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Shadowlands Healer Rankings - Best Healers for Castle Nathria Raid Predictions
Comercial
Publicado
08/12/2020 a las 03:31
por
Jaydaa
On December 8th/9th, the gates of
Castillo de 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
Castillo de 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
Castillo de 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
Castillo de 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
Castillo de 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,
Castillo de 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
Castillo de Nathria
. This is merely a brief look at each encounter for the purpose of evaluating each healer. For complete guides to the
Castillo de Nathria
raid encounters including healing visit our
Castle Nathria Raid Overview
.
Alachilla
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
Oleada de sangre
, 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
Mordisco desangrador
,
Ecolocalización
targets, or any players hit by
Sónar resonante
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
Ecolocalización
, or when dodging
Sónar resonante
in Phase 2. When movement is required, it tends to either be short or not during periods that require high healing throughput.
For Mythic,
El farol de sangre
will need to be used in order to debuff players with
Luz de sangre
, which allows the raid to see the invisible
Sónar resonante
. 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 el Cazador
One of my personal favorite healing fights of
Castillo de 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
Buscapecados
and even single-target healing and excellent defensive usage that can prevent additional raid-wide damage from the
Destripar alma
and its subsequent
Alma inestable
. There's still plenty of AoE healing to be done from damage caused by
Embestida sañosa
,
Alma inestable
, and
Piedra aplastante
, 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
Embestida sañosa
and not getting hit by all 3
Buscapecados
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
Buscapecados
causing significantly more damage and forcing them to be soaked by multiple players. The most notable one for healers is
Perforar alma
, causing the
Buscapecados
to spawn a
Destripar alma
-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 Caminante del Sol
either via direct healing, by healing their allies who are channeling their health to him via
Infusión de alma
, or by healing
Fuente de esencia
s. All options are essentially single target. There will still be some AoE damage over the course of the fight such as the
Vencedor ligarroca
's
Machaque de conmoción
or
Sombra de Kael'thas
's
Explosión de ascuas
. For positioning, ranged will be loosely spread for Phase 1 and loosely stacked around the
Sombra de Kael'thas
during Phase 2 and there will be some minor movement involved but nothing too disruptive.
Mythic introduces a raid-wide curse,
Marca vulgar
that increases damage taken, but more importantly introduces the novel concept of burst single-target healing. To explain, periodically
Kael'thas Caminante del Sol
will gain
Capa de llamas
and begin casting
Piroestallido desatado
. 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
Fuente de esencia
s, but requires some coordination.
Sun King's Salvation Strategy Guide
Artificiero Xy'Mox
Up until this point, healers have had the luxury of being primarily stationary; but
Artificiero Xy'Mox
exercises a healer's mobility toolkit stretching it to some pretty insane extremes. Whether you're avoiding your
Espíritu fugaz
, placing a
Semilla de extinción
, or running out of the pull of
Filo de aniquilación
you'll need to manage your movement utility to ensure you're able to heal when necessary. Fortunately, you'll have the
Rasgadura dimensional
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
Glifo de destrucción
and
Chispa de hiperluz
to the phase specific
Aura de terror
. There's some single target healing involved with the ridiculously hard-hitting
Toque marchitador
found in phase 2. Positionally it's mostly spread out encounter for ranged.
Mythic causes the relics (
Espíritu fugaz
,
Semilla de extinción
, and
Filo de aniquilación
) 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
Destructor hambriento
This encounter offers a bit of both burst and sustained AoE healing. The sustain comes from countering the leech effect of the
Miasma glotón
, while the burst is required to counteract
Desolar
and
Consumir
. There is some single target healing required to quickly heal up players targeted by
Eyección volátil
. Immunities also tend to be quite helpful for soaking
Falla aniquiladora
, allowing for additional space as the encounter progresses. Players will be a mix of spread out to avoid the
Eyección volátil
and stacked, depending on if they're giving health to their allies affected by
Miasma glotón
. Movement is fairly limited, typically relegated to when players are spreading out for
Expurgar
or running away from the
Consumir
.
Mythic adds an additional target to
Eyección volátil
and adds a debuff (
Sorber esencia
) when leeching health for
Miasma glotón
. This is more about coordinating your leeching then significant additional damage.
