Priest V Druid V Sham V Pallie A detailed look.

WiglyWorm

Priest v Druid v Paly v sham

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Methods used

1.3 Resources

2 - The Priest

2.1 Class description (as per the offical WoW wesite.)
2.2 Player thoughts -brief general overview
2.3 Healing spells overview
2.4 Healing spells by the numbers
2.5 Damage introduction
2.6 Damage spells overview
2.7 Damage spells by the numbers

3 - The Druid

3.1 Class description
3.2 Player thoughts -brief general overview
3.3 Healing spells overview
3.4 Healing spells by the numbers
3.5 Damage introduction
3.6 Damage spells overview
3.7 Damage spells by the numbers

4 - The Paladin

4.1 Class description
4.2 Player thoughts -brief general overview
4.3 Healing spells overview
4.4 Healing spells by the numbers
4.5 Damage introduction
4.6 Damage overview
4.7 Damage by the numbers

5 - The Shaman

5.1 Class description
5.2 Player thoughts -brief general overview
5.3 Healing spells overview
5.4 Healing spells by the numbers
5.5 Damage introduction
5.6 Damage overview
5.7 Damage by the numbers

6 - The extras

6.1 Priest extras
6.2 Druid extras
6.3 Paladin extras
6.4 Shaman extras

7 - Conclussion

7.1 Final write up
7.2 The winner
7.3 Special Thanks

8.0 About the Talents section
8.1 Priest Holy Talents
8.2 Druid Restoration Talents
8.3 Re-evaluating the spells
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1.1 Introduction

There has been alot of posting on various forums as to wich class is the "ultimate" healing class, and wich is most desired in groups. It is my intention in writing this to provide the information necessary to have an informed debate as well as to answer some of the various questions surrounding the various healing classes, as well as dispell some misconceptions. However, to pretend that healing is *all* that these classes do would be naive and as such I will also be looking at some damage spells as well as each classes "extra" benifits -that is, spells and talents that do not fall directly under healing or damage but provide some extra utility to the group. While it should be noted that I am a priest I will do my best to keep personal bias out of the picture, instead presenting the numbers as I find them. I will write my personal thoughts at the end of this, but any conclusions I draw will be based on numbers and numbers alone. In the player thoughts section of each class I will list what I have derived from looking at each classes forums. Thoughts about strengths and weaknesses for the class, admonishments and complaints, so forth/so on.

It is worth stating, as I will be posting this on the official Blizzard forums that this thread is for the purposes of stimulating PRODUCTIVE conversation only, and is not meant to be a thread to whine and cry over wich class (that you've probably never played in the first place) needs to be nerfed.

I will first present the numbers, and then I will do the number crunching and present the results, each class will have its own seperate section (you did see the above table of contents, didn't you?). However, for the sake of comparrison, since the extras of some classes have no real numbers to crunch, I will place those all in a category to them selves with each class side by side.

1.2 Methods used

All classes with PC castable healing spells have been included, and I will look at all the spells from various angles. For the sake of comparison all spells are at the max rank at level 60. For priests I will not count lesser healing or healing, only greater healing -as it is well understood by any priest that these are essentially the same line, just divided up so as not to have 15+ ranks in a single spell. For healing spells I will be focusing on casting time, ammount healed, cool down time, HPS (healed per second), HPM (healed per mana), as well as the Median value healed (MVH)*. For damage spells I will look at at all the same as healing spells replacing HPS, HPM, and MVH with DPS and DPM MDD(damage per secon/mana, respectively, and Median damage dealt).

Below are the formulas I am using. I list them so that you know that if they are incorrect, they are at least consistant in their incorrectness and you may perform the proper calculations yourself with the information listed.

HPM is defined as the value recieved when using the formula H/C, where H is ammount healed* and C is mana cost.

HPS is defined as the value recieved when using the formula H/T, where H is ammount healed and T is the casting time**.

DPM is defined as the value recieved when using the formula D/C, where D is damage dealt** and C is mana cost.

DPS is defined as the value recieved when using the formula D/T, where D is damage dealt and C is the casting time*.

*Special note: For spells wich heal or deal damage in a variable range, as opposed to a constant value, the median value will be used -that is, the number directly in the middle, wich can be assumed to be the average ammount healed or damaged over 100 casts.
**Special note: For Heal over time (HoT) and damage over time (DoT) spells, casting time will factor in casting time, and spell duration.

1.3 Resources

I will be using -for my personal reference in writing this- the class pages, talent calculators, and skill descriptions located at http://www.worldofwar.net as on a whole I have found their information to be clear, concise, and more readilly accessable. I am writing using notepad (so sorry, no spell check) and using the calculator built into windows XP professional for the forumalas.

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2 The priest.

2.1

The priest is described as per the official WoW site as follows:

Priests lead the many faiths spread throughout the disparate lands of the world of Azeroth. In Kalimdor, Night Elf Priestesses revere the moon goddess Elune, while Dwarven priests in Khaz Modan deliver the message of the Light to their people. In the ruins of Lordaeron, the undead priests of the Forsaken, their faith twisted and tainted by their tortured existences, spread a dark interpretation of the Holy Light. Regardless of their faith, however, all Priests share in their ability to manipulate the minds of those who turn to them for spiritual guidance.

