Dragonflight Healer Rankings: Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope Raiding Tier List (Patch 10.2) (2024)

November 17, Road to World First observation update:Holy Priests have turned outeven worse than predicted during the early days of the raid, as their Mana andthroughput are both relatively weak. Holy Paladins have adaptedto using a casting-heavy build that is currently performing extremely well on themeters and they still kept their utility intact, giving them a rank raise.

The rest of the classes are mostly as predicted earlier, althoughPreservation Evokerhas dropped slightly since Discipline Priestis often being brought twice instead of a Prevoker.

Finally, Restoration Shamansare seeing no play in RWF, but are also outperforming our low initial expectationsso far and thus will get a rank raise, while Restoration Druidsare unfortunately seeing very little play and relatively low healing numbers comparedto their peers.

The rankings below reflect the predicted Amirdrassil raid meta and will beupdated over time as more hotfixes and patches hit the live servers.

To understand why these rankings are the way they are, you first need tounderstand what is most valued in a raid setting. For healers, we value healingthroughput, cooldowns, DPS output, and other miscellaneous utility.

Just because a healer is currently low ranked in the tier list, it does notmean that it is not viable or that it will not become much better after balancechanges. Also, excellent players will always be deserving of a raid spot,regardless of their specialization.

The main exception is when you require a specific healer to bring utility thatis needed for a particular encounter (such as Rescue for low mobilityclasses), or one of the main raid buffs, such as Mark of the Wild, Power Word: Fortitude, or Devotion Aura.

You can find the summarized healer tier list below, but make sure to alsocheck the individual section for each healer in order to understand our rankingreasoning and specialization perks.

1. Discipline Priest (S-Tier)
2. Holy Paladin (A-Tier)
3. Mistweaver Monk (A-Tier)
4. Preservation Evoker (B-Tier)
5. Restoration Shaman (B-Tier)
6. Holy Priest (C-Tier)
7. Restoration Druid (C-Tier)

If you are interested in other rankings for the Season 3 raid in Dragonflight,please click the links below.

As the raid to world first unfolds, the healing meta becomes clearer, and thisnew list should more adequately display the current state of things. Regardless,we will be continuing to monitor and update the healing tier list as new hotfixesare deployed or new playstyles developed.

November 17, Road to World First observation update:Discipline Priest is looking as strong as predicted, being the only healerto have multiple copies of in the RWF rosters while also displaying great healing,damage, and utility, thus being deserving of the top tier rank.

Healing Throughput: Discipline can have strong throughput but has difficultywith spot healing in raids as it is tied to predictable burst timings driven byits short cooldowns. On the upside, it has frequent raid burst healing windowsenabled by Atonement spreading from Power Word: Radiance and multiplesingle-target applicators, such as Renew and Power Word: Shield,which makes it a strong healer against periodic raid burst damage patterns.

Cooldowns: Discipline has a very powerful healing cooldown in Power Word: Barrier, which offers massive damage reduction, but only insideits small area of effect. Rapture is also a strong cooldown for bothemergency spot healing and ramp setups. Post-revamp, Discipline can easily amplifyits Atonement healing with Shadowfiend, as many of the old cooldownsare now baked into it. Finally, its tank external is Pain Suppression, whichprovides a large amount of damage reduction for its target.

Damage Output: Discipline Priests tend to bring the strongest healer DPSin-game due to their rotation heavily involving the use of DPS abilities for Atonement healing (which includes multiple DPS cooldowns) and the Power Infusion cooldown, which is a significant raid damage gain when usedwell.

Utility: Discipline Priest has good utility, as they providethe Power Word: Fortitude raid buff and the DPS buff Power Infusionmentioned above. Their Mass Dispel, even post-nerf, is also often invaluablein raid encounters and, while more niche, Leap of Faith can be a lifesaverin some situations.

Defensively and mobility-wise, Discipline Priest might be the weakest healerof all, with only Desperate Prayer, Fade (with Translucent Image),and Angelic Feather to help out in those areas.

