So I love playing dps, but lately I have been feeing the itch to start trying my hand at being a healer.
So I wanted to ask you guys which healing spec you like and why?
Also which healer you guys would advice to start with as a beginner and why.
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I would say Shaman, cos I’m biased. It is a rather easy spec with good numbers (not a hps healer so monks, druids and priests will likely pull bigger numbers), but it has great raid cooldowns and it is a meta healer for m+ as well.
Holy Priest is far beyond other specs. But if you get 4 set as Holy Paladin, they’re very strong as well
I mean enjoyment is very subjective.
I like disc the most. It’s somewhat unique and doesn’t lose too much hps by dealing damage. It is however one of the more difficult specs to play since you have to plan quite a bit ahead, compared to other healers.
It’s also quite bad right now, contrary to holy priest, which has its strongest content since ages.
I recommend trying stuff out, or asking people you know who enjoy similar things to you, rather than expecting to enjoy the spec some person in here does. Some people love playing holy priest, I consider it quite boring.
In the end, it’s a very subjective thing and every healspec has something that speaks for them.
Unless you only enjoy playing the best spec there is, all of them should be fine to play.
If you want to play the best spec, play holy priest. They’re insane in m+ and raids. I hear they’re also quite good in PvP
Shaman is fun and easy to learn but very hard to master at top level.
Priest is the same as above .
I dislike the palastyle of holy pala since holypower was brought in and they were made a bascially melee healer.
Druid i can not comment on as i have never really healed and same with monk .
But play them all and see what suits your playstyle.
It would totally depend on your playstyle, every healer brings something unique.
I’ve leaned towards holy paladin because I like it’s toolkit, I think it’s cooldowns are really good and of course the aesthetics.
I have an alt priest and I enjoy the more ranged aspect of it, and it’s toolkit is more versatile than paladins too and less cooldown dependant.
Shamans are awesome, too bad I cba to gear up another alt though.
it really depends on what you want to do later on end game-wise and what kind of playstyle you re looking for.
shaman is strong and really, really, really easy to play. its a reactive spec means you see people take damage, you press your heal buttons. it also has great damage and nice utility.
personally, i love resto druid. because, well, idk i just love it, it has been my main since forever. its not a reactive healer though like shaman but a preemtive one. means you have to know when damage ins incoming and then distribute your hots accordingly. it has tons of utility as well.
holy priest is also pretty easy and reactive. no idea how disc is doing atm though.
i would advice against mistweaver and heal pala (and disc) for people who want to start out as healers. you have to be melee and you heal through damage, which can be quite alienating as you need to track your damage + healing. but by all means, maybe its just the thing for you, give it a try.
Holy Priest for mass dispell and PI.
The one you like the most.
If you really want a class that can do it all take a druid. Most fun I’ve had with a class, high mobility, stealth, shape shifting, caster dps , healer , melee dls and a tank, instant que for LFG, best flag carrier for pvp, amazing at farming mats for professions, cyclone one of if not best spells in the game.
I’ve played all healers, except for Monk.
All healers are fun to play in there own right
Disc priests being unique to play as you heal through from your damage once you have Atonment up on another player. It’s fun and feels nice to play but not easy to heal.
I have two toons, a shaman and a priest and both are healers. Most of the raids I join rarely seen a mistweaver monk this expansion. If I had time to level another character I would go for the monk this time.
Monk. No really 
- High mobility; you can be thinking about your healing a bit too long, linger in a mechanic, then pinball out at the last second and live. Monks can survive hesitation where other healers (especially priests) just die.
- Pure output healer; there’s no real tricks or surprises. Once you understand how to cleave Vivifies (and that Vivify doesn’t always have a place especially in raids), your toolkit is fairly simple. You fix problems after they happen so you don’t have to memorise damage patterns.
- Flexible melee or ranged; yeah, everyone tells you monks have to melee… they’re basically wrong, at least up to the 16-17 key range, idk about higher. If the affixes are bad for it this week, you absolutely can get through with a ranged build. Paladins take breaks on spiteful/sanguine/storming weeks, monks just step back and keep playing.
That said, are you pugging? Because despite monks being very capable this season, I would lay odds that pugs don’t know this because they were a bit pish in 9.0 and are now forever tarnished. Honestly, our rep won’t recover until 10.0.
If pugging… shaman or paladin, really. Of the two, I’d favour shaman.
- Not tied to being in melee and “doing damage” to heal, so you get less panic situations.
- Pugs won’t really notice what covenant you are, where for paladins they’ll expect venthyr (even though it’s not a good covenant for pugging…)
- Proper ranged interrupt! Compensate for your lazy dps!
- Actually decent damage output.
- Down side, shaman is a utility healer not an output healer. Actual HPS can feel weak and you have to learn the toolkit and how to proactively apply it.
Thoughts on other healers:
- Druid; good fun, mobile, wide tool set, but requires knowledge of damage patterns to apply HoTs ahead of time to maximise effectiveness. Reliable fotm tank spec and decent ranged dps if you get bored of healing.
- Holy priest; massive number of buttons but you only really need to use about 4 of them to get by. If you can actually remember your tools, you have a lot, but it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the choices. Poor defensives, easy to die if you don’t have good situational awareness.
- Disc priest; probably even more tied to knowing damage patterns than druid. Vital to know when to start ramping up. Same poor defensives issue as holy. Try to have a paladin friend who can BoP you.
- Paladin; haven’t personally played, but a pug favourite. Strong damage (for a healer), but tied to being in melee constantly, thus competing with melee dps for space on certain affixes and having to deal with more stuff happening. Top tier defensives, but slow to move around. Very limited racial choices!
For someone new to healing, I’d recommend shaman or holy priest, as the reactive healing style is easier. They’re also ranged, so if you’re used to playing a hunter, that’s going to feel familiar.
Holy pala is also reactive, but you have to DPS in melee to build up holy power, which can be tricky. Monks should also be comfortable at melee, although it’s not as critical for them to do as for holy paladins.
Druids can do everything and are super fun to play. They’re currently my favorite healer to play. They’re slightly more complicated though, since their healing performance depends heavily on heal-over-times which need to be applied before big damage spikes.
Disc is the most complicated and not something I’d recommend to beginners.
My bud rolled a resto druid. Useful cooldowns and overall a great M+ and raid healer. We never struggle.
HPS is pretty much a useless measure of healing.
You can get huge numbers by healing the wrong people at the wrong time
(ie spamming all you heals on dps whilst tanks die)
Healing is more about timing than it is about big numbers.
People who measure it as such are usually DPS who can’t see past “big = good”
For a new healer I would suggest resto shaman or holy priest. Its actually quite easy to play both, especially at a raid. Personally i’ve tried every single healing specs and I’m playing Mistweaver past 5 years. Not because its the best performing but because I like mistweavers 
Imo you should try druid. Good mobility cute mogs can make easy dmg and you can Spam space and heal while you are jumping.
Drood because you can dance the twist in tree form, and sometimes heal people too (optional)
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I play all healer specs and i like them all. For beginners i would advise to try out holy priest or resto druid. They are really easy to play (but hard to master), good group and single target healing. If you want to start to raid heal, monk is also pretty straight forward and a hps monster. But you have to play in melee.
Currently my favourite is holy pala, really unique healing style. Love the triage aspect, but you have to dps in melee here aswell. Resto shaman is also pretty decent but the group/raid need to stack in order to shine, so yeah, not so great in the current raid.