Dragonflight Healer Rankings: Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope Raiding Tier List (Patch 10.2.6) (Patch 10.2.6 / Season 4) (2024)

April 26 early Season 4 update: with the firstdungeon and raid clears coming through Preservation Evokeris performing very well with the buffed Season 1 tier bonus and friendly encounterdesign of Vault of the Incarnates. Restoration Shamansand Restoration Druidsare also performing much better than originally anticipated, as are Holy Priests.

Holy Paladinsare also doing well, but Mistweaver Monksand Discipline Priesthad sizable nerfs, reflected in their lower throughput performance thus far whencompared to the previous Season. Regardless, the unique healing style and powerfulcooldowns of these 3 specs still makes them valuable to bring to the raid, andthus no B-ranks are currently to be awarded.

The rankings below reflect the current Amirdrassil raid meta and will beupdated over time as more hotfixes and patches hit the live servers.

To understand why these rankings are the way they are, you first need tounderstand what is most valued in a raid setting. For healers, we value healingthroughput, cooldowns, DPS output, and other miscellaneous utility.

Just because a healer is currently low ranked in the tier list, it does notmean that it is not viable or that it will not become much better after balancechanges. Also, excellent players will always be deserving of a raid spot,regardless of their specialization.

The main exception is when you require a specific healer to bring utility thatis needed for a particular encounter (such as Rescue for low mobilityclasses), or one of the main raid buffs, such as Mark of the Wild, Power Word: Fortitude, or Devotion Aura.

You can find the summarized healer tier list below, but make sure to alsocheck the individual section for each healer in order to understand our rankingreasoning and specialization perks.

1. Holy Priest (S-Tier)
2. Mistweaver Monk (A-Tier)
3. Discipline Priest (A-Tier)
4. Holy Paladin (A-Tier)
5. Restoration Shaman (A-Tier)
6. Preservation Evoker (A-Tier)
7. Restoration Druid (A-Tier)

If you are interested in other rankings for the Season 3 raid in Dragonflight,please click the links below.

As the raid to world first unfolds, the healing meta becomes clearer, and thisnew list should more adequately display the current state of things. Regardless,we will be continuing to monitor and update the healing tier list as new hotfixesare deployed or new playstyles developed.

April 26 early Season 4 update: Holy Priestalso dodged nerfs running into Season 4 and was already one of the most popularspecializations in all raid bosses due to its flexible healing profile and easeof play. Combined with previous major buffs, Holy Priest is looking to return tothe spotlight in Season 4 as the top healer for most players.

Healing Throughput: Holy has decent throughput and is able to cover alltypes of incoming damage with its versatile kit of healing tools, which includes Prayer of Mending, Flash Heal, Prayer of Healing and the HolyWords Holy Word: Salvation plus Holy Word: Sanctify. While it is notthe best throughput healer by any means, its healing is solid and easy to set up.

Cooldowns: Holy has some powerful healing cooldowns in Holy Word: Salvation, Apotheosis, and Divine Hymn, all of which can do a large amountof burst healing when used at the right timings. Its tank external is Guardian Spirit,which increases healing taken by the target and prevents death while active. Dueto its unique healing-increasing powers, it can be extremely good in situationswhere you need to heal a friendly NPC for a large amount.

Damage Output: While Holy Priests can do a lot of damage if they commitglobals to damage abilities, doing so forces them to stop healing, which is notideal. Thus, in harder content, much of the damage potential comes from using Power Infusion on the right targets while they are using DPS cooldowns.

Utility: Holy Priest has fantastic utility, which justifiesits current rank: Symbol of Hope, even post nerf, is still a very strongraid cooldown, especially in the hands of coordinated groups that have their personalcooldowns assigned around its usage. They also provide the Power Word: Fortituderaid buff and the DPS buff Power Infusion mentioned above. Finally, their Mass Dispel is often invaluable in raid encounters and, while more niche, Leap of Faith can be a lifesaver in some situations.

Defensively and mobility-wise, Priest is rather weak and mostly relies on Desperate Prayer and Angelic Feather, but it is also the onlyhealer that can keep healing after dying with Spirit of Redemption, whichis of fantastic value in some bosses with hard execute phases.

