Healer PvP Rankings / Tier List for Mists of Pandaria Classic

MOP Launch Update: The rankings have been updated for the first MOP PvP Season!

You can find below a quick summary of the current PvP healer rankings:

1. Restoration Druid (S-Tier)
2. Mistweaver Monk (S-Tier)
3. Restoration Shaman (A-Tier)
4. Holy Priest (A-Tier)
5. Holy Paladin (A-Tier)
6. Discipline Priest (B-Tier)

In order to further understand the reasoning behind these ranks, we would recommend you to read the rest of the page, as that is explained in more detail in the next few sections.

Feel free to also consult our PvP DPS rankings page if you are interested in learning more about your potential DPS partners in the arena, or our guides on compositions in each bracket (2v2, 3v3, and 5v5) to learn which kinds of teams best suit your class.

When sorting out the rankings for healers in PvP, we are primarily concerned with two things:

• Throughput — the ability of a healer to do a lot of raw healing, for a sustained period of time while under pressure.
• Utility — non-healing abilities that the healer brings that can be used to help your team ( Spirit Link Totem) or disrupt the enemy team ( Wind Shear). This includes the amount and quality of personal defensive tools, such as Restoration Druid slow / root / polymorph-breaking shapeshifting abilities.

We will rank each healer on both of these categories and further elaborate on how they come together to create the current ranking for the class.

Keep in mind that this rating is focused on 3v3, the most competitive bracket where most tournaments are played.

• Throughput — S-tier — Restoration Druid heal primarily through instant casts, which means most of their heals cannot be interrupted and can be pre-stacked ahead of Smoke Bomb swaps, but also makes their healing vulnerable to dispels, even with Lifebloom's special effect. Necrotic Strike is also especially effective against heals over time, making Death Knight their nemesis.
• Utility — S-tier — besides their class buff, Mark of the Wild, Restoration Druid bring all kinds of crowd control and defensive utility (such as Cyclone, Entangling Roots, and Nature's Grasp), and can shift out of root and snares. Overall, they are the healer that best supports the top arena compositions.

• Throughput — A-tier — Mistweaver Monk is the new healer specialization in Mists and brings strong sustained single target healing with Soothing Mist and Enveloping Mist combos and strong spread healing with Uplift but it can often be hard to come back when falling behind healing and it can be hard to get your healing out against enemy disruption;
• Utility — S-tier — Mistweaver has multiple unique cooldowns such as Ring of Peace which completely disables multiple enemies for an extended duration with a short cooldown, Transcendence and Tiger's Lust which are great in PvP scenarios. They also evade attacks and spells after being stunned due to Dematerialize, which is a critical defense mechanism against common kill setups.

• Throughput — S-tier — Earth Shield, Healing Stream Totem, Riptide, and Unleash Elements with Earthliving Weapon are the main heals you will be using and are all are instant, making them quick to reach injured allies and impossible to interrupt. They can also proc Earthliving on the target, which is guaranteed when healing low health allies, and your dispel can also heal its target through Glyph of Cleansing Waters. Finally, their Deep Healing Mastery makes heals much stronger on low health targets, making it perfect for catching up on healing.
• Utility — S-tier — Glyph of Totemic Vigor protects your totems by making them have 5% of your health instead of 5 health and you can drop up to four in a single global using Glyph of Totemic Encirclement which cause decoy totems to drop, making it harder for enemy teams to stop you from helping your allies with the likes of Tremor Totem. Wind Shear and Purge remain as powerful as ever and you can also dispel Magic with Cleanse Spirit. Finally, the new Capacitor Totem and old Grounding Totem are also powerful tools when used correctly.

• Throughput — A-tier — Holy Priest is much stronger than it used to be in the past, sporting strong single-target healing powered by Chakra. While Divine Hymn is powerful cooldown, it also leaves the Priest very vulnerable to disruption, but Lightwell can now be used as well. Finally, their mastery Echo of Light provides a ton of unconditional extra healing which is especially useful against rot compositions.
• Utility — A-tier — being able to offensive and defensive dispel brings a lot of flexibility to Priest gameplay, but Guardian Spirit is also a strong PvP tool, as are the Dominate Mind for added CC, Angelic Feather for movement, Power Infusion for extra burst DPS from your group, and Spectral Guise for more escape and mid-fight drinking potential.

• Throughput — A-tier — Holy Paladin use the Holy Power system for Mana-efficient healing with Eternal Flame, which is instant and has a significant burst healing component which is great for PvP. They also have powerful cooldowns such as Avenging Wrath and Devotion Aura, which help keep everyone healthy. Finally Beacon of Light continues to be a great tool to spread your single target healing, and which is particularly powerful in small group settings where there are less targets that need healing.
• Utility — A-tier — Hand of Protection, Hand of Freedom, Hand of Sacrifice, Hammer of Justice, and all the auras are top-notch utility for both surviving and setting up kills. Divine Shield is the best defensive in the game, effectively making you completely immune to both damage and crowd control for a lengthy 12 seconds, although it can be removed by Mass Dispel and Shattering Throw.

• Throughput — B-tier — just like Restoration Shaman, Discipline Priest have a lot of instant casts they can rely on to do healing while being focused, such as Power Word: Shield, Prayer of Mending, and Penance, but their Mana efficiency is not great and their healing is vulnerable to dispels and swaps, as it is heavily absorb based. This makes them have a hard time catching back when they start to fall behind on healing.
• Utility — A-tier — being able to offensive and defensive dispel brings a lot of flexibility to Priest gameplay, but Pain Suppression and Power Word: Barrier are also strong PvP tools, as is Dominate Mind for added CC, Angelic Feather for movement, Power Infusion for extra burst DPS from your group, and Spectral Guise for more escape and mid-fight drinking potential.