Available to: Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves, Undead, Trolls
Type: Primary Healer
Standard Bars: Health/Mana
Available Armor: Cloth
Available Weapons: One-Handed Maces, Daggers, Staves, Wands
Comments: The most sought after class for any group

2.2

Many priests feel as though their chosen class should be the absolute king of healing, it seems they feel the class can be very "vanilla", or one demensional. The priests have a plethora of healing spells, but they do have some tricks up their sleeves as well. I will list their abilities and let the reader decide for themselves.

2.3

Renew - Renew is the priests HoT line. The maximum rank is 9, wich you recieve at level 56.

Casting time: Instant
Mana: 370
Healed: 820
Duration: 15 seconds.

Flash heal - Flash heal is the priests fast heal line, the panic button, if you will. The max rank is 7, wich you recieve at level 56.

Casting time: 1.5 seconds
Mana: 385
Healed: 823-971
Duration: N/A

Greater heal - an extension of the lesser heal and heal line as described above. The maximum rank is 4, wich you recieve at level 58.

Casting time: 4 seconds
Mana: 1005
Healed: 2413-2693
Duration: N/A

Prayer of healing - a group heal, deliverd to all grouped players and their pets that are within a 30 yard radius. This will of course cause huge ammounts of threat, but is one of the priests staples in a bad situation due to its quick casting time and ability to heal everyone.

Casting time: 3 seconds
Mana: 1030
Healed: 939-991 per target
Duration: N/A

2.4

Renew
MVH: 820
HPS: 54.66 hp per second. The remainder is taken care of by varying the ammount healed on each "tick" of the spell.
HPM: 0.45

The ammount healed by the renew line is a relatively small ammount, and it is not the most efficient in terms of HPS or HPM. However, it is made usefull by the fact that it is delivered over 15 seconds. It mitigates roughly 55 DPS being delivered, slowing and in some cases stopping the flow of damage for a relatively low cost, giving you time to focus your intentions elsewhere, heal a caster who is no longer being attacked, or delaying death untill a larger heal can be delivered.
It is worth noting that for this particular spell MVH is a misnomer: it will heal the same ammount every time.

Flash Heal

MVH: 897
HPS: 394.8
HPM: 2.33

This is a relatively efficient spell HPM wise, and heals more than renew, however all the healing is dealt in one burst while the HPS looks good on paper, it is mostly due to the small cast time. It is enough to get you out of trouble sometimes, but may require spam casting to get you totally in the clear, usually followed by a big heal or a shield.

Greater Heal

MVH: 2553
HPS: 638.25
HPM: 2.54

This is a remarkabley efficient spell both in terms of HPS and HPM, with a very impressive MVH of 2553. The unfortunate problem with this spell is the long cast time of 4 seconds wich often requires you to start casting at 1/2 to 1/4 damage. It is not to be used in panic situations, but is by far the heal of choice when your tank is doing an excelent job of keeping aggro.

Prayer of healing

MVH: 965
HPS: 321.66
HPM: 0.936

Whoever said the numbers never lie clearly never thought of Prayer of healing. The numbers above are pitiful, and is what this spell would look like if you were to cast it while you were ungrouped, or only one member of your party needed healing. I give you below what this heal spell looks like in your typical instance situation (i.e. a full group).

Prayer of healing - full group.

MVH: 4825
HPS: 1608.33
HPM: 4.68

Clearly, these numbers are MUCH better, and they take into account only a 5 player group. Remember, this spell heals pets as well, so long as they are within range. So these numbers could go even higher depending on what classes you have in your group. This is by far the priests most efficient spell in all categories. I find myself using it in lieu of flash heal in a great many situations. The 3 second cast time is small, and the ammount healed to each target is slightly better than that of flash heal, making it usefull in a great many situations.

2.5

Obviously, a healing priest is going to sacrifice his damage capabilities. A Shadow specialized priest will have much greater damage utilities than are listed here, and should not be under estimated. However, a Holy specialized priest gives most of this up.

2.6

Holy Smite - This is a standard nuke spell. One mana cost, one source of damage, one effect. The max rank is 8, wich is avaliable at level 54.

Casting Time: 2 seconds
Mana: 315
Damage: 397-443
Duration: N/A

Shadow Word: Pain - A priest staple. Low aggro, decent DoT. The max rank is 8, wich is avaliable at level 58.

Casting time: Instant
Mana: 470
Damage: 852
Duration: 18 seconds.

Mind Blast - The priests shadow nuke, the max rank is 9, wich is avaliable at level 58.

Casting time: 1.5 seconds
Mana: 350
Damage: 503-531
Duration: N/A
Cooldown: 8 seconds

2.7

Holy Smite

MDD: 420
DPS: 210
DPM: 1.33

Long cast time, not mana efficient, and rather low damage. This spell is nice, though, in conjunction with a talent that makes all holy spells critical more often. Especially if grouped with a paladin, who has a spell to make holy spells do more damage. This spell is good for pulling in solo situations, and killing runners if you time it right, but not much else.

