Shadowlands 9.2 Healer Raid Tier List for Sepulcher of the First Ones - Dratnos and Tettles Predictions

Posted 2022/02/28 at 2:40 AM by tettles

predictionsDisclaimers About This Tier ListIf you want to make an argument that your spec should be in a higher tier, you are saying that you do not believe it deserves a buff!Patch 9.2 Shadowlands Healer Tier List Predictions for Sepulcher of the First OnesHealer Tier List Definitions

S: An exceptional choice that we expect to see in all or almost all top comps. Bringing exceptionally strong kits, two copies are likelier than zero!

A: A great choice, we expect one copy of healers in this tier in most top raid compositions.

B: A solid spec that can provide enough healing and useful cooldowns to be a credit to the raid team, but lacks some element of damage, damage reduction effects, or extraordinary throughput that the above tiers have.

C: A spec with weaknesses that make it noticeably harder to use effectively. There are no healers in this tier.

D: A spec with serious survivability issues that requires an exceptionally high degree of pilot skill and/or tactical sacrifices to kill bosses. There are no healers in this tier.

F: A spec with horrifying weaknesses that is in immediate need of developer attention and we’d be surprised to see played in many raid compositions at all. There are no healers in this tier.

VideoPatch 9.2 Shadowlands Healer Ranking and ExplanationsS Tier Specs for the Sepulcher Raid

Holy Paladin is the only S-Tier healer, and this is due to their kit being so powerful for progression raiding. Pally is a healer that does high amounts of passive damage, has an immunity, and with Devotion Aura they can give a large amount of raid-wide damage reduction for important hits. Holy Paladin is a spec that you will likely see in every top composition due to their kit’s unique strengths, and the absence of one of these on any boss encounter would be almost unheard of. In the past you would double up on Holy Paladins on certain encounters, and while that is less prevalent this tier, it still may happen on some fights. They are without a doubt one of the most important healers.

Without their 4-set, Holy Paladin will likely struggle in the throughput HPS department, but once they do gain access to that + double legendary they will be able to pump out reasonable amounts of HPS in raid while bringing the best utility kit for healers in the game. Ashen Hallow may have gotten nerfed, but do not be fooled Paladin is still OP.

A Tier Specs for Sepulcher Raid

Discipline Priest is a healer that was S-Tier for Sanctum of Domination, but has fallen a bit for Sepulcher due largely to the problems that fight design can cause them this tier. Three out of the final four fights currently have some form of a healing absorb attached to them, which depending on the tuning can become quite problematic for Disc Priest. This is especially true if the mechanics do not work out well for Disc’s ramp timings. If the timings do work out in their favor though, Disc has some of the best burst healing in the game and can mitigate damage at an unprecedented rate.

Disc will still be a top tier healer, and the Double Legendary acquisition while playing Kyrian is something that will benefit them greatly. They also have access to Power Infusion to buff up a raid member’s damage if necessary, and they do a decent amount of damage on their own. Disc will always be one of the better healers for damage mitigation, but their lackluster sustained throughput could cause them some issues. Now that Holy Priest is also in a better spot overall, it gives something for Disc to fall back on if they are in a spot where the lack of throughput healing is a problem.

Restoration Shaman is the jack of all trades master of none of the healing specs. They have quite powerful cooldowns and strong healing throughput. At the same time they don’t have the strongest healing throughput or cooldowns. They also do high (the highest?) amount of damage in raid whenever playing Kyrian, but they are required to commit globals to doing damage if they want to achieve that. They also can play DPS legendaries as their second legendary if they desire and they lose very little in terms of throughput or cooldowns.

The utility the Resto Shaman has in the form of Spirit Link Totem, Wind Rush Totem, and Ancestral Protection Totem makes them highly desired for specific mechanics and specific encounters as other healers have a hard time of competing with these types of utility abilities. Ultimately the reason they are not in S-Tier is due to them being middle of the pack healing wise and not necessarily excelling at anything. They are the kings of being average at everything. It is relatively hard to stack Restoration Shamans though, which firmly plants them in the A-Tier.

