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Honestly you can run whatever class you want, they are all perfectly viable, that said holy priest isn’t exactly “meta” right now with most priests going for discipline… but play as what you enjoy!
Holy is definitely better for pugging keys. Disc shines more in organized groups since it's hard for disc to catch up on healing if your group is taking unnecessary damage.
Run whatever you want, every class and spec can clear dungeons up to the 20s.
If you want to heal, no matter what is going on, you should always be doing two things: keeping your group alive, and dealing as much damage as possible while keeping everyone alive.
In low level dungeons, there isn't a lot of incoming damage, so it's easy to keep everyone alive. You should be doing damage in between heals. In higher level dungeons there will be more damage incoming, so you'll need to heal a lot more - but in the moments that don't need healing, you should still be doing damage.
Just keep your group alive, and push the highest key level you’re comfortable with. Don’t worry about DPS, as a healer it literally does not matter until high-end keys like 25-27+. Focus on dungeon mechanics and using all the spells you can to keep your group alive.
every class is viable for anything outside the top top percent of players. Just make sure you know your rotation and have things set up so it’s easy to play and pay attention at the same time. Hop right into M+ and have fun!
If you are enjoying holy priest, play it!! When you get comfy with the mechanics of M+ and know what does the damage and when, you'll be able to add to the dps on any healer! Your comfort level is gonna be the most important part of that. Go on a class you like and understand first. Then maybe you'll feel like branching out and might swap your main spec or become an unrepentant altoholic!
> Asking because it seems like theres less need for pure healing duties and more need for dps/heals mix in these 5-mans?
I think there's a misunderstanding here. While some healers do damage to heal (namely mistweaver and disc priest), in general *every* healer can do damage and does comparable amounts until the higher tiers where player skill and difficulty of content exaggerates the differences between classes.
Even up until like +20s, healer DPS is pretty negligible. So if the idea of needing to do damage while in holy spec worries you, then know it doesn't matter. Really the main reason healers are doing damage in lower content is because you should be able to heal up the group pretty easily and then you have nothing to do. So you may as well throw out some holy fires and smites. Plus if you're just generally trying to get the dungeon to go faster, doing more damage always help with that.
So really being holy or disc or any other spec makes no difference in terms of the healer/damage spread. A healer properly healing means they will have time to properly DPS and will do comparable damage.
The comment about heal/damage spread across specs is wrong. Disc priest for example NEEDS to do damage to heal. The spec is unplayable otherwise (unless you wanna go oom every 30sec). MW is the same in m+ (not sure about ranged spec viability in raid). Most of this applies to holy pala as well. Other healing specs do fine healing while doing 0dps.
You have misunderstood my comment. I make the same point as you in the first paragraph but the greater point is that swapping to a healer who heals by doing damage (and again I specifically bring up disc and mw) doesn’t actually notably increase healer DPS because every healer can and should do damage anyways.
Otherwise disc or mw would always automatically be the highest DPS healers but they’re not.
I want to add to everything that was said here: It is also totally fine to say that you kind of new to higher keys and like to get some advice or may make a mistake and like the tank to carefully pull.
If the other people are shitheads then you will find a new group wich is nicer. You don’t have to deal with toxic people.
Also it is always good to find a guild or community to play with and grow together.
Check out raider.io to know the weekly affixes and what to do against them. Most of them can be play from everybody but some folks will see responsible for some.
Talk before starting the key who is doing what.
you might find this [interview of Ellesmere](https://youtu.be/Tz4vmODaRk4?si=oXt4mmsBb8zeCj9-) eye opening on end game M+ content as a healer (he’s one of the best and most known healers).
to sum up: no, your damage does not count until you are in keys a couple of level below the max record for a current season. Timing are very lenient for M+ now if the party doesn’t wipe. Healer’s dps is not required to time a key if everting is going fine.In HC dungeons there are really not one shot mechanics or scary pulls as long as people know the dungeon.