Shadow Word: Pain

MDD: 852 (constant)
DPS: 47.33
DPM: 1.81

This is a priest staple for soloing, and is usefull in groups due to its low aggro, however healing priests do have better things to do with their mana most times.

Mind Blast

MDD: 517
DPS: 334.66
DPM: 1.48

Less efficient in terms of DPM than the DoT, but more efficient in terms of DPS by far. Also much more efficient than the holy nuke. This spell is great for taking out runners, and very usefull in solo play. It is, however, hampered by its massive cooldown.

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3 The Druid.

3.1

The Druid is described on the official pages as seen below:

Druids are the keepers of the world. Locked in slumber for generations, they awoke to meet the threat of the Burning Legion during its recent invasion. After Archimonde's defeat, the Druids chose to remain in the waking world and help to rebuild their shattered lands. The Legion's attack left a terrible scar on the natural order, and the Druids seek to heal it.

Available to: Night Elves, Tauren
Type: Hybrid, Primary Healer
Standard Bars: Health/Mana (Druid form/Aquatic form), Health/Rage (Bear form), Health/Energy (Cat form)
Available Armor: Cloth, Leather
Available Weapons: Staves, One and Two-handed Maces, Daggers, Fist Weapons
Comments: Excellent soloing class; excellent healers

3.2

The Druid is a true jack of all trades. With shape shift abilities it can fill the role of DPS (cat form), tank (bear form), or caster as a caster they have healing and damaging spells, as well as limited crowd controll abilities with their roots spell. The largest complaint, is of course that with all these options there is no single thing they excel at. Many people feel as though since they are only "good enough" in most aspects, and poor at best in the crowd controll department. Here are the druids numbers for you to take a look at for heal spells.

3.3

Healing Touch - This is a single target standard heal. It's maximum rank is 10, wich is achieved at level 56.

Casting time: 3.5 seconds
Mana: 790
Healed: 1890-2230
Duration: N/A

Regrowth - This is an interesting take on the standard HoT format. The initial heal is delivered in one blast (as a viariable range), followed by more healing over a 21 second period (as a constant value). It is of note that for this spell I will be calculating all heal values by the total ammount healed, using the MVH from the range and adding the constant value to it, in the by the numbers section I will be taking a more detailed look at the spell to try to give as full a view of its utility as possible.

Casting time: 2 seconds
Mana: 880
Healed: Variable: 1003-1119; Constant: 1064
Duration: 21 seconds.

Rejuvination - This is a more standard heal on time, delivering all of its healing power over a fixed duration. The maximum rank is 10, wich is avaliable at level 58.

Casting time: Instant
Mana: 335
Healed: 756
Duration: 12 seconds

Tranquility - Yet another heal over time for the druids, this one effects the entire group for 10 seconds, healing a constant ammount ever 2 seconds for that 10. This one is different from the others in that it works as an area effect spell for its duration and it must be channeled, meaning the Druid can do nothing else for as long as they want this spell to remain. The maximum rank is 4, wich is avaliable at level 60.

Casting time: Instant
Mana: 1235
Healed: 1470
Duration: 10 seconds
Of note: 10 minute cooldown

3.4

Healing touch

MVH: 2060
HPS: 588.57
HPM: 2.6

I was blown away while calculating this spell, with a cast time of half a second less of that of the priests big single target heal, this spells MVH is only about 490 off, and slightly more efficient. I have yet to see how big a difference 500 HP can make at higher levels and would love to have some feedback on this.

Regrowth

MVH: 2125
HPS: 92.39
HPM: 2.41

The ammount HPS and HPM are quite impressive on the surface (for a HoT), but these are the numbers when you tally everything together. Cast time, duration, variable, and constant. You'll notice the spell looks dramatically different when I break it down into two rankings, one for the healing burst, and one for the HoT component. For the purposes of the following break down, the mana cost will be divided in half, one half counting for the burst, and one for the HoT. Also, I will calculate HPS using the cast time for the burst, and the duration for the HoT.

Regrowth - Burst component

MVH: 1061
HPS: 530.5
HPM: 2.41

Regrowth - HoT component

MVH: 1064 (again, this is constant, so MVH is a bit of a misnomer)
HPS: 50.6
HPM: 2.41

Only when viewed under this microscope does the true face of Regrowth show itself. While it is still supremely efficient in terms of HPM, and the HPS of the bulk heal is above that of the priests flash heal, the HPS on the HoT component is under that of the priests renew (though it does last longer). This spell is still a wonder of efficiency, and it seems to combine the features of the Priestly flash heal and renew lines rather well, but it some aspects are sub par.

Rejuvination

MVH: 756 (constant)
HPS: 63
HPM: 2.26

While less efficient in therms of HPM, this HoT has a purely excelent raiting in HPS. This spell is likely to not only negate the DPS of a foe, but likely even reverse it, leaving you with more than you started with. This spell seems best used when stacked with regrowth.

Tranquility

MVH: 1470 (constant)
HPS: 147
HPM: 1.19

Again, the numbers are decieving. In the spirit of fairness I will treat this spell the same as I did for priests, the following is what it looks like for a full group.

