Mythic+ Healer Rankings: Beta Tier List for Midnight (Patch 12.1 / Season 2)

Mistweaver Monk in Season will see some nerfs to Way of the Crane, which will lead to some changes to its playstyle depending on the mob count. It also received a buff towards Jadefire Teachings. The current performance of Mistweaver continues to be amazing, with an exceptional HPS profile, and even better DPS output.

We are quite happy with the current tuning of Mistweaver Monk, which looks to be very strong compared to the rest of the healing specializations. Further tuning will decide their final placement of course, but for now they remain one of the strongest options on the PTR.

Discipline Priest is getting a minor facelift for Season 2. Mind Blast, which will be more frequent but less "meaty" individually, now procs a Void Shield, and the spec will likely have some more build diversity in Season 2 as well. Both hero talents are currently performing fairly close in terms of overall power, meaning Voidweaver is back on the menu.

The current healing profile of Discipline Priest is looking good, but what's more impressive about the spec is the incredible DPS output. The spec has always been known for healing through damage, but seldom ended up outperforming other specs in Mythic+. Until now.

The mana management on the other hand might need some optimization, but that's a small price to pay for the toolkit they provide. Discipline Priest will retain its unique party-wide utility, which is often one of the most desirable in Mythic+, and they currently rank as one of the most promising healers for next season. The final jury is still out, of course, but what we've seen so far is making us very hopeful.

Restoration Shaman is one of the healers that received barely any changes as we are slowly moving towards Season 2. Season 2 itself, with the changes on the PTR, seem to be putting a large emphasis on Healing Rain. Having the new tier-set further bolstering one of the core healing abilities of the spec can be advantageous, as passive healing is always welcomed. However, it also creates problems for those who don't fully benefit from it, like ranged players who typically do not stand inside the Healing Rain effect.

While the single-target healing is good, their current AoE healing output is one of the main struggles, as heavy HPS encounters can turn out to be tough for them even when the group can fully stack. In addition, their DPS output is currently considered one of the lowest among all healers. Despite all of this, Restoration Shaman will always have a place in physical-comp groups, due to the incredible party-wide utility they offer with Skyfury and easy access to Bloodlust. With a bit better tuning, we are sure they will once again shine.

Preservation Evoker looks to be receiving its fair share of changes leading up to Season 2, with some of the highlights being a handful of changes to Merithra's Blessing, instead putting that power into some of your core abilities, and significantly increasing the healing-over-time from Dream Breath, which helps a ton in rot-damage situations. Preservation Evoker has one of the highest HPS profiles in Mythic+ compared to the rest of the healers, as long as all conditions are met, with positioning being one of the most important ones. Additionally, their damage output is just as high as their healing. While both HPS & DPS are not a concern at all for the spec, Preservation remains one of the few Healing specs without an impactful group-wide buff, which is often a main consideration when deciding which spec to invite for your group.

So far into the PTR testing, Preservation Evoker is looking fantastic, but the final tuning will decide their fate. If Augmentation Evoker becomes a top-meta pick, Preservation might be relegated in favor of another healer spec that offers better and different group buffs and utility, as Augmentation will already bring the entire Evoker kit.

Holy Paladin are in a weird spot so far on the PTR, as their AoE healing output is a major issue so far. The overall healing balance of their spells is also questionable, as some of their best builds, like the full 'casterdin' where they rarely Holy Shock, are not landing quite where the community and developers were hoping. Holy paladins do offer strong priority-target healing and group-wide utility though, so the spec remains quite strong, which gives us confidence that with the right tuning, the spec can quickly rise in rankings.

Restoration Druid has received its fair share of changes, unfortunately, most of them negative. Some of the more impactful ones being a nerf to Abundance, and lost healing-over-time extension from Swiftmend. In addition to this, the current tuning of Restoration Druid is quite off the mark, as its HPS profile is not doing well in its current state during the PTR. However, Druid's unique utility will always be a great fit for group-wide content, and we are sure that if Restoration Druids gets a bit more love leading up to the season start, they will once again find their place within the high rankings. But, for now, we are placing the spec in the bottom half of our tierlist, while hoping and waiting for further buffs.

Holy Priest is looking to receive some attention to their mana issues in Season 2, with a reduced mana cost of Benediction & buffs to Apotheosis, while also upping its healing output. The core rotation of the Holy Priest will largely remain unchanged; nothing new has been added, nor does your tier-set change your rotation in a severe manner.

Their current HPS output is considered decent, but when confronted with steady, continuous healing requirements, the spec might find itself in a tricky situation, especially when cooldowns are down. Mana continues to be a limiting factor if you cannot plan your cooldowns around high damage intake windows. Simply said, other Healers offer a better toolkit fit for this season, and with Discipline Priest as its counterpart performing better than Holy so far into the PTR, ranking Holy Priest any higher is unfortunately not possible as of the most recent PTR build.