WoW Season of Discovery: Best Healing Classes in SoD, Ranked

Healers are the backbone of a strong party, able to support their allies with buffs and prevent them from dying while facing off against elite mobs – or other players. In WoW SoD Healers are all capable of playing the role effectively – there is no one spec that should outright be avoided.

Some Healers bring more utility to a party, though, or are able to cast a more diverse and powerful set of Healing abilities. Shamans, for example, can’t put out the HPS of a Paladin or Priest, but it brings its own unique benefits to the group. This guide to the best Healers in WoW SoD ranked places each class based on its endgame PvE and PvP capabilities, though things will likely shift as future Phases release.

Updated February 24, 2024 by Erik Petrovich: With the launch of Phase Two for the WoW Season of Discovery, many classes have experienced a huge overhaul in their effectiveness. At Level 40, more classes have their class-defining abilities, and paired with new Runes, some of the best WoW SoD healers aren’t the same classes as in Phase One – though Priests still reign supreme. This guide to the best WoW SoD Healers has been updated and refreshed to incorporate new Phase Two Runes and the healing meta at level 40, and will continue to be updated as future Season of Discovery phases release to change things up more.

Mage

A Wild Card Healer That’s Useful In Certain Compositions

Mages are given the chance to play the Healer role in the Season of Discovery for the first time. Three new Runes let Mages target allies with Temporal Beacons and heal them based on the damage that the Mage does. Played well, a healing Mage can be equally effective at healing the party as they are at healing one target.

The problem with Mage healing is that it’s still pretty new to World of Warcraft, and Mages don’t have many inherent class skills that help push it to a higher rank. The benefit of bringing a Mage healer in Phase Two is the same as in Phase One. Their healing can match other classes but they have fewer party utility benefits. They do, however, deal the best DPS of any healer by a mile.

Mages are especially good at AoE damage, and while a Mage healer isn’t topping up party members, they can take on an effective DPS role with older runes like Living Flame and Living Bomb. This new spec wasn’t left out of Phase Two, as the Chronostatic Preservation Rune has given them a new large healing option.

But in general, Mage healers aren’t quite as impressive as they were in Phase One, but because healers are always in high demand, you’ll have no issues getting into groups despite their relative shortcomings.

Shaman

Shaman Healing Still Isn’t Quite Up To Snuff (And Relies on AoE)

One of the three roles Shamans can play in WoW SoD is that of the Healer, through the Restoration spec. Though there aren’t any healers in the Season of Discovery that aren’t good enough for endgame content, Restoration Shamans had the weakest toolkit at Level 25. At Level 40, they’re in a much better spot, especially thanks to an expanded core spell list, and new Runes like Ancestral Awakening, which heals low-HP party members automatically with critical heals.

The class’ reliance on Totems can make it difficult to maintain healing in high-mobility fights, though the new skill book Totemic Projection helps enormously to mitigate this, too. The Restoration tree and rotation focuses on AoE healing more than individual healing, which can be powerful for fights where lots of party members will take damage, but disappointing for bosses that target just the Tank.

It doesn’t help that Shamans have one of the weaker ranged caster spell lists, too, so while not healing a Shaman won’t put up the same DPS as a Priest or Mage. Still, Restoration Shamans are far from the worst SoD healer – they just aren’t quite as useful or effective as other options, yet.

Paladin

Not As Strong As In Phase One, But Still A Fine Choice

In Phase One, Paladins and Priests were pretty much even in terms of the best SoD healer class, as they were both capable of supporting a party in endgame Phase One content in a variety of powerful ways. The Priest offers a little bit more utility than Paladins, though, and with the launch of Phase Two Paladins have fallen a little bit further behind.

In the Season of Discovery, Runes like Beacon of Light and Inspiration Exemplar take this already-great support class to the next level. With the launch of Phase Two, though, other healer classes got more useful support spells than Paladins, and its new Runes aren’t quite as impactful as what’s on offer for Druids and Priests.

Paladins are arguably the best general party support class thanks to their variety of Blessings. But the more specific buffs available to Druids (Wild Strikes for melee) and Priests (Power Word: Fortitude) are more powerful than what Paladins can offer in Phase Two.

Druid

Almost The Best Healer – It Just Doesn’t Have Dispel or Stamina Buffs

In Classic Wow, Restoration Druids are half-decent healers. They don’t have access to the party utility and debuffs that the Paladin or Priest classes offer, but Druids instead offer the best ongoing healing-over-time, and are pretty high up there for AoE healing capabilities.

Where the Druids fall behind is its lack of an ability to recover a single target from massive HP loss in an emergency, and its new Runes in Phase One didn’t offer that much more of a boost to their healing potential. Priests got Penance and Prayer of Mending, while Paladins’ Beacon of Light literally doubles their healing output, and both of these classes offered more party utility than Druids.

But with Phase Two, and new Runes and abilities available at Level 40, Druids have taken over Paladins as the most effective Raid healer in SoD (aside from Priests).

Their Phase One Runes Wild Growth, as well as the new skill books and the Nourish Rune, have proven to be incredibly powerful in almost every endgame group content. Plus, Druids bring buffs of their own, as well as the practically required Wild Strikes buff for melee DPS. Their downfalls come in not being able to Dispel certain effects like a Priest, and not being able to quite match the power and Raid-wide utility of Power Word: Fortitude.

Priest

Still The Best Healer Class in SoD Phase Two

Priests remain the best SoD healer in Phase Two, despite a number of buffs to other classes’ support capabilities, for a few key reasons. The class was already the best healer in WoW Classic because of its variety of spells that suit almost any healing situation, and with its new Priest SoD Runes, it’s even better than ever.

Priests get one of their most powerful spells through Runes, such as Penance as part of their introductory Rune quest at Level 2. Circle of Healing and Prayer of Mending significantly improve Priests’ AoE healing capabilities, and both Strength of Soul and Serendipity are powerful passive improvements to players existing spell lists.

In Phase Two, Priests got the Shadowfiend skill book, shoring up their Mana regeneration issues during combat, as well as a Rune that extends the effect of Power Word: Fortitude. The Pain Suppression Rune is among the best emergency defensives in the game, and Dispersion is a great way to avoid taking threat, clear debuffs, and keep healing.

Priests importantly have the Dispel Magic ability, which removes a harmful effect from an ally – invaluable for endgame PvE and PvP alike. Paladins don’t get a similar ability until Level 42 (Cleanse), and other healers just don’t have access to an ability like this at all. They have the best AoE, best emergency mega-heals, best defensives, and the best overall support toolkit of all healing classes in WoW Classic. Other healers are perfectly fine and will make it through endgame content, but Priests are still number one.