Tranquility - full group

MVH: 7350 (constant)
HPS: 735
HPM: 5.95

This kind of effiecency is enough to make a grown priest cry. 5.95 HPM is just plain astonishing. Though the priest group heal far outdoes the Druid in terms of HPS. Then there is the trade off.. The druid starts right away, but with a smaller initial value, and can't do anything while they want the spell active. The priest has to wait 3 seconds for the spell to take effect, but the healing is delivered instantly, and the priest is free to do something else in 3 seconds, as opposed to 10.

3.5

The druid is obviously more apt to deal damage than the priest. Since we are speaking of healing classes, though, I will leave the shape shifts out of the conversation for now, and focus only on abilities the druid can use while in caster form -the only form it can heal from.

3.6

Moonfire - Much like the reverse of the Regrowth spell, this spell has both a nuke and a DoT component. The max rank is 10, wich is avaliable at level 58.

Casting time: Instant
Mana: 375
Damage: Nuke: 189-221 DoT: 384
Duration: 12

Starfire - Your more common nuke. Deals arcane damage. Max rank is 6, wich is avaliable at level 58.

Casting time: 3.5
Mana: 315
Damage: 445-525
Duration: N/A

Wrath - another standard fair nuke. This one does nature damage.

Casting time: 2 seconds
Mana: 180
Damage: 236-264
Duration: N/A

3.7

Moonfire

MDD: 589
DPS: 49.08
DPM: 1.57

Nicely mana efficient, and with a good DPS. Let's break it down into its two components, nuke, and DoT Again, half the mana will go to each component, the duration will go towards the DoT aspect, and since it is an instant cast we'll get a nice div/o error for the DPS.

Moonfire - nuke component

MDD: 205
DPS: ?
DPM: 1.09

Moonfire - DoT component

MDD: 375 (constant)
DPS: 31.25
DPM: 2

This hybrid nuke/dot stacks up pretty nicely with the priest spells as a whole, but when broken down to its base parts, we see that each part really is rather inneficient in terms of DPS. The nuke aspect being instant cast is nice, but not worth it for the mana, doing less DPM than the priests Mind Blast. The DoT is less efficient than the priests Shadow Word: Pain in terms of DPS, but better in DPM.

Starfire

MDD: 485
DPS: 138.57
DPM: 1.53

More mana efficient than the priests mind blast, but with less bulk damage than even a holy priest's version. It doesn't stack up well with even the DPS of the priests Holy Smite spell.

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4 - The Paladin

4.1

The paladin is described by the official WoW site as below:

Upholders of the Holy Light and defenders of the Alliance, the Paladins can be found from the northern forests of the Tirisfal Glades, fighting back the advance of the Forsaken, to the southern reaches of the Blasted Lands, ceaselessly upholding their vigil against demonic forces from beyond the Dark Portal. Wielding their mighty hammers and the strength of the Light, these holy warriors command forces in battle, all the while throwing themselves to where the fighting is the thickest.

Available to: Humans, Dwarves
Type: Hybrid, Secondary Healer
Standard Bars: Health/Mana
Available Armor: Cloth, Leather, Mail, Plate (level 40), Shields
Available Weapons: One and Two-handed Maces, One and Two-handed Swords, Two-handed Axes
Comments: A more melee oriented hybrid

4.2

The Paladin is a hybrid class. It is capable of heal spells, and is a good tank class. The paladin also has many auras and a few buffs to lend support. They have more hitpoints than the classes above, but less mana, both differences are by a good margin.

4.3

Holy Light - This is a standard heal spell, single target, bulk heal. The maximum rank is 8, wich is avaliable at level 54.

Casting time: 2.5 seconds
Mana: 560
Healed: 1230-1374
Duration: N/A

Lay on hands - Not quite your average healing spell. This spell heals a target an ammount equal to the paladins max HP, and drains all their mana. At max rank it also restores 550 of the targets mana as well. The max rank is 3, wich is avaliable at level 50.

Casting time: Instant
Mana: ??
Healed: ??
Duration: N/A

4.4

Holy Light

MVH: 1302
HPS: 520.8
HPM: 2.33

A large ammount healed, with a short casting time, this beats the priest Flas Heal, as well as the quick heal component of Reqrowth hands down in terms of ammount healed and HPS. The HPM is directly on par with the efficiency of a priests, wich is under that of the Druids regrowth. This is the biggest bang for the buck, but when you compare the mana pools of the classes, it takes a much bigger hit from the paladin.

Lay on Hands

MVH: ??
HPS: ??
HPM: ??

Almost not worth factoring in.. this is an excelent ability, has saved more groups than one, and will save many more. This really depends on the paladin, and the situation he is in when he uses it, it could be the most efficient or the least efficient heal ever. With a 30 minute cool down, and a complete drain of the paladins mana pool, it is for use only in emergencies. I decided to throw it in, however, because it brings ALOT to the table for the paladin.

4.5

Ahh, so it's time to talk about Paladin damage, is it? It's very much worth noting that a paladin will get the majority of their DPS from a weapon, therefore this stat will vary from Paladin to Paladin. While your average paladin will out damage a priest or a healing druid in a fight, the caster would win hands down if he were going all out. Of course, I doubt you'd want to group with someone who is supposed to heal you, but is going all out on nukes. Paladins do, however have a damage spell when they are fighting undead, so lets take a look at those, just for poo and laughs.

