% for a short duration.
- Offensive options, such as searing light, improved mana burn, force of will, and reflective shield, are well meshed in the tree and tempting (or outright required in the case of improved mana burn) to take even in a healer config.

Disadvantages:

- Despite the large amount of mana conservation talents available, Priests are notorious for still running out of mana fast.
- Many talents provide questionable gains for the points invested, often amounting to such small gains as 12 stamina for a single talent point (examples: improved PW:fort, silent resolve, improved inner fire, mental strength, enlightenment).
- Too many 5 point talent sinks, limiting what talents the Priest can actually take.
- Despite the large amount of defensive talents available, and the amount of points spent in these talents, Priests still remain very frail targets to relentless attackers.
- No comfortable talent build for a Priest that wants to do both PvE and PvP on the same spec.

PvE

The Priest PvE game is a bit of a trying process. First, their talent trees do not provide good ambiguity for PvE and PvP, meaning that a PvE specialized Priest isn't going to be Discipline at all - he'll be Holy (or more likely Shadow, but that's a different guide, I suppose). The reason for this is that PvE and PvP have completely different requirements for Priests. PvE is based completely around the Priest healing, and little else. PvP is more based around the Priest surviving, dispelling, and providing offensive utility, while off-healing (thus why the healing inferior Discipline tree is chosen over the Holy tree). The defensive talents that are required for PvP do not assist the Priest in PvE in any way, and this creates the paradox.

Priests also carry with them a stigma for being bad healers. It takes a lot of work to make a Priest heal on par with a powerhouse like a Paladin or a Druid. Even worse, a lot of the Priest's contribution is masked from things like healing meters, because the Prayer of Mending ability does not give credit to the Priest for the heal - instead it credits the person healed. Priest detractors also mention the lack of stacking utility, which is a truth - a Priest with improved PW:fort and improved DS brings every buff available for Priests to the raid. There are no blessings, totems, or other tricks to save the Priest.

Still, Priests hold their own, and only the nit pickiest guilds will ever refuse a pair of useful hands for healing (the truth is, not many people enjoy healing in this game). Priests are useful for tank healing, but they are even better at raid healing. Priest players tend to be pretty on the ball when it comes to awareness of their surroundings, particularly if they're a PvP Priest. If you need a tricky job done, such as someone to run around and make sure the cube clickers get heals on Magtheridan, or someone who can handle healing both the offtanks and the raid on Al'ar, your best bet is to assign it to a Priest. Priests have a large amount of healing spells available to them, and can apply this to changing situations (flashing people in emergencies, distributing HoTs, or casting long heals on off tanks). Their efficiency is pretty decent when deployed like this, as Priests have a high synergy with the Spirit stat, and many of the TBC raid encounters include bosses that have been scripted to provide transitions and gimmicks that allow spirit based healers breaks in the action to catch up to the MP5 spammers.

Priests provide a good variety of game in PvE, despite their shortcomings, so long as you don't have a guild that's going to bemoan you not being a Paladin every five minutes.

PvP Solo

The Disc Priest solo game is a mixed bag. They are reasonable duellers that don't really provide a hard counter to any class (except, of course, Paladins 1v1), but they do have classes that give them problems, most notibly being Shaman, Warlocks, and very good Rogues. Anything that gains a large advantage by using PvE gear also gives Disc Priests a problem, because they don't have any abilities that are powerful because of crits or DoT damage, rather, Disc Priests wear you down, and take you out.

They tend to have problems when it's 1vX, because of their poor mana efficiency. A Disc Priest can expect to have to use 7k mana (and probably a cooldown or two) to take out a single decent player of most classes. Add another, and the Priest runs the risk of running out of gas before being able to take one of the attackers down. They are also extrordinarily weak against dispels and stunlocks, as they are reliant on their defenses to keep them alive, and have no escape or CC abilities to allow them to be rid of CC spam from multiple targets.

Priests tend to do best in world PvP when they can control the circumstances behind the attack. As a Priest, you tend to want to be the person performing the gank, not being the victim of it.

