Pala, priest, druid or shammy?

it takes a long time before the pala runs out of mana, but the priest can heal higher amounts and shammys can chain heal. druids are also good, i dont know.

That's a vague question... they're all good at different things.

Assuming comparable gear, and asside from other benefits like their class specific buffs, etc.

Priests have the best big heals and the largest mana pool.  This makes them good at focused healing, particularly on the Main tank.  They're also the only class to have usable multi-target heals (prayer of healing, circle of healing, prayer of mending), which makes them good in situations where you have a lot of people taking consistent AOE damage.

Paladins have the most efficient heal in the game in Flash of Light, but because it's a small heal, they're probably better doing support healing; however, they're really good in situations where the Main tank is taking massive chunks of damage at a time, where a crit get him killed between greater heals.  Having a Priest do GH does the most healing, but Flash of Light helps counteract the variance caused by the crits.  IOW, having a paladin assist a priest on the MT is superior to having two priests.  Not to mention, Lay on Hands and BOP are the ultimate in "OH $^*&!" management.

Druids specialize in HOTs.  Also, have a Tree of Life druid in the MTs group is otherworldly.  And, not so much a healing ability, but being able to Rezz in combat is also awesome.

Shamans are probably the worst healers of the bunch, simply because they're very mana inefficient, and have small manapools.  But their Chain Healing ability is great for off-healing, and Stone Skin is great to have on the Tank.  Of course, their Self-Rezz abilitiy is a Godsend when there's no SS up, or he drops and is still needed.

IOW, they're each good in different situations.

If you want HPS, then the priest wins.  If you want mana efficiency and "OH $^*&!" management, the Paladin wins.  If you want utility, the Druid wins.  I'm not 100% sure where Resto Shamans stand, simply because I haven't played with many, and the one in our raid only respecced a couple months ago, and is lagging in gear.

every healer class has it's place.  priests are kinda lackluster nowadays though. 

if i were to roll a healer i would roll a paladin.  usually the healers in our raids are a druid, 2 priests, a shaman, and 4-5 paladins. 

if a paladin is allowed to build up a pretty good tank set he can respec prot and tank difficult encounters that require aoe tanking or a ranged taunt (think morogrim's murlocs or leotheras after a whirlwind when aggro wipes) 

i guess paladin healing is the most boring job tho... your flash of light button will end up wearing out and you'll need to either remap it or get a new keyboard but it's the most in demand healer class horde side. 

i agree with all thats been said but i think resto shamans are alot more useful than u guys realise. earth shield makes up for alot and if they have good kit with alot of spirit and intellect they dont have that bad of a mana pool

Resto shammy = a god in a healers grp. Wrath of air totem= 101 +healing and mana sping which is, with talents, about 30 extra mp5. also dont forget mana tide totem which restores 6% of max mana per 2 secs for 16 secs with a 3min CD (or something like that) so with resto shammy in ur grp, its almost impossible to run out of mana

paladins heal tank, priests shamans and druids heal the other raid members

Raw healing power, priest wins, hands down.

Shammies are better than people think, because the totems reduce the amount of dmg they need to heal, effectively increasing their mana pool. Also +heal affects the healing stream totem, stick one down for only 80 mana and it can mean +2000 health over 2 mins, assuming usual healing gear being worn, for the whole group. Anyone who dis's 2000 over 2 mins hasn't been in a raid. Res totems a godsend.

Nevr played pally, so can't comment.

Did druid for a bit, good healing as well, and being able to res in combat saved the group in SFK against Arugal.

As you can prolly see, I've played shammy more than the rest, lol.

ok stupidnoob what you said about shamans being the worst healer class of the bunch, just because they dont spam casts with very low mana cost doesnt mean they dont have mana efficiency. The main attribute that all raiding resto shaman should look for is mp5 because of how much their spells actually cost. I have been raiding with a shaman for over a year now and with chain heal and the ability of mana tide is considered one of the best. Once you see the end-game fights in post BC you will understand what i am saying when shamans are one of the best healers in a raid and incredibly vital to a raids success. Not only do they bring totems, bloodlust and earth shield but also a aoe heal which can be spammed at a lower rank to increase mana efficiency. Paladins are good yes, but the only spell they should be spamming is the 1.5 second cast. Priests spamming big heals and healing touch's and druids throwing up a ton of hots, but most of these classes overheal incredibly and with a shaman most of the time you are healing the raid and melee with the new fights. But in my opinion raiding as a shaman i was top 1-4 in healing meters virtually every fight and yes i have seen more than gruuls and kara with successfully healing through SSC and TK

ok guys....you all need to understand that all classes have their spots in raids and its vital to have all kinds...especially in 25 man raids. Druids have HoTs, shammans can heal well with chain heal and earth shield as well as totems, priests have good aoe heals and big healz, pallies are great at healing single targets eg. tanks, and have great mana efficiency and armor. each class is vital, no one is more important than the other

I agree

well i want a new char and a healer what should i take? (i av a lv 70 warrior

Hmm, guess since my Resto shaman is healing MT in Kara, Gruul, Mag, etc means I must be the least viable healing class in a raid. I have never needed more than 3 mana pots in a boss encounter in each of those instances. I generally stay in the top 2 of my healing meter, but our resto druid has the leet HoT's as well. We almost never use Holy priests in raids, its all about the Shadow priest these days. Pally's do bring some amazing buffs to the raid which make me an even better healer in general. But I will say this. its not your class that makes you a good healer, its your skill. Only advice i can offer:: learn your class, or quit dumping on those who know more than you.

