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Shadowlands Healer Rankings - Best Healers for Castle Nathria Raid Predictions
Live
Publié
08/12/2020 à 03:31
par
Jaydaa
On December 8th/9th, the gates of
Château Nathria
will unlock, allowing the mortal champions of Azeroth to raid its sinister halls and gothic architecture in order to bring
Sire Denathrius
and his loyalists to justice for forsaking his fellow Eternal Ones by siding with the Jailer and abandoning their sacred charge as redeemers of wayward souls. As renowned masters of torture and torment, Denathrius and his loyal Venthyr shall wield the very power of death and the Shadowlands to eliminate these heroes. Healers, wielding the chaotic elements, the blessed holy light, or the fierce fury of nature, will stand ready to aid their allies against whatever lurks within
Château Nathria
and mend the broken Shadowlands before this chaos spills into our world. But which healers stand to be the most valuable against Denathrius' personal brand of death?
Need help picking a class? Check out the articles in our Shadowlands Season 1 series!
Mythic Castle Nathria
DPS in Mythic Castle NathriaTanks in Mythic Castle NathriaHealers in Mythic Castle Nathria
Mythic+ Season 1
DPS in Mythic+ Season 1Tanks in Mythic+ Season 1Healers in Mythic+ Season 1
Have any PVE questions about Shadowlands, such as Covenants, Renown, or Legendaries? Ask Sloot in his Shadowlands streams!
About the Author
About the Author
This article is written by
Jaydaa
a veteran healer and contributing writer to both World of Warcraft content and other Blizzard games content here on Wowhead. I've been raiding in WoW for almost 15 years at various levels of progression. I've contributed to the theorycrafting of multiple healing classes, notably Mistweaver Monks and Restoration Druids. Find me on
Twitter
or on the
Wowhead Discord
.
Introduction
You've followed us on this journey from the initial Shadowlands Alpha, to a prolonged Beta, and finally now to the Shadowlands launch. Along the way we've had the opportunity to apprise you of all the healing changes through our 'State Of' article series and through our class guides we've attempted to arm you with the best information possible to make the most out of all that the Shadowlands has to offer, especially healers. So where does that leave us?
While we've established current best practices for each healer, we've yet to really assess how they potentially compare and their likely relative value in
Château Nathria
. In this article we'll look at the amount of damage, positioning, and damage patterns involved with each encounter, specifically noting mechanics that can be countered with healer utility. We'll then assess each healer in terms of the type of healing they excel at taking into the new Shadowlands systems as well as their unique utility as it relates to the encounters to determine the relative value of each spec in
Château Nathria
.
Before we begin, it's important to note that every healing specialization has cleared all the Mythic raiding content in previous expansions and there's no reason to believe that won't be the same for Shadowlands and
Château Nathria
. You'll see world first guilds stacking certain healers for every possible advantage, but I assure you
every healer is viable in Mythic raiding
. Remember, a skilled non-meta healer will typically outperform a unskilled meta healer: Play the healer you're most comfortable with to see the best results.
Finally, it's of the utmost importance to stress that these rankings are merely
my own personal predictions and conjecture
based on Shadowlands Beta raid testing and thus may be inaccurate when the raid officially launches. Some of these encounters have not been publicly tested for months, and there have been significant changes to classes since then. You should also expect lots of changes to encounters, classes, covenants, legendaries, etc. between now and the defeat of Mythic
Sire Denathrius
.
Castle Nathria Boss Breakdown - What is Valued in Each Fight
With 10 unique encounters,
Château Nathria
will be the largest expansion launch raid we've seen for quite some time. Larger raids tend to have more opportunities for specific healers to shine in various encounters due to the wide variety of encounter types and mechanics. For the purposes of this article, we'll analyze each encounter on Mythic, as the differences between each spec are most easily defined at the highest level of difficulty. Emphasis will be placed on the final boss of the raid,
Sire Denathrius
, as the final encounter tends to be the most challenging.
Do not mistake the below information for a healer guide to
Château Nathria
. This is merely a brief look at each encounter for the purpose of evaluating each healer. For complete guides to the
Château Nathria
raid encounters including healing visit our
Castle Nathria Raid Overview
.