4.6

Exorcism - Holy damage nuke, only effects undead. Max rank of 6, wich is avaliable at level 60.

Casting time: Instant
Mana: 345
Damage: 505-563
Duration: N/A
Cooldown: 15

4.7

MDD: 534
DPS: 35.6
DPM: 1.54

Not too bad, for a melee class to be casting this. It is of course limited by the fact that it is only usefull versus undead, so let me say again before we conclude the Paladin section that a paladin will get most of his DPS from auras, weapons, and talents wich I will not be looking at. Finding out who's a better tank is not the purpose of the thread, comparing healers is.

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5 - The shaman

5.1

The shaman is described by the official wow page as below:

Shaman are the spiritual leaders of their tribes and clans. They communicate with spirits, have visions of the future, and guide their people through the darkest of times. Many mistake their wisdom and serenity for a pacifist nature. When challenged, though, shaman have a range of powers available for dealing with threats to the natural order.

Available to: Orcs, Tauren, Trolls
Type: Hybrid, Secondary Healer
Standard Bars: Health/Mana
Available Armor: Cloth, Leather, Mail (level 40), Shields
Available Weapons: One-Handed Maces, Two-Handed Maces (w/ talents), Staves, Fist Weapons, One-Handed Axes, Two-Handed Axes (w/ talents), Daggers
Comments: A more magic oriented hybrid

5.2

The shaman is an interesting class. It is a hybrid like the Paladin, able to heal and fill other roles. However, instead of being melee oriented (though it CAN tank to a degree), they are more spell oriented.

They do alot of stuff, but nowhere near as good as some of the other classes. So..lets break them down and see just what it is they do and just how well they do it, shall we?

5.3

Healing Wave - This is a single target spell, standard bulk heal with a variable range. The maximum rank is 9, wich is avaliable at level 56.

Casting time: 3 seconds
Mana: 615
Healed: 1367-1561
Duration: N/A

Lesser Healing Wave - This is a single target quick heal spell with a variable range.

Casting time: 1.5 Seconds
Mana: 380
Healed: 832-928
Duration: N/A

Healing Stream Totem - This is the shaman HoT. It comes in the form of a totem wich the shaman lays at his feet, it will effect everyone in the group so long as they stay in range of the totem.

Casting Time: Instant
Mana: 125
Healed: 700
Duration: 1 minutes

5.4

Healing wave

MVH: 1464
HPS: 488
HPM: 2.38

This spell is about on par with the paladin heal. The bulk ammount is more, but the cast is longer, so the HPS is less. The HPM is slightly more efficient than the paladin, however.

Lesser Healing Wave

MVH: 880
HPS: 586.66
HPM: 2.32

This is far and away the most efficient quick heal spell, terms of HPS. It lags only slightly behind the priest and paladin quick heal in terms of HPM, so little, in fact, that it is negligable. However, the MVH is not nearly as large as the paladin's, and is slightly under the priest's.
Healing Stream Totem

Healing Stream Totem

MVH: 700 (constant)
HPS: 7
HPM: 5.6

This spell functions by way of a totem. It heals 700 health over 1 minute in an AE. Ticks come every 5 seconds, and each second does 35 health.

Healing Stream Totem - full group

MVH: 3500 (constant)
HPS: 58.33
HPM: 28

Yes, its crazy effienient.. but in this case, the full group numbers are the misleading ones. They look so impressive, yet at 7 HPS for each group member, this will hardly do anything noticeable for the tank. It might staunch the flow of HP from the group and save the main healer some mana, but this seems best used in between fights to speed up your main tanks downtime.

5.5

While the Paladin had hardly anything in the damage section, other than a note about weapons, the Shaman has too much -enough that it belongs in a seperate thread. The shaman has totems and spells for each of 5 elements. Earth, Air, Water, Fire, and Spirit. I will take a look at a few of their spells here, but keep in mind that they have many more abilities than is listed here.
The shaman has much more resources in damage than in healing, and here are a few examples.

5.6

Eathshock - Instant cast spell that delivers damage as well as disrupting spells. Max rank is 7, wich is avaliable at level 60.

Casting time: Instant
Mana: 450
Damage: 517-545
Duration: N/A
Cooldown: 6 seconds

Lightning Bolt - Nuke spell that does nature damage, Max rank is 10, wich is avaliable at level 56.

Casting Time: 3 seconds
Mana: 315
Damage: 419-467
Duration: N/A

Flame Shock - Much like the druids, this does fire damage first in a nuke, and then in a DoT both are constants and not variables, however. Max rank is 5, wich is avaliable at level 52.

Casting Time: Instant
Mana: 360
Damage: Nuke: 230; DoT: 232
Duration: 12 seconds.

5.7

Earthshock

MDD: 531
DPS: 88.5
DPM: 1.18

Not hugely efficient, and with a long cool down, but it has a very nice ammount of MDD to be cast, and is instant cast.

Lightning Bolt

MDD: 443
DPS: 147.66
DPM: 1.41

This has both a nice DPS and a good DPM, though the bulk damage isn't as high as some spells, It's still a fairly nice addition.