Overall, Holy Priests' perks, ease of use, and versatility allow them to be ajack of all trades, and while they are not masters of any type of healing, theirstacked healing and spot healing capabilities are significant, as is the extradamage reduction they provide for the raid with Symbol of Hope.

April 26 early Season 4 update: Mistweaver Monkreceived a large healing nerf, but is still one of the few healers capable of doingmassive single target burst healing on demand with little concerns for Mana, especiallywhen helped out by Innervate. Revival is also still one of thefew ways to deal with a large amount of harmful debuffs and Mistweaver brings theoften elusive Mystic Touch raid debuff.

Healing Throughput: Mistweaver has excellent throughput and is able tocover all types of incoming damage with its versatile Enveloping Mist and Vivify healing kit. Much of its healing is delivered over time and lackstargeting, such as the healing produced by Essence Font and most cooldowns.Some of their healing also requires being in melee range of an enemy target,especially when looking to convert damage into healing with Ancient Teachings, Awakened Faeline, and Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane.

Cooldowns: Revival is the best-known Monk cooldown, and itdispels everyone while also doing massive healing. Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Craneand Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent are strong healing cooldowns with differentuse cases, and Monk has a lot of short cooldowns such as Faeline Stomp, Sheilun's Gift, and Thunder Focus Tea, which provide flexible benefitsdepending on the spells you combo them with. Mistweaver's tank external is Life Cocoon,which provides a massive shield and increases healing over time taken by the target.

Damage Output: Mistweaver Monks can do a lot of damage with Rising Sun Kick, Spinning Crane Kick, Blackout Kick, and Tiger Palm. Mostimportantly, their damage converts into healing efficiently with talents such as Ancient Teachings, Awakened Faeline, and Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane.These conversions create scenarios where dealing damage is the optimal healing strategyand empower Monks to be the top damage-dealing healers in raids.

Utility: Monks have a strong raid buff in Mystic Touch and providebuffs to close allies with Generous Pour and Close to Heart. Theyalso have unique utility such as Ring of Peace, can interrupt with Spear Hand Strike, and instantly AoE stun with Leg Sweep. They canalso dispel Magic, Disease, and Poison effects with Detox. Unfortunately, as long as Mystic Touch is already covered,none of the other utility tools are significant in a raid setting.

Defensively, Monk has multiple cooldowns: the massively buffed Expel Harm, Fortifying Brew, Dampen Harm, and Diffuse Magic all contributetowards making Mistweaver one of the toughest healers when played well. Mobility-wise,Monk is also exceptional with Tiger's Lust, the customizable Roll,and the instant teleportation of Transcendence, making knockbacks and othermovement-related mechanics easy to solve.

Overall, Mistweavers are one of the top healers of the current tier, and whilethey can be somewhat hard to play due to the large amount of buttons, cooldowns,and moving parts in their kit, they bring top throughput and unique tools to healthe large amount of friendly NPCs in Amirdrassil and Revival, which isinvaluable on the final boss.

April 26 early Season 4 update: despite the harshnerf to Atonement healing and general throughput, Discipline Prieststill brings by far the highest DPS contribution of all healers and powerful damagereduction abilities to a raid group. Its burst healing profile also remains untouchedbut the rotation of raids will make it much harder to memorize and get used to allthe fights, making it much harder to produce consistently great numbers for mostplayers.

Healing Throughput: Discipline can have strong throughput but has difficultywith spot healing in raids as it is tied to predictable burst timings driven byits short cooldowns. On the upside, it has frequent raid burst healing windowsenabled by Atonement spreading from Power Word: Radiance and multiplesingle-target applicators, such as Renew and Power Word: Shield,which makes it a strong healer against periodic raid burst damage patterns.

Cooldowns: Discipline has a very powerful healing cooldown in Power Word: Barrier, which offers massive damage reduction, but only insideits small area of effect. Rapture is also a strong cooldown for bothemergency spot healing and ramp setups. Post-revamp, Discipline can easily amplifyits Atonement healing with Shadowfiend, as many of the old cooldownsare now baked into it. Finally, its tank external is Pain Suppression, whichprovides a large amount of damage reduction for its target.