Hungering Destroyer Strategy Guide
Lady Inerva Venaoscura
The key to this encounter will be managing the constant sustained raid-wide damage from
Ánima suelta
, while dealing with high tank damage via
Deseos deformados
, and the absolute onslaught of raid mechanics. There will be some spot healing for players afflicted by
Cognición compartida
or soaking either the
Ánima embotellada
or
Pecados del pasado
. A lot of the burst AoE damage in this encounter comes from the tank debuff expiring resulting in a
Corazón mudable
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
Danza macabra
intermission. You'll be continually healing the ramping sustained AoE damage from
Ambiente opresivo
which can only be reset by triggering an intermission. This means the most dangerous and highest healing required moments will be just prior to
Danza macabra
. Managing this while healing the burst AoE damage from
Erupción orgullosa
and
Púas de alma
and spot healing players afflicted with
Drenar esencia
and partners of the
Recital oscuro
. The raid will mostly be spread out and some movement will be required.
The element of control comes when managing the Mythic mechanic,
Fiebre del baile
. The 5 players affected by
Fiebre del baile
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
Puñolodo
The 'Patchwerk' fight of
Castillo de Nathria
but with the unique mechanic of
Puñolodo
that tethers you to an ally. As healers you'll need to be dealing with sustained damage of
Enlace de cadenas
as well as the ramping sustained damage of
Cimiento desmoronado
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
Rugido colosal
and spot healing the players soaking the
Embate de cadenas
. Initially,
Puñolodo
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
Enlace de cadenas
partner.
For Mythic all players are now affected by
Enlace de cadenas
, you'll need to spread a bit to avoid the damage from
Desplazamiento sísmico
while still not breaking your
Enlace de cadenas
, and the raid will need to soak the
Roca fracturada
and
Escombros fracturados
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
Rasgadura dentada
and all players with
Laceración maligna
. In addition, healers will also have to manage the
Desgarrar corazón
and subsequent harder-hitting
Hemorragia cardíaca
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 de rompepiedra
where you'll need to spot-heal the
Cristalizar
, ensure bleeding players are healthy enough to survive the
Ráfaga cristalina
to remove their bleeds, and then soak and heal the follow up burst from the
Meteoro pulverizador
. Cycle through these debuffs, bleeds, and removals and you're almost home free besides the large AoE burst and knockback from Prince Renthal's
Ráfaga devastadora
after reaching 100% mana. For positioning you'll need a loose spread that can easily collapse to soak the
Meteoro pulverizador
.
For Mythic this is where things really get spicy for debuff management. When you dispel
Desgarrar corazón
from an ally, you and the dispelled player will both receive the devastating DoT
Hemorragia cardíaca
. 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 de ánima
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
Efigie tempespiedra
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
Carga del pecado
stacks themselves, while most of the damage throughout the phase comes from removing the stacks themselves via
Dolor purificador
and the subsequent
Eco del pecado
s that are spawned or the
Precio de sangre
. What's notable about the damage from
Precio de sangre
is that Denathrius lifts players into the air and stuns them prior to dealing damage, meaning that most ground-targeted damage reduction cooldowns like
Palabra de poder: barrera
or
Tótem Enlace de espíritu
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
Cabalista carmesí
's stacking debuff
Coro carmesí
as well as massive tank bleeds from
Remornia
's
Carnicería
. There will still be some AoE via Denathrius'
Mano de destrucción
but this damage can be severely reduced by utilizing the mirror network. Throw in some spot healing from
Empalar
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
Masacre
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
Mano de destrucción
but also
Dolor devastador
that knocks the entire raid away. The tank DoT
Desdén
and the
Sutileza letal
DoT will be the single target damage in this final phase. Follow both of these up with soaking the
Ira humeante
orbs that spawn from the
Sutileza letal
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
Despedazar
.
As for Mythic, many of the mechanics have been augmented to require additional coordination or just more damage including
Precio de sangre
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
A través del espejo
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
Castillo de 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
Castillo de Nathria
simply due to the reintroduction of
Coraza espiritual
for Discipline Priests. The relative strength and usefulness of
Coraza espiritual
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
Castillo de Nathria
seemed to be consistently 4 or 5; five typically being reserved for particularly high damage encounters like
Stone Legion Generals
and
Puñolodo
. 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
Capa de llamas
.