Hurlaile
For the initial encounter of the raid, Shriekwing shouldn't be overly taxing for healers throughput-wise; the larger frustration will be dealing with the potential line-of-sight issues. The primary raid damage of the fight is
Vague sanglante
, a large upfront damage burst followed by a 12s DoT that ticks for moderate damage which occurs roughly every 25s. Single target healing is limited and will be primarily on tanks who are swapping with each
Morsure d’exsanguination
,
Écholocalisation
targets, or any players hit by
Sonar résonnant
rings. Players will be mostly stacked in either two mostly stationary groups (Phase 1) or a single semi-mobile group (Phase 2) for the entirety of the encounter. Mobility isn't highly valued for Shriekwing as you'll only need to move for when you need to line-of-sight the boss, when moving out with
Écholocalisation
, or when dodging
Sonar résonnant
in Phase 2. When movement is required, it tends to either be short or not during periods that require high healing throughput.
For Mythic,
Lanterne de sang
will need to be used in order to debuff players with
Lumière sanglante
, which allows the raid to see the invisible
Sonar résonnant
. This also causes them to take a stacking DoT. While this is a source of extra raid damage, it can be mitigated fairly easily by careful timing of lantern use and simple stack management. A healer may be in charge of this mechanic simply because they'll be better aware of the current stacks on the raid.
Shriekwing Strategy Guide
Altimor le Veneur
One of my personal favorite healing fights of
Château Nathria
simply because it asks a lot from healers in a variety of different ways besides the typical 'spam AoE healing' strategy. There's a good mix of single target healing required for abilities like
Cherche-vice
and even single-target healing and excellent defensive usage that can prevent additional raid-wide damage from the
Lacérer l’âme
and its subsequent
Âme instable
. There's still plenty of AoE healing to be done from damage caused by
Fente vicieuse
,
Âme instable
, and
Pierre écrasante
, but you'll need a good mix of both types of healing to overcome this encounter. For positioning, ranged will be semi-spread out allowing for quick collapses when soaking
Fente vicieuse
and not getting hit by all 3
Cherche-vice
s. There will be be some movement required especially for the final pet
Hecutis
, but its fairly manageable in short bursts.
For Mythic, the pets will permanently empower
Cherche-vice
causing significantly more damage and forcing them to be soaked by multiple players. The most notable one for healers is
Perce-âme
, causing the
Cherche-vice
to spawn a
Lacérer l’âme
-like add for each player hit. Similarly, these adds will need to be healed up before they reach Altimor.
Huntsman Altimor Strategy Guide
Sun King's Salvation
I can't help but point out the irony that for DPS this encounter is all about AoE damage, but for healers there's a heavy emphasis on efficient single target healing; usually this is flipped so the juxtaposition is a bit comical. Throughout the encounter healers will need to heal up
Kael'thas Haut-Soleil
either via direct healing, by healing their allies who are channeling their health to him via
Infusion d’âme
, or by healing
Réceptacle d'essence
s. All options are essentially single target. There will still be some AoE damage over the course of the fight such as the
Vainqueur pierre-lié
's
Choc commotionnant
or
Ombre de Kael'thas
's
Éclair de braise
. For positioning, ranged will be loosely spread for Phase 1 and loosely stacked around the
Ombre de Kael'thas
during Phase 2 and there will be some minor movement involved but nothing too disruptive.
Mythic introduces a raid-wide curse,
Marque grossière
that increases damage taken, but more importantly introduces the novel concept of burst single-target healing. To explain, periodically
Kael'thas Haut-Soleil
will gain
Cape des flammes
and begin casting
Pyroclasme déchaîné
. To interrupt the lethal cast, healers will need to heal off the roughly 35k healing absorb within the 6s cast window. Again this can be done directly or with careful timing of healing
Réceptacle d'essence
s, but requires some coordination.