PvP Battlegrounds

Priests tend to be a bit of a pain to play in the battlegrounds. Being very team support reliant, they are almost always the first ones targetted in any group battle, and the amount of dispels coming from Felhunter pets, Hunter arcane shots, and dispel/purge abilities is nearly unbearable. Very good players of the class (who have the gear to match) won't die all that often, however, it is incredibally easy to die as a Priest in a BG, so it requires a lot of walking on eggshells, and pre-emptively getting out of hopeless battles. It's the only healing class where you'd be well advised to carry Swiftness, Free Action, and Lesser Invisibility potions around.

What's worse, Priests don't get to have a lot of the "big number" fun that most other classes enjoy in battlegrounds. Their healing is far too weak to contest any of the other healing classes for the top of the charts, and their Prayer of Mending will heal a ton of damage - which will promptly be credited to the Priest's teammates, and not the Priest. They also gain no credit for casting their shields, and in the case of a reflective shield, the teammate that cast the shield actually gains the damage benefit.

Being an offensive utility class, the Priest will also run across many situations where the only thing they can do is busy themselves mana burning enemy healers (otherwise, they will continue to heal endlessly, and your team will die endlessly). Mana burn only gives about 500 damage credit per cast (dealing only 50% of the mana drained in damage), and this is another way that Priests look like they're doing less than they are on the scoreboards. Mana burn is also the best way to attract the attention of every Warrior, Rogue, or Warlock in the area, who typically don't appreciate having their personal healbot messed with, and ending all viability of mana burn, as it is nearly impossible to cast on an evasive target while taking a beating.

In the end, if the Priest is playing their class to its utmost, they'll end a round with a visible 125k damage dealt and around 150k damage healed, while Legolas the Hunter will have dealt 400k damage, and Healsinacan the Paladin will have healed about 400k damage. They'll also have drank a lot of water, because the mana efficiency issues really hurt in the busy environment of a BG.

Priests tend to be best played as a part of "shock troop" tactics on offensive lines. Having a lot of fast casting heals, but poor long term efficiency, they tend to want to involve themselves in fights that occur, and end, quickly. A Priest works well with a small unit of people dedicated to a particular purpose, for example, a Warrior/Rogue/Mage/Priest can make a good solid unit to go and quickly take a base in AB defended by an equal or slightly greater amount of enemies, designed to get in there, kill, and capture before reenforcements arrive. They tend to work well at disabling enemy healers in these situations, as the heavy control provided by the Rogue and Mage can allow the Priest enough freedom to quickly mana burn an enemy healer out of mana.

Priests are an acquired taste for battlegrounds, relying more on their smarts and instinct than their class' abilities. If you're the kind of person that likes the Thief genre of FPS-style games, then it might be something that you'd enjoy, as there is a good amount of evasion and sneaking about to it.

2V2 Arena

In all brackets of arena, to a Priest, composition is everything. 2v2 tends to be the worst bracket for Priests, due to the fact that it is the one that leaves them the most exposed, but Priests still do well here if they choose the right composition. If you pair yourself off with a Feral Druid, you're probably going to lose. If you pair yourself off with a Warrior, you're probably going to lose (unless your battlegroup is nothing but Warlock teams). If you pair yourself off with another healer, you're probably going to lose. So then, what works? CC based classes.

The premiere 2s group for a Priest is Rogue/Priest, and it's not hard to see why. The Rogue has extreme control over 1 individual, allowing the Priest to run around unmolested and mana burn healers. Even against rough combos like Warrior/Paladin, the Rogue/Priest combo can still win, as Rogues may not beat Warriors in a slugfest (and Priests don't beat Paladins in a healfest), but Rogues can kite/control Warriors, and Priests can chase Paladins around, threatening them with mana burns. The issue of mana efficiency is alleviated with this combo, as it operates more on damage evasion via control than it does reversing it with healing.

