Healer Rankings / Tier List for Phase 3 of TBC Classic

Below you can find a quick summary of the current PvE healer rankings:

1. Shaman (A-Tier)
2. Paladin (A-Tier)
3. Priest (A-Tier)
4. Druid (A-Tier)

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

If you are interested in other PvE role rankings for WoW TBC, check the following links:

When sorting out the rankings for healers PvE, 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.
• Utility — non-healing abilities that the healer brings that are useful to the raid, such as Bloodlust/Heroism.

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.

There are currently no S-Tier classes.

Overall, all healers are very balanced in TBC Phase 1. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the raid encounters and gear available prevent the best scaling healers, such as Shaman, from being ahead on throughput, for now.

• Throughput — A-tier, Chain Heal is extremely strong against the high group damage intake of many TBC encounters when Spell Haste is introduced later on, but in Tier 4 most encounters do not cater to the Restoration Shaman toolkit and tank healing is good, but not exceptional.
• Utility — S-tier, while Bloodlust/Heroism apply the Sated debuff in Anniversary TBC, making one Shaman enough for lust purposes, totem utility is still mostly group-based and strong, making Shamans a great class to stack in TBC.

Shamans can bring it all in TBC, with their only weakness in PvE being their tank healing, which is passable but not as good as that of a Druid or Paladin, for example. Regardless, because of their incredible utility, you will always want as many Shamans as you can in your group, and the healing role is where they can shine the most.

• Throughput — A-tier, Paladin single target healing is second to none in TBC as long as they can cast freely, and you will want at least a few in your raid to keep tanks and people being hit by mechanics alive. Unfortunately they have no area of effect healing tools and no heals over time or shields, making them very one-dimensional.
• Utility — S-tier, blessings such as Blessing of Protection are great in multiple scenarios, from keeping people who pull aggro alive to facilitating tank swaps and removing bleed debuffs. It is also all but mandatory to bring at least a handful of Paladins in order to have the utility blessings, such as Blessing of Salvation applied to the full raid.

Paladins bring some of the best group utility in TBC with their blessings, have great single target healing and are extremely tough with their Plate armor and Divine Shield last resort. However, their lack of area of effect healing options and the fact that you can cover all important blessings to a group with just a handful of Paladins make them be less desirable once you hit that threshold.

• Throughput — S-tier, just like Shamans, Priests can do it all, with powerful single target heals which include heals over time and shields, and unlike Paladins they also have strong area of effect heals like Circle of Healing.
• Utility — A-tier, the unique utility of Improved Divine Spirit, Mass Dispel, Power Word: Fortitude, and being able to shield people ahead of burst damage events are great, but not quite as mandatory or stackable as what other healers bring.

Priests can do great healing in every situation and have the most flexible healing kit of all classes, with a lot of instant casts that are very useful in PvP, but not as important in PvE. Unfortunately, most of the utility they provide to the raid can also be covered by Shadow Priests and, as such, they are not a particularly good class to bring multiples of.

It is worth noting that while you can specialize deeply into Discipline, this is not recommended for PvE, due to the high healing loss from skipping deep Holy talents. You should have one healing Priest per raid pick up Divine Spirit and Improved Divine Spirit, however.

• Throughput — S-tier, Druids start out extremely strong, with some of the most powerful heal over time effects in game. Their reliance on these effects will cause them to fall off over time due to not gaining as much value from secondary stats as most other healers, but in Phase 1 they are the throughput kings, with excellent healing and Mana efficiency.
• Utility — A-tier, while Mark of the Wild and Faerie Fire are mandatory buffs to have in a raid setting, any kind of Druid can bring these, with Balance Druids being particularly good for Faerie Fire, and a single Druid is enough to ensure uptime on these. This leaves Tree of Life's group healing increase buff as the only special thing a Restoration Druid can bring, which you should take advantage of for your tank group.

Druids, just like Priests, do most of their healing with instant casts, and also sport incredible mobility and survivability tools, making them PvP powerhouses. Unfortunately, in PvE these perks are not nearly as useful, and they have to rely on their throughput, which is very strong in Phase 1.

Heals over time do not benefit from secondary stats like Haste and Critical Strike, both of which are very important to scale healer throughput in the final tiers of TBC. Thus, Druids are great healers early on, but fall off later.

There are currently no B-Tier classes.