Sun King's Salvation Strategy Guide
Artificier Xy'mox
Up until this point, healers have had the luxury of being primarily stationary; but
Artificier Xy'mox
exercises a healer's mobility toolkit stretching it to some pretty insane extremes. Whether you're avoiding your
Esprit fugace
, placing a
Graine d’extinction
, or running out of the pull of
Tranchant d’annihilation
you'll need to manage your movement utility to ensure you're able to heal when necessary. Fortunately, you'll have the
Déchirure dimensionnelle
to assist you, but you'll still need more than that. For damage there's a significant amount of AoE damage in each phase from the ever-present tank debuff
Glyphe de destruction
and
Étincelle hyperluminique
to the phase specific
Aura d’effroi
. There's some single target healing involved with the ridiculously hard-hitting
Toucher flétrissant
found in phase 2. Positionally it's mostly spread out encounter for ranged.
Mythic causes the relics (
Esprit fugace
,
Graine d’extinction
, and
Tranchant d’annihilation
) spawned by the boss to remain active for the remainder of the encounter. None really require additional healing but do require additional movement and coordination to avoid. Did I mention that movement was good on this boss yet?
Artificer Xy'mox Strategy Guide
Destructeur affamé
This encounter offers a bit of both burst and sustained AoE healing. The sustain comes from countering the leech effect of the
Miasme glouton
, while the burst is required to counteract
Désolation
and
Consommer
. There is some single target healing required to quickly heal up players targeted by
Expulsion instable
. Immunities also tend to be quite helpful for soaking
Faille anéantissante
, allowing for additional space as the encounter progresses. Players will be a mix of spread out to avoid the
Expulsion instable
and stacked, depending on if they're giving health to their allies affected by
Miasme glouton
. Movement is fairly limited, typically relegated to when players are spreading out for
Éliminer
or running away from the
Consommer
.
Mythic adds an additional target to
Expulsion instable
and adds a debuff (
Absorption d’essence
) when leeching health for
Miasme glouton
. This is more about coordinating your leeching then significant additional damage.
Hungering Destroyer Strategy Guide
Dame Inerva Sombreveine
The key to this encounter will be managing the constant sustained raid-wide damage from
Anima résiduel
, while dealing with high tank damage via
Désirs déformés
, and the absolute onslaught of raid mechanics. There will be some spot healing for players afflicted by
Cognition partagée
or soaking either the
Anima en bouteille
or
Péchés du passé
. A lot of the burst AoE damage in this encounter comes from the tank debuff expiring resulting in a
Volte-face
or from mistakes in the raid like missed interrupts or soaks. Players will be mostly spread and there will be some movement when assisting with mechanics on this fight.
For Mythic, rather than anima containers being dumped it's instead redistributed to the remaining containers resulting in nearly all of the higher difficulty mechanics being up at the same time towards the end of the fight. Ranged healers and to a certain extent more mobile healers will have the advantage here as they'll be better able to assist the raid in dealing with these mechanics compared to a healer that has to be attached to the boss.
Lady Inerva Darkvein Strategy Guide
The Council of Blood
From a healer perspective, this encounter isn't too crazy and is more about control in addition to the
Danse macabre
intermission. You'll be continually healing the ramping sustained AoE damage from
Atmosphère oppressante
which can only be reset by triggering an intermission. This means the most dangerous and highest healing required moments will be just prior to
Danse macabre
. Managing this while healing the burst AoE damage from
Éruption d’orgueil
and
Pointes à âmes
and spot healing players afflicted with
Drain d’essence
and partners of the
Sombre récital
. The raid will mostly be spread out and some movement will be required.
The element of control comes when managing the Mythic mechanic,
Fièvre dansante
. The 5 players affected by
Fièvre dansante
need to clear their debuffs within the 30s duration by jumping but doing so during another AoE burst mechanic or all 5 at once will almost certainly result in a wipe. This is substantial amount of extra healing and requires coordination between the healers and raid to manage the damage.
Council of Blood Strategy Guide
Fangepoing
The 'Patchwerk' fight of
Château Nathria
but with the unique mechanic of
Fangepoing
that tethers you to an ally. As healers you'll need to be dealing with sustained damage of
Lien de chaîne
as well as the ramping sustained damage of
Fondation ébranlée
for each pillar destroyed. In traditional 'Patchwerk' style, the end of the encounter will have the highest healing requirement. You'll need to manage all this constant AoE damage while take bursts via
Rugissement colossal
and spot healing the players soaking the
Heurt à la chaîne
. Initially,
Fangepoing
hit tanks like a truck, but in later testing this tank damage was reduced and I'm not entirely sure where tuning will land for this. For positioning you'll mostly be stacked especially with your
Lien de chaîne
partner.
