Updated 2025-08-14: Mages have blasted their way out of C-Tier.
With Classic WoW: Season of Discovery surviving an intense launch weekend we’re able to provide an update to our tier list now that many more players have gotten their hands on the new runes. The promise of new challenges, rebalanced mechanics, and a revitalized gaming experience has sparked a wave of excitement. In this season, healers find themselves at the forefront, their roles more critical than ever.
However, a sense of cautious optimism prevails as we don’t truly know how the new Runes and Gear will affect gameplay. As players prepare to don their sacred robes, wield ancestral totems, or invoke divine incantations, this Healer Tier list provides a bit of insight into every healing class in Classic WoW’s Season of Discovery. Let us delve into this realm of healing prowess, celebrating the excitement of the unknown while maintaining a watchful eye on the challenges that lie ahead.
Please be aware that these Hardcore Gamer tier lists will be regularly updated as the WoW Classic season unfolds. Class rankings may undergo frequent changes, particularly at the onset of each phase as the level bracket gradually ascends to 60. The list is based on current assessments of each class’s anticipated performance in raid or dungeon scenarios.
Why Trust Hardcore Gamer’s WoW Tier Lists?
The Hardcore Gamer team recently attended Blizzcon 2023 to gain further insights into what WoW Classic: SOD had in store. Through hands-on sessions with the demo on the Blizzcon floor, the team had the opportunity to experiment with various classes and specializations. With experience since the original vanilla wow days back in 2004 and 2005, private servers, WoW Classic and now conducting research on the new runes introduced for each class, has contributed to the theorycrafting process, improving the development of this Healer tier list.
We also have players who have cleared the new 10-man raid, Blackfathom Deeps, before the first reset.
WoW: SOD Healer Tier List Ranking Criteria
It is important to outline the main factors we took into consideration when building this Season of Discovery Healer tier list. The factors applied are based on each class’s ability in the Blackfathom Deeps raid. Below the factors considered are in order of importance when weighing each factor:
Season of Discovery Healer Tier List Overall Ranking
To jump to a specific tier or class, click on the table below.
Paladin,Mage
Druid,Shaman
Best Healer in WoW SOD
Difficulty
Single Target Healing
AoE Healing
The Holy Priest in WoW Classic Season of Discovery brings forth a focus on sustained healing and support, making them invaluable for maintaining party or raid group health over extended periods. With Holy Nova and Circle of Healing, they excel in providing robust AoE healing capabilities. Additionally, Serendipity and Prayer of Mending enhance burst healing potential, allowing Holy Priests to swiftly respond to intense moments in encounters. The inclusion of Power Word: Barrier further fortifies their toolkit substantially, offering a significant 25% damage reduction for all party members, making Holy Priests particularly effective in encounters with substantial incoming damage. The Improved Healing talent contributes to mana efficiency, vital for prolonged fights where effective mana management becomes a determining factor. Holy Priests are versatile with options for both tank and raid healing roles, provided by talents like Penance and Circle of Healing. Furthermore, the Inspiration talent offers improved armor for the target, adding a layer of mitigation against physical damage.
However, Holy Priests do face certain drawbacks. Their effectiveness is highly dependent on gear, potentially posing challenges in progression without proper equipment. In a raid setting, their primary role as healers limits their contribution to DPS, particularly affecting performance during fights with downtime. While Circle of Healing provides potent AoE healing, its predictability may require strategic positioning for optimal effectiveness. Additionally, Holy Priests lack mobility compared to some other classes, which can be a drawback in encounters demanding frequent movement. The class also demands a certain level of skill intensity, requiring players to demonstrate situational awareness, precise target prioritization, and well-timed cooldown usage. Lastly, competition for raid spots could be a factor, with Holy Priests needing to assert their utility against other healing classes within the raid composition.
A-Tier Healers in WoW SOD
Holy Paladins in WoW Classic Season of Discovery offer several strengths over other healers. Emphasizing mana efficiency, talents like Divine Intellect and Blessing of Wisdom enhance the Paladin’s ability to sustain healing over extended periods. Survivability is increased through Spiritual Focus, providing a 70% chance to avoid interruption while casting. The allocation of points in Healing Light strengthens single-target healing, particularly with Flash of Light and Holy Light. They can also incorporate Improved Lay on Hands for a potent emergency healing ability and Beacon of Light, a robust tool for simultaneously healing multiple party or raid members. Additionally, Divine Sacrifice contributes to damage reduction, redirecting 30% of damage taken by party members and providing a cooldown effect when the Paladin’s health drops below 20%. Additionally, the Leg Runes offer situational considerations, such as Inspiration Exemplar for fear and sleep encounters where damage mitigation isn’t needed. The inclusion of Horn of Lordaeron further enhances raid utility by providing a strength and agility buff.