Overall, the revamped Discipline Priest can finally unlock its full potentialwithout suffering from an overcomplicated rotation. While it is still not the idealhealer in random player spot-healing-heavy scenarios, Discipline brings a lot ofcooldown healing, damage reduction, shields, DPS, and other special utility, whichjustifies its top place in the rankings, as you can easily bring two in an efficienthealing composition.

November 17, Road to World First observation update:Despite the many Holy Paladin nerfs, they are making a great showing thispatch and almost every raid has at least one, as they are one of the best spot healersand also bring unique utility to the table. Thus, we will increase their relativerank to other healers to reflect their omnipresence in the typical healing roster.

Healing Throughput: Paladins has decent raw throughput, some of whichis delivered as absorb shield healing from Barrier of Faith, Greater Judgment,and Overflowing Light, as well as Tyr's Deliverance and Holy Shock,allowing for high amounts of spot healing, which also cleaves off the tank with Beacon of Light and its supporting talents.

Cooldowns: Holy sports a strong healing increase cooldown in Avenging Wrath,a large damage reduction cooldowns for the raid with Aura Mastery plus Devotion Aura, and a fine tank external with Blessing of Sacrifice. Divine Toll and Daybreak can be pressed frequently for large cooldownhealing, as well, and Lay on Hands is great for emergencies.

Damage Output: While not as strong as it once was, Holy Paladin stillhas a decent damage profile, and you can get a lot of damage from your melee swingsand rotational abilities such as Judgment. Using Blessing of Summeron the right targets also provide a good amount of damage.

Utility: Holy Paladin sports some of the best unique utilityin the game with their Blessing of Protection, Devotion Aura, and Retribution Aura. They can also interrupt on a short cooldown with Rebuke, crowd control with Hammer of Justice, Turn Evil, Blinding Light, and Repentance, and combat ress with Intercession.

They dispel Magic, Disease, and Poison effects with Cleanse, any movement-impairing effect with Blessing of Freedom.Defensively wise, Divine Shield is the only immunity ability provided toa healer class, and they also have plate armor, strong defensive talents, and Divine Protection. Their mobility is mostly tied to Divine Steed,making it one of the few things where Paladins do not excel.

Overall, Holy Paladin still has a very strong kit, and their class rework isstill paying dividends, as their melee spec was heavily nerfed but the reworkedcasting spec came out to carry them to a strong performance in this tier.

November 17, Road to World First observation update:Mistweaver Monk is looking great in the raid, being an integral part ofthe road to world first healing rosters everywhere. It does very high healing,good damage, and more importantly, brings the critical Mystic Touch raiddebuff, at a time where Brewmasters and Windwalkers have fallen out of favor inthe meta.

Healing Throughput: Mistweaver has excellent throughput and is able tocover all types of incoming damage with its versatile Enveloping Mist and Vivify healing kit. Much of its healing is delivered over time and lackstargeting, such as the healing produced by Essence Font and most cooldowns.Some of their healing also requires being in melee range of an enemy target,especially when looking to convert damage into healing with Ancient Teachings, Awakened Faeline, and Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane.

Cooldowns: Revival is the best-known Monk cooldown, and itdispels everyone while also doing massive healing. Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Craneand Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent are strong healing cooldowns with differentuse cases, and Monk has a lot of short cooldowns such as Faeline Stomp, Sheilun's Gift, and Thunder Focus Tea, which provide flexible benefitsdepending on the spells you combo them with. Mistweaver's tank external is Life Cocoon,which provides a massive shield and increases healing over time taken by the target.

Damage Output: Mistweaver Monks can do a lot of damage with Rising Sun Kick, Spinning Crane Kick, Blackout Kick, and Tiger Palm. Mostimportantly, their damage converts into healing efficiently with talents such as Ancient Teachings, Awakened Faeline, and Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane.These conversions create scenarios where dealing damage is the optimal healing strategyand empower Monks to be the top damage-dealing healers in raids.