For Mythic all players are now affected by
Lien de chaîne
, you'll need to spread a bit to avoid the damage from
Transfert sismique
while still not breaking your
Lien de chaîne
, and the raid will need to soak the
Rocher fracturé
and
Débris fracturés
from every destroyed pillar. More damage more problems, but at least they're fun problems for a healer.
Sludgefist Strategy Guide
Stone Legion Generals
Managing and removing bleeds is the name of the game for Stone Legion Generals. You'll want to spot heal all targets with a bleed on them, including tanks via
Lacération dentelée
and all players with
Lacération pernicieuse
. In addition, healers will also have to manage the
Lacération du cœur
and subsequent harder-hitting
Hémorragie du cœur
that is triggered on a dispel. While you'll want to dispel quickly to reduce the overall healing requirement, you'll want to ensure that the afflicted player is healthy enough to survive the subsequent DoT and you're ready to spot heal them. For burst AoE damage you're mostly looking at the
Combo brise-pierre
where you'll need to spot-heal the
Cristallisation
, ensure bleeding players are healthy enough to survive the
Déflagration cristalline
to remove their bleeds, and then soak and heal the follow up burst from the
Météore destructeur
. Cycle through these debuffs, bleeds, and removals and you're almost home free besides the large AoE burst and knockback from Prince Renthal's
Explosion destructrice
after reaching 100% mana. For positioning you'll need a loose spread that can easily collapse to soak the
Météore destructeur
.
For Mythic this is where things really get spicy for debuff management. When you dispel
Lacération du cœur
from an ally, you and the dispelled player will both receive the devastating DoT
Hémorragie du cœur
. Healer survivability and damage reduction plays a huge part in mitigating this excess healing as well as controlled dispels. In addition, the other damage of note will be from players carrying the
Orbe d’anima
to Prince Renethal, as holding the orb will deal damage to the player, and when they deposit the orb, they create a burst of raid-wide damage. Controlling these extra bursts around other mechanics will be key. Movement will be a big requirement on Mythic as well, with adds that begin channeling
Effigie pierrevent
at 30% health, in an attempt to push you off the platform.
Stone Legion Generals Strategy Guide
Sire Denathrius
Unlike all the other bosses, Mythic Sire Denathrius was never tested publicly, which is standard procedure for final raid bosses. It’s therefore the most difficult fight to predict what will be important, and the most valuable if you’re able to make a good prediction and structure your raid accordingly. The mystery is further compounded by the fact that the Dungeon Journal does not always tell the whole story for Mythic end bosses. There may be mechanics or entire phases that are left out of the Journal, and these can upend all the conventional wisdom about the important damage profiles in the fight. To give some context though, we can look at Heroic for some clues for Mythic.
For Phase 1, minimal sustained damage comes from the
Fardeau du péché
stacks themselves, while most of the damage throughout the phase comes from removing the stacks themselves via
Souffrance purificatrice
and the subsequent
Echo du vice
s that are spawned or the
Prix du sang
. What's notable about the damage from
Prix du sang
is that Denathrius lifts players into the air and stuns them prior to dealing damage, meaning that most ground-targeted damage reduction cooldowns like
Mot de pouvoir : Barrière
or
Totem de lien d'esprit
are ineffective at mitigating this damage. For positioning, you'll be roughly stacked throughout all of Phase 1 and as long as you get thrown against a wall you won't need significant mobility.
For Phase 2, the damage shifts away from AoE burst into a more sustained pattern via the
Cabaliste cramoisi
's stacking debuff
Chœur cramoisi
as well as massive tank bleeds from
Rémornia
's
Carnage
. There will still be some AoE via Denathrius'
Main de la destruction
but this damage can be severely reduced by utilizing the mirror network. Throw in some spot healing from
Empaler
and it's a pretty well-rounded phase all things considered. Positioning-wise you'll likely switch between semi-stacked to spread when needing to avoid
Massacre
or
Crescendo
.
