Where would we be without healers in World of Warcraft? Life givers and poison removers, finding a good healer is arguably the most important part of a successful dungeon run, so we’ve prepared a tier list to help you make the best choice.
The War Within is about to debut as the latest expansion in WoW’s long and storied history, and it’s making a ton of changes to class gameplay. Hero Talents now offer further buildcrafting for your character, adding an extra dimension to your chosen spec.
Additionally, myriad changes to existing talents, abilities and stats have vastly altered the meta heading into Patch 11.0. With six specs to choose from, here’s everything you need to know about picking a healer in The War Within.
WoW: The War Within Healer spec tier list
Our class tier list is divided into three distinct tiers. All tiers are decided based on the class’ efficacy in Mythic+ and dungeons more generally. Though the order does shift around somewhat in a raid setting, the analysis remains relevant, and it should help dictate your decision overall.
| Tier | Class/Spec |
| S | Holy Paladin |
| A | Restoration Druid, Restoration Shaman, Preservation Evoker, Discipline Priest |
| B | Mistweaver Monk, Holy Priest |
Our tiers explained
When deciding which spec to place within which tier, we used the following system to define our tiers.
- S: The best of the best, with strong single-target and AoE HPS and great utility outside of direct healing abilities.
- A: Very good choices that are very at home in a Mythic+ setting, though they may not have a toolkit as varied as the tier above.
- B: Impressive healing in dungeons, though usually either more specialized or less potent overall.
S-Tier
Holy Paladin
Dragonflight was an expansion marked by ups and downs for the only Paladin healing spec, but the latter stages saw it enter its best state in a long time. The changes to Holy in The War Within have been largely positive and it is currently the best choice for group content, thanks largely to its highly varied toolkit and great utility.
Though recent nerfs slightly dampened the mood by lowering the class’s overall HPS (Heals per Second) output, it’s still as good as or better than its nearest competition. The emphasis on Avenging Wrath served as a significant boost to healing and damage (15%, to be exact), and it has actually streamlined what it feels like to play and execute an idealized rotation.
Holy Shock also comes into play a lot thanks to the tier set bonus increasing its healing while reducing the cooldown, and it’s proving an effective staple alongside single-target heals like Flash of Light. Unsurprisingly, Holy Paladin still offers the best outgoing damage of any healer spec, so it should prove a useful choice in engagements with annoying DPS checks.
Divine Shield, Lay on Hands, Blessing of Protection and all of the other utilities players have come to expect from Paladins are a big part of the reason this spec is currently elevated above the rest. It should also be at home in raid settings, though specs like Restoration Druid should be close to parity.
Herald of the Sun is the best Hero Talent tree to choose for Holy Paladin, purely because of Sun’s Avatar. This allows the Paladin to use Avenging Wrath and then connect with party members who have Dawnlight on them, healing them for a considerable amount in the process. Lightsmith is a little bit up in the air, but with some retuning, it could contribute respectably. Having said that, it isn’t easy to see how it could replace Herald in its current form.
A-Tier
Restoration Druid
Speaking of Restoration Druid, it’s doing more than enough to hold its own in the A-Tier. Though it’s the toughest spec to get the most out of, with a high skill ceiling and complex build priorities, it has the potential to be one of the most versatile and potent healers in any setting.
The biggest strength the spec offers at the moment is AoE healing and party-wide utility, which it delivers in spades. Wild Growth is the most valuable large-scale heal in the game right now, ably buffed by both the 2-piece and 4-piece set bonus. Those buffs also extend out to single-target staples like Swiftmend and Regrowth, leaving options for every occasion if you can execute your rotation.
Another great advantage of the class is how customizable it is based on your requirements, particularly when it comes to utility abilities. Mass Entanglement/Ursol’s Vortex can be used to decide between gathering mobs or rooting them, while Incapacitating Roar/Mighty Bash lets the player choose between an AoE interrupt and incapacitate or a single-target stun. With plenty more for players to build into, it’s a remarkably well-rounded option that is at home in any PvE activity.
Resto Druids only have one Hero Talent tree to worry about because the other is basically redundant in its current form. Wildstalker does nothing for the spec, rendered useless by the lack of healing benefits it offers, and its overall weakness. Keeper of the Grove is in much better shape with plenty of healing buffs, though it needs some defensive tuning before it can truly excel.
Restoration Shaman
In a rare positive for Shaman players at the time of writing, Restoration is looking like a solid play for those who want to give healing a go. Though its non-traditional approach to executing heals and support may not be for everyone, it’s a rewarding spec to learn and one that should fit into most group comps in its current form.
Though much of the overall class has gone frustratingly underdeveloped in the run up to The War Within’s release, overhauls to Resto Shaman once the beta was underway quickly saw it rise in everyone’s estimations. This progress was then furthered by the Farseer and Totemic Hero Talent trees, both of which advance the spec in meaningful and logical ways.
Healing Wave, Chain Heal and Healing Surge are all proving quite effective under the current build conditions, with the Tidal Wave tier set bonus only serving to underline that. Spirit Link Totem remains great in a bind, though damage reduction options with shorter cooldowns remain a noticeable weakness.
Outgoing damage is also more than enough for most group comp scenarios and, while it likely won’t be the most popular choice for would-be healers, it’s nice to see Restoration Shaman standing on its own two feet in an otherwise uninspiring class setup.
