World of Warcraft Classic's next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, not only ushers in new content for players to enjoy but also signifies a brand-new Healer meta.
With the new expansion, the role didn't get to benefit from a new spec or class added to its ranks such as DPS and tanks did with Death Knights. This means that, for the most part, the healer meta remains mostly unchanged. However, that doesn't mean that it will make choosing which one to play any easier.
That's why we went ahead and put every class—and spec—into a tier list to make your life easier when it comes to choosing a healer class or spec to play.
Here's our tier list of the best WoW Classic WotLK healer classes and specs.
WoW Classic WotLK Tank Tier List (Phase 1)
To kick this off, we'll begin by diving all of the four tank classes and specs into tiers. In this list S tier will be the absolute best specs, ones that you'll want to have one to multiple of in a Raid group, while the D tier can be considered the specs that bring little to no gain over others.
S Tier
- Holy Paladin
A Tier
- Discipline Priest
- Restoration Druid
B Tier
- Restoration Shaman
C Tier
- Holy Priest
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Breaking It Down
Now that we've categorized each class and spec into tiers, we can explain our reasonings.
S Tier - Holy Paladin
After suffering through a very painful Burning Crusade expansion, Holy Paladins sit all pretty alone at the top in Wrath of the Lich King for healers. This is so much so that chances are, some raid groups will run multiple of them.
For starters, with the new expansion, Holy Paladins have seen tons of buffs and boosts to their talents and abilities, namely Holy Light and Holy Shock. Holy Light gained potency in its healing while Holy Shock got its cooldown reduced by 6 seconds, making it an effective instant heal option.
Then you add the likes of Beacon of Light and Sacred Shield and it all feels too good to be true. Not only do Holy Paladins now have a way to heal targets apart from their focus of usual tanks, but they now also can shield them.
To top it all off, they already have a great cooldown in Avenging Wrath, and now can better manage Mana with Divine Plea.
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A Tier - Discipline Priest, Restoration Druid
Discipline Priest
Discipline Priests were a solid choice all throughout Burning Crusade, although they were later less wanted in favor of Holy Priests for Sunwell Plateau. But now, for Wrath of the Lich King, that will never happen as Discipline shines as the one true Priest healing specs.
Mainly due to the brand-new Borrowed Time spell, which allows Discipline Priests to gain 25% spell haste for their next spell following a cast of Power Word: Shield, they have become very efficient healers. Not only can they pop shields on their allies, but if a big damage moment happens they are more than prepared for it.
Add the likes of Divine Hymn, a very powerful AoE heal, Hymn of Hope, which helps restore mana to allies, and the fan-favorite Penance, and it's all tough to beat.
They also contain great utility options in Power Infusion and Pain Suppression.
Restoration Druid
For Wrath of the Lich King, Restoration Druids remain largely unchanged, and in some ways that can come as a benefit as this didn't make them extremely weak.
Overall, the playstyle for the class is the same, a heavy reliance on HoTs to keep your allies up with solid emergency heals in between, especially with the change to Nourish. However, they did see some nerfs to key abilities such as Lifebloom, significantly affecting single-target healing and mana efficiency.
Additionally, they can finally resurrect in combat! And they can have an incredibly useful talent in Revitalize which can restore resources for allies for every tick of Rejuvenation or Wild Growth.
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B Tier - Restoration Shaman
Gone are the days of Burning Crusade and in come the days of Wrath of the Lich King... Sorry Restoration Shamans, you aren't the cool person in school anymore.
Sure, you have acquired a new Talent that makes your Riptide have a rare chance to instantly heal, a much-needed change, but that doesn't seem like it's enough. The rework to totems greatly nerfed Restoration Shamans, not only have they become raid-wide but they also can't stack with similar buffs from other classes - the need to bring a shaman is diminished.
Although they are still a solid healer, they are definitely not at the same level as the ones above them.
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C Tier - Holy Priest
By far the weakest healer on this list is Holy Priest. With Wrath of the Lich King, they received numerous nerfs and add the fact that every healer above it is overall better, especially the ones in the highest tiers, and the class doesn't really stand a chance.
The nerf to Circle of Healing that made it go from having no cooldown to a six-second cooldown is brutal. Now that Circle of Healing spamming is no more, Holy Priest's overall raid healing is worse.
Sure, they have Guardian Spirit which is a great unique utility ability but, in reality, if the raid group is good, there won't be much of a reason to use it.
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