For Phase 3, the damage shifts slightly away from sustained damage to a barrage of constant AoE bursts and a bit of single target. For AoE bursts, we're again looking at
Main de la destruction
but also
Souffrance destructrice
that knocks the entire raid away. The tank DoT
Dédain
and the
Finesse fatale
DoT will be the single target damage in this final phase. Follow both of these up with soaking the
Courroux fumant
orbs that spawn from the
Finesse fatale
and this phase has a fairly well-rounded damage pattern. You're likely to remain relatively stacked throughout this phase as you race to defeat Denathrius before the room is consumed in
Ravage
.
As for Mythic, many of the mechanics have been augmented to require additional coordination or just more damage including
Prix du sang
returning in Phase 3. Four lieutenants are also summoned during Phase 2 but how, where, or when are currently unknown. Finally we have the mysterious
À travers le miroir
spell in the Dungeon Journal for an indication of a potential Mythic-only phase or additional augment to Phase 3. A lot of unknowns for Mythic...
Sire Denathrius Strategy Guide
Summary of Fight Designs for Castle Nathria Bosses
Let’s sum up how the Castle Nathria bosses will operate.
Shriekwing
: Frequent burst and sustained healing. Low movement. Stacked positioning.
Huntsman Altimor
: Single target, AoE burst, and a bit of sustained healing. Some movement. Semi-spread positioning.
Sun King’s Salvation
: Heavy Single Target Emphasis including Burst Single-Target. Some AoE healing. Stacked and spread position. Minimal movement.
Artificer Xy’mox
: AoE Burst, sustained AoE, some single-target. Semi-spread positioning. Massive amounts of movement.
Hungering Destroyer
: Sustained and burst AoE, minor single-target. Mix of spread and stacked positioning. Minimal movement.
Lady Inerva Darkvein
: Sustained AoE with some spot-healing and burst AoE. Range favored, spread positioning. Some movement.
The Council of Blood
: Ramping sustained AoE damage, with controlled AoE burst, and spot healing. Spread positioning. Some Movement
Sludgefist
: Ramping sustained AoE damage, and AoE burst. Stacked positioning. Minor movement.
Stone Legion Generals
: Sustained and AoE burst. Semi-spread position. Extra movement on Mythic.
Sire Denathrius
: AoE Burst, tank healing, priority single-target. Stacked or loosely spread. Minimal movement.
Most encounters in
Château Nathria
follow a similar blueprint: sustained damage that healers need to manage in order to survive an onslaught of burst damage while executing mechanics. A careful balance of sustained damage versus burst damage allows healers of all types to contribute and remain relevant in Mythic raid content. When only burst damage is present in an encounter, the value of damage reduction abilities, absorbs, and other utility that increases a player's effective health inflates significantly, as the goal is merely about surviving the burst so long as there's ample time to heal up between periodic bursts. This balance is particularly concerning for healers in
Château Nathria
simply due to the reintroduction of
Carapace spirituelle
for Discipline Priests. The relative strength and usefulness of
Carapace spirituelle
remains to be seen, but could make it difficult for other healers to meaningfully contribute when a majority of burst damage is absorbed away.
The number of healers for most encounters in
Château Nathria
seemed to be consistently 4 or 5; five typically being reserved for particularly high damage encounters like
Stone Legion Generals
and
Fangepoing
. Ultimately the number of healers required per fight will be determined by final tuning, not only on how much incoming damage there is onto the raid but also which bosses have significant DPS checks.
Sun King's Salvation
is particularly interesting as healers have a direct way to significantly shorten the duration of the encounter through healing. The balance for that encounter is how many healers can we bring while still maintaining control of the add spawns and consistently breaking through the
Cape des flammes
.
For positioning, the encounters of
Château Nathria
allow raid groups to remain mostly stacked or loosely spread for almost the entire duration of the fight. There aren't any long duration strict spread mechanics. Healers, cooldowns, and utility that benefit from stacking will have much more opportunity to excel in
Château Nathria
than in previous raids. Similarly, outside of a few fights like
Artificier Xy'mox
or
Stone Legion Generals
, there isn't really a heavy emphasis on mobility.