Another popular pairing is Priest/Hunter, which is one of the few synergies you'll see for a Hunter in arenas. The latter provides the former with a large frost trap to dance around in, while both can burn mana, and the Hunter does quite good DPS on top of it. With the recent buffs to Hunters, this pairing will also likely be stronger.

SL/SL Warlock/Priest also has good results, though, Warlocks tend to want to pick sturdier healers, so as not to stack a team with cloth (nothing a Rogue likes to see more than dual cloth), and the fact that Warlocks need lots of healing to life tap from, and Priests tend to be poor choices for the purpose of healing efficiency.

Priests are very high maintenence, and if your partner isn't prepared to take care of you, you're probably not going to get very far in 2v2, however, as it's been proven over and over again, Priests can get themselves to the top, provided their composition and teammate are appropriate fits.

3v3 Arena

3v3 tends to be a more flexible arena for a Priest, as they have a few more options than simply getting together with a bunch of CC classes, however, CC is very alive and well in 3v3. They form a part of the "scrub express" team, which consists of <healer>/Frost Mage/Rogue. But Priests can also work in a team such as a Paladin/Priest/Warrior, where the Priest works to keep the Warrior free of CC, while the Paladin heals the Priest endlessly, and provides blessing of freedom to the victim of excessive snaring (usually the Warrior, but sometimes required to let the Priest get out of trouble). Both Paladin and Priest can provide defensive cooldowns in the form of Blessing of Protection and Pain Suppression when it is required, as well.

The Priest is most threatening when left alone, because he can empty out a healer's mana mighty quickly via mana burns if not impeded in some way. The "G-Spot" for a Priest is a situation that arises when the Priest is left alone to mana burn a healer trying to outheal damage by (usually 2) DPS, which puts the healer in the checkmate situation of either having to lose his entire mana bar (and the match), or lose his teammate (and the match), and this is what teams utilizing Priests continually try to make happen.

As good as mana burn is, however, it can be a liability as well when used at the wrong time. To draw from a personal experience, we played two games against a Rogue/Priest/Warlock team as a Priest/Resto Shaman/Warrior team (the opposing Priest being in a top 10 5v5 team). The first one, where I attempted to mana burn the enemy Priest (and he wanted to recipricate), was a loss, because of the fact that they had a lot of control, and curse of tongues. The second one, a change of tactics actually allowed us to beat them. Instead of attempting to mana burn the enemy Priest, I avoided his mana burn attempts, focusing on dispelling the Warlock's DPS and CC, while running away from the Priest. After about a minute of trying to mana burn me (which ended in me mana burning him twice when he stopped to heal, and him getting me twice), he fell so far behind on healing that he was forced to stop, and spam flash heals. This allowed me to finish his mana, and we won that round.

You're probably noticing a theme here involving mana burn and dispel magic. This is what Priests are primarily for in arenas. Their healing abilities, at best, ought to be used as damage mitigation, rather than damage reversal. As it's been stated before, Priests don't compete in a healing battle against any of the other healers, and that's the reason why mana burn exists - to allow Priests an avenue in which they can travel to catch up to the other healers, mainly by bleeding them dry. 3v3 teams that utilize Priests as a part of a control group will attempt to control enemies to allow the Priest access to mana burn the healer. 3v3 teams that utilize Priests as a part of a healer group will attempt to have the Priest burn the healer under pressure, having someone else heal the Priest while he attempts to mana burn the enemy healer. Because of this threat, Priests are often priority #1 in arenas, and unfortunately, any class like a Rogue can utterly shut down a Priest's ability to mana burn. At its best, mana burn can empty out an enemy healer's mana in a matter of 15 seconds or less. At its worst, you will cast mana burn six times, and have every single one aborted due to a kick, a mace stun, or a kidney shot.

This is why Priests are reliant on their teammates. If the Priest is allowed to sit there and be a pinata all round (forcing him to heal himself), the Priest's team will lose. If the Priest is forced to heal excessively, the Priest's team will lose. The team must ensure that their Priest is as unmolested as possible, while ensuring that they are taking as least amount of damage as possible. The group composition, then, decides which the group is better at. In all cases, the group's strategy almost always revolves around the Priest.