Damage Output: Discipline Priests tend to bring the strongest healer DPSin-game due to their rotation heavily involving the use of DPS abilities for Atonement healing (which includes multiple DPS cooldowns) and the Power Infusion cooldown, which is a significant raid damage gain when usedwell.

Utility: Discipline Priest has good utility, as they providethe Power Word: Fortitude raid buff and the DPS buff Power Infusionmentioned above. Their Mass Dispel, even post-nerf, is also often invaluablein raid encounters and, while more niche, Leap of Faith can be a lifesaverin some situations.

Defensively and mobility-wise, Discipline Priest might be the weakest healerof all, with only Desperate Prayer, Fade (with Translucent Image),and Angelic Feather to help out in those areas.

Overall, Discipline Priests have a tight kit that can perform well for healingmultiple situations, while also doing significant DPS and bringing multiple damagereduction options. While it is still not the ideal healer in random player spot-healing-heavyscenarios, other healers can easily cover that gap, leaving Discipline to be oneof the best healers at doing everything else in the current tier.

April 26 early Season 4 update: Holy Paladinreceived no changes in a start of season defined by significant healer nerfs. Whilethis does not make them S-Rank just yet due to their very low starting healingbaseline, it is a step in their way back to the top of the healing ladder, helpedout by their high spot-healing capabilities and great damage reduction tools.

Healing Throughput: Paladins has decent raw throughput, some of whichis delivered as absorb shield healing from Barrier of Faith, Greater Judgment,and Overflowing Light, as well as Tyr's Deliverance and Holy Shock,allowing for high amounts of spot healing, which also cleaves off the tank with Beacon of Light and its supporting talents.

Cooldowns: Holy sports a strong healing increase cooldown in Avenging Wrath,a large damage reduction cooldowns for the raid with Aura Mastery plus Devotion Aura, and a fine tank external with Blessing of Sacrifice. Divine Toll and Daybreak can be pressed frequently for large cooldownhealing, as well, and Lay on Hands is great for emergencies.

Damage Output: While not as strong as it once was, Holy Paladin stillhas a decent damage profile, and you can get a lot of damage from your melee swingsand rotational abilities such as Judgment. Using Blessing of Summeron the right targets also provide a good amount of damage.

Utility: Holy Paladin sports some of the best unique utilityin the game with their Blessing of Protection, Devotion Aura, and Retribution Aura. They can also interrupt on a short cooldown with Rebuke, crowd control with Hammer of Justice, Turn Evil, Blinding Light, and Repentance, and combat ress with Intercession.

They dispel Magic, Disease, and Poison effects with Cleanse, any movement-impairing effect with Blessing of Freedom.Defensively wise, Divine Shield is the only immunity ability provided toa healer class, and they also have plate armor, strong defensive talents, and Divine Protection. Their mobility is mostly tied to Divine Steed,making it one of the few things where Paladins do not excel.

Overall, Holy Paladin still has a very strong kit and an almost guaranteed spotin a raid, even if their overall throughput is currently quite low, as they areone of the top spot healing specialists.

April 26 early Season 4 update: Restoration Shamanreceived an unexpected 5% healing nerf, but is statistically still performing verywell throughput wise. Ultimately, Restoration will always have great throughputin a progression environment where Mastery can accrue value and Spirit Link Totem, Ancestral Protection Totem, and other raid survivability tools can be usedto great effect, but it still lacks a raid buff and is reliant on stacked healing.Mana sustain can also be a problem, but not currently due to Resurgenceplus very high critical strike levels from gear on top of 15% extra crit from thebuffed Season 1 set.

Healing Throughput: Restoration has decent healing for all situationsbut suffers from having much of its area healing tied to Healing Rain,which requires a large number of players to be inside and damaged for its duration. Chain Heal is a much more versatile spell, especially with Tidebringer,but taxes Mana heavily, limiting its use. A similar situation arises with Healing Waveand Healing Surge, creating an environment where Shamans have tools forall situations but are not particularly good in any situation.