Utility: Monks have a strong raid buff in Mystic Touch and providebuffs to close allies with Generous Pour and Close to Heart. Theyalso have unique utility such as Ring of Peace, can interrupt with Spear Hand Strike, and instantly AoE stun with Leg Sweep. They canalso dispel Magic, Disease, and Poison effects with Detox. Unfortunately, as long as Mystic Touch is already covered,none of the other utility tools are significant in a raid setting.

Defensively, Monk has multiple cooldowns: the massively buffed Expel Harm, Fortifying Brew, Dampen Harm, and Diffuse Magic all contributetowards making Mistweaver one of the toughest healers when played well. Mobility-wise,Monk is also exceptional with Tiger's Lust, the customizable Roll,and the instant teleportation of Transcendence, making knockbacks and othermovement-related mechanics easy to solve.

Overall, Mistweavers are surprisingly good for how little they are played, butthey also have many buttons, cooldowns, and moving parts in their kit, making themsomewhat hard to play well. While they still also lack damage reduction effectsfor their groups, their personal throughput, mobility, survivability, and utilityhas finally been buffed to the point where every raid should seriously considerbringing one.

November 17, Road to World First observation update:While Preservation Evoker healing is still very high when using the Emerald Blossom playstyle, it suffers from requiring players to be tightlystacked together in order for the healing to happen. This is not possible in someof the bosses present in the raid, making Preservation fall off occasionally, althoughits healing and damage potential are still great, overall.

Healing Throughput: Preservation has excellent burst healing, especiallyagainst raid-wide damage with its frequent Essence Burst-powered Emerald Blossomcasts, further amplified by Cycle of Life. You can also use Temporal Anomalyto create multiple Echos, which can then serve to replicate your Spiritbloom, Dream Breath, or Verdant Embrace (which also activates Lifebindfor extra healing when followed up by high self-healing abilities such as Emerald Communion).Their main weakness is lack of spread healing due to Emerald Blossom mechanics andreacting to surprise damage, as their (spot) healing is rather weak when not properlyset up ahead of time.

Cooldowns: Evoker is a very cooldown-oriented healer, ranging from theextremely powerful but high cooldown Rewind, to the short "build your owncooldown" Stasis. Emerald Communion is also a decent cooldownwhen appropriately used with high Lifebind counts. Zephyr hasa small target cap but reduces damage taken significantly. Finally, its externalcooldown is Time Dilation, which delays 50% of the damage taken by thetarget on a very short cooldown.

Damage Output: Preservation Evoker has good AoE damage potential,especially once Evoker Preservation 10.2 Class Set 2pc is unlocked, and canalso do high single-target damage if you can get into a rhythm of casting an Ancient Flame-empowered Living Flame every time you press Emerald Blossom,which has the added upside of being able to give you more Essence Burststo repeat the combo!

Utility: Preservation has a lot of niche, but occasionally indispensable,utility. It has a raid buff, Blessing of the Bronze, and a strong permanenthealer buff in Source of Magic with Potent Mana. Landslideserves as a mass rooting effect, which can be essential in specific fights. Rescueallows the Evoker to move any player around and is fantastic in encounters withstrong knockback mechanics that can be ignored with it. Time Spiral servesa similar purpose and keeps your raid mobile even when mobility personals need tobe used back to back. Zephyr has already been mentioned for its damagereduction above, but can also be used for its movement speed increase.

Evokers can also remove Magic and Poison with Naturalize,and Cauterizing Flame can remove bleeds, curses, and almost all other non-magicdebuffs. The bleed removal component is especially useful in some raid encounterswhere only immunities or a Paladin's Blessing of Protection can remove high-damagebleeds.

Defensively, Preservation is one of the weakest healers' baseline but compensatesby having two personal cooldowns: Obsidian Scales and Renewing Blaze,which have relatively short cooldowns. Movement and knockbacks are very easy todeal with due to the double-jump mechanic native to Evokers and the short cooldown Hover.