For positioning, the encounters of
Castillo de 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
Castillo de Nathria
than in previous raids. Similarly, outside of a few fights like
Artificiero 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
Castillo de 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 (
Palabra de poder: barrera
and
Supresión de dolor
), absorbs (
Palabra de poder: escudo
,
Éxtasis
, and
Coraza espiritual
), 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
Juegos mentales
. This additional throughput lines up well with their burst windows and the
Puerta de las Sombras
signature ability give them a bit more mobility for a traditionally less mobile class.
Coraza espiritual
returns this expansion as a short duration cooldown that turns their
Expiación
into an absorb, although they do sacrifice their
Éxtasis
to do so. It's currently unknown how useful
Coraza espiritual
will be in
Castillo de 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
Claridad mental
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
Tótem Enlace de espíritu
to
Tótem de Protección ancestral
or
Vigor ancestral
, 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
Sanación en cadena
and
Lluvia de sanación
and their weaker tank healing and spot healing toolkit. Fortunately,
Castillo de 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
Escudo de tierra
returning baseline, allowing them to place a 20% personal healing buff on an ally and a massive upfront healing buff to
Mareas vivas
, some of their single target healing woes have been alleviated. Their premiere covenant choice, Necrolord, offers another spot healing tool with
Oleada primigenia
, a short cooldown that replicates a
Ola de sanación
onto targets with
Mareas vivas
. 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
Núcleo de marea primigenia
grants even more
Mareas vivas
s just for using
Mareas vivas
, 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
Castillo de 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
Coraza espiritual
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
Choque de llamas
and respond to the
Oleada de lava
procs with some insta-
Ráfaga de lava
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
Brillo de Luz
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
Brillo de Luz
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
Estrago divino
synergizing well with the talented
Brillo de Luz
. They'll gain additional power when they can unlock Kleia's
Coraje incisivo
soulbind trait which they'll be able to make good use of as a melee healer. Their preferred raiding legendary
Barrera de choque
takes the entire setup a step further granting absorbs to 5 targets of their
Choque Sagrado
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
Maestría de aura
Aura de devoción
and a small buff to the baseline
Aura de devoción
, their utility remains nearly completely intact while still picking up the new Aura system in the process. The
Bendición de protección
, the immunity
Escudo divino
, the
Bendición de libertad
, the raid-wide spread damage reduction of
Maestría de aura
, the
Señal de la Luz
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
Castillo de 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
Lady Inerva Venaoscura
, 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
Tranquilidad
,
Encarnación: Árbol de vida
, and
Florecer
. With the advent of Shadowlands, they've added yet another significant throughput cooldown to their arsenal with
Convocar a los espíritus
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
Rugido de estampida
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
Tótem de Carga de viento
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
Crisálida potenciada
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
Corazón de lo Salvaje
.
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
Artificiero Xy'Mox
,
Lady Inerva Venaoscura
, 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
Piel de corteza
or their on-demand defensive
Forma de oso
. They'll likely be good candidates for dispelling
Desgarrar corazón
and soaking the subsequent
Hemorragia cardíaca
DoT on
Stone Legion Generals
with a quick
Forma de oso
Regeneración frenética
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
Invocar a Yu'lon, el Dragón de Jade
and
Armas de orden
from their premiere raiding covenant Kyrian. The 8.3 buffs to
Niebla naciente
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
Lágrima de la mañana
.
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
Toque místico
. Where they do have the chance to potentially move up a category is if the other Monk specs are weaker than in past tiers.
Castillo de 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
Niebla naciente
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 Caminante del Sol
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
Círculo de sanación
there's no reason to think they won't continue to do that. Two strong raid cooldowns via
Palabra sagrada: salvación
and
Himno divino
and another with either Necrolord's
Nova profana
or Kyrian's
Bendición de los Ascendidos
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
Símbolo de esperanza
, but that's sorta replicated by Restoration Shaman's
Tótem Marea de maná
. You can craft
X'anshi, retorno del arzobispo Benedictus
to offer up a pseudo-immunity/pseudo-cheat death but you'll typically want the throughput gains of
Aparato armonioso
. 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
Espíritu guardián
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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