Dragonflight Healer Rankings: Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope Raiding Tier List (Patch 10.2)
World of Warcraft has never been perfectly balanced, and Dragonflight is no exception. Some classes are better than others at the high end for raiding, and inevitably, a meta will exist. This guide will try to explain and rank the viability and strength of the various healing specializations for the current patch.
Disclaimer: This list will be updated as new tuning and class changes come out throughout the season.
About the Tier List
November 17, Road to World First observation update: Holy Priests have turned out even worse than predicted during the early days of the raid, as their Mana and throughput are both relatively weak. Holy Paladins have adapted to using a casting-heavy build that is currently performing extremely well on the meters and they still kept their utility intact, giving them a rank raise.
The rest of the classes are mostly as predicted earlier, although Preservation Evoker has dropped slightly since Discipline Priest is often being brought twice instead of a Prevoker.
Finally, Restoration Shamans are seeing no play in RWF, but are also outperforming our low initial expectations so far and thus will get a rank raise, while Restoration Druids are unfortunately seeing very little play and relatively low healing numbers compared to their peers.
The rankings below reflect the predicted Amirdrassil raid meta and will be updated over time as more hotfixes and patches hit the live servers.
To understand why these rankings are the way they are, you first need to understand what is most valued in a raid setting. For healers, we value healing throughput, cooldowns, DPS output, and other miscellaneous utility.
A Final Warning
Just because a healer is currently low ranked in the tier list, it does not mean that it is not viable or that it will not become much better after balance changes. Also, excellent players will always be deserving of a raid spot, regardless of their specialization.
The main exception is when you require a specific healer to bring utility that
is needed for a particular encounter (such as Rescue for low mobility
classes), or one of the main raid buffs, such as
Mark of the Wild,
Power Word: Fortitude, or
Devotion Aura.
Dragonflight Healer Tier List for Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope
You can find the summarized healer tier list below, but make sure to also check the individual section for each healer in order to understand our ranking reasoning and specialization perks.
- Discipline Priest (S-Tier)
- Holy Paladin (A-Tier)
- Mistweaver Monk (A-Tier)
- Preservation Evoker (B-Tier)
- Restoration Shaman (B-Tier)
- Holy Priest (C-Tier)
- Restoration Druid (C-Tier)
DPS and Tank Class Rankings
If you are interested in other rankings for the Season 3 raid in Dragonflight, please click the links below.
Full Healer Class Rankings
As the raid to world first unfolds, the healing meta becomes clearer, and this new list should more adequately display the current state of things. Regardless, we will be continuing to monitor and update the healing tier list as new hotfixes are deployed or new playstyles developed.
S-Tier
Discipline Priest
November 17, Road to World First observation update: Discipline Priest is looking as strong as predicted, being the only healer to have multiple copies of in the RWF rosters while also displaying great healing, damage, and utility, thus being deserving of the top tier rank.
Healing Throughput: Discipline can have strong throughput but has difficulty
with spot healing in raids as it is tied to predictable burst timings driven by
its short cooldowns. On the upside, it has frequent raid burst healing windows
enabled by Atonement spreading from
Power Word: Radiance and multiple
single-target applicators, such as
Renew and
Power Word: Shield,
which makes it a strong healer against periodic raid burst damage patterns.
Cooldowns: Discipline has a very powerful healing cooldown in
Power Word: Barrier, which offers massive damage reduction, but only inside
its small area of effect.
Rapture is also a strong cooldown for both
emergency spot healing and ramp setups. Post-revamp, Discipline can easily amplify
its
Atonement healing with
Shadowfiend, as many of the old cooldowns
are now baked into it. Finally, its tank external is
Pain Suppression, which
provides a large amount of damage reduction for its target.
Damage Output: Discipline Priests tend to bring the strongest healer DPS
in-game due to their rotation heavily involving the use of DPS abilities for
Atonement healing (which includes multiple DPS cooldowns) and the
Power Infusion cooldown, which is a significant raid damage gain when used
well.
Utility: Discipline Priest has good utility, as they provide
the Power Word: Fortitude raid buff and the DPS buff
Power Infusion
mentioned above. Their
Mass Dispel, even post-nerf, is also often invaluable
in raid encounters and, while more niche,
Leap of Faith can be a lifesaver
in some situations.
Defensively and mobility-wise, Discipline Priest might be the weakest healer
of all, with only Desperate Prayer,
Fade (with
Translucent Image),
and
Angelic Feather to help out in those areas.
