PvP (Battleground) Healing

[Jonathan Chase]

I haven't played a healer in quite a while, and I've been enjoying my
Hunter as my new main character since I switched servers to play with old
friends. But I still have that healing bug, even after hearing the horror
stories on here and seeing how difficult dungeon and heroic level healing
can be in Cataclysm. Mostly I enjoyed healing in battlegrounds, both
because not enough people do it and because it can make a big difference in
winning or losing.
So I'm trying to decide which class would do best healing in
battlegrounds and perhaps in some dungeons. It seems like everyone says the
Paladin is the way to go, and I do have an old Paladin on this server who's
already 72. But it feels weird to have so few instant options and no HoT's;
it's a quick expensive heal (and then I will run out of mana), a medium
cheap heal, or Holy Shock followed by one of the two Holy Power heals (the
single target or the AOE one). Am I just missing some key spells because
I'm not 85, or is Paladin healing easily interrupted despite their many
defensive tools?
I'm also thinking about trying a priest again, since the last time I
played one was way back in vanilla and it looks like the class has changed a
bit since then. I know it's all very subjective, but if your primary
objective was to heal in battlegrounds would you lean more towards a priest,
or a paladin?
Thanks!

[John Gordon]

Post by Jonathan Chase
bit since then. I know it's all very subjective, but if your primary
objective was to heal in battlegrounds would you lean more towards a priest,
or a paladin?

I think Paladins would be better due to plate armor and bubble.

[Catriona R]

On Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:36:53 +0000 (UTC), John Gordon

Post by John Gordon

Post by Jonathan Chase
bit since then. I know it's all very subjective, but if your primary
objective was to heal in battlegrounds would you lean more towards a priest,
or a paladin?

I think Paladins would be better due to plate armor and bubble.

I've never healed as a paladin, but I recall Jill's comments about not
having instant cast spells being a major drawback, and don't think I'd
like it much - as a priest, I have PoM, renew, shield, all castable
even with somebody on me ready to interrupt me, and penance which
heals very fast, so is good on someone who needs a quick heal. Plus
plenty of other handy tools like pain suppression, power word barrier,
divine hymn, psychic scream... granted I'm biased, but I love the
range of tools priests have and as such dislike healing with any other
class, because it just feels I don't have close to as many options to
deal with situations (I do have resto specs on my shaman and my lowbie
druid, so have tried those classes!) Plate armor is a plus point, but
only vs melee classes, so not as big a difference as it might be
(meanwhile I have both armor and magic damage reduction from talented
Inner Fire)

[neithskye]

Post by Catriona R
I've never healed as a paladin, but I recall Jill's comments about not
having instant cast spells being a major drawback, and don't think I'd
like it much.

I haven't healed in PvP since TBC, but it seems in Cata it's gotten
worse. Sure, back in TBC we had no instant casts, but we had other
things, like Stoicism and Improved Concentration Aura, which reduced
CC times, prevented silences, gave us dispel resistance, etc.
Unfortunately in Cata all those talents were removed. We now have zero
dispel protection, meaning that everything we have, from our Hand
spells, to Divine Plea, to HoJ, to Divine Shield, are all dispellable.
This leaves us as the healer with the least offensive utility, with
all our defences dispelled, and with no HoTs, etc, there is nothing we
can do to help our allies while we sit in CC chains.

Paladins might do well in BGs, where the other team might not notice
you are healing, but in high-end Arena our representation plummets.
Certainly the Forums are filled with threads outlining the sorry state
of Holy Paladin PvP.

--
Jill

[Shammy]

This is more or less what I was going to write, I geared up my pala in BG
and I did many BG and arena, it's my only healer in cata but I noticed pala
is really weak compared to all other healers. Blizzard will have to do
something about holy pala in BG soon.
For example:
Priest: fear, mana drain, pull someone out of harm, mind control, got that
short CC forgot the name...
Druid: entangling roots.. 3 charges, cyclones, instant cast HOT without
cooldown instant travel form, + cat form with dash + bear form if beaten up
with bear heal too...
Shaman: 1 of the best healers atm, drop slowing totem, instant wolf and run
away as much as you want, totally unstoppable, with instant cast heal + hot
and with earth shield...

Pala: no way to escape, has blessing of freedom but once that is over you
cant do anything, no heals over time, and nothing much you can do,, if you
get interrupted you can just stand there and die, bubble isnt worth anything
anymore, warriors and priests dispel it immediatly... it lasts only 8 sec
(used to be 10 or 12), when you stun someone he will immedaitly use trinket
on it since that is the only thing you can do anyway...

I think I will start gearing something else if I want to play healer in
pvp... honestly pala is just pretty bad in pvp atm :S

[Jonathan Chase]

Post by Shammy
Pala: no way to escape, has blessing of freedom but once that is over you
cant do anything, no heals over time, and nothing much you can do,, if you
get interrupted you can just stand there and die, bubble isnt worth
anything anymore, warriors and priests dispel it immediatly... it lasts
only 8 sec (used to be 10 or 12), when you stun someone he will immedaitly
use trinket on it since that is the only thing you can do anyway...
I think I will start gearing something else if I want to play healer in
pvp... honestly pala is just pretty bad in pvp atm :S

Thanks for the info, that does help a lot! Options > Plate. :)

[t***@thsu.org]

    I'm also thinking about trying a priest again, since the last time I
played one was way back in vanilla and it looks like the class has changed a
bit since then.  I know it's all very subjective, but if your primary
objective was to heal in battlegrounds would you lean more towards a priest,
or a paladin?

It's much more fun playing a priest in PvP than playing a paladin.

Paladins have to sit there and wait for damage, and then they start
healing, and that's all they really can do. Outside of a single target
stun, and their lay on hands, they really have no utility.

Priests are very useful when not healing, which lets them do stuff
when nobody is taking damage. They can dispel buffs, they can mana
burn other healers, they can fear bomb, they can drag teammates out of
danger, and if you leave them alone, they'll mind control you. It is
really, really nice having other options, rather than only healing.
--
// T.Hsu

[Neil Cerutti]

Post by t***@thsu.org
Priests are very useful when not healing, which lets them do
stuff when nobody is taking damage. They can dispel buffs, they
can mana burn other healers, they can fear bomb, they can drag
teammates out of danger, and if you leave them alone, they'll
mind control you. It is really, really nice having other
options, rather than only healing.

Both classes are a huge pain in the ass to play against in the
low level brackets, if that helps. A duo of priest and paladin
(with either a rogue or hunter or both to help them out) is very
formidable.

But Paladins get something like three lives with their shield and
lay on hands, and consumables. It can take more than two dps to
burn them down, even when they are alone.

[Tigero]

Post by t***@thsu.org

    I'm also thinking about trying a priest again, since the last time I
played one was way back in vanilla and it looks like the class has changed a
bit since then.  I know it's all very subjective, but if your primary
objective was to heal in battlegrounds would you lean more towards a priest,
or a paladin?

It's much more fun playing a priest in PvP than playing a paladin.
Paladins have to sit there and wait for damage, and then they start
healing, and that's all they really can do. Outside of a single target
stun, and their lay on hands, they really have no utility.
Priests are very useful when not healing, which lets them do stuff
when nobody is taking damage. They can dispel buffs, they can mana
burn other healers, they can fear bomb, they can drag teammates out of
danger, and if you leave them alone, they'll mind control you. It is
really, really nice having other options, rather than only healing.
--
// T.Hsu

My Mage would Polymorph you. Because I will dump her for my priest
thank to how you reminded of how fun a priest can be in BGs.