Druid is likely the highest throughput healer in raid with their 4 set (Renewing Bloom & Ephemeral Incarnation) and double legendary. With the presence of healing absorbs on the final few bosses, and the concerns with Disc / Holy Paladin throughput, Resto Druid will be able to do a lot of the heavy lifting. They also have incredibly strong mobility while healing, which very few healers can compete with (think Painsmith intermission). The reason they are ultimately A and not S is due to the lack of a raid-wide damage reduction ability and the fact that their DPS output is pretty poor as a whole. Stampeding Roar is an ability that should never be overlooked, and if it is as useful as it was in Sanctum of Domination then you may see multiple Resto Druids on some encounters, but that is unlikely.

B Tier Specs for Sepulcher Raid

Mistweaver Monk is a throughput healer that while the throughput is high, it isn't the highest of all healing specs (probably). Additionally they run into problems where the only thing they reasonably can do is reliable throughput. Whenever you look at it through the lens of their damage is worse than Holy Paladin and Shaman, their healing is worse than Restoration Druid, and their utility is one of the worst of all the healing specs, you are not left with a lot of redeeming qualities. While they are not unplayable, when you compare them to other healers they are lacking in a lot of areas and defined niches.

They do bring Mystic Touch, which if you need a monk option they are a fairly solid pick overall. As was said about Restoration Druid this seems like a tier where you do want 1 solid throughput focused healer, which Mistweaver can certainly fill that slot if you also need the mystic touch.

Holy Priest runs into similar issues as Mistweaver Monk in regards to lack of defined strengths. With their 4-Set they can get Holy Word: Salvation down to a 3 minute cooldown. Additionally, they likely will be playing Night Fae for Fae Guardians, and they also have Power Infusion for buffing up DPS. While these things are good, the Holy Priest struggles to compete at an absolute top level against other throughput healing options for top tier throughput. With low survivability, bad mobility, and moderate to low damage options it just is hard to rank them any higher than B-Tier compared to the other healers.

It is not an issue that Holy Priest is unplayable, similar to Mistweaver Monk, but it is worse than other potential options. The best case scenario to see Holy Priests is having an encounter that is not Disc favored and plays towards H-Priest strengths.

Class Guides

Blood DKFrost DKUnholy DK

Devourer DHHavoc DHVengeance DH

Balance DruidFeral DruidGuardian DruidRestoration Druid

Aug EvokerDevastation EvokerPreservation Evoker

BM HunterMM HunterSurvival Hunter

Arcane MageFire MageFrost Mage

Brewmaster MonkMistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk

Holy PaladinProtection PaladinRetribution Paladin

Discipline PriestHoly PriestShadow Priest
Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue

Elemental ShamanEnhance ShamanRestoration Shaman

Affliction WarlockDemo WarlockDestro Warlock

Arms WarriorFury WarriorProtection Warrior

Comment by DardamaniacWhoever said that MW has worst dmg from a rshaman in a raid environment probably has no idea what hes saying... The think is that rShaman has to sacrifice healing spells to do dmg and MW dont.. In a progress environment this cant be the case, later on in the patch when the gear takes over you can cast chain lightings but early patch no way.. Its a shame cause usually wowhead has good guides and tierlistsComment by HanziasThese two have no idea what they've been talking about for a long time. Ordinary mortals, even those who regularly progress and clear Mythic without pushing the issue, do not give a damn.Comment by ProdromusHarvFor the love of god, stop writing these tier lists based on the top 0.01%.Comment by 1296443Sorry, u have no spot because you are a B tier on wowhead. Maybe next patch hunnComment by ablutionhow about, healers make the tier list for healers :thinking:Comment by BenarghhYeah, alright, so, Disc priest is going to be S because their ramp timings will be different with tier set and they will be venthyr, not kyrian, outside of 1.5m or huge 3m timers. Holy paladin is A alongside Shaman because their throughput has been hit hard but still bring the huge utility and damage. Druid and Holy priest can be considered B or A depending on whether DR's are required for encounters which won't be the case for most people without attempting to cheese mechanics and Mistweaver monk needs some huge buffs to put it close to everything else currently. Don't get dps players to write up healer tier lists, they don't have a clue what's going on and just looked at the warcraftlogs healer rankings.Comment by Sebastian1989101And now let people with a brain do this tier lists. This tier list is just as bad garbage as most class guides for healers.Comment by AutomaticFrogWhat a great way to utterly destroy community perception of specs that are completely viable.Comment by VSozonovWhat a great way to utterly destroy community perception of specs that are completely viable.Comment by sharnieYou can tell neither of these are healers.

