A healer... but what kind?

[Miraga]

So I have decided that I want to give healing another shot but I don't know what to do. I healed as my druid in pre-bc but it's so much different now (I don't have to keep lower level heals on my bar, rofl) that I figure I'm back to the beginning with healing. I was wondering if healers on here could help me out with what class to roll for healing? My biggest concern is that the class is relatively noob-friendly. I am casual times 10000 and don't use many keybinds yet. I also have no intention of doing any end-game healing, maybe a heroic if I get to that point. What do you suggest that I roll? I don't particularly want to be a druid but if that's the most noob-friendly class then that's what I'll roll. I have an elemental shaman that I enjoy and have "healed" with, meaning we had a bad healer and I picked up the slack, healed when the went oom or died, etc. I have never been a priest or paladin for longer than 20 levels so I have no experience with those, lol. Thanks for any help, guys! I've been a hunter so long that sometimes I forget I can play another class! lol

[Dewclaw]

I have no idea what would be good for heals. I tried a druid healer in wrath and I failed miserably, lol. I was much better at pally healing, and even then, I didn't do much of it. I'd be open for input as well, since this new dungeon thing is coming out.

[Vasken]

I think a discipline priest might be good! Not too sure about the other healers at lower levels, but found disc healing incredibly simple personally! It was a simple matter of the occasional shield, penance then smite-spamming! Could even level outside of dungeons with it. Penance one-shotted most mobs!

Think all healing classes have been changed to be friendlier at the start... I think.

[Comett]

Hehe, I've tried a lot of healing classes so perhaps I can help!

Firstly, I would recommend a Holy/Disc dualspec Priest for you! Holy is your classic "cast a heal, heal the tank" spec with a variety of bits and pieces, such as insta casts or buffs, to make healing easier. Disc is, imo, more efficient and fun, in that once you get a certain talent you heal by doing DPS. A lot of people don't understand that unfortunately but it's a very solid spec and it's so fun (my priest was my lowest alt til Cata, now she's my main healer).

Druids are another very easy class to heal with (imo) and quite fun, however if you don't really intend to use keybinds or level up your toon and heal with it primarily at 85 I probably wouldn't recommend one.

Shammies are middle of the road for me personally, they're good to level with in PVP and you can spec it Resto/Ele and use the same gear til endgame... very useful. Thankfully Blizz have buffed chain heal again so it's not as terrible as it was before. I'm very neutral about shammies. I don't find them really particularly boring or fun to play... I actually think I prefer Shammy dps in Cata xD Personal preference though.

Pallies are the only class I haven't really experimented with much (on the "to do" list for my next alt lol)... I think they're another quite simple and fun class to play. Another good one if you're not into keybinds; similar to a holy priest "press button and heal with a few extras". But yeah, not my speciality.

Hope that helps ^_^

[TygerDarkstorm]

I like my resto druid personally, both in Wrath and Cata. I find the healing style very enjoyable. That said, I also enjoy holy priests. I have tried disc, and penance is amusing, but I find holy's playstyle much more suiting to my tastes. I have a resto shaman as well. Although, most of my healers are still sitting at really low levels, my druid is the only one maxed, at the moment.

If you have BoAs, low level healing is a breeze, it's easy without them too, but they make things a lot easier and I find that in low level dungeons I never need much more than my basic heal (Nourish, Heal, etc). And on the priest, even as holy, a pre-casted bubble will typically suffice a tank.

[cowmuflage]

I have a resto druid liked in wrath never truely used her in cata

[Arcanimus]

If you're new to healing, I highly reccomend a druid. It's mostly fire and forget, with all the HoTs, honestly. One thing I do reccomend is getting either Healbot, or Grid and Clique. Even if you're not into keybinding, it makes healing so much easier when you can just use your mouse and CTRL/Shift/ALT to use ALL of your healing spells, dispels, and buffs. Just don't become so tuned into them that you stand in a fire!

[Raederle]

I gave a Priest a try but after so long as a hunter it's not as much fun leveling her, I keep dying!

[Comett]

Uh, if you want to level "as a healer", you should level through dungeons. xD It's very very difficult to level any healing spec via questing. ^^ If you really did want to though, perhaps druid or pally would be better options.

[lilatha]

Healer wise I would say Disc Priest! Pennace really early on you can do the odd quest while waiting on Randoms and BGs. Even take arch angel early on if you like!
Druid wise in this Xpac seem ok I am yet to play mine enough to give my full view on them
Shamans .... TOTEMS! You can quest resto since you have healing totems and a mana totem etc.
Pala's .... I personally don't like Pala's D: No offence to you all but half the ones I know are to busy QQing about how their class sucks to bother to learn it >.> Though again you can level Holy with Pala's :3
But if you asked my persoanl choice I would always pick a priest since for me they really fit the healing role and I find them the most fun and this Xpac I seem to be doing really well as one ... Already last week I managed to save my raids from 2 wipes <3 my lil' Priestie!

[Acherontia]

I'm playing my disc priest atm simply because I wanted a PvP healer, and it's great fun. If you're doing it for PvE, though, I'm finding the mana consumption a bit iffy. It may be down to gear though. I don't think any of them are extremely difficult to learn, but I'd think that from easiest to most complex, it's Paladin -> Shaman -> Druid -> Priest.

My experience:

Druid: slightly harder to recover from burst situations but still quite doable (swiftmend ftw). You have to learn, though, how much your HoTs will heal for, and learn to be able to predict incoming damage--which can vary from tank to tank in 5-mans, although in raids you'll generally be just throwing hots and Wild Growths about on dps anyway. Last experience: end of WotLK, post-shattering.

Shaman: many tools, but easy to learn. You pop on earth shield, use Riptide now and then, and use your main heals; it is quite capable and simple to use, and raid healing is easy as heck. I found it quite fun, and miss my shaman. Last experience: mid-WotLK.

Priest: strong all-around, but complex--tons of tools and many, many heals. It takes a bit of learning as to what to use when, but you do have stuff for pretty much every situation. Disc focuses on absorbing (preventing) damage rather than healing it (although they ofc still do heal), which is extremely nice in some situations, for example on bosses & mobs that have a healing-absorption effect. Last Experience: an hour ago.

Paladin: I haven't played holy paladin; it looks quite simple, and they're very strong tank healers ofc. I have no idea how they fare trying to keep up large groups, although they probably won't compare to the others. I'd imagine that pallies are probably the "easiest" in terms of learning how to use it, and it's kinda hard to go wrong with them (assuming you just want to heal tanks).

* * * *

I'd suggest trying out a paladin if you just want pure easy tank healers. BUT, if you want something fun and capable of adapting to a variety of situations, I'd definitely recommend a shaman. They're quite good all-round, and especially strong right now.