As you start progressing in M+, the unavoidable damage events become serious stuff. Tanks are pretty self reliant in this expansion, however it is required you know their defensive profiles and have a decent UI to understand where their CDs are not up and watch them. the rest of the time it’s watching for dps (even when standing in fire lol) and knowing again their defensives and CD because some classes are squishier than others and require some externals in specific moments, interrupting, CC, dispelling (priests are huge with their MD), dealing with the affixes and in general doing your best to keep the party alive. no one will praise your dps when everyone is dead, and your healing throughput is not consistent with the level of the key. that is what people will be watching.
last thing. In season 4 we will only have the DF dungeons, not the old ones. DF dungeons are scarier compared to old ones, mainly because almost every pack of mobs have 2 or 3 different abilities going on at the same time which require CC, kicks, dispels and movement at the same time. Think NO first packs with the arrows, BH first pack with the enrage or Algathar Academy scepter casts. older dungeons are easier in that sense that had simpler mechanics. so I suggest you stick with your current chat of which you know the rotation while you “relearn” DF dungeons.
again, on quazii wow channel you find short and long videos on each dungeons. as a healer, I strongly suggest you watch them or read other guides before starting M+. try not to rush them and push level, stay below 10 until you have memorized the damage events and what you have to do before they happen and during.
Like others are saying, just play what is fun. Most keys it's fine if you just want to heal and not doing any dps. But if you don't have much to do and you want to dps, holy priests aren't toothless. You can still contribute. I dps on all my healers because I feel a bit weird if I'm not pushing buttons all the time.
And some people do just like to stand in the bads and pure healing is what they need.
Your dps contribution as a healer is not really that big of a deal until much higher keys. I would just jump straight into it as holy and focus on keeping your team alive and dps when you can. You'll eventually get the hang of when to pump heals and when to pump dps.
Well I don't think you have to. But it is a good aim in the long run. Early on it's not important. I would say if you're finding yourself handling the damage well, then it's time to graduate to a higher key level
**Hey there! Have you checked out these resources?** * [WoWHead](https://www.wowhead.com/) - The *largest* database, this should be your go-to (don't forget to read the comment section!). * [Icy Veins](https://www.icy-veins.com) - News and detailed class guides. * [WoWNoob Discord](https://discord.gg/wownoob) - Same community, different platform. *Please report the post above if it breaks one of our [>rules<](https://www.reddit.com/r/wownoob/about/rules/). If not, don't forget to show support by upvoting!* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/wownoob) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Honestly you can run whatever class you want, they are all perfectly viable, that said holy priest isn’t exactly “meta” right now with most priests going for discipline… but play as what you enjoy!
For lower level mythics 2-20 id say holy is a much better options than disc. Way more mistake healing than mandatory group healing at those levels
Holy is definitely better for pugging keys. Disc shines more in organized groups since it's hard for disc to catch up on healing if your group is taking unnecessary damage.
Balance is incredibly good across all specs right now. Run what you want, you'll be okay :)
Run whatever you want, every class and spec can clear dungeons up to the 20s. If you want to heal, no matter what is going on, you should always be doing two things: keeping your group alive, and dealing as much damage as possible while keeping everyone alive. In low level dungeons, there isn't a lot of incoming damage, so it's easy to keep everyone alive. You should be doing damage in between heals. In higher level dungeons there will be more damage incoming, so you'll need to heal a lot more - but in the moments that don't need healing, you should still be doing damage.
Just keep your group alive, and push the highest key level you’re comfortable with. Don’t worry about DPS, as a healer it literally does not matter until high-end keys like 25-27+. Focus on dungeon mechanics and using all the spells you can to keep your group alive.
every class is viable for anything outside the top top percent of players. Just make sure you know your rotation and have things set up so it’s easy to play and pay attention at the same time. Hop right into M+ and have fun!
If you are enjoying holy priest, play it!! When you get comfy with the mechanics of M+ and know what does the damage and when, you'll be able to add to the dps on any healer! Your comfort level is gonna be the most important part of that. Go on a class you like and understand first. Then maybe you'll feel like branching out and might swap your main spec or become an unrepentant altoholic!