5v5 Arena

5v5 arena shares much of the same strategy and tactics employed in 3v3. Priests are of high representation in 5v5 arena, because of the increased impact that CC (particularly magic-based CC) has on the match. If the enemy team can keep someone polymorphed and someone else feared, they're probably going to win. A Priest is needed to keep the CC down to a minimum, and they also provide support to the Paladin by mitigating AoE damage to the team, while carrying the ever-present risk of mana burn. Priests are also very good at derailing Warlock/SPriest DOT spam combos if the Paladin is prepared to dispel the UA silence off him.

The Priest's primarily concern is going to generally be to make sure nobody gets CCed. Free GCDs will be used to get shields, PRoM, and renews up. If an opportunity to mana burn presents itself (particularly to vulnerable magical DPS, such as elemental shaman or shadow priests), that should be taken too. The Paladin and Priest work in tandem, the former making sure everybody (especially the Priest) stays topped off and healthy, while the latter makes sure the Paladin is free of CCs, silences, or other magical annoyances.

Enemy team composition tends to be the biggest factor in determining whether or not the Priest is focused. If you're up against something that has a Warrior and Shaman, it's very likely that the Priest is going to be focused (purge spam and physical DPS is the bane of Priests). If the enemy team is more magic or control based, the Priest isn't going to be that likely of a target (though will certainly find himself being polymorphed and the victim of CC in this case).

Healing needs to be picked up in any case where the Paladin cannot handle it. If the Paladin calls that he's counterspelled, the Priest needs to pick up heals immediately. If the Paladin is feared and out of range of the Priest's dispel, the Priest needs to pick up the heals. Instant casts should be utilized liberally to prevent damage to targets, and PRoM will clean up minor AoE damage (or outright punish DoT spam teams that are foolish enough to spam their DoTs on multiple targets).

In the case that you are up against a Warlock/SP team, it is possible to prevent them from getting a firm purchase against a target with their DoTs, but the Paladin has to be supportive and ready to assist. Essentially, the Priest can nullify the actions of those two classes by spamming dispels on the DoT target, with no regard given to unstable affliction. The only real penalty here of eating UA is the silence (the damage isn't all that threatening to a Priest who is topped off), and the Paladin can cross dispel the silence off. Given that the UA Warlock is a very soft target (no soul link), after the initial UA, he likely will have difficulty getting another one off. Continue to dispel DoTs, except if you get into a situation where the Warlock is simply chain spamming UA. Your team, however, should be pressuring the Warlock enough that this won't happen.

Fun Factor

You could shake a magic 8-ball, and it would be about as accurate as any advice I can give to you as to whether you'd enjoy your Priest or not. Here's a few facts, though I can offer:

- A newly rolled Priest is probably the weakest class in the game. Priests are exceptionally gear reliant. You will first have to find a way to get your hitpoints to at least 10,000. This won't be enough. You then will have to find a way to get your resilience up to at least 300. This still won't be enough. You then have to complete your gear, to get yourself up to (minimally) 11,000 hp buffed, 400+ resilience, and 1500 +healing before you can finally realize your potential and compete.

- You need good friends. You can be the best Priest in the world, and it won't make a lick of difference if you can't put together proper group compositions of people who are at least as skilled as you are. If you are someone who wants to play with friends, or non-optimal group compositions, you will have to accept that you probably won't be a gladiator.

- You have to accept that you are not a primary healer (at least, in PvP). The Priest experience is very centered around turning tides, preventing CC, burning mana, and healing in emergency situations (or to prevent emergency situations). If you're looking to roll a healer, I suggest checking out one of the other classes outlined in this guide.