Overall, Preservation Evoker is a cooldown machine likely to have something touse on every major incoming damage source. Its sustained healing is not the best,but through tier bonuses and the Emerald Blossom into Living Flamecombo, it works well enough to still be significant during cooldown downtime. Itis also noteworthy that Preservation is one of the most flexible healers on whetherto use its resources for DPS or healing, as the situation demands.

November 17, Road to World First observation update:Restoration Shaman is having a somewhat stronger showing than expectedin the raid, with relatively high healing numbers, but that is also heavily influencedby the 30-man raids typical of Heroic / Normal week. Thus, we predict they willnot be quite as bad as earlier thought, but also unlikely to become a meta healerwithout further changes.

Healing Throughput: Restoration has decent healing for all situationsbut suffers from having much of its area healing tied to Healing Rain,which requires a large number of players to be inside and damaged for its duration. Chain Heal is a much more versatile spell, especially with Tidebringer,but taxes Mana heavily, limiting its use. A similar situation arises with Healing Waveand Healing Surge, creating an environment where Shamans have tools forall situations but are not particularly good in any situation.

Cooldowns: Shaman has multiple powerful healing cooldowns: Spirit Link Totemis the most well-known and allows you to survive healing reduction effects or extremeraid damage, especially if unevenly distributed. Unleash Life, Cloudburst Totem, Ascendance and Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem serve asmultipliers to your healing, as does Primordial Wave to an extent, andall of them can be very powerful if you are using them at the right time. Healing Tide Totemis also a decent healing cooldown, which has lower potency than similar effectsfrom other healers but also allows you to continue casting during its duration. Earthen Wall Totem is a small but powerful cooldown, especially againstmany small hits. Finally, and notably, Restoration lacks a tank external, but has Earth Shield and Earthen Harmony's passive damage reduction to compensate.

Damage Output: Restoration Shaman has multiple strong damage tools, butmost require taking specific talents and dedicating many cooldowns to DPSing. Examplesinclude Acid Rain which turns Healing Rain into a strong damageeffect, Stormkeeper which provides burst damage, Lava Surgefor instant damage with Lava Burst and Master of the Elements toincrease your damage (and healing!) after each Lava Burst cast.

Utility: Restoration Shaman is known for its many utility tools,but these also tend to be extremely niche. Besides the aforementioned Spirit Link Totemwhich can occasionally be the only cooldown that works in extreme situations, Ancestral Protection Totem has the unique power of resurrecting someone,making it very useful for suiciding dangerous mechanics. Shamans also have Ancestral Vigorfor passively increasing raid health, Tremor Totem to break fear, charm, and sleep effects, Poison Cleansing Totem for mass removing poisons, and Stoneskin Totem against physical damage, as well as many other niche utilityoptions.

Restoration Shaman also has good survivability talent options in Brimming with Lifeand Astral Shift plus its supporting talents, as well as Earth Elementalor Spirit Wolf, which doubles as a mobility tool. Ghost Wolf and Gust of Wind are the primary burst movement options, but Spiritwalker's Gracecan be even stronger, as it allows you to cast while moving. Finally, Shaman hasthe unique perk of being able to self-resurrect with Reincarnation!

Overall, Restoration Shamans are strong all-rounders due to their versatiletoolkit, and can occasionally be indispensable due to their unique utility, butin their current tuning and against Amirdrassil encounters, nothing really standsout, and they end up just being good generic healers, rather than must-haves ina healing roster.

November 17, Road to World First observation update:Due to the multiple nerfs received by Holy Priest in this season, itspopularity and overall power have drastically diminished, with many complaintsbeing sent about their poor Mana efficiency and low current healing. Their supportabilities were also nerfed, making them into true second fiddles to Discipline forthe first time since the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid in Shadowlands Season 3.

