Mythic+ Healer Rankings: PTR Tier List for The War Within (Patch 11.1 / Season 2)

Mistweaver Monk received quite a few changes in the upcoming patch, leading to improvement in their Mythic+ performance for Season 2. One of the best things to ever happen to the spec is the introduction of Jade Empowerment which allows your Crackling Jade Lightning do to a ton of single-target/priority-target and AoE damage while also healing you allies (like an extra minor cooldown). That in combination with how great Jade Bond talent has been (especially the CDR thanks to Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane) makes them crazy good. In addition to that, their new tier-set is fantastic! Mistweaver's current HPS profile is amazing as it can easily tackle any given encounter in Mythic+ while contributing to the team with its great damage profile (yes, most of your damage still requires you to be in melee). All of this combined plays well with the strong utility package they offer, cementing their current best spot on the PTR.

Holy Paladin received quite a bit of changes, with the most notable being beefing up the Holy Shock healing/damage output which creates further synergy with their tier-set, giving further damage amps during Divine Toll windows. All of this combined allows Divine Toll to have a shorter cooldown which makes it easier to tackle hard healing checks which come frequently. So both healing and damage output at the moment are better than what they were in the previous season. Their toolkit remains the same - one of the best party-wide utilities paired with strong defensiveness (even immunity), and excellent mob control. Overall, we expect them to continue to be a solid choice for a healer going into Season 2.

Restoration Druid has gotten their fair share of changes leading up to Season 2, most notably changes done to their Mastery effect. Although their current rotation plays similar to what we are used to in Season 1, there have been numerous quality-of-life changes that will ease your life in Mythic+ (like interrupting a target), with a bigger emphasis on committing to either "Owl weaving" or "Cat weaving" (choose one!!). There are a few more survivability notes that could strengthen their durability further while keeping your incredible party-wide utility unchanged. Both their damage and healing profiles are in a good state but nowhere near "broken" to enter S-tier rankings.

Unfortunately for Holy Priest, received its fair share of changes leading up to Season 2, which will not cause a significant shift of gameplay of what you are already used to. They will maintain their decent DPS and HPS profiles, which output is not enough to rank them higher on the tierlist compared to the rest of the healing specs. In addition, they will continue to face the same limitations as in Season 1 - low mobility and insufficient mob control. Additionally, they are one of the few healing specializations lacking an interrupt spell, which makes their mob-control one of the weakest, compared to the rest of the healing specs. However, it is noteworthy that this specialization is considered one of the easier healing options due to its reactive healing capabilities, which are adept at addressing any form of incoming or sustained HPS challenges, complemented by robust spot-healing.

Restoration Shaman received its fair share of changes, including the removal of some of their minor cooldowns like Ancestral Guidance and Mana Tide Totem to name a few, which will have a minor impact on your gameplay. They will however retain their incredibly party-wide utility and healing capabilities, but it seems this time around to be much more mana "hungry" than the rest of the specialization, as well as having lower damage output. Further changes will determine their final placement but for now, other specializations just have higher output than you.

Discipline Priest is likely the healer with the most amount of changes coming into Season 2, from removal of Rapture cooldown, to redesigning how Void Summoner plays out (degenerate Smite playstyle is now no more) being triggered by either Mind Blast / Penance and such. Their healing/damage output still appears to be great, but nowhere near as dominant as they were in Season 1 (the best by far!). In addition, they will retain their strong external utility packages such as 2x Pain Suppression and Power Word: Barrier. Further tuning will tell how they turn out, but as of now, they remain a promising choice.

Preservation Evoker has received its fair share of changes, more specifically focusing on making Flameshaper builds a lot more competitive in PvE environment. They still have the shortest offensive and defensive ability range among all healers, which is a massive issue. Their performance, more specifically their damage and healing output, has been great, making it a great pick up with any group composition. Overall, they do not stand out as the best healing option for Mythic+ simply because of how hard it is to make them work in a pug environment and inability to compete with the top healing specs for pure output (current best Mistweaver Monk for example). The group awareness must be present for them to understand how your healing profile works so you can unlock your full potential.