- People will blame you incessantly for things. Blaming the Priest for a wipe has been going on since the good old days of Scholomance, and it is still persists in arena teams. You will be questioned on your healing, ability to LOS enemies, and just the general "why the hell did you DIEEEEE" rhetoric. If you don't have a thick skin, Priest is likely not for you.

- If you like the niche role that a Priest provides in the arena, a Priest might be for you.

- If you like PvE healing, but don't want to fall asleep at the keyboard playing a Paladin, don't want the bad case of fleas that comes with a Druid, and can't stand the chafing of chainmail boxer shorts, then a Priest might be for you.

Reserved

Reserved

posting in a Soulcorruptr thread with nonexistant arena ratings.

sure i'll have something to say later.

how do you type that much

---

Q u o t e:
how do you type that much

---

Being bored at work is a good motivator.

i hate my priest... and until they fix the class I'm not healing anyones ass. end of story.

Why do only disc priests? I think Holy priests would score higher on the report card. And the fun factor of the priest should be higher, way higher than a C+.

---

Q u o t e:
Why do only disc priests? I think Holy priests would score higher on the report card. And the fun factor of the priest should be higher, way higher than a C+.

---

I chose to focus on the Disc Priest because they are the current standard for the healing Priest in competitive PvP. The choice had to be made simply because Priests are unique in the fact that they can't share a spec for both PvE and PvP like, say, a Paladin can.

You can assume that the portion on PvE for the Priest was written more with Holy than Disc in mind, however, thus why I mentioned that PvE specialized Priests are still going to be Holy. I generalized the thing around Disc, however, since only one section is on PvE, and 5 sections are on PvP.

The C+ is more of an average of the overall experience. Priest is very fun at its high moments, and the absolute pits at its low moments. You can go from one game cackling with glee as you get a bloodlust and drain a paladin's mana in 10 seconds flat, to tearing your hair out the next as a Shaman purge spams you while two Warriors beat on you.

---

Q u o t e:
Priests also carry with them a stigma for being bad healers. It takes a lot of work to make a Priest heal on par with a powerhouse like a Paladin or a Druid. Even worse, a lot of the Priest's contribution is masked from things like healing meters, because the Prayer of Mending ability does not give credit to the Priest for the heal - instead it credits the person healed.

---

Not true, A good priest (holy specced) should be 1-3 on the meters at all times, if not, then they just lack the gear. If they have good gear then they just need to change their playstyle/spec.

If your telling me paladins/druids are "powerhouses" then obviously you don't know power. A priests greater heal is the most "powerful", and heals for the most. If you downrank it, it keeps its effeciency. If you mean paladins/druids are more effecient, thats a different story.

I am not saying healing is built around healing meters, but you should be 1-3 on the healing meters, without PoM even counting.

---

Q u o t e:


Not true, A good priest (holy specced) should be 1-3 at all times, if not, then they just lack the gear. If they have good gear then they just need to change their playstyle/spec.

If your telling me paladins/druids are "powerhouses" then obviously you don't know power. A priests greater heal is the most "powerful", and heals for the most. If you downrank it, it keeps its effeciency. If you mean paladins/druids are more effecient, thats a different story.

I am not saying healing is built around healing meters, but you should be 1-3 on the healing meters, without PoM counting on the meters.

---

"Stigma" meaning you will face the hyperbolized ignorance of the masses telling you that you are a worthless healer before ever actually seeing you in action (ie. "my Warrior guild leader says Priests are the worst healers!")

Priests aren't bad heal-wise for PvE, mainly because of how spirit works and how they've scripted boss encounters, though the lack of utility is definitely a concern.

This thread needs a sticky, pronto. Not only is it extremely helpful (particularly to folks like me who are trying to decide which healing class to roll), but you write in a manner that facilitates easy and quick reading of a post that would otherwise be difficult to digest.

Bravo, and keep up the good work, friend.

EDIT: I see your reasoning on excluding the bit about holy priests now. However, it still might be of some benefit (at least to your intended audience) to write a separate section devoted specifically to holy priests, much like you've done for the discipline priest.

Also, edited for verbosity.