Cooldowns: Shaman has multiple powerful healing cooldowns: Spirit Link Totemis the most well-known and allows you to survive healing reduction effects or extremeraid damage, especially if unevenly distributed. Unleash Life, Cloudburst Totem, Ascendance and Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem serve asmultipliers to your healing, as does Primordial Wave to an extent, andall of them can be very powerful if you are using them at the right time. Healing Tide Totemis also a decent healing cooldown, which has lower potency than similar effectsfrom other healers but also allows you to continue casting during its duration. Earthen Wall Totem is a small but powerful cooldown, especially againstmany small hits. Finally, and notably, Restoration lacks a tank external, but has Earth Shield and Earthen Harmony's passive damage reduction to compensate.

Damage Output: Restoration Shaman has multiple strong damage tools, butmost require taking specific talents and dedicating many cooldowns to DPSing. Examplesinclude Acid Rain which turns Healing Rain into a strong damageeffect, Stormkeeper which provides burst damage, Lava Surgefor instant damage with Lava Burst and Master of the Elements toincrease your damage (and healing!) after each Lava Burst cast.

Utility: Restoration Shaman is known for its many utility tools,but these also tend to be extremely niche. Besides the aforementioned Spirit Link Totemwhich can occasionally be the only cooldown that works in extreme situations, Ancestral Protection Totem has the unique power of resurrecting someone,making it very useful for suiciding dangerous mechanics. Shamans also have Ancestral Vigorfor passively increasing raid health, Tremor Totem to break fear, charm, and sleep effects, Poison Cleansing Totem for mass removing poisons, and Stoneskin Totem against physical damage, as well as many other niche utilityoptions.

Restoration Shaman also has good survivability talent options in Brimming with Lifeand Astral Shift plus its supporting talents, as well as Earth Elementalor Spirit Wolf, which doubles as a mobility tool. Ghost Wolf and Gust of Wind are the primary burst movement options, but Spiritwalker's Gracecan be even stronger, as it allows you to cast while moving. Finally, Shaman hasthe unique perk of being able to self-resurrect with Reincarnation!

Overall, Restoration Shamans are strong all-rounders due to their versatiletoolkit, and can occasionally be indispensable due to their unique utility. Theyare currently doing great healing in the raid, but do not bring a useful raid buff,which makes them more of an afterthought addition to a healing roster, once allmandatory spots are filled.

May 04 early Season 4 update: outside of thefavorable Vault encounter design, Preservation is doing middling healing, makingit a good, but by no means top healer for the average Dragonflight raid. Regardless, Nasz'uro, the Unbound Legacy, the versatile Season 1 tier, and unique utilitylike Rescue and Time Spiral will keep it in the A-tier alongsidemost of the other healers.

Healing Throughput: Preservation has excellent burst healing, especiallyagainst raid-wide damage with its frequent Essence Burst-powered Emerald Blossomcasts, further amplified by Cycle of Life. Temporal Anomaly can alsobe used to create multiple Echos, which can then serve to replicate Reversion(with Golden Hour for burst), Dream Breath, or Verdant Embrace(which also activates Lifebind for extra healing when followed up by highself-healing abilities such as Emerald Communion, Spiritbloom,or Living Flame).

Cooldowns: Evoker is a very cooldown-oriented healer, ranging from theextremely powerful but high cooldown Rewind, to the short "build your owncooldown" Stasis. Emerald Communion is also a decent cooldownwhen appropriately used with high Lifebind counts. Zephyr hasa small target cap but reduces damage taken significantly. Finally, its externalcooldown is Time Dilation, which delays 50% of the damage taken by thetarget on a very short cooldown.

Damage Output: Preservation Evoker has good AoE damage potentialand can also do high single-target damage if you can get into a rhythm of castingan Ancient Flame-empowered Living Flame every time you press Emerald Blossomor Verdant Embrace. Using Living Flame will also be made easier by the returnof the Vault tier set, which makes it instant cast and increases its damage andhealing.

