More than 50% of the best healers play the same class in World of Warcraft. No wonder, as all other healers have less to offer.
The toughest dungeons in World of Warcraft require experienced players to be able to handle them at all. Especially in Keystone dungeons of level 10 and higher, skill, coordination, and an excellent understanding of the game are necessary to beat the timer – this applies to all group members, including the healer.
But one healer is played more than all the others: the shaman is currently the ultimate choice when it comes to Mythic+.
What do the data say? On the site raider.io, you can filter various information about different dungeon and raid contents. For example, you can see how many dungeons have been completed in the “Mythic+” category and which classes are represented in certain contents.
Here, it is particularly interesting when you look at which healers have been used at the difficulty of “Mythic+10 and higher” – because the result is striking, as the following graphic shows (via raider.io):
- 53.4% play shaman (restoration)
- 11.3% play paladin (holy)
- 9.3% play druid (preservation)
- 9.2% play priest (holy)
- 5.8% play monk (mistweaver)
- 5.6% play priest (discipline)
- 5.5% play druid (restoration)
Why do so many play a shaman healer? Shamans seem to be particularly well-suited against the current threats, thanks to their diverse abilities. Because shamans have:
- One of the best interrupts in the game.
- Battle rage or heroism.
- Two crowd control effects.
- All (currently) necessary dispels.
- Hero talents make AoE healing fun.
Additionally, there is the effect that has been observable in World of Warcraft for years. When particularly experienced or talented players demonstrate how to navigate high-level dungeons successfully, other players gradually adapt to this. Thus, a “meta” of the current season gradually develops. If the pros all play shaman, then other players slowly switch to this class as well. This amplifies the effect.
Are other classes worse? It is difficult to say this in general. It is obvious that other classes are also capable of completing dungeons at the hardest difficulties.
As interruptions and stuns are extremely important in the current content, the shaman is perfectly suited here and outshines the other healers in terms of utility. This might change again with the next patch 11.0.5 – or at least with Season 2 – but currently, shamans are experiencing a peak in popularity.
Overall, the “Mythic+” system is doing quite well, as current numbers on dungeon experiences tell a clear story: The endgame feature is more popular than ever. And this is despite the availability of depths as a competing offering.