However, Holy Paladins generally don’t heavily invest in talents that enhance area-of-effect healing, and while Divine Storm is an alternative for some DPS while healing, the focus remains primarily on healing. The Paladin’s contribution to overall raid DPS might be limited. The choice between Illumination and Blessing of Wisdom is subjective, dependent on encounter specifics and available gear. Additionally, the effectiveness of Illumination is contingent on critical hits, and at level 25 with potentially limited gear, the frequency of critical heals may not be guaranteed.
Mages' healing is directly tied to their damaging abilities, not commonly found in traditional healers. They will need to have the Regeneration and Arcane Blast Runes equipped to start to show their potential for single-target healing, and once they obtain Mass Regeneration, they’ve got group Healing covered. There will need to be targets available to deal damage to heal effectively. While this is a slight drawback as they need to prepare for incoming damage to react quickly, the damage that they bring is a considerable amount. They’re going to have to maintain Temporal Beacon on the right players to be effective.
So far in BFD Arcane healing Mages are keeping pace with other healers in terms of raw healing output. There are some interesting quirks with the interaction of other Arcane Mages that provide Temporal Beacon and Living Flame.
They have great burst AoE healing capabilities with the rune Mass Regeneration, along with Improved Arcane Explosion, in encounters with multiple targets, despite the recent nerfs to Arcane Explosion, they still provide decent AoE Healing. The inclusion of mana-efficient talents such as Arcane Concentration and Arcane Meditation enhances the Mage’s sustainability in managing both damage and healing output. There is also potential to provide a big reactive heal when choosing the rune Rewind Time instead but will require good knowledge to prepare for the damage.
Mana efficiency will need to be carefully monitored though with high-cost spells. The hybrid nature of the role may not be optimal for all raid compositions, as it lacks some traditional healing tools, making it more suitable for specific scenarios or as a supplementary healer.
B-Tier Healers in WoW SOD
Druid healing in WoW Classic Season of Discovery offers a versatile approach, accommodating both damage-dealing and healing roles. With talents like Improved Healing Touch and Reflection, Druid’s are more efficient in delivering healing spells while maintaining Mana sustainability during casting. The inclusion of Subtlety reduces threat generation, ensuring the Druid can heal without pulling aggro. The choice between Living Seed and Fury of Stormrage for the chest rune adds strategic depth, providing either additional healing support or the option for a hybrid DPS to healing playstyle. Wild Growth and Life Bloom as hand and leg runes, respectively, contribute potent AoE and sustained healing, emphasizing the build’s strength in raid scenarios.
While Druids are well-suited for raid scenarios, their effectiveness may vary based on encounter mechanics and raid composition. Their focus on raid healing, with some capability for tank healing, might make it less specialized for single-target healing compared to other classes. Furthermore, there may be limited with burst AoE healing options and could require skillful management when adopting the hybrid DPS to healing role with Fury of Stormrage. Their effectiveness is likely influenced by gear availability and quality. Overall, Druids present a robust and adaptable option, demonstrating strength in raids but requiring thoughtful consideration of talents and playstyle management.
Single Target Damage
AoE Damage
Cleave Damage
Resto Shamans in the Season of Discovery bring versatility to group dynamics, with a diverse toolkit that includes totems and utility spells. The Ancestral Healing talent enhances survivability by boosting the target’s armor after critical heals, providing mitigation against physical damage. Earth Shield, offers both protection and healing benefits to the target. Totems, a hallmark of Shaman utility, can be optimized through talents like Totemic Focus and Totemic Mastery, reducing Mana costs and enhancing their effectiveness. The Healing Rain chest rune introduces valuable AoE healing to the Shaman’s repertoire, while Water Shield provides passive Mana regeneration. Additionally, the potential hybrid ability of Ancestral Guidance allows Shamans to convert damage to healing and vice versa.
Despite their strengths, Shaman healers face challenges such as Mana efficiency concerns, especially in prolonged encounters or when frequent totem usage is necessary. Shaman healing spells lack inherent threat reduction, relying on the Healing Grace talent for this purpose, which might not match the threat management capabilities of other healing classes. Additionally, the class may have less burst healing capacity, impacting their performance in heavy damage situations. The Shaman’s dependency on totems, while offering utility, introduces a need for strategic placement and vulnerability to disruption. Finally, the competition with other healing classes, suggests that Shaman healing might be perceived as slightly less potent than that of Priest, Druid, and Paladin in certain contexts.
Worst Healer in WoW SOD
None! Every specialization is fully capable of healing the current content at level 25. It would be completely unfair to label any healing spec as the worst and prevent any players from taking part in the content they want to enjoy.