In choosing between Totemic or Farseer Hero Talents, Shaman players are essentially deciding between Mythic dungeons and raids. Totemic will often be the best play for the latter, thanks to Healing Rain and Chain Heal being the center of its focus. Farseer is better for Mythic dungeons as it allows some wiggle room for DPS windows and buffs the damage when you do decide to go on the offensive.
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Mistweaver Monk
The only healing spec for Monk players is as unique as it is effective. Mistweaver received a lot of changes and iterations throughout The War Within’s beta and, where some class specializations have come out as a convoluted mess, MW is actually in pretty good shape.
Starting with the drawbacks, the removal of Essence Font has also eliminated the ability to quickly and conveniently heal the group in a stress-free manner. Equally, Mistweaver lacks some utility options, like single-target and AoE damage reduction, though this is a minor caveat in an otherwise impressively broad skill set.
Unusually, Mistweaver can act as much more of an all-around support than its role as a healer might suggest. The Mystic Touch debuff is a great boon that should boost your group’s damage by 5%, while the spec also excels at dealing impressive damage in its own right. Though it likely won’t be the choice for those looking to play as a pure and traditional WoW healer, it should strike an outstanding balance for those who like to do a bit of everything.
In terms of Hero Talents, Conduit of the Celestials is the strongest choice, even if does add extra cooldowns to a rotation that already feels a bit clunky. Master of Harmony doesn’t do much to add to the talent list, instead choosing to buff self-heals and add more opportunities to apply HoT to those in your party. The latter is a little weak to justify, even though the tree does have the right idea overall.
B-Tier
Preservation Evoker
Augmentation Evoker might stand out as one of the most exciting specs in the game right now, but Preservation has some intuitive features in its own right. WoW’s newest class is remarkably well designed considering the lack of time it had to percolate, with the new Hero Talents offering more depth than many other classes are able to enjoy.
That said, there are some noticeable weaknesses that hold the spec back from rising any higher in this list. The first easily foreseeable issue is that Preservation lacks range in its outgoing healing options. This will likely be more of a problem in Season 1 of The War Within because the meta is likely to be ranged and spellcaster-heavy, meaning a bunched party will be more of a rarity. Additionally, the spec needs a more comprehensive utility toolkit to truly compete with the better healing options in the game at the moment.
One of the significant advantages that the class does have is solid baseline output for both HPS and DPS, without much in the way of clever build trickery. In all likelihood, Preservation Evoker will be a reliable workhorse that settles in well but fails to find its place in the meta for the most challenging activities and high Mythic+ keys.
Preservation happily has access to two quality Hero Talent trees, both of which improve the spec significantly. Overall, Chronowarden is the most impressive at the time of writing, offering a great buff to Living Flame and great passives like Temporal Burst, which improves Haste and movement speed. Flameshaper attempts to do something similar, though it just doesn’t work as seamlessly with the wider spec.
Holy Priest
Holy Priest is a tough spec to accurately place on this list, as it mostly operates within its own extremes. On the one hand, it has some of the most powerful and easy-to-use single-target heals in the game. On the other, there are some areas where it woefully lacks specific ability types that will place small group comps at a distinct disadvantage when they take this spec over Holy Paladin or Resto Druid.
In good news, both tier set bonuses are set to elevate the spec noticeably. The 2-piece bonus enhances the Serendipity talent by 10%, while the 4-piece bonus gives Flash Heal, Heal and Prayer of Healing a chance to cast again at 35% effectiveness automatically.
The real problems arrive in high mob-density encounters or complex fights where the tank has a lot to do. Holy Priest has no interrupt, leaving the group open to issues as battles wear on, and it has little to no crowd control more generally. In addition to this, the spec’s notoriously low mobility makes it difficult to recommend over the Paladin to players who are looking to breeze through dungeons.
Unfortunately for Holy, both Hero Talent trees are a little uninspiring. Overall, Oracle is the better choice, with Archon just too ineffectual to consider now. The defensive buffs that Oracle grants to talents like Defensive Prayer and Guardian Spirit are well worth having, particularly considering that Archon’s most significant contribution is marginally improved AoE.
Discipline Priest
The Discipline Priest healing spec has been through some odd times during The War Within beta, though it does perhaps have a higher ceiling than Holy Priest for those willing to put the time in to perfect it. It feels off placing Discipline this low on the list, considering its traditionally spectacular HPS and outgoing damage for a spec focused on healing.
Though the reasons aren’t exactly clear right now, the usual staples seem less potent, relatively speaking, and it’s struggling to keep up with high keys. Raids are a similar story, however much of that comes down to the class’ hybrid role and its current position as a Jack of all trades and a master of none. The lack of durability and mobility is an issue again, and many who are less experienced in the healing role will find Holy to be a lot more intuitive.
What Discipline does have is a solid set of utilities and support for the wider group, though this isn’t enough to elevate it further. Mobility is also a real problem in fights with complex mechanics, and the lack of an interrupt can be noticeably jarring. There are some pretty clever ways that Discipline can be optimized to make it better, but this will likely be a worthwhile pursuit for the dedicated few committed to making it work.
Discipline also gets to choose between the Voidweaver and Oracle Hero Talent trees. The former is currently performing significantly better, putting significant weight behind Mind Blast and adding tools like Void Blast to the equation. It also significantly elevates HPS and Oracle just can’t keep up in its current form.
That’s our breakdown of the healing specs in The War Within. If DPS is more your speed, we have a full tier list for each spec, including Hero Talent choices, as well as a complete ranking for each class, without roles being taken into account.