Overall, the revamped Discipline Priest can finally unlock its full potential without suffering from an overcomplicated rotation. While it is still not the ideal healer in random player spot-healing-heavy scenarios, Discipline brings a lot of cooldown healing, damage reduction, shields, DPS, and other special utility, which justifies its top place in the rankings, as you can easily bring two in an efficient healing composition.
A-Tier
Holy Paladin
November 17, Road to World First observation update: Despite the many Holy Paladin nerfs, they are making a great showing this patch and almost every raid has at least one, as they are one of the best spot healers and also bring unique utility to the table. Thus, we will increase their relative rank to other healers to reflect their omnipresence in the typical healing roster.
Healing Throughput: Paladins has decent raw throughput, some of which
is delivered as absorb shield healing from Barrier of Faith,
Greater Judgment,
and
Overflowing Light, as well as
Tyr's Deliverance and
Holy Shock,
allowing for high amounts of spot healing, which also cleaves off the tank with
Beacon of Light and its supporting talents.
Cooldowns: Holy sports a strong healing increase cooldown in Avenging Wrath,
a large damage reduction cooldowns for the raid with
Aura Mastery plus
Devotion Aura, and a fine tank external with
Blessing of Sacrifice.
Divine Toll and
Daybreak can be pressed frequently for large cooldown
healing, as well, and
Lay on Hands is great for emergencies.
Damage Output: While not as strong as it once was, Holy Paladin still
has a decent damage profile, and you can get a lot of damage from your melee swings
and rotational abilities such as Judgment. Using
Blessing of Summer
on the right targets also provide a good amount of damage.
Utility: Holy Paladin sports some of the best unique utility
in the game with their Blessing of Protection,
Devotion Aura, and
Retribution Aura. They can also interrupt on a short cooldown with
Rebuke, crowd control with
Hammer of Justice,
Turn Evil,
Blinding Light, and
Repentance, and combat ress with
Intercession.
They dispel Magic,
Disease, and
Poison effects with
Cleanse, any movement-impairing effect with
Blessing of Freedom.
Defensively wise,
Divine Shield is the only immunity ability provided to
a healer class, and they also have plate armor, strong defensive talents, and
Divine Protection. Their mobility is mostly tied to
Divine Steed,
making it one of the few things where Paladins do not excel.
Overall, Holy Paladin still has a very strong kit, and their class rework is still paying dividends, as their melee spec was heavily nerfed but the reworked casting spec came out to carry them to a strong performance in this tier.
Mistweaver Monk
November 17, Road to World First observation update:
Mistweaver Monk is looking great in the raid, being an integral part of
the road to world first healing rosters everywhere. It does very high healing,
good damage, and more importantly, brings the critical Mystic Touch raid
debuff, at a time where Brewmasters and Windwalkers have fallen out of favor in
the meta.
Healing Throughput: Mistweaver has excellent throughput and is able to
cover all types of incoming damage with its versatile Enveloping Mist and
Vivify healing kit. Much of its healing is delivered over time and lacks
targeting, such as the healing produced by
Essence Font and most cooldowns.
Some of their healing also requires being in melee range of an enemy target,
especially when looking to convert damage into healing with
Ancient Teachings,
Awakened Faeline, and
Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane.
Cooldowns: Revival is the best-known Monk cooldown, and it
dispels everyone while also doing massive healing.
Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane
and
Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent are strong healing cooldowns with different
use cases, and Monk has a lot of short cooldowns such as
Faeline Stomp,
Sheilun's Gift, and
Thunder Focus Tea, which provide flexible benefits
depending on the spells you combo them with. Mistweaver's tank external is
Life Cocoon,
which provides a massive shield and increases healing over time taken by the target.
Damage Output: Mistweaver Monks can do a lot of damage with Rising Sun Kick,
Spinning Crane Kick,
Blackout Kick, and
Tiger Palm. Most
importantly, their damage converts into healing efficiently with talents such as
Ancient Teachings,
Awakened Faeline, and
Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane.
These conversions create scenarios where dealing damage is the optimal healing strategy
and empower Monks to be the top damage-dealing healers in raids.
Utility: Monks have a strong raid buff in Mystic Touch and provide
buffs to close allies with
Generous Pour and
Close to Heart. They
also have unique utility such as
Ring of Peace, can interrupt with
Spear Hand Strike, and instantly AoE stun with
Leg Sweep. They can
also dispel
Magic,
Disease, and
Poison effects with
Detox. Unfortunately, as long as
Mystic Touch is already covered,
none of the other utility tools are significant in a raid setting.