Ranking the Shadowlands Healers
As mentioned previously, these rankings do not indicate the capability of a class to heal Mythic
Château Nathria
. Playing what you're most familiar and comfortable with will usually result in the most success for your guild. These rankings are meant to give you an idea of how each of these classes will likely perform and be valued at the highest levels of raiding.
The Frontrunner
Discipline Priest
Discipline's strength lies in the way it deals its healing via burst windows, that tend to line up with many raid-wide damaging mechanics. Combine this with a utility toolkit that provides damage reduction (
Mot de pouvoir : Barrière
and
Suppression de la douleur
), absorbs (
Mot de pouvoir : Bouclier
,
Extase
, and
Carapace spirituelle
), and a significant passive damage contribution and they're a formidable healer. We've established that burst damage is the most dangerous and absorbs, damage reductions, and burst healing are a direct counter. By passive damage, we simply mean they don't have to sacrifice healing throughput to provide damage and in early progression when gear levels are low, this can help in meeting challenging DPS checks.
Shadowlands doubles down on what makes Discipline Priests good with their premiere covenant choice for raiding, Venthyr, offering
Jeux d’esprit
. This additional throughput lines up well with their burst windows and the
Porte des ombres
signature ability give them a bit more mobility for a traditionally less mobile class.
Carapace spirituelle
returns this expansion as a short duration cooldown that turns their
Expiation
into an absorb, although they do sacrifice their
Extase
to do so. It's currently unknown how useful
Carapace spirituelle
will be in
Château Nathria
or if it marks a return of the toxic absorb healing meta, but what we do know is that it can be a powerful tool in the right situations. To complete the package, Discipline priority legendary
Clarté d’esprit
complements the raid playstyle and offers some exceptional additional throughput and flexibility. Any fight with burst damage, you'll probably see at least 1 if not 2 for high-end raiding.
Discipline isn't without its weaknesses. Outside of their burst windows their sustained throughput is definitely on the weaker side typically relying on other healer types to fill those gaps. Their single target healing falters a bit too, likely resulting in them seeing limited use on
Sun King's Salvation
. Absorbs and damage reduction won't heal the boss.
Discipline Priest Guide
The Rising Star and the Fallen King: Utility Swiss Army Knives
Restoration Shaman
Restoration Shamans have always had a enormous suite of utility that is tailor made for raiding. From
Totem de lien d'esprit
to
Totem de protection ancestrale
or
Vigueur ancestrale
, Restoration Shamans have a number of ways they can uniquely contribute and this doesn't even include the extensive number of throughput cooldowns. Where they've struggled in the past has been their throughput in fully spread scenarios due to the reduced effectiveness of
Salve de guérison
and
Pluie guérisseuse
and their weaker tank healing and spot healing toolkit. Fortunately,
Château Nathria
encounters don't have a lot of positioning restrictions and the Shadowlands changes and systems have helped shore up some of Restoration Shamans toolkit deficiencies.
Between
Bouclier de terre
returning baseline, allowing them to place a 20% personal healing buff on an ally and a massive upfront healing buff to
Remous
, some of their single target healing woes have been alleviated. Their premiere covenant choice, Necrolord, offers another spot healing tool with
Vague primordiale
, a short cooldown that replicates a
Vague de soins
onto targets with
Remous
. There is no range requirement or positional limitation like a lot of the Restoration Shaman toolkit has, which is a nice change of pace. As the final piece of the puzzle, Restoration Shamans preferred legendary
Noyau de marée primordiale
grants even more
Remous
s just for using
Remous
, which empowers the entire setup.
So why aren't Restoration Shamans listed as a Frontrunner alongside Discipline? Well for me it's a few small things. First, while the positioning of a lot of encounters in
Château Nathria
caters a lot to Restoration Shamans, there will still be certain mechanics where the group isn't entirely stacked up even if for a short duration. Second, although Restoration Shamans have ways to contribute to the raids effective health pool (EHP), it's not quite at the same level as Discipline and even Restoration Shaman will struggle slightly if
Carapace spirituelle
ends up being a powerhouse. Finally, their passive damage contribution is also not on the same level as Discipline. Yes, they can toss up a
Horion de flammes
and respond to the
Vague de lave
procs with some insta-
Explosion de lave
for some decent damage, but they'll still be sacrificing healing to do so. The relevancy of healer damage varies a lot and largely depends on final tuning and DPS checks.
