Healer Rankings / Tier List for Cataclysm Classic (2024)

Last updated on May 14, 2024 at 14:01by Seksixeny

Below you can find a quick summary of the current PvE healer rankings:

1. Holy Paladin (S-Tier)
2. Discipline Priest (S-Tier)
3. Restoration Shaman (A-Tier)
4. Restoration Druid (A-Tier)
5. Holy Priest (A-Tier)

In order to further understand the reasoning behind these rankings, we wouldrecommend you read the rest of the page, as that is explained in more detailin the next few sections.

If you are interested in other PvE role rankings for Cataclysm, check thefollowing links:

When sorting out the rankings for healers PvE, we are primarily concernedwith two things:

• Throughput — the ability of a healer to do a lot of raw healing,whether sustained or in bursts, and including healing cooldowns such as Avenging Wrath, Tranquility, and Divine Hymn.
• Utility — non-healing abilities that the healer brings thatare useful to the raid, such as Aura Mastery, Power Word: Barrier, Power Infusion, Spirit Link Totem, and Rebirth.

We will rank each healer on both of these categories and further elaborateon how they come together to create the current ranking for the class.

While all healers can do a lot of healing, Holy Paladins are thekings of area healing with Holy Radiance whenever the raid can be stacked,especially during Avenging Wrath. They also sport many useful defensivecooldowns for themselves and the raid, making them the overall best healer.

Discipline Priests are also a must in raids due to their uniquehealing style which includes significant shielding with Divine Aegisand Power Word: Shield. While their throughput will no longer be completelymade out of absorbs, these will allow the raid to survive through some high damagemechanics, especially in combination with Power Word: Barrier.

These are the two specializations you will usually want healing your 10-man groups.

• Throughput — S-tier — Holy Paladin isno longer the undisputed king of single-target healing in Cataclysm, but is nowable to do unparalleled area healing when the raid is stacked with Holy Radianceand Light of Dawn, which converts to massive tank healing with Beacon of Light,allowing Paladin to retain its S-rank throughput status, especially once their newMastery, Illuminated Healing, is taken into account;
• Utility — S-tier — while Divine Guardianis gone from Holy's toolkit, Aura Mastery is still a powerful raid cooldown, Avenging Wrath a reliable throughput cooldown, Hand of Sacrificeand Hand of Protection are still great in multiple scenarios, and Paladinis the only healer with a full immunity in Divine Shield.

• Throughput — S-tier — most of your spells will activate Divine Aegis and Power Word: Shield still exists, even though itwill not be spammed anymore due to high Mana costs. Combined with the new Mastery, Shield Discipline, Discipline can prevent much of the incoming damage beforeit even happens, which is a fantastic healing style to have for keeping other playersalive, and more than justifies S-rank even when raw throughput potential is not high.
• Utility — S-tier — the utility of Power Word: Barrier, Power Infusion, Pain Suppression, Mass Dispel, and Power Word: Fortitudeare all great reasons to bring at least one Discipline Priest, even beyond throughputreasons.

Cataclysm has good healer balance, which justifies every other healer being inthe A-Tier, although all of them have their own weaknesses and strengths, describedbelow. Restoration Shamans are stacked and spot healing specialistswith a lot of unique utility, Restoration Druids are spread healingspecialists with a lot of raw throughput but no shielding, as are Holy Priests.

While these three specializations can work in 10-man groups, they are generallybetter suited for 25-man healing due to their area healing spells needing to hitmany players in order to be efficient.

• Throughput — A-tier — Healing Rain and Chain Healare both very strong area healing spells, but also require a lot of targets to bedamaged and stacked within close proximity, making them more situational than mostother area healing spells. Riptide buffs Chain Heal and is a very powerfulspell on its own in Cataclysm. It also provides Tidal Waves, which can becombined with the new Deep Healing Mastery to make Restoration Shaman avery strong spot healer.
• Utility — S-tier — Bloodlust / Heroismis still a critical raid buff in Cataclysm, but can now also be brought by Mages.Regardless, Restoration is getting fantastic new utility with Spirit Link Totemand Ancestral Healing and can still bring a huge array of Totem buffsand debuffs to fill in any raid buff gaps.

• Throughput — S-tier — Druids have greatspread raid healing with Rejuvenation blanketing, while also doing significanttank healing with Lifebloom and spot healing with Omen of Clarityprocs. Their Tranquility is also now a raid healing cooldown, and Tree of Lifeis a strong personal throughput cooldown, making them very well rounded for healing.Most importantly: most of this healing can be done on the move, making Druidthe most mobile healer.
• Utility — B-tier — equivalent raid buffs to Mark of the Wild, Faerie Fire, and Replenishment are likely to already be broughtby other classes in a raid setting, and Innervate is now very weak unlessused on self. Also, while Rebirth is important, it can now also be broughtby multiple other classes and all players in the raid will share a common battleresurrection limit, making it much weaker than it used to be.

• Throughput — S-tier — just like the previous healers,Holy Priests can do it all, with strong single-target and area-of-effecthealing, although Chakra does require you to specialize in one or theother for its duration. Their Divine Hymn is perhaps the most powerful raidcooldown of all, but does require a long time standing still channeling. Lightwellcan do a lot of healing but is very cumbersome to use properly and easy to ignoreor waste. Finally, their mastery Echo of Light provides a ton of unconditionalextra healing.
• Utility — B-tier — while Discipline is one of themost important healer specializations to bring to a raid for its unique utility,Holy mostly has Guardian Spirit and Spirit of Redemption whichare nowhere near as good as Pain Suppression and, especially, Power Word: Barrier.