S Tier - Dpriest
A Tier - Rsham, Hpal and MW Monk
B Tier - Hpriest and Rdruid

I don't even need to explain, anyone that knows anything about all these healers will agree with this from PTR testing and theorycrafting.Comment by SkelradathHpally is the best and Holy Priest is the worst ? What a surprise ! Who could have guessed ?
We hpriests asked blizzard to do something about the tier set for weeks and never had an answer. Guess you have to play mage to get some direct feedback.Comment by RebemmaSo many people will watch this and Mw monks and hpriests will not get invite even for a normal or heroic clear. The community was very hard on Mw monks the whole Shadowlands. I remember when Sanctum came out and everyone said Mw monks are useless and months after became popular. I don't raid but like to get curve every season. So the same thing again I will have to be in LFG for hours to get an invite. Let's not even talk about how we are in M+... Blizzard have to do big changes for every healer. The healer balance and toolkit is terrible.Comment by QuadramWhoever said that MW has worst dmg from a rshaman in a raid environment probably has no idea what hes saying... sComment by RoscopowerThis post is a joke with 0 research done.Comment by DhrallThis post is a joke with 0 research done.Comment by wickedsymphonyHPally in S still? Someone didn't do their research. (Don't let DPS players rank healers, please)
Personally I don't think there are any S healers this tier. The balance is really good right now, if you're not playing top 20, literally just pick whatever, it's fine.Comment by CrippsterSWhat a garbage inaccurate tier list. Resto Druid may only have slightly higher HPS than Mistweaver but MW brings 2k passive dmg without sacrificing globals plus a raid debuff where Brewmaster and WW don't look to have "high end" spots this tier. Holy Pala is also not S tier... less dmg, the LOWEST HPS and a worse DR than Disc? This whole post needs to be taken down...Comment by AutomaticFrogWhat a great way to utterly destroy community perception of specs that are completely viable.Comment by Lindevalol.

yes, i'm maining a mistweaver monk. not a hardcore player i don't even have a curve but the comments for mistweaver monk was such a rofl.

only thing they are saying about mistweavers is just it's poor dps. they are comparing it with resto classes and saying yeah it has a throughput. lol. also they are classifying mw on melee healer. i'm pretty sure they have no exact knowledge about fistweaving, last legendary or tier set's refreshing jade wind bonus. i've waited more reasonable comments for putting this spec on the last tier. also they are talking about 10 minutes for healing specs, mw has 30 seconds for the discussion xD

mw monks was best on 9.1.5 cause of their broken venthyr legendary. and their prenerf bfa times. it's never been in a s tier spec for raids and m+ too. but the reason for is it's their mana problem, lack of aoe spells. and lots of others. not only for their dps.

good joke.

(Don't let DPS players rank healers, please)
how about, healers make the tier list for healers :thinking:Comment by LuniiI feel like this is pretty close, but basically I would move resto druid down with MW and Hpriest. I personally expect it to be the standard of 1-2 hpal, 1 disc, 1-2 resto shammy, and you bring either the hpal or the rsham based on how strong the heal absorb tuning is. If it's no big deal, either works (with preference for pally or kyrian rsham) and if it's tuned to need a lot of throughput I think you just have your 1-2 rsham drop their dps to nothing and swap to Necro or Venthyr and pump hps. I don't think there is a world where top guilds bring and gear a throughput healers to deal with heal absorb when you can just have rsham swap covenants and more than likely bring enough raw healing throughput at the expense of their damage for specific fights. Unfortunately yet again throughput healers will likely suffer from the fact they don't have a real option to do damage, not their numbers. Rsham is usually in that no damage camp too and would be hard stuck at 1 per raid for link, but Kyrian is huge now that you also have the option to switch to an HPS heavy covenant for bosses that call for it and that flexibility is a huge buff.