I fully expect most high-end guilds to run with at least one Restoration Shaman if not more.
Restoration Shaman Guide
Holy Paladin
Lueur de lumière
Holy Paladins dominated the latter half of Battle for Azeroth due to the powerful throughput, frequent access to cooldowns, lack of reliance on mana, and near infinite mobility as long as they could hit an enemy. It's no surprise to anyone that when baking in
Lueur de lumière
as a talent option, it would have to be brought down from orbit, and as such Holy Paladin was probably the most extensively changed healer from BFA to Shadowlands. While Blizzard did manage to return mana restrictions and better balance out the Holy Paladin toolkit, the spec has struggled a bit with throughput throughout the pre-patch requiring several targeted buffs. Specifically, the current iteration of Holy Paladin has some of the strongest single target heals in the game but where they struggle is responding to raid-wide burst damage outside of cooldowns.
The Shadowlands systems have certainly helped them out. Their premiere raiding covenant, Kyrian, grants them
Glas divin
synergizing well with the talented
Lueur de lumière
. They'll gain additional power when they can unlock Kleia's
Courage exemplaire
soulbind trait which they'll be able to make good use of as a melee healer. Their preferred raiding legendary
Barrière de choc
takes the entire setup a step further granting absorbs to 5 targets of their
Horion sacré
and we've already discussed how powerful those can be. So where does that put them now?
With it being over a month since the most recent raid testing and a lot has changed for this spec since then, it's really hard to tell where exactly they're at throughput-wise in a raid environment. If I had to hypothesize, they're probably slightly lower than the other healers. However, this isn't a throughput ranking and the utility a spec brings has a lot to do with their overall value in raid. Fortunately for Holy Paladins, outside of a small nerf to the
Maîtrise des auras
Aura de dévotion
and a small buff to the baseline
Aura de dévotion
, their utility remains nearly completely intact while still picking up the new Aura system in the process. The
Bénédiction de protection
, the immunity
Bouclier divin
, the
Bénédiction de liberté
, the raid-wide spread damage reduction of
Maîtrise des auras
, the
Guide de lumière
are all still there. It does get eroded a bit if Retribution and Protection are strong meta picks, but if not then having those tools on a healer are invaluable. Their passive damage contribution has also been brought down some in the transition but it's still a meaningful amount.
Will you stack Holy Paladins in
Château Nathria
like you did in BFA? Highly unlikely unless their personal brand of utility is necessary, but I do think you'll see a Holy Paladin in many high-end Mythic compositions although maybe not for all encounters. If there are melee-unfriendly encounters or limited melee spots, such as
Dame Inerva Sombreveine
, then you might pass on a Holy Paladin.
Holy Paladin Guide
The Throughput, the Whole Throughput, and Nothing but the Throughput
Restoration Druid
While a dominant healer in Mythic+, Restoration Druids have struggled throughout BFA to find that same traction in raiding. However, this isn't due to a lack of throughput; Restoration Druid healing is highly competitive and strong excelling in both sustained and burst scenarios. They have enough burst cooldowns to rival Discipline Priests and Restoration Shamans including
Tranquillité
,
Incarnation : Arbre de vie
, and
Epanouissement
. With the advent of Shadowlands, they've added yet another significant throughput cooldown to their arsenal with
Convoquer les esprits
from the Night Fae. So if it's not healing then what's the issue?
