WotLK Healer PvE Tier List/Rankings - Phase 3 WotLK Classic

От NerdEgghead Обновлено: 19.06.2023

Disclaimers About This Tier List

Classes will be ranked assuming that the group is optimizing primarily for killing Испытание крестоносца bosses as quickly and efficiently as possible. Compared to Ульдуар Hard Modes, which offered a meaty challenge for most Classic guilds to progress through over several months, Испытание крестоносца is considerably easier even on 25-man Heroic difficulty, due to a combination of the boss tuning being much more lenient overall plus the hugely inflated player power level going into the phase from the item level buffs that were applied to Phase 2 gear. As a result, most reasonably competent guilds are expected to have Испытание крестоносца on farm within the first few weeks of Phase 3, and the primary avenue of skill expression in the phase will be boss kill times. In the context of ranking healer specializations in this guide, the primary implication of this is that healing cores which result in the highest overall raid DPS will be ranked highest. The two most effective ways of optimizing raid DPS via healing comps are: (a) minimizing the number of dedicated healers required by choosing specs with the highest effective healing throughput and the most synergistic healing profiles, and (b) utilizing healing specs that provide the most useful utility to a given raid composition.

When scoring the utility of each specialization, extra weight is given for stackable sources of raid utility when multiple members of a given class/spec are present in a raid comp. In WotLK, mostly highly impactful raid DPS buffs were made raid-wide (compared to party-wide in TBC) and were given multiple redundant sources, meaning that it is easy to bring the full suite of impactful buffs in pretty much any 25-man comp. As a result, simply bringing a mandatory raid buff no longer elevates a spec to S or A utility like it did in TBC, since several classes not only provide one or more such buffs but also provide significant value beyond the first member that is brought. For example, each Паладин brought to a raid provides an additional Blessing buff and an additional source of the Владение аурами and raid cooldowns, whereas an extra Жрец in a raid comp brings far less incremental utility to a raid that has the , , and buffs already covered by other players.

These rankings are min-max evaluations under the assumption that players of each spec are executing their healing assignments perfectly and fully maxing out their character's performance via professions and consumables. Remember to keep in mind that player always trumps class in any realistic raid environment, and in practice, your raid team will benefit more from simply recruiting and retaining the top healer players you can find regardless of the spec they play, rather than hyper-focusing on a single meta comp. In WotLK, player skill for healers is more important than ever before in Classic, both during progression and for achieving competitive clear times, since a healer's situational awareness, coordination with the other healers, and external cooldown usage disproportionately influence their value to a raid team beyond any of the mechanical strengths of a given spec.

Healer Tier List Predictions for Phase 3 of WotLK Classic

S: The combined personal HPS plus raid utility contribution of this spec is so high that is worth stacking 2 or more of them in an optimized raid comp.

A: This spec should be viewed as a mandatory healer to bring in any Phase 3 raid composition, but stacking more than one of them is counterproductive.

B: This spec is a solid choice to round out a healing roster, but is not mandatory to bring and is surpassed by the S and A tier specs in throughput, utility, or both. The spec is optimally utilized as a flex healer who can swap to a DPS build on fights with reduced healing requirements.

C: These specs are also optional flex healers with solid DPS off-specs, and can be selectively utilized on fights where more HPS is required. However, the limited healing demands on all encounters in Испытание крестоносца (even during early progression) mean that these specs are never necessary in a high performance raiding environment, and their unique healing strengths are unfortunately redundant with those of the better healing specs.

Note that these definitions apply only to the "Overall Ranking" given to each spec. A given spec might be S tier in one or more individual categories but still may not be worth stacking in a raid comp.Phase 3 Healer Rankings and Explanations

Holy Paladin (S Tier)

Discipline Priest (A Tier)

Restoration Shaman (B Tier)

Restoration Druid (C Tier)

Holy Priest (C Tier)

Overall Ranking

Spec

Effective Healing Throughput

DPS Flexibility

Raid Utility

Holy Паладин

Discipline Жрец

Restoration Шаман

Restoration Друид

Holy Жрец

Importantly, the "Effective Healing Throughput" score in the above table does notИспытание крестоносцаS Tier SpecsHoly Паладин

In Phase 3, Holy Паладинs maintain their position as the premiere tank healer in WotLK. Just like Ульдуар, most boss encounters in Испытание крестоносца play directly into a Holy Паладин's strengths, since (a) the bulk of the total healing burden is on tanks, and (b) several of the encounters utilize multiple tanks, enabling Частица Света to truly shine. Even on single tank fights or phases, Частица Света turns a Holy Паладин into a supremely efficient targeted raid healer as well, by allowing the Паладин to passively keep the tank alive while focus healing targets of raid mechanics such as Парализующие брызги from Кислотная Утроба, Испепеление плоти from Лорд Джараксус, and Пронизывающий холод from Ануб'арак.

