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Hi All,
I'm currently leveling a new team (not boosting) and thinking of switching out my healer. Currently level 35 grinding SM.
Running;
Pally (Tank)
Shaman (DPS)
Mage
Warlock
Priest (Heals)
I was thinking about swapping out my Priest for another Shaman for Mana Tide, or a Druid for Thorns and MotW. What are your thoughts ? Is there a healer in TBC Classic you highly prefer over the others? Why? I'm trying to weigh some pros and cons. Thanks!!
Druid healer would be BiS, basically just have hots on and afk no need to constantly look at HP.
I'm very partial to shaman healing, I feel they bring so much to a group with BL and totems, Earth Shield is a fantastic buffer for your tank and there's always NS and healing wave for emergencies. Disease and Poison cleansing totem is also a bonus as is mana spring and mana tide totem (although I don't find that much use for it generally just using it to speed up moments between pulls).
It's a shame fire and frost res totems don't stack with paladin auras.
As you are already packing a Shaman in the group I would say to max min and bring in another healer class. Have you considered having the priest DPS and shaman healing? Could be an option to shake things up.
**Disclaimer** Most of the info below is of course well-known and things discussed 15 years ago. I don't know who knows what, so just posting it for those that might not have all the info yet and are new to multiboxing. It also slightly changes now that everything is manual.
It all depends on what you want to do. Priest is an excellent 5 man healer. It's hard to match what they can do one on one. For me, Shamans become decent healers (while multiboxing) when you have more than one. Then they can spec dps and still heal the group. Mana Tide Totem is fine, just not super noticeable later on once you start getting gear. Your Paladin will have plenty of mitigation with pre-raid bis to do heroics, so earth shield is nice, just not necessary. You can still use Mana Spring Totem, Poison, Disease and Resistance Totems with an elemental build.
Priest 5 Man Benefits
1. Fast and significant group healing ability. Circle of Healing is awesome for quick group heals when you are close together. Holy Nova works well and does a little damage when you want to help the Paladin take down groups.
2. You can front load your tank with heals before each fight that allows him to get aggro before going all out on dps and additional heals with a simple macro. Just press it a few times at the beginning of tougher fights and he is set.
/target TANK NAME
/castsequence reset=5 prayer of mending,Power Word: Shield,renew
3. It's easy to get a very strong raiding level set yourself that gets you close to 2K healing power. Whitemend, Primal Mooncloth, Badge Gear and Gavel of Pure Light are all quickly attainable once you start doing heroics.
4. Priest can easily heal a heroic group with mana to spare. This allows your tank and dps to go all out.
All that said, I am finding 4 Shamans and a Paladin tank can take down the majority of heroics much faster than any other group. You throw in a heal once in a while, compliment that with 3 healing totems and one mana totem and they tear through everything. This only works for Heroics once you have some decent gear for the Shamans and tank. With no real CC, you need strong dps from the Shamans to thin the mobs quickly so you can heal through it. Having a mage to sheep, Warlock pet to off tank and other CC classes, helps with Heroics early on. 3 Mages for example makes Shattered Halls fairly easy since you can take out 3 of the 5 in each group and focus down one enemy at a time.
Something to keep in mind. There are fights where all casters are very tough. No matter what you're using to heal, there are some bosses that are near impossible with just casters and manually running each character. This is where Hunters, Warlocks (pet classes/dots) will get you through.
I made a quick video of the Priest applying the macro and showing Circle of Healing. You can quickly heal the group to full within seconds. If the group is out of range, Prayer of Healing does the trick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsB5cFYn0B4