Flame Shock

MDD: 462 (constant)
DPS: 38.5
DPM: 1.28

Right in the middle as far as DPM, and far on the bottom of DPS, but these numbers might be lying, so again it's time to pull the spell apart into its two seperate components and see what makes it tick. We will, as usuall, cut the mana cost in half, and use the duration for the DoTs DPS.

Flame shock - Nuke component

MDD: 230 (constant)
DPS: ?
DPM: 1.28

Flame Shock - DoT component

MDD: 232 (constant)
DPS: 19.33
DPM: 1.29

Neither of these sets of numbers are all that impressive, though it is more mana efficient than earth shock still. The nice part is that it is an instant cast and you can cast something else while still recieving the DoT damage.

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6 - The Extras

While I won't be going into the level of detail I did with healing spells and damage spells, I will try to list the features that makes each class come into its own.. ad it's own usefullness to the party.

6.1

The priest has some very good spells that don't fall directly under healing or damage. Perhaps most well known of these is Holy Word: Shield. This talent allows damage to be absorbed, while it is up, no spells can be interupted. This talent will save many a group member's life by giving you enough time to slap a heal on top. It's also usefull while soloing. You can get creative, if you like, and slap it up while you put on a renew to gain the full MVH from the spell.

Resurection is another of the priests big winners. Though a Paladin can do it as well, a priest keeps learning new ranks. Each time bringing the fallen back with more HP and more Mana, wich greatly reduces downtime.

Shackle undead is the priests crowd controll. It is usefull versus undead only, but has a very small mana cost.

Psychic scream is an instant-cast area effect fear spell. This can be very usefull as crown controll in some situations, but downright deadly in others. If you see your priest using this in a group, pray he knows what he's doing.

Powerword Fortitude is one of the priests buff spells, at max level it adds 52 stanima, and there is a talent to make it even more effective. Priests should always keep this on their players as it allows group members to live substantially longer than they usually would.

Mind controll allows a player to to take controll of a creep for up to 1 minute, and controll his actions, turning DPS against you into DPS against the creeps. It takes alot of skill and guts, but is very effective when used well.
6.2

Druids, of course, bring utility with Cat and Bear form, we all know this. Unfortunatley those are disqualified as examples in this thread because it is a discussion about healing. What can a druid in caster form do to help his party? Well that's a good question...

Thorns is a nice 10 minute buff that causes enemies to take 18 damage every time they hit the buffed player. This sounds negligable, but if you really think about it 18 damage extra per combat round to every enemy IS pretty nice.

Entangling roots is sort of druid crowd controll, and it deals some damage, it has some major issues with actually holding long enough, though.

MArk of the Wild raises AC, attributes, and resistances in one buff.

Druids can also resurect, but only once ever half hour, wich severly limits it for group play, other than perhaps using it to resurect a priest or a paladin. However, as a plus, they can cast their resurection in battle.

6.3

Paladins, besides heals, bring one thing to the table. Meat.

These guys don't damage much, they can't heal very well, but they take a beating with the best of them. Second only to warriors. Combine that with heals and the ability to resurect, and you have a pretty desireable class.

6.4

Shaman, in contrast to paladins, make themselves usefull in a large manner of ways, the sheer number of totems they have brings so much to the table I don't know where to begin listing it.

Damage abilities, much more than I listed above. Damage mitigation in the form of absorbtion and raising AC, and nearly every effect you can think of on a totem.

Shaman can resurect, however, it comes with resurection sickness, wich no other heal does.

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7 - Conclusion

7.1

In researching and writing this, I was very surprised to learn a few things. In fact, things were just the opposite as I expected them. I had figured priests would pretty well clean up on heals, while druids would leave priests in the dust as far as damage. Instead I find that Priests actually had some of the better damage spells, and that druids -while not able to heal as much in bulk, were actually more mana efficient with their healing.

It would seem the real difference in healing ability comes from stats, wich after doing research are negligably different at level 1. (perhaps we can get some druids and priests to post with nothing equipped to tell us their races stats?)

As far as the secondary healers go, they both bring alot to the table, but you would never want one to be your primary healer. Maybe 2 could fill the role of 1 druid or 1 priest, but they would have to be extremely well coordinated in order to do so.

7.2

Ah.. and now the momment you've all been waiting for. The time where I crunch all the numbers and give you the final verdict. Who wins this monumental battle of the healers?

The answer:

The players.

I know this sounds like a cop out answer to you, but it is the honest truth. Blizzard had the amazing insight that no specific class should be required in this game, only class archetypes. The primary healers without talents are so close together in terms of HPM, HPS, and MVH that they are interchangable. It honestly comes down to player skill and a little bit of gear. Obviously talents will be the final difference. A Restoration specced druid will out-heal a Shadow spec priest anyday, but a holy spec priest will out-heal a feral spec druid. When it comes down to instance play, a healing druid is as good as a healing priest. In raid instances, you would probably desire the extra bulk size of a priest's heals, however.