Defensively, Monk has multiple cooldowns: the massively buffed Expel Harm,
Fortifying Brew,
Dampen Harm, and
Diffuse Magic all contribute
towards making Mistweaver one of the toughest healers when played well. Mobility-wise,
Monk is also exceptional with
Tiger's Lust, the customizable
Roll,
and the instant teleportation of
Transcendence, making knockbacks and other
movement-related mechanics easy to solve.
Overall, Mistweavers are surprisingly good for how little they are played, but they also have many buttons, cooldowns, and moving parts in their kit, making them somewhat hard to play well. While they still also lack damage reduction effects for their groups, their personal throughput, mobility, survivability, and utility has finally been buffed to the point where every raid should seriously consider bringing one.
B-Tier
Preservation Evoker
November 17, Road to World First observation update:
While Preservation Evoker healing is still very high when using the
Emerald Blossom playstyle, it suffers from requiring players to be tightly
stacked together in order for the healing to happen. This is not possible in some
of the bosses present in the raid, making Preservation fall off occasionally, although
its healing and damage potential are still great, overall.
Healing Throughput: Preservation has excellent burst healing, especially
against raid-wide damage with its frequent Essence Burst-powered
Emerald Blossom
casts, further amplified by
Cycle of Life. You can also use
Temporal Anomaly
to create multiple
Echos, which can then serve to replicate your
Spiritbloom,
Dream Breath, or
Verdant Embrace (which also activates
Lifebind
for extra healing when followed up by high self-healing abilities such as
Emerald Communion).
Their main weakness is lack of spread healing due to Emerald Blossom mechanics and
reacting to surprise damage, as their (spot) healing is rather weak when not properly
set up ahead of time.
Cooldowns: Evoker is a very cooldown-oriented healer, ranging from the
extremely powerful but high cooldown Rewind, to the short "build your own
cooldown"
Stasis.
Emerald Communion is also a decent cooldown
when appropriately used with high
Lifebind counts.
Zephyr has
a small target cap but reduces damage taken significantly. Finally, its external
cooldown is
Time Dilation, which delays 50% of the damage taken by the
target on a very short cooldown.
Damage Output: Preservation Evoker has good AoE damage potential,
especially once Evoker Preservation 10.2 Class Set 2pc is unlocked, and can
also do high single-target damage if you can get into a rhythm of casting an
Ancient Flame-empowered
Living Flame every time you press
Emerald Blossom,
which has the added upside of being able to give you more
Essence Bursts
to repeat the combo!
Utility: Preservation has a lot of niche, but occasionally indispensable,
utility. It has a raid buff, Blessing of the Bronze, and a strong permanent
healer buff in
Source of Magic with
Potent Mana.
Landslide
serves as a mass rooting effect, which can be essential in specific fights.
Rescue
allows the Evoker to move any player around and is fantastic in encounters with
strong knockback mechanics that can be ignored with it.
Time Spiral serves
a similar purpose and keeps your raid mobile even when mobility personals need to
be used back to back.
Zephyr has already been mentioned for its damage
reduction above, but can also be used for its movement speed increase.
Evokers can also remove Magic and
Poison with
Naturalize,
and
Cauterizing Flame can remove bleeds, curses, and almost all other non-magic
debuffs. The bleed removal component is especially useful in some raid encounters
where only immunities or a Paladin's
Blessing of Protection can remove high-damage
bleeds.
Defensively, Preservation is one of the weakest healers' baseline but compensates
by having two personal cooldowns: Obsidian Scales and
Renewing Blaze,
which have relatively short cooldowns. Movement and knockbacks are very easy to
deal with due to the double-jump mechanic native to Evokers and the short cooldown
Hover.
Overall, Preservation Evoker is a cooldown machine likely to have something to
use on every major incoming damage source. Its sustained healing is not the best,
but through tier bonuses and the Emerald Blossom into
Living Flame
combo, it works well enough to still be significant during cooldown downtime. It
is also noteworthy that Preservation is one of the most flexible healers on whether
to use its resources for DPS or healing, as the situation demands.
