PvP Healing

[Crom]

First off greetings to all and thanks to the devs for recreating this amazing experience for us.

Now, onto my question: Back in Classic I used to play a hunter which I mained for the remainder of the game but the last few years I got a new-found love for healing in mmos. Now, while I remember the case with most dps classes back then, I have absolutely no memory of how healers were in pvp. I've been searching this and other forums for info on that but after so many years it's hard to dig up stuff on the subject.

I remember that shamans were pretty good as utility goes with purge being rather op, especially against priests. Grounding and tremor are also fairly strong but I remember they died like flies to melee (kinda like nowadays).

Druids I have 0 recollection of other than them being good flag carriers.

Priests, I think were ok. I remember it was fun MCing people off cliffs and the occasional mana burn on pallies (somewhat of a counter to pallies really back then) but I remember they were also fairly squishy.

Can someone confirm if the above is true and could you please share a few strengths and weaknesses or playstyles (e.g. druid is very mobile, pala is very tanky but defensive etc.) you have figured from your time in Nostalrius to help me out with deciding which style suits me best?

Any other points (like who has good offspec potential, is relatively usable at pve etc.) is most welcome but keep in mind I am interested in PvP in the long-run.

Cheers!

PS: I should mention that I plan on pairing up with a warrior friend, especially for PvP.

[Krinkov]

all 4 healers are extremely fucking overpowered in relation of heals to damage

for example: my 39 pala can ''somewhat'' tank through lvl 60 rogue damage , a 39 twink has problems killing a nontwinked level 30 priest, ...you get the idea

id say priests and shamans are the nastiest. If pala is just a walking punching bag with only a HoJ as offensive toolkit and no way to escape(only stopwatch or swift boots but those come with a 30 min/1h CDs) then priest has fucking dispel, retarded shields, blackout procs, insane resistances to stun/silences, more armor than mail(with Holy Fire).

then shamans...r5 lesser healing wave can heal through a 60s burst (as long as you arent focused), they have very good defensive talents and abilities, they have great offense in the way of Earth Shock, Purge r2 and a great way to escape if needed Frost Shock, Earthbind Totem, Wolf form,gg.

Druid is really good too especially if you arent an inbred and use Roots on melees and Faerie Fire every rogue in sight (what all lvl 60 druids forget to do for some reason) im wearing full cloth atm and can tank 2-3 ppl in

[Krinkov]

I have never played BC or WoTLK so i have no idea how healing went there

but in Cata/MoP/WoD ..just like in classic healing is extermely fucking overpowered if you compare healing to dmg ratios. They just dont balance this game around pvp, a healer is designed to heal through raid bosses and 5 man dungeons, so he can definitely heal through 1-2 players.

[Crom]

Thanks for the replies guys. It's nice to know that as a healer I will have a fighting chance and not be cannon fodder for every second opponent. I've narrowed it down to priest (ud) and shaman (orc). I searched a bit more and apparently the offspecs for both classes are pretty good (shadow/enhance op?) so both have viable alternatives, although gearing the shaman seems like it will be a pain with current itemization/priorities. Seeing how I will be running with a warrior, which class would mask his weaknesses better you think?

[Winstons]

Hey dude,

I first played a 60 warrior, then a 60 rogue, then after a bit of break came back and played a 60 priest through Vanilla and TBC, so this is my experience. (I am levelling a priest again now for PVP.) I’ve also played a shaman into his 40s as well (again, for PVP healing Vanilla/TBC).

Playing a healer basically feels like a completely different game to being a damage dealer – but having played damage dealers first, it gives you a great insight into how to survive them by doing the things that they hate priests to do! Such as trinketing out of a kidney shot rather than a cheap shot, stuff like that.

A huge part of PVPing as a healer is correct positioning, and becoming aware of when you are about to be focused – and then moving out of the way or dragging the enemies who are whacking you into the range of friendlies you can help. Or just hiding well enough in the first place that you are not noticed. As a priest you are a force-multiplyer, so it’s great you have a warrior buddy. Failing that, locate the most skilled, strongest player, and follow him about helping him to do his job.

A lot of the time, Dispel feels like my most powerful spell. Of course, chain healing a warrior as he chews his way through four or five enemies is a great feeling, but often it's the little, subtler things which can have just as large an impact on your teams success – dispelling hunters mark from a rogue, removing chilled from a warrior so he can keep whaling on a mage, stuff like that.