7.3

Special thanks to Blizzard Entertainment for sucking away hours of my life and not even letting me realize it as it's happening, the folks at http://www.worldofwar.net for helping me survive and get my info while the game was still in closed beta, all the folks at the forums for letting me know when stress test was coming up, God for giving man opposable thumbs so that we could one day invent the computer we play WoW on, and of course, everyone who actually read this thing top to bottom so that my carpel tunnel syndrom is not in vain.

8.0

For this section, I will be giving talents that pertain to the healing abilities of the above listed classes (Holy tree for Paladins and Priests, Restoration tree for Druids and Shaman).

Also, I will only be discussing the talents at length at max rank, but I give you all the information needed in order to find out the rest for yourself, if you so choose.

One last note, for the sake of not killing myself with a blunt object, I will not be reviewing paladin or shaman talents at all. As I concluded earlier it is possible that perhaps 2 of a paladin or 2 of a shaman could heal in place of a priest or druid, they are not going to regain that much ground in the talent race, truth be told it's likely that they lose more.

8.1

Improved Renew - Each rank of this priest talent increases the ammount healed by the renew spell by 3%
Ranks: 5

At max rank, renew will now look as follows:

Casting time: Instant
Mana: 370
Healed: 943
Duration: 15 seconds.

MVH: 943 (constant)
HPM: 2.55
HPS: 62.87

Holy Specialization - Each rank will increase the chance to critical with holy spells by a factor of 1%
Ranks: 5

I will not go in to formulas for critical hits, suffice to say a 5% chance to crit healing spells, wich are considered holy, is a nice boon as you get further down the Holy tree.

Spiritual Healing - Each rank increases the ammount healed by healing spells by a factor of 2%.
Ranks: 5

At max rank this is a huge boon to any priest who wishes to heal. A few example spells at max rank are

Greater Heal

MVH: 2808
HPS: 702
HPM: 2.79

Flash Heal

MVH: 987
HPS: 658
HPM: 2.56

Prayer of healing - full group.

MVH: 5308
HPS: 1769.33
HPM: 5.15

Inspiration - Each rank in this spell increases your targets armor by a factor of 5% upon a successfull critical lesser heal,heal, or greater heal.
Ranks: 5

This, in conjunction with the Holy Specialization talents, is a great way to mitigate damage, thereby reducing the burden on you to heal sooner.

Subtlety - Each rank reduces threat generated from healing spells by 4%
Ranks: 5

A very usefull talent when you're going to be tossing around 2.8k heals. It's working best when you don't know it saved your butt.

Improved Healing - Reduces the mana cost of your heal, lesser heal, and greater heal spells by 3% per rank.
Ranks: 5

Since we are comparing level 60 healers, let's see what Greater heal looks like under the effects of both Spiritual Healing, and Improved Healing.

Greater Heal

Old Cost: 1005
New Cost: 779
MVH: 2808
HPS: 702
HPM: 3.6

Improved Flash Heal - Each rank gives a 35% chance to avoid interuption while casting flash heal.
Ranks: 2

While this isn't the bread and butter of the Holy Priest, it does serve its purpose while you're getting beaten on.

Speaking of getting beaten on:

Spirit of Redemption - The ultimate last ditch heal, it summons a spirit to heal your party if you should die.
Ranks: 1

Spirit of Redemption

Cast time: on death
Healed: Bulk: 318-360 HoT: 343
Duration: 21

Individual:
MVH: 682
HPS (total): 32.48
HPS (HoT): 16.33

Full group:
MVH: 3410
HPS (total): 162.38
HPS (HoT): 81.66

Wether or not this is worth the talent point depends on wether it was enough to save your group or not. In many instances I think it would be, but some wipes are inevitable, and this would not help those situations.

Improved prayer of healing - each rank of this talent reduces the mana cost of Prayer of healing by 10%
Ranks: 2

If you have gone this far into the holy tree, I am willing to bet you saw the value of spiritual healing. So lets see what Prayer of Healing looks like with both SH and this talent.

Prayer of healing - full group.

Old Mana Cost: 1030
New Mana Cost: 824
MVH: 5308
HPS: 1769.33
HPM: 6.44

This is truly a mind boggling efficiency in terms of both HPS and HPM. And remember, this is not factoring for your group having even one pet, wich Prayer of Healing will heal if they are in range.

Master Healer - Far down on the talent tree, each point in master healer will reduce the cast time of your heal and Greater Heal spells by .1 second.
Ranks: 5

New Cost: 779
New Cast Time: 3.5 seconds.
MVH: 2808
HPS: 802.29
HPM: 3.6

While half a second doesn't sound like much, remember the fast paced nature of WoW. Also notice that even this marginal reduction in cast time has raised the HPS value of a Greater Heal by more than 100. If you have spare talent points, this will indeed be beneficial.

8.2

It should be noted, that while I stated in the initial post that druids should only be considered in caster form, the Restoration tree contains some talents that make the beast forms slightly more productive while trying to play the role of MH. I still would not recomend trying to be main healer while switching between forms for any but the most skilled druids.

Improved healing touch - Each rank reduces the mana cost of your healing touch spell by 3%
Ranks: 5

Casting time: 3.5 seconds
New Mana Cost: 672
Healed: 1890-2230
Duration: N/A
MVH: 2060
HPS: 588.57
HPM: 3.07

This talent significantly strengthens the Healing Touch spell, it still pales in compared to the fully talented Greater Heal, but there are many more talents to be seen.

