Healer is the second most important role in a group in World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery. Yes, without a tank, the whole group would be wiped in a matter of seconds, but without a healer, not even the tank would last for long.
As a healer, your role is to keep the group alive (especially the tank) by using healing magic. You’ll often be at the back of the group, popping heals and occasionally helping with damage. While it may sound boring, it’s still a very important role. There are four healing classes in WoW Classic SoD, and they all have unique characteristics.
Best healers in WoW Classic Season of Discovery
S-tier
Priest
Priests are made for healing; unless they’re specced into Shadow. Whether you pick a Holy or a Discipline Priest, however, you get one heck of a healer. A Holy Priest is a traditional type of healer who uses a wide range of spells to heal one or multiple opponents. A Discipline Priest relies more on shields than heals and is great at supporting one plater (like the main tank).
The only downside to Priest healers is that they don’t have that many buffs or dispel abilities like Shamans, but on the other hand, a Priest is best at keeping everyone alive. With the runes in Season of Discovery, Priest heals are more effective and powerful. If you enjoy keeping everyone’s health up with lots of healing spells, there’s no better class than the Priest.
Druid
Druids are good healers—just aren’t great. That was the case back in WoW Classic. In Season of Discovery, Druids will become better healers, just not yet. Until the endgame is revealed, Druids will mostly cast one healing ability, and the rest will be done through buffs.
Don’t get me wrong, Balance Druids are decent healers; they just aren’t amazing or versatile with their heals, at least not until they unlock some new abilities. With their rune abilities, Druid healers will become much more popular, but until the level cap is increased, they’ll just be decent.
A-tier
Shaman
Shaman healers are amazing. Not only do they heal, but they also buff the entire group using abilities and totems. Shamans can also play as tanks in Season of Discovery, but they’ve always been great healers, which will never change.
Other than a few strong healing spells, Restoration Shamans have a lot of utility heals as well, and did I mention the totem buffs? Regardless of your chosen role, Shamans will always be welcome in a dungeon or raiding group, especially as healers.
Paladin
Other than being decent tanks, Paladins can heal. In fact, during the endgame, Paladins could become the best healers. This is mainly because of their buffs and auras. However, what really makes Paladin heals stand out are their critical heals. Yeah, the Paladin will mainly cast Flash Heals, but when these heals hit and cause a critical, every party member will smile. I’m not going to lie; healing with a Paladin is really boring but super effective.
In Season of Discovery, most of the runes will benefit Protection and Retribution Paladins. Thankfully, healing is still a viable option for all paladins, no matter which version of WoW you might be playing.
B-tier
Mage
Mages can be healers in Season of Discovery. Once you obtain a few runes, the class gets around three new abilities that can keep the party alive. One of these is the rewind time Rune that turns back the time of a friendly character before they received damage—kind of like how Tracer works in Overwatch.
With that said, Mages are still mainly DPSers with a few healing abilities. While I think Mages will do fine in some low-level dungeons, most raids will still prefer them for their damage rather than healing. But we’ll have to wait and see what other phases of Season of Discovery bring to the table.