Restoration Shaman
November 17, Road to World First observation update: Restoration Shaman is having a somewhat stronger showing than expected in the raid, with relatively high healing numbers, but that is also heavily influenced by the 30-man raids typical of Heroic / Normal week. Thus, we predict they will not be quite as bad as earlier thought, but also unlikely to become a meta healer without further changes.
Healing Throughput: Restoration has decent healing for all situations
but suffers from having much of its area healing tied to Healing Rain,
which requires a large number of players to be inside and damaged for its duration.
Chain Heal is a much more versatile spell, especially with
Tidebringer,
but taxes Mana heavily, limiting its use. A similar situation arises with
Healing Wave
and
Healing Surge, creating an environment where Shamans have tools for
all situations but are not particularly good in any situation.
Cooldowns: Shaman has multiple powerful healing cooldowns: Spirit Link Totem
is the most well-known and allows you to survive healing reduction effects or extreme
raid damage, especially if unevenly distributed.
Unleash Life,
Cloudburst Totem,
Ascendance and
Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem serve as
multipliers to your healing, as does
Primordial Wave to an extent, and
all of them can be very powerful if you are using them at the right time.
Healing Tide Totem
is also a decent healing cooldown, which has lower potency than similar effects
from other healers but also allows you to continue casting during its duration.
Earthen Wall Totem is a small but powerful cooldown, especially against
many small hits. Finally, and notably, Restoration lacks a tank external, but has
Earth Shield and
Earthen Harmony's passive damage reduction to compensate.
Damage Output: Restoration Shaman has multiple strong damage tools, but
most require taking specific talents and dedicating many cooldowns to DPSing. Examples
include Acid Rain which turns
Healing Rain into a strong damage
effect,
Stormkeeper which provides burst damage,
Lava Surge
for instant damage with
Lava Burst and
Master of the Elements to
increase your damage (and healing!) after each Lava Burst cast.
Utility: Restoration Shaman is known for its many utility tools,
but these also tend to be extremely niche. Besides the aforementioned Spirit Link Totem
which can occasionally be the only cooldown that works in extreme situations,
Ancestral Protection Totem has the unique power of resurrecting someone,
making it very useful for suiciding dangerous mechanics. Shamans also have
Ancestral Vigor
for passively increasing raid health,
Tremor Totem to break fear, charm
, and sleep effects,
Poison Cleansing Totem for mass removing poisons, and
Stoneskin Totem against physical damage, as well as many other niche utility
options.
Restoration Shaman also has good survivability talent options in Brimming with Life
and
Astral Shift plus its supporting talents, as well as
Earth Elemental
or
Spirit Wolf, which doubles as a mobility tool.
Ghost Wolf and
Gust of Wind are the primary burst movement options, but
Spiritwalker's Grace
can be even stronger, as it allows you to cast while moving. Finally, Shaman has
the unique perk of being able to self-resurrect with
Reincarnation!
Overall, Restoration Shamans are strong all-rounders due to their versatile toolkit, and can occasionally be indispensable due to their unique utility, but in their current tuning and against Amirdrassil encounters, nothing really stands out, and they end up just being good generic healers, rather than must-haves in a healing roster.
C-Tier
Holy Priest
November 17, Road to World First observation update: Due to the multiple nerfs received by Holy Priest in this season, its popularity and overall power have drastically diminished, with many complaints being sent about their poor Mana efficiency and low current healing. Their support abilities were also nerfed, making them into true second fiddles to Discipline for the first time since the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid in Shadowlands Season 3.
Healing Throughput: Holy has decent throughput and is able to cover all
types of incoming damage with its versatile kit of healing tools, which includes
Prayer of Mending,
Flash Heal,
Prayer of Healing and the Holy
Words
Holy Word: Salvation plus
Holy Word: Sanctify. While it is not
the best throughput healer by any means, its healing is solid and easy to set up.
Cooldowns: Holy has some powerful healing cooldowns in Holy Word: Salvation,
Apotheosis, and
Divine Hymn, all of which can do a large amount
of burst healing when used at the right timings. Its tank external is
Guardian Spirit,
which increases healing taken by the target and prevents death while active. Due
to its unique healing-increasing powers, it can be extremely good in situations
where you need to heal a friendly NPC for a large amount.
Damage Output: While Holy Priests can do a lot of damage if they commit
globals to damage abilities, doing so forces them to stop healing, which is not
ideal. Thus, in harder content, much of the damage potential comes from using
Power Infusion on the right targets while they are using DPS cooldowns.