For healers, more often than not it comes down to utility. While the Restoration Druid utility toolkit is highly valued in dungeon content, it tends to be undervalued in raids or overlaps heavily with other specs. As an example, Restoration Druids gained
Ruée rugissante
in Shadowlands, but raids can also gain this same utility from any other Druid specs (and Balance looking strong right now) and it also overlaps with
Totem de bouffée de vent
from a Shaman. They lack unique utility and furthermore lack a way to bolster the EHP of the entire raid like more valuable healers. Damage must be counteracted with raw throughput. They do get a small taste of that with the Night Fae Dreamweaver soulbind trait
Chrysalide renforcée
but it's definitely not on the same level as Discipline Priest. To round things out, they still have to sacrifice their healing output to deal meaningful damage, though they did nab a nice damage cooldown in Shadowlands with
Cœur de fauve
.
What they do have going for them is their incredible mobility and their unmatched personal defensive toolkit. Expect to see Restoration Druids excel on fights like
Artificier Xy'mox
,
Dame Inerva Sombreveine
, and
Stone Legion Generals
due to their mobility. While other healers tend to be some of the squishier raid members, it's a bit more difficult to kill a Restoration Druid due to their low cooldown
Ecorce
or their on-demand defensive
Forme d'ours
. They'll likely be good candidates for dispelling
Lacération du cœur
and soaking the subsequent
Hémorragie du cœur
DoT on
Stone Legion Generals
with a quick
Forme d'ours
Régénération frénétique
combo.
Restoration Druid Guide
Mistweaver Monk
For Mistweavers it's a very similar situation to that of Restoration Druid: solid throughput. They picked up a few additional cooldowns in Shadowlands, one from their baseline celestial
Invocation de Yu’lon, le Serpent de jade
and
Armes de l’Ordre
from their premiere raiding covenant Kyrian. The 8.3 buffs to
Brume levante
persist in Shadowlands making the fistweaving build exceptional, though definitely not at the pre-nerf levels seen in Ny'alotha. Because of this you will see a noticeable passive damage contribution from Mistweavers. The throughput is further backed up by some solid legendaries including
Larme matinale
.
Where Mistweaver runs into trouble competing against the healers in higher categories is again utility. Yes, they have a good defensive toolkit and pretty good mobility, however, the rest of their utility tends to be replicated to Brewmasters and Windwalkers including
Toucher mystique
. Where they do have the chance to potentially move up a category is if the other Monk specs are weaker than in past tiers.
Château Nathria
is looking to be slightly melee-unfriendly on a few encounters and Brewmaster while being strong defensively currently has weaker damage, so a Mistweaver could easily slot into that utility void. It should be noted that the
Brume levante
build does require Mistweavers to be in melee as well so unless they swap to a more caster-oriented playstyle they could be excluded from melee-unfriendly encounters as well.
One prediction I'll make here: If directly healing
Kael'thas Haut-Soleil
on
Sun King's Salvation
is the prevalent strategy, you'll likely see some outstanding logs from Mistweavers. It's been awhile since
Tsulong
, but time to run it back.
Mistweaver Monk Guide
Holy Priest
To say that Holy Priest throughput is strong is almost an understatement. They've been dominating in the raw throughput department for several raids and with few changes and some nice baseline additions like
Cercle de soins
there's no reason to think they won't continue to do that. Two strong raid cooldowns via
Mot sacré : Salut
and
Hymne divin
and another with either Necrolord's
Nova impie
or Kyrian's
Faveur des transcendés
means they have a fairly potent answer to most burst damage.
Unfortunately that's kinda where it ends for Holy Priest because the majority of its utility toolkit is replicated by Discipline. The exception being
Symbole d’espoir
, but that's sorta replicated by Restoration Shaman's
Totem de vague de mana
. You can craft
X’anshi, retour de l’archevêque Benedictus
to offer up a pseudo-immunity/pseudo-cheat death but you'll typically want the throughput gains of
Appareil harmonieux
. The defensive toolkit is kinda weak, typically being the squishiest healer and the mobility isn't much better with most of your hardest hitting heals having a cast time.
Where this spec excels is it's very beginner friendly, being very straightforward where the player just manages cooldowns. If you're new to healing then Holy Priest is for you, but I don't expect this spec to see much action on the high-end Mythic progression stage. There may be some
Esprit gardien
on
Sun King's Salvation
, especially with that being one of Discipline's weakest fights, but we'll have to wait to see what ends up being the prevalent strategy.
Holy Priest Guide
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