Healing Throughput: Holy has decent throughput and is able to cover alltypes of incoming damage with its versatile kit of healing tools, which includes Prayer of Mending, Flash Heal, Prayer of Healing and the HolyWords Holy Word: Salvation plus Holy Word: Sanctify. While it is notthe best throughput healer by any means, its healing is solid and easy to set up.

Cooldowns: Holy has some powerful healing cooldowns in Holy Word: Salvation, Apotheosis, and Divine Hymn, all of which can do a large amountof burst healing when used at the right timings. Its tank external is Guardian Spirit,which increases healing taken by the target and prevents death while active. Dueto its unique healing-increasing powers, it can be extremely good in situationswhere you need to heal a friendly NPC for a large amount.

Damage Output: While Holy Priests can do a lot of damage if they commitglobals to damage abilities, doing so forces them to stop healing, which is notideal. Thus, in harder content, much of the damage potential comes from using Power Infusion on the right targets while they are using DPS cooldowns.

Utility: Holy Priest has fantastic utility, which justifiesits A-rank: Symbol of Hope, even post nerf, is still a very strong raidcooldown, especially in the hands of coordinated groups that have their personalcooldowns assigned around its usage. They also provide the Power Word: Fortituderaid buff and the DPS buff Power Infusion mentioned above. Finally, their Mass Dispel is often invaluable in raid encounters and, while more niche, Leap of Faith can be a lifesaver in some situations.

Defensively and mobility-wise, Priest is rather weak and mostly relies on Desperate Prayer and Angelic Feather, but it is also the onlyhealer that can keep healing after dying with Spirit of Redemption, whichis of fantastic value in some bosses with hard execute phases.

Overall, Holy Priests' perks, ease of use, and versatility allow them to be ajack of all trades, but they suffer from low healing and Mana management tuningcurrently, pushing them down the ranks.

November 17, Road to World First observation update:Restoration Druid is, unfortunately, looking as down in practice as itlooked it would before the raid launch. Its healing is relatively low, utility canbe covered by other, more popular, Druid specializations, and there is little hopein the short term outside of new hotfixes reverting some of the harsher nerfs ora new playstyle being discovered.

Healing Throughput: Druid has very high throughput potential, and isunique among healer classes in that it mostly relies on heals over time, suchas Lifebloom and Rejuvenation, to deliver its healing. Thisdelivery method works well in Aberrus due to the high amount of constant raiddamage happening in most encounters. Most of their heals can also be done whilemoving, allowing throughput to remain high even in the most hectic of raid bosses.

Cooldowns: Restoration has good healing cooldowns in Incarnation: Tree of Life, Convoke the Spirits, and Flourish, which can be used separatelyor as part of a burst healing combo, which can heal through high amounts of damage.Its tank external, Ironbark reduces damage taken and increases healingtaken by the target, making it one of the best tools of its kind, especially dueto its relatively low cooldown.

Damage Output: While Restoration Druids can do a lot of damage if theyoptimize their talents for it and use Cat Form and / or Heart of the Wild,focusing on damage will tank their healing, which means that, in a raid setting,most of their damage will typically come from the usage of Sunfire, Moonfire, and Nature's Vigil, along with their healing cooldowns.While this damage is something, it is generally weak when compared to other healers.

Utility: Druids have their own raid cooldown in Mark of the Wild,and also bring Innervate, which can be used on themselves or other healers, Stampeding Roar for a short-cooldown raid-wide movement speed increase and Ursol's Vortex plus Typhoon to control enemy movements or Mass Entanglementto completely stop them, if needed.

Mobility-wise, Druid is quite strong with the passive speed gain of Cat Formand burst speed of Tiger Dash / Dash or Wild Charge, ontop of being able to cast most of their rotation while moving and at range. Theirmain defensive is Barkskin, which has a very low cooldown, and they canshift into Bear Form at will to make themselves even tankier.

Overall, Restoration Druids have decent utility and a unique healing style,further pushed by Grove Guardians, but also relatively low healing,especially of the burst kind, making them a relatively weak option currently.