Utility: Holy Priest has fantastic utility, which justifies
its A-rank: Symbol of Hope, even post nerf, is still a very strong raid
cooldown, especially in the hands of coordinated groups that have their personal
cooldowns assigned around its usage. They also provide the
Power Word: Fortitude
raid buff and the DPS buff
Power Infusion mentioned above. Finally, their
Mass Dispel is often invaluable in raid encounters and, while more niche,
Leap of Faith can be a lifesaver in some situations.
Defensively and mobility-wise, Priest is rather weak and mostly relies on
Desperate Prayer and
Angelic Feather, but it is also the only
healer that can keep healing after dying with
Spirit of Redemption, which
is of fantastic value in some bosses with hard execute phases.
Overall, Holy Priests' perks, ease of use, and versatility allow them to be a jack of all trades, but they suffer from low healing and Mana management tuning currently, pushing them down the ranks.
Restoration Druid
November 17, Road to World First observation update: Restoration Druid is, unfortunately, looking as down in practice as it looked it would before the raid launch. Its healing is relatively low, utility can be covered by other, more popular, Druid specializations, and there is little hope in the short term outside of new hotfixes reverting some of the harsher nerfs or a new playstyle being discovered.
Healing Throughput: Druid has very high throughput potential, and is
unique among healer classes in that it mostly relies on heals over time, such
as Lifebloom and
Rejuvenation, to deliver its healing. This
delivery method works well in Aberrus due to the high amount of constant raid
damage happening in most encounters. Most of their heals can also be done while
moving, allowing throughput to remain high even in the most hectic of raid bosses.
Cooldowns: Restoration has good healing cooldowns in Incarnation: Tree of Life,
Convoke the Spirits, and
Flourish, which can be used separately
or as part of a burst healing combo, which can heal through high amounts of damage.
Its tank external,
Ironbark reduces damage taken and increases healing
taken by the target, making it one of the best tools of its kind, especially due
to its relatively low cooldown.
Damage Output: While Restoration Druids can do a lot of damage if they
optimize their talents for it and use Cat Form and / or
Heart of the Wild,
focusing on damage will tank their healing, which means that, in a raid setting,
most of their damage will typically come from the usage of
Sunfire,
Moonfire, and
Nature's Vigil, along with their healing cooldowns.
While this damage is something, it is generally weak when compared to other healers.
Utility: Druids have their own raid cooldown in Mark of the Wild,
and also bring
Innervate, which can be used on themselves or other healers,
Stampeding Roar for a short-cooldown raid-wide movement speed increase and
Ursol's Vortex plus
Typhoon to control enemy movements or
Mass Entanglement
to completely stop them, if needed.
Mobility-wise, Druid is quite strong with the passive speed gain of Cat Form
and burst speed of
Tiger Dash /
Dash or
Wild Charge, on
top of being able to cast most of their rotation while moving and at range. Their
main defensive is
Barkskin, which has a very low cooldown, and they can
shift into
Bear Form at will to make themselves even tankier.
Overall, Restoration Druids have decent utility and a unique healing style,
further pushed by Grove Guardians, but also relatively low healing,
especially of the burst kind, making them a relatively weak option currently.
Changelog
- 17 Nov. 2023: Updates mid road to world first progression.
- 30 Oct. 2023: Reviewed and updated for Patch 10.2.
- 22 Aug. 2023: Updates for this reset's hotfixes.
- 08 Aug. 2023: Updates for this reset's hotfixes.
- 23 Jul. 2023: Further updates considering upcoming hotfixes.
- 05 Jul. 2023: Updated for patch 10.1.5.
- 07 May 2023: Updated for Season 2 of Dragonflight.
- 06 Feb. 2023: Updated for patch 10.0.5.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Season 1 of Dragonflight.
- 18 Aug. 2022: Updated for Season 4.
- 23 Jun. 2022: Check-in since last update.
- 25 Apr. 2022: Updated after first few weeks of Mythic.
- 18 Feb. 2022: Updated for patch 9.2.
- 06 Nov. 2021: Updated for patch 9.1.5.
- 04 Aug. 2021: Updated for first couple of Mythic weeks.
- 13 Jul. 2021: Updated after Heroic week.
- 24 Jun. 2021: Page added.
This guide has been written by Seksi, member of Arctic Avengers and healing aficionado. You can find him answering questions and discussing Restoration Shaman gameplay on the Ancestral Guidance and Earthshrine Discords.
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