Comparing paladin vs shaman... been thinking about it all day so here ya go.
Paladin
Buffs:
single 200 resist buffs
10% attack power
beacon
Offensive abilities:
Stun (1 min cooldown)
Holy shock damage
Exorcism (1.5 second cast)
Holy Wrath (in AOE situations the damage scaling is too high to be worth it, only good for helping burst)
Defensive abilities:
Divine protection (10 second cooldown, lasts 10 seconds) - this is a big one, 20% less damage at all times.
Divine shield - 5 min cooldown... i honestly think this is negatable.. yes it gets you out of hairy situations once every 5 mins... but this is usable a few times per battleground only... unlike arena it would not make or break the group
Cleanse - all healers get this though
Aura Mastery
Healing:
Holy shock - crap heal, it is critting for like 7k as is but generates holy power, instant and on 6 seconds
Flash of light - good fast heal, you get extra haste when you judge
Holy Light - mana efficient decently large heal
Beacon - heal yourself or others, likely going to be putting it on yourself for survivability.
Divine - high cost, high heal, long cast time
Light of Dawn - AOE heal that requires rampup time (more so if you aren't being attacked), heals like a wet noodle, lets not kid ourselves here. This requiring holy power nearly kills the ability in my opinion due to the amount you should be having, unless you are beaconing someone other than yourself and constantly healing them with other thing (as you said, it will almost all be overhealing so there is no point to it other than for this reason)
Holy Radiance - 30 second cooldown that has an AOE heal... but if your deathknights are running off to kill shit you have to follow them to make it useful and they need to be within
My positives for paladin healers:
Their single target heals are amazing
10% ap buff
The resists... but that is limited to a single resist
Divine favor really helps with making sure people stay alive... combined with wings
Aura mastery and the anti-silence is nice
My concerns:
Bubble is not as useful as we think, it lasts 8 seconds and it is on a 5 minuet cooldown, can be dispelled and broken with a decent amount of things one will have to deal with on the regular (mass dispell, heroic throw etc...)
Light of dawn heals like a wet noodle... like seriously in comparison to other AOE heals it is a joke. As a mana costing heal it was fine but as a sacrifice of saving a single toon to keep them all alive like with a powerful word of glory? nty. This spell is also a conal heal and heals everyone for the same amount which is a baseline of about 3000 (@ max holy power)... i'm not 100% sure how this scales with spell power and such but it just seems so lack luster.
Divine protection eats a GCD every 10 seconds. You want to keep your team up in hairy situations then you will not be able to take the damage if they get a 2-3 dps switch to you. Same rules apply to us as to others... if they gang up on a healer its done for no matter what the class is.
Paladin has to be reactive, meaning they cannot really be played in any sort of offensive manner, which can be important in high level play. It's all good that you can do damage but one spell needs you to not heal, another is usable every 15 seconds and hits for shit and exorcism would need to be used instead of a heal in a combat situation which COULD kill one of your dks.
Mana is also a huge problem for a paladin, he has no means to regen mana outside of passive regen and divine plea (which reduces healing, in hairy situations where you need mana and need to heal yourself... yes you can bubble but if you don't have it up you are fucked.
The paladin glyphs really don't add that much to the class... i mean seriously?
Shaman
Buffs:
All resist totem
Anti-Fear Totem
Healing totem
Fire elemental
Earth elemental
Heroism/Blood Lust
Offensive abilities:
Shocks - using them reduces mana cost of heals by 75%...and 30% more effective.
Lightning bolt - 40% of the damage comes back to you as mana
Lava burst - it can still hit decently high if you have flameshock up on the target... awesome for burst!
Chain Lightning - Help with AOEing if you feel it is really necessary
Fire nova
Hex - A CC... which can be super useful
Defensive abilities:
Earthshield - pre-emptive heal, heals when target is attacked... sorta like beacon but not quite as effective... though it only gets used when needed and when they are effected by it your heals heal for more.
Spiritwalker's Grace - You are able to run around and heal... every 2 mins.
Ancestral Resolve - When in hairy situations and you need to heal... you take 10% less damage.
Ancesteral Healing - Oh you crit? here... take 10% less damage for 15 seconds!
Cleanse - yep... another cleanse.
Natures swiftness - instacast heal
Natures guardian: when taken below 35% life you gain 15% extra total HP.
Healing:
Riptide: Instacast heal that applies a heal over time that can make the amount of healing they receive from chain heal higher. (6 second cooldown) hand over fist better than holy shock.
Mastery: Higher healing to those who need it more.
Chain heal: Smart heal that heals the entire group. More effective if the target has been hit with rip tide...grants tidal wave (30% crit on healing surge, 30% reduction in higher heals cast time) heals for much more than Light of Dawn but does have a cast time.
Healing wave: Glyphed 20% of your heals go to you meaning when you use this it is a mini beacon of light, holy light equiv
Greater healing wave (or w/e its called) : divine light equiv
Healing surge: flash of light equiv
Ancesteral spirit: EVERY time you crit (any jump of your chain heal) summons a spirit that is a smart heal for 30% of the heal that spawned it.
After a shock your heals are worth 30% more healing
Healing steam totem... it's like having holy radiance all the freaking time and gives you ALL resist!
Healing Rain - Preemptive AOE ground heal, lasts 10 seconds on a 10 second cooldown
Earthliving weapon - heal over time from random heals.. like 20%
Unleash weapon - equivalent of a 1 holy power word of glory and increases next heal by 20%
Cleanse fucking heals when it actually cleanses something!
My point of view on positives:
It takes less time to cast a chain heal than it does to get the holy power to use a light of dawn... heals for much more due to spellpower coefficients and is a smart heal. All of your talents really make you better at healing... not a bunch of random stuff that could be useful and need to proc (cough cough no cooldown holy shock) Healing surge is just as good as flash of light. Shaman heal targets for more based upon their health. Riptide absolutely shits on holy shock. You get many many more crits from your heals because of all the talents making your overall healing much higher. There are lots of extra ways to heal your targets for much much more than the mastery of a holy paladin.
This class can be played in both a preemptive manner with riptide, earth shield, healing rain and precasting chain heal etc. You do much more healing overall because of the increases to crit and overall healing from other talents. Mana-tide totem is really important and makes this class much more mana efficient than a paladin, especially with the regen and such from water shield. You also take less damage while casting than a paladin as they need to use a GCD to take less damage, you also make victims of your crit heals take less damage as well giving the team higher survivability.
You get an extra anti-fear, blood lust for burst when you can use it (hello sated going away when you die), healing stream for a nearly constant "uptime" of a holy radiance type thing. Healing stream when glyphed gives you nice resists to everything. You have a much more efficient means of getting mana back by helping attack and you can burst for much more than a paladin can. You can also heal on the move every 2 mins.
The kicker... you take 10% less damage and do not eat a GCD.
Downside:
You really don't have an o-shit button like the paladin other than an instant cast spell. Your AOE heal does have a cast time. You don't have the ability to pop cooldowns to heal more in "oshit" moments but your mastery makes up for that as you heal for more as your health goes down. You have a CC and not a stun... with a stun you guarantee a kill. You are not plate and therefore take slightly more damage baseline. There is no extra attack power or mana regen bonus from the buffs a paladin brings, but then again you have enough mana regen it doesn't really matter now does it?
Reply With Quote
Connect With Us