Natures Focus - This talent gives you a 12% chance, per rank, to avoid interuption while casting healing touch or regrowth.
Ranks: 5

This talent takes significantly more points than the improved flash heal, and still has a 10% less chance of avoiding interuption, however it does effect 2 spells at once, and also leads to another, quite usefull talent.

Nature's Swiftness - When Activated your next Nature Spell becomes instant cast.
Rank: 1

The priest has something like this, but it's in a different talent tree. There is a definate advantage to being able to buff up your healing abilities while working towards this.

Gift of Nature - Increases the effect of all your heal spells (sic) by 5%
Rank: 1

Here we see a major difference, the talent wich allows druids to heal more only has one rank, for a cap of 5%, half that of the priest.
I don't even have to give you the numbers to make it clear that the druid has fallen behind thus far in terms of MVH, but I will anyway so we can see the difference in HPS and HPM.

Healing touch - for the purpose of fairness, I will calculate this spell as though the player has the Improved Healing Touch talent as well.

New Mana Cost: 672
MVH: 2163
HPS: 617.43
HPM: 3.22

Regrowth
MVH (total): 2231
HPS ( " ): 97.01
HPM ( " ): 2.54
MVH (bulk): 1114
HPS ( " ): 557
HPM ( " ): 2.54
MVH (HoT): 1117
HPS ( " ): 53.19
HPM ( " ): 2.54

Rejuvination
MVH: 794 (constant)
HPS: 66.17
HPM: 2.37

Tranquility - full group
MVH: 7718 (constant)
HPS: 771.8
HPM: 6.25

This talent is obviously most notable by the huge difference in tranquility, all spells are boosted further in their already amazing efficiency, but Greater Heal still surpasses Healing touch, by 700 in terms of MVH, and has even managed to edge it out in terms of efficiency. This is a good point to note that most viable holy priest builds to NOT include master healer wich would again give the efficiency ranking back to the Druid for this particular match up. Tranquility however, totally blows away spirit of redemption, and would do so without talents.

Improved Rejuvination - This talent increases the effect of the Rejuvination spell b 3% per rank.
Ranks: 5

We'll use the latest version of Rejuvination, with Gift of Nature as well as this talent.

Rejuvination
MVH: 913 (constant)
HPS: 76.08
HPM: 2.73

Just.. Wow (no pun intended). This HoT has really turned into something. Negating 76.08 DPS from a creep is no small feat, even at level 60. That's 14 over the Priest renew with talents, and significantly better as far as DPM as well.

That does it for Druid healing talents, but there are some notable ones left such as reflection wich allow you, at rank 5 to regenerate 3% of your normal mana while casting, as well as an exact clone of the Priest's subtlety.

8.3

And there you have it my friends. in terms of the Big Heal, druids have lost major ground as so far as MVH is concerned, and lost their lead in HPM. However, when it comes to both thier HoT spells, they have gained a considerable ammount of HPM and HPs, In fact, regrowth is looking like a totally different spell and has really come alive.

So.. you want my verdict again, do you?

Priests are clearly the volume leaders in pure HP tossed around, this is without a doubt, and their large heals have become more efficient with talents. However, Druids are still quite good at their HoT spells. In fact, I would say regrowth alone is good enough to work in most instances.

The priest has a better group heal in Prayer of healing and isn't hampered by the need to channel like the Druid's tranquility. Furthermore the priest has gained the ability to heal from the dead. All this adds up to my final conclusion.

Druids are still a fine healer, and will do any group well in 9/10 situations, but with talents thrown into the mix, priests have become the healer you want by your side when the sh*t hits the fan.

So there you have it priests, take all those great heals, learn how to use mind controll, and toss your DoT spell around a little bit and you will be the best and most desired class in the game, and you won't feel so "vanilla".

Druids, the areas you lag behind in can easily be made up by skill. You might not want to be main healer in an instance your first time through it, or at least you might want to bring a paladin or a shadow spec priest to help you out, but if you are familiar with the area, or just have enough raw talent, I garuntee you can also heal in any non-raid instance in the game, and I'm pretty sure with your HoT prowess you would be a great asset to any Holy Spec priest tossing out 4 second heals inside raid instances. (Holy crap! you guys have an important raid roll, AND raids will be more exciting than getting a tank who can hold aggro and setting up a Priest heal rotation!)

LoStCaUz3

'Tis my mission in life to read through this whole thing word for word and create a worth while post in response.

Ominis

Yeah... That's pretty long. Would definitely take a look if those were one of the classes I enjoy playing as. Looks like someone sure did a lot of research into this. Good job.

---------------------------- Desolation Guild Website ---------------------------

Currently:
Beta: Guild Wars
Playing: EQII & WOW
(yeah, both... deal with it)

WiglyWorm

Some corrections:

1) Shamen can reincarnate themselves with a rez sickness, they can resurect others just fine.
2) Paladins actually do gain ranks in rez
3) Druids rez is castable in battle, but still only once every half hour.
4) Lay on hands is a 1 hour cooldown, not 30 minutes.