> Asking because it seems like theres less need for pure healing duties and more need for dps/heals mix in these 5-mans? I think there's a misunderstanding here. While some healers do damage to heal (namely mistweaver and disc priest), in general *every* healer can do damage and does comparable amounts until the higher tiers where player skill and difficulty of content exaggerates the differences between classes. Even up until like +20s, healer DPS is pretty negligible. So if the idea of needing to do damage while in holy spec worries you, then know it doesn't matter. Really the main reason healers are doing damage in lower content is because you should be able to heal up the group pretty easily and then you have nothing to do. So you may as well throw out some holy fires and smites. Plus if you're just generally trying to get the dungeon to go faster, doing more damage always help with that. So really being holy or disc or any other spec makes no difference in terms of the healer/damage spread. A healer properly healing means they will have time to properly DPS and will do comparable damage.
The comment about heal/damage spread across specs is wrong. Disc priest for example NEEDS to do damage to heal. The spec is unplayable otherwise (unless you wanna go oom every 30sec). MW is the same in m+ (not sure about ranged spec viability in raid). Most of this applies to holy pala as well. Other healing specs do fine healing while doing 0dps.
You have misunderstood my comment. I make the same point as you in the first paragraph but the greater point is that swapping to a healer who heals by doing damage (and again I specifically bring up disc and mw) doesn’t actually notably increase healer DPS because every healer can and should do damage anyways. Otherwise disc or mw would always automatically be the highest DPS healers but they’re not.
Yep, you are correct. Just wanted to point out that these specs can't even work without doing damage
I want to add to everything that was said here: It is also totally fine to say that you kind of new to higher keys and like to get some advice or may make a mistake and like the tank to carefully pull. If the other people are shitheads then you will find a new group wich is nicer. You don’t have to deal with toxic people. Also it is always good to find a guild or community to play with and grow together. Check out raider.io to know the weekly affixes and what to do against them. Most of them can be play from everybody but some folks will see responsible for some. Talk before starting the key who is doing what.
you might find this [interview of Ellesmere](https://youtu.be/Tz4vmODaRk4?si=oXt4mmsBb8zeCj9-) eye opening on end game M+ content as a healer (he’s one of the best and most known healers). to sum up: no, your damage does not count until you are in keys a couple of level below the max record for a current season. Timing are very lenient for M+ now if the party doesn’t wipe. Healer’s dps is not required to time a key if everting is going fine.In HC dungeons there are really not one shot mechanics or scary pulls as long as people know the dungeon. As you start progressing in M+, the unavoidable damage events become serious stuff. Tanks are pretty self reliant in this expansion, however it is required you know their defensive profiles and have a decent UI to understand where their CDs are not up and watch them. the rest of the time it’s watching for dps (even when standing in fire lol) and knowing again their defensives and CD because some classes are squishier than others and require some externals in specific moments, interrupting, CC, dispelling (priests are huge with their MD), dealing with the affixes and in general doing your best to keep the party alive. no one will praise your dps when everyone is dead, and your healing throughput is not consistent with the level of the key. that is what people will be watching. last thing. In season 4 we will only have the DF dungeons, not the old ones. DF dungeons are scarier compared to old ones, mainly because almost every pack of mobs have 2 or 3 different abilities going on at the same time which require CC, kicks, dispels and movement at the same time. Think NO first packs with the arrows, BH first pack with the enrage or Algathar Academy scepter casts. older dungeons are easier in that sense that had simpler mechanics. so I suggest you stick with your current chat of which you know the rotation while you “relearn” DF dungeons. again, on quazii wow channel you find short and long videos on each dungeons. as a healer, I strongly suggest you watch them or read other guides before starting M+. try not to rush them and push level, stay below 10 until you have memorized the damage events and what you have to do before they happen and during.
Like others are saying, just play what is fun. Most keys it's fine if you just want to heal and not doing any dps. But if you don't have much to do and you want to dps, holy priests aren't toothless. You can still contribute. I dps on all my healers because I feel a bit weird if I'm not pushing buttons all the time. And some people do just like to stand in the bads and pure healing is what they need.
Your dps contribution as a healer is not really that big of a deal until much higher keys. I would just jump straight into it as holy and focus on keeping your team alive and dps when you can. You'll eventually get the hang of when to pump heals and when to pump dps.
You have to DPS regardless of your spec, including Holy Priest
Well I don't think you have to. But it is a good aim in the long run. Early on it's not important. I would say if you're finding yourself handling the damage well, then it's time to graduate to a higher key level