Yeah i think shaman are the best healers...i say this b/c i have a 70 resto shaman and earth shield OWNS and all of the totem buffs. People think shaman burn their mana too quickly but as a matter of fact they dont. i also think druids are good healers when u are deadling w/ a lot of mobs at once so u can keep all ur overtime heals on the tank

This is the way we set up our healing in 25 man.

Priests are shadow. They rock have 3, its just insane. You might want one healy priest in a raid though, choice i guess.

3 Paladins, they raid heal normally.

3 Shamans heal MT mostly with chain heal thereby healing the melee group, which usually takes the most damage.

1 Resto Druid HoT's the tank(s)/ raid heal.

With this setup resto shamans always top the meters. Shadow priests with resto shamans = low threat or more damage/healing and mana and no one runs out of mana like ever. Resto shamans help everyone. Paladins are very good at raid healing with short cast heals with to keep up people getting random damage. Priests help everyone else in the raid keep up with VE, and Shamans chain heals keeps up the melee.

Without getting into the who is better debate (because you need all four in a 25 man anyway) I'd like to point out the druid's bonuses since there are a few that have been missed.

ToL buff makes everyone easier to heal by 25% of the ToL's considerable spirit.  Lifebloom rocks for aggro management (boss fights this isn't a problem, those %^&$ murlocs though.... and all other trash mobs...) as it tosses threat on the one healed instead of the healer and is still insanely mana efficient (though one should be careful about LBing the dpsers for the same reason - they don't need the added threat any more than you do).  Nature's swiftness makes Regrowth instant cast and Swiftmend makes Rejuvenate more mana-efficient and faster than Healing Touch -- not that you will be using HT anyway since you can only use HoT's in ToL form.

Being able to remove poisons and curses is invaluable in some fights and GofW makes everyone better at whatever they do. Buffing and removing debuffs are primary jobs of healers.  (Obviously other classes' buffs/debuff removal abiities are equally important since there are still diseases and magic debuffs to contend with that druids can't touch.)

Getting the fallen back into action while the battle is still raging is essential when the battle is fifteen minutes long (or more) -- especially when people need to be alive when the boss falls to benefit.  This is perhaps one of the reasons why druids are so very sought after (and the ToL/GotW buffs).  Other classes can heal as well or better, but Rebirth saves groups again and again.

Well-geared druid raid healers rarely OOM - though as mentioned, Healadins have good mana efficiency too.  ToLers have insanely high mana regen thanks to their high spirit and learned talent -- and in a pinch there is always innervate. 

Now, the other three healing classes have their own equal place, so don't think for a second that I'm saying druids are superior.  Just wanted to lay their finer points out there.

On the downside I spend a lot of time staring at HoT/rotation timers and pushing the same three keys over and over with the occasional fourth (Nature's Swiftness or Swiftmend) added in for uber variety. (/sarcasm)  Not sure that other healing classes have a more exciting job, though the Shaman looks very cool and priests get to wand during their down time.  It doesn't really add that much dps to the group, but it beats the boredom of standing there like a... tree.  I've had entire runs where I didn't even show up on the damage meter at all, which is somewhat depressing.

---

All that being said, my advice for building a healer is to find the class that you most enjoy playing.  After all, you have 70 lvls ahead of you (and a bit after 70 to get geared up and keyed) before you can even think about raiding, and you will still likely play your raid healer outside of a raid group (PvP/dailies/farming for rep/mats/gold) even afterwards so it needs to be FUN.  Healers are always in high demand, so no matter which class you pick, if you bring skill, enthusiasm, teamspirit, proper spec, and decent gear to the table, I can't imagine that you would have a problem finding a raiding guild that will be willing to take you.

Best of luck!

jezza......just because shamans have 3 healing spells and druids have what..4? or 5? it sounds you dont have an idea what you are talking about, all healers we are talking about here are essencial, everyone has buffs which a raid can not function without or wouldnt be as succesful without, simple, there is no best healing class since there are so many different topics you can classify it on, mana efficiency, buffs, HoTs, etc. etc.

Theres no point even saying theres a best healing class. Why would blizzard make a talent if another class out heals that talent... Every Class has its up and downs. Now if you wanna ask how each healer is important than it would be more correct of a topic.

did u jus say pallys run outa mana fast?! idk wat pallys you group with but when i was startin off healin i only had 1000 heal and 7k mana and i ran heroics fairly often and normal instances were a cake walk even when i started kara with 1200 heal and 8k mana i was never and i repeat NEVER oom. The pallys u grouped with must not have been very good but hey thats not wat this forum is bout so here it goes:

Priests:
good healing
good bubbles
big heals

Druids:
fast heals
Hots
Battle rez

Shamen:
Chain Heal
Totems
good all around heals

Pallys:
Mana efficient
Ok healin
fast
make good off healers in kara


thats wat i gota say to tell u the truth my guild is jus gettin into real raiding and we only got 1 resto sham 2 tree druids and 2 priests the rest are pallys to many to count lol

nuff said

Hey! Druids got an AoE heal, Tranquility

i like when kings heal imo....

I wouldnt say, that pallys not good for healing MT. I tried priest shamy and pally, and with pally if i have to heal only the tank, i easily did it. I think priest, is for healing the others. The why is easy: pallys are the fastest healer, with flash of light, they can hold the MT's life above 50%, and they have a nice amount of mana, and flash of light is cheap, so they keep up this for a long time. And for the resto shammy: its a really good healer, and they have enough mana. If u say, they dont, then u didnt see any well geared shammy.

i would have to say that, overall, hunters are the best raid healers.  i mean, come on, mend pet pretty much brings the raid back to life!

T6 resto sham chain healz ftw

FOR THE HORDE!!!