Utility: Preservation has a lot of niche, but occasionally indispensable,utility. It has a raid buff, Blessing of the Bronze, and a strong permanenthealer buff in Source of Magic with Potent Mana. Landslideserves as a mass rooting effect, which can be essential in specific fights. Rescueallows the Evoker to move any player around and is fantastic in encounters withstrong knockback mechanics that can be ignored with it. Time Spiral servesa similar purpose and keeps your raid mobile even when mobility personals need tobe used back to back. Zephyr has already been mentioned for its damagereduction above, but can also be used for its movement speed increase.

Evokers can also remove Magic and Poison with Naturalize,and Cauterizing Flame can remove bleeds, curses, and almost all other non-magicdebuffs. The bleed removal component is especially useful in some raid encounterswhere only immunities or a Paladin's Blessing of Protection can remove high-damagebleeds.

Defensively, Preservation is one of the weakest healers' baseline but compensatesby having two personal cooldowns: Obsidian Scales and Renewing Blaze,which have relatively short cooldowns. Movement and knockbacks are very easy todeal with due to the double-jump mechanic native to Evokers and the short cooldown Hover.

Overall, Preservation Evoker is a cooldown machine likely to have something touse on every major incoming damage source. Its sustained healing is not the best,but through tier bonuses and Emerald Blossom or Echo combos, itworks well enough to still be significant during cooldown downtime. It is alsonoteworthy that Preservation is one of the most flexible healers on whether to useits resources for DPS or healing, as the situation demands.

Unfortunately, these strengths are counterbalanced by the radius limitationsof Emerald Blossom, the complexities of Echo gameplay, and byPreservation having a lower range than other healers, making Preservation a poorchoice for spread fights. Their utility is also mostly already covered by DPS Evokers,making them weak in that regard as well.

April 26 early Season 4 update: Restoration Druidhad a global 5% healing nerf coming into Season 4. While not completely unexpecteddue to their dominant position in Mythic+, this nerf has seemingly done little tolower Druid's throughput in raids, and they remain a strong throughput providerwhich also brings the critical Mark of the Wild raid buff. The main loomingissue for Druids is Mana management, as they often rely on external trinkets suchas Amalgam's Seventh Spine, but the options this tier are much weaker forthis purpose.

Healing Throughput: Druid has very high throughput potential, and isunique among healer classes in that it mostly relies on heals over time, suchas Lifebloom and Rejuvenation, to deliver its healing. Thisdelivery method works well in Aberrus due to the high amount of constant raiddamage happening in most encounters. Most of their heals can also be done whilemoving, allowing throughput to remain high even in the most hectic of raid bosses.

Cooldowns: Restoration has good healing cooldowns in Incarnation: Tree of Life, Convoke the Spirits, and Flourish, which can be used separatelyor as part of a burst healing combo, which can heal through high amounts of damage.Its tank external, Ironbark reduces damage taken and increases healingtaken by the target, making it one of the best tools of its kind, especially dueto its relatively low cooldown.

Damage Output: While Restoration Druids can do a lot of damage if theyoptimize their talents for it and use Cat Form and / or Heart of the Wild,focusing on damage will tank their healing, which means that, in a raid setting,most of their damage will typically come from the usage of Sunfire, Moonfire, and Nature's Vigil, along with their healing cooldowns.While this damage is something, it is generally weak when compared to other healers.

Utility: Druids have their own raid cooldown in Mark of the Wild,and also bring Innervate, which can be used on themselves or other healers, Stampeding Roar for a short-cooldown raid-wide movement speed increase and Ursol's Vortex plus Typhoon to control enemy movements or Mass Entanglementto completely stop them, if needed.

Mobility-wise, Druid is quite strong with the passive speed gain of Cat Formand burst speed of Tiger Dash / Dash or Wild Charge, ontop of being able to cast most of their rotation while moving and at range. Theirmain defensive is Barkskin, which has a very low cooldown, and they canshift into Bear Form at will to make themselves even tankier.

Overall, Restoration Druids have decent utility and a unique healing style,further pushed by Grove Guardians, but also relatively low healing,especially of the burst kind, making them a relatively weak option currently.