09-07-2005, 09:36 PM
When comparing healers, I think it's more valuable to compare using figures typical on healing specialised paladins than average paladins - we've all seen Paladins whose most used healing spell in an instance is Lay on Hands after the rest of the party has wiped and I'd never ask one of those to act as main healer :)
Paladin mana pools, for a Paladin built to be a main healer, can be very substantial. They have the widest equipment choice of any healer and thanks to low-aggro heals and higher AC (even with some cloth/leather/mail mixed in) don't need Stamina as much as Priests or Druids. They don't have any talents that give spirit based regen while casting, so Spirit isn't as useful for them either. A total of 250 Int on gear seems easily achievable which gives 4150 mana plus their base mana pool.
As equipment quality improves - particularly +healing gear - I feel that the actual dark horse in the healing stakes is the Shaman. The Shaman is the only healing class with a talent that reduces the casting time of a heal spell below 3.5 seconds and hence the only class that can get more than the standard return in health per second from equipping +healing gear. (Priests and Druids do get some overlap by having a +heal boosted HOT ticking along with regular casting, but only one healer per target gets that effect).
Paladin mana pools, for a Paladin built to be a main healer, can be very substantial. They have the widest equipment choice of any healer and thanks to low-aggro heals and higher AC (even with some cloth/leather/mail mixed in) don't need Stamina as much as Priests or Druids. They don't have any talents that give spirit based regen while casting, so Spirit isn't as useful for them either. A total of 250 Int on gear seems easily achievable which gives 4150 mana plus their base mana pool.
As equipment quality improves - particularly +healing gear - I feel that the actual dark horse in the healing stakes is the Shaman. The Shaman is the only healing class with a talent that reduces the casting time of a heal spell below 3.5 seconds and hence the only class that can get more than the standard return in health per second from equipping +healing gear. (Priests and Druids do get some overlap by having a +heal boosted HOT ticking along with regular casting, but only one healer per target gets that effect).