Stay mobile at all times - don't overlook the power of renews. Save your shields for when a friendly is on dangerously low health and you need to buy him those crucial seconds to land a greater heal.

I don’t use many mods, but the most useful is Tinytip – great for quickly checking the health of anyone within range.

My primary aim as a priest is to survive – my philosophy is no matter how much +healing gear you have, you can't heal at all if you're dead - so in that regard I focus my talents entirely on self-survival and stack my gear towards the same end. I want to become an annoyance to enemy players. At the moment for example, I’m only level 26, but I have 1.2k health, 25% armour, and can easily survive being focused by anything but the most heavily twinked rogue or hunter.

And then if you ever fancy a change, a shadow priest in pvp will utterly destroy almost anything 1-on-1 one.

As for my view on shaman – the armour and shield helps, but you lack some of the instants of a priest (renew, shield), but you gain a few nice things – solid heals and a nice mana pool, useful totems, but also purge, which is utterly fantastic. Bringing down a mages shield, or even a paladin’s, and watching them get utterly squished, is a great feeling.

I found shaman more challenging and more complicated, as the juggling of the large number of totems takes quick fingers. Both priest and shaman were great fun though and equally powerful in their own way.

One final thought - good players will always target priests - but nobody ever really *wants* to target a shaman - you know they are going to be a pain to take down, and they might be elemental specced and hurt you back!

[Bleachbeard]

Wow thanks for that Long reply ! My Moral was Cruhed when i read through The Forum i Play shaman enhancer for leveling but I have planned to play heal on the sxties cause ppl where crying a lot that there aren't enough healers inpvp. I actually wanted to reroll as a warrior or rouge. I never played heal in pvp and also never did shaman but what I know is that I'm literally a positioning god. Your post your experience makes me wanna try hard. Fuck the haters and whiners who cry about getting one sotted by rouges frost shock earhbind ghost wolf is what they get

Thanks again for wanting me play that class again and show the winners that it's possible xd

[Crom]

Winstons thanks a ton for the detailed reply. The part about being an annoyance is the reason why I like healing in pvp; messing with the enemy's plans. That being said, I feel like the main draw for playing a priest is the "triad" of dispel (which unfortunately shamans don't get, even though poison dispel is a nice counter to the millions of rogues), MC and Mana burn which form a nice offensive fun kit for the priest. On the other hand as a shaman you get some cool buffs and probably a tad better survivability and burst than the priest but this "fun factor" of MCing ppl off cliffs, mana burning the other healer, dispelling a rooted warr so he can wreck faces doesn't seem to exist with the shaman. Plus from what I understand you practically only heal with healing wave and occasionally Chains, so you suffer much more from interrupts/silences. Additionally, even though purge is superior you still get offensive dispel as a priest. So, even though I want to like the shaman (and his interesting offspecs) I don't really see how you would consider it on par with priests.

[Winstons]

You do make valid points about the shaman and I'd agree - but also, having played a rogue, and gone up against a couple of really excellent healing shamans in my day, they can be tremendously annoying - at times I felt it was almost pointless trying to kill them! Being able to remove blessing of freedom is also a great boon in WSG.

Mana burn I do like, but often find I just don't get time to cast it due to the 3 sec casting time. MC you are quite right, is utterly hilarious to fling people off lumber mill in AB. That never gets old.

[Crom]

Mana burn I do like, but often find I just don't get time to cast it due to the 3 sec casting time. MC you are quite right, is utterly hilarious to fling people off lumber mill in AB. That never gets old.

Well I guess engineering (which I plan on taking) can take care of the MC part and mana burn is indeed a susceptible spell. Now, if only shamans had dispel

[Ana]

Question about UI for healing - what's the optimal way of setting it up? Specifically efficient targetting of people who need healing. I'm currently using a mix of clicking on player models / healthbars and snatching them up from the raidframe (CTRA). While it sort of works for smaller groups, as soon as there's 10+ people on screen (cough AV cough) it becomes a nightmare. Any addons you would recommend for, dunno, a more suitable raidframe, health bars better than the default ones, some in-healing-range emergency list, something?