WoW 12.1.5 Raid Healer Tier List: Every Healer Ranked for Kith’ix

Short version for those who quit after one paragraph, which is most of you. The WoW 12.1.5 healer tier list as of October 4, 2026 puts Holy Priest and Preservation Evoker in S, Restoration Druid, Restoration Shaman and Holy Paladin in A, and Discipline Priest and Mistweaver Monk in B. No healer spec is unplayable, two hero trees are, and the ranking covers Mythic raiding in The Venomous Abyss now and in The Unbinding of Kith’ix once it opens.

Patch 12.1.5 goes live October 13 in North America and October 14 in Europe. It is a mid-season patch inside Midnight Season 2, so 12.1 tuning carries over unless the notes say otherwise. Good news for The Promise of Tomorrow healers: the class changes are small, the raid is a single boss, and whoever healed Ula’tek well will heal Kith’ix well.

The Ranking

Tier	Spec	Raid hero tree	Verdict
S	Holy Priest	Oracle	Tops Mythic logs and fills the most healer slots, which never happens by accident.
S	Preservation Evoker	Flameshaper	Second in throughput, first in cooldowns that rescue bad pulls.
A	Restoration Druid	Wildstalker	Three rounds of buffs later, close enough to S to annoy Evokers.
A	Restoration Shaman	Totemic	Mediocre meters, mandatory raid utility.
A	Holy Paladin	Herald of the Sun	Lowest throughput in A, best tank and priority healing in the role.
B	Discipline Priest	Voidweaver	Decent logs from the 2 percent of masochists still playing it.
B	Mistweaver Monk	Conduit of the Celestials	Buffed three times in five weeks and still the healer nobody invites first.

S Tier: Holy Priest and Preservation Evoker

Oracle Holy Priest leads Venomous Abyss Mythic parses at 322.7k HPS and holds 23.4 percent of healer slots. The August 18 hotfixes did it: Enlightenment mana regeneration went from 10 to 25 percent, Words of the Wise added 40 percent to Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify, and Preventive Measures raised Prayer of Mending from 15 to 40 percent. Add Guardian Spirit and Divine Hymn, and the spec stops being a mana problem and becomes everyone else’s problem.

Flameshaper Preservation sits at 314.8k with 14.4 percent representation. Rewind, Time Spiral, Zephyr and Dream Breath cover damage windows nobody else can, and the August 25 buffs to Verdant Embrace (25 percent) and Living Flame (20 percent) fixed the filler. Short range and thirsty mana on long pulls are the only reasons it does not sit alone at the top.

If you want the best raid healer 12.1.5 offers with no excuses left, it is one of these two. Pick Priest if your raid leader cannot plan, pick Evoker if he can and you can stand inside 25 yards of the tank.

A Tier: Druid, Shaman, Paladin

Wildstalker Restoration Druid posts 308.3k, less than 5 percent behind Oracle. Blizzard buffed it on August 18, August 25 and September 22, including 15 percent to Rejuvenation and Germination, 10 percent to Wild Growth and two flat 4 percent raises. Tranquility, Convoke the Spirits and Ironbark are why you bring one, and HoTs ticking on a raid with 25 percent more health are why it is not S.

Totemic Restoration Shaman logs 284.6k and still fills 20.1 percent of slots, because Spirit Link Totem, Healing Tide Totem and Bloodlust do not show up on a healing meter. Healing Rain, Riptide and Chain Heal shine when the raid stacks and