WoW Dragonflight Guide: Healer Tier List For PvE

The best healers in Dragonflight are ranked according to performance in Raids and Mythic+ PvE content.

Healing in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight has taken a major overhaul for most classes and the performance of some has changed drastically. Each new tier of content will change the rankings of healers depending on the mechanics of the fight. For the purpose of this Tier List, we're going to rank them based on their overall performance in both Mythic+ and Raids combined.

The current state of Dragonflight balance is actually pretty good and there are only minor differences between each healing specialization. Depending on the content that you are trying to complete, some specs may be better than others. And players looking at competitive play will want to take all factors into consideration.

WoW Dragonflight Healer Rankings Criteria In PvE

The main factors for ranking are listed below:

1. Healing Throughput

    Tank Healing

    Raid Healing

2. Utility

3. Mobility

4. Damage

The primary criterion is always going to be the amount of healing that can be maintained throughout the entire fight. This includes the ability of a healer to both keep the tank alive and also maintain the health of the group. It's also very important to know if they can keep up with unique encounter mechanics that might also put them at a disadvantage if they need to be mobile. Finally, everything else being equal, a good healer will also be able to contribute to damage when healing is not needed; some classes have this baked right into their heals passively while others need to choose between casting a healing spell or a damage spell.

WoW Dragonflight Healer Tier List By Class / Specialization

Best Healer In Dragonflight

S Tier:

Healers in this class will typically be dominating the charts in Raids, have valuable utilities, and can heal well while on the move. Plus they will be able to have great damage either actively or passively through their abilities.

Restoration Druid

Resto Druids provide top-notch healing through their healing-over-time (HoT) effects from the vast majority of their spells combined with being able to do so while on the move. Overall they have a really great set of spells in their toolkit for many different types of encounters.

They have a good set of big cooldowns: Tranquility, Flourish, and Convoke the Spirits to counter heavy group damage. Ironbark provides a great single-target defensive ability for anyone caught in a bad place. They also have a large selection of utilities to help with many different group compositions and encounters. For CC they have Cyclone, Hibernate, Mass Entanglement or Ursol's Vortex and Incapacitating Roar, and provide important buffs like Innervate and Stampeding Roar. They don't have the best passive damage through their healing with Nature's Vigil and Protector of the Pack, but can deal more AoE damage in cat form if needed.

Great Healers In Dragonflight

A Tier:

These specializations perform really well and have a very well-rounded toolkit. Some will have better performance in certain forms of content over others but all are viable and welcome additions to the group.

Preservation Evoker

Preservation Evokers excel at direct burst healing, provide the highest consistent damage output across all healers, and have many different utilities and defensive cooldowns. They can dispel Magic and Poison with Naturalize and an additional dispel including all Poisons with Bleeds, Curses, and Diseases with Cauterizing Flame. They also bring another Bloodlust/Heroism, with Fury of the Aspects.

Other big healing utilities include Dream Flight and Rewind, and can mitigate damage with Emerald Communion and Zephyr. For CC they have Landslide, Wing Buffet, Tail Swipe, and Terror of the Skies and can be improved greatly with Oppressing Roar.

Their survival is quite decent with Tempered scales, Obsidian Scales and Obsidian Bulwark. And they have pretty good mobility due to being able to cast a number of instant spells and when needed can use Hover to continue casting empowered spells. They can also use Verdant Embrace to quickly get into position.

Holy Paladin

While Holy Paladins don't have the greatest healing or damage, they bring the most amount of utilities of all healing specs. While they still remain one of the best tank healers with Beacon of Light, they also have access to some new AoE healing potential with Glimmer of light and Beacon of Virtue. They have one of the best defensive cooldowns, combing Aura Mastery with Devotion Aura as well as bringing other great defensives like Blessing of Protection, Blessing of Sacrifice, Lay on Hands. Personal defensives are also improved with Unbreakable Spirit Divine Shield, Divine Protection, They also have a battle res, Intercession. Unfortunately, their mobility is lacking only having Divine Steed but is slightly improved with Cavalier

Good Healers In Dragonflight

B Tier:

Specializations in this tier are also still good, but are lacking in one or two of the criterion listed above. They aren't particularly bad and are still going to thrive in certain aspects of play but may fall behind other specs.

Discipline Priest

Discipline Priests continue to be very useful for their passive damage from Attonement, while not sacrificing effective healing. They still do good healing and absorbs with Power Word: Life and Power World: Shield but only provide a few strong utilities. Their utilities include multiple dispels for Magic and diseases, and cooldowns including: Power Infusion with Twins of the Sun Priestess, and Power Word: Barrier. They also provide some good group mobility with Leap of Faith, Body and Soul and Angelic Feather.

Mistweaver Monk

Misteweaver Monks provide solid healing throughput for both single target and AoE and offer good damage, even though the majority of it requires them to be in melee range, apart from Zen Pulse and Faeline Stomp. They do still struggle with mana issues in high levels of play and lack any significant damage reduction cooldowns. They will provide a number of crowd control effects, Ring of Peace, Leg Sweep, Paralysis and Provoke with Summon Black Ox Statue and Hasty Provocation. Their mobility is pretty good with both Transcendence and Roll/Chi Torpedo If you have a comp reliant on physical damage then they will be very valuable, providing Mystic Touch.

Holy Priest

Holy Priests offer really solid direct and AoE healing and damage and are a great choice for most types of content. While they don't have as many damage mitigations as Discipline, they make up for it in their raw healing potential. They have powerful AoE smart healing from Prayer of Healing and Prayer of Mending and a strong cooldown with Guardian Spirit and Guardian Angel, Symbol of Hope and Divine Hymn. They provide a lot of the same buffs that a Disc Priest would bring, but don't offer much in terms of extra utility when compared to healers at the top of the list.

Worst Healer In Dragonflight

C Tier:

The current state of balancing for these healers is not in the best place as they don't offer anything extremely necessary. They can still fill their role as healers but won't often be seen as necessary for high-end group compositions

Restoration Shaman

Resto Shamans are going to struggle to keep up when it comes to raw healing output, especially in fights that require a lot of mobility. They do have the best burst healing cooldowns with Ascendance and Spirit Link Totem, but their overall healing is lacking. Their utilities and there are a lot of them, are often going to be a toss-up when it comes to talent choices. Their damage is decent but is not passively linked to their healing, so it's also going to be a tough decision between healing or damaging, but not both.

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