Furthermore, nearly all of the spec's powerful cooldown tools will see heavy usage during ToGC progression, most importantly Владение аурами and . For example, on the Twin Val'kyr encounter, using Владение аурами in conjunction with or , and then stacking it with , is particularly impactful because it allows your raid to survive a Светлая воронка or Темная воронка even without switching Essences, enabling much higher raid DPS. Likewise, Жертвенное благословение (paired with a personal defensive like Божественный щит or Божественная защита) remains a powerful external damage reduction cooldown for tanks, and can be a lifesaver for Нерубский копатель add tanks on the Ануб'арак encounter. As such, the ability for an already exceptional healer to also provide three critical externals for mitigating both raid-wide mechanics and dangerous "tank buster" abilities from bosses makes stacking Holy Паладинs a highly attractive strategy for guilds across all skill levels.

A Tier SpecsDiscipline Жрец

Discipline Жрецs are the raid healing counterpart to Holy Паладинs, and are highly effective at keeping raid members alive from AoE damage mechanics via preventative shielding. A single skilled Discipline Жрец is capable of solo healing most of the random raid damage mechanics in Испытание крестоносца, such as Огненная бомба on Гормок Пронзающий Бивень, Инфернальное извержение on Лорд Джараксус, and Пробуждение Света / Наступление Тьмы on the Twin Val'kyr, freeing up the rest of the healing core to focus on keeping tanks and burst damage targets alive. The spec also provides two strong external cooldowns: Придание сил to boost caster DPS output even further and Подавление боли for mitigating lethal tank damage to survivable levels. Given these impressive strengths, the only reason for an overall A rating for the spec is the fact that it cannot be efficiently stacked in a raid composition like Holy Паладинs can due to the Ослабленная душа mechanic.

B Tier SpecsRestoration Шаман

The remaining healer specializations all fill the niche of a "flex healer" that will generally DPS on less healing intensive fights that can be managed by your Discipline Жрец + Holy Паладинs, and heal only when their added throughput is required. Of these, Restoration Шаманs have emerged as the strongest choice for optimized raid compositions over the course of Phase 2, since their healing profile and utility toolkit synergizes most effectively with that of Discipline Жрецs and Holy Паладинs on healing intensive encounters in Ульдуар, and this is expected to remain true in Phase 3 as well based on PTR logs of ToGC. A Restoration Шаман is a well-rounded healer who can maintain very high uptime on tanks while simultaneously keeping melee DPS alive by casting on a tank with active. This makes the spec excel on encounters such as Phase 3 of Ануб'арак, which features a mix of targeted tank healing with heavy raid damage from Жуки-трупоеды. The spec unfortunately lacks a powerful external defensive cooldown, but makes up for it via the buff, which complements the raw tank HPS from Holy Паладинs.

In Испытание крестоносца, a Шаман flex healer can expect to DPS using their Elemental off-spec on the Northrend Beasts + Lord Jaraxxus encounters, and then heal on Twin Val'kyr + Anub'arak, and will therefore benefit from the excellent gear scaling of Elemental Шаман DPS throughput over the course of Phase 3. Finally, it is worth noting that while the Шаман class will never be heavily stacked in WotLK, bringing multiple to a raid can still be valuable due to the stackable utility of their totem buffs, especially the that can provide 20% Melee Haste, 5% Spell Haste, or 130 Nature Resistance depending on the needs of a given comp.

C Tier SpecsRestoration Друид

Restoration Друидs excel at proactive raid healing due to their ability to blanket a raid with and HoTs. Unfortunately, the ubiquity of Discipline Жрецs in every single competitive WotLK raid composition make a Restoration Друид's raid healing profile often redundant when playing alongside a skilled Discipline Жрец, since absorbs compete with and take priority over Друид HoTs when raid damage goes out, making the HoTs often just over-heal their targets. Additionally, Restoration Друидs are weaker tank healers than their Шаман counterparts due to the lack of a Друид equivalent of the powerful / buffs, even though their raw HPS is completely fine. To add insult to injury, the only unique utility buff provided by the spec, , rarely provides significant raid DPS gains due to the poor coding of the spell to prioritize pets rather than player targets when the raid is topped off. These characteristics have resulted in the spec rarely being utilized in competitive raid compositions, either in Ульдуар speedruns or in PTR progression clears of Испытание крестоносца, despite being more than viable as a flex healer. However, it is worth noting that the stackable Друид class utility provided by is uniquely valuable among healer specializations, especially due to the importance of clearing Испытание крестоносца without any wipes to unlock the cloak rewards from Дань безумству (25 игроков). Additionally, while poor as a raid DPS buff, is better utilized as a Mana regeneration tool for other healers, and can contribute upwards of 120 mp5 in equivalent regeneration.

Holy Жрец

Holy Жрецs suffer from a similar plight as Restoration Друидs in Classic WotLK, being another spec designed around raid healing strengths that often cannot shine when a Discipline Жрец is present due to insufficient quantities of raid damage going out. The spec's AoE healing throughput from and is very strong in a vacuum, and was occasionally utilized on the Twin Val'kyr encounter during PTR clears of ToGC due to the more intense raid healing demands on this fight relative to the others in the raid. However, it is less effective at filling a hybrid flex role in a raid composition compared to a Restoration Шаман, since the encounters where an additional healer is valuable are the same ones where a Shadow Жрец's and Объятия вампира utility are most useful, whereas all Шаман specs can provide the same critical totem buffs.

WotLK Healer PvE Tier List/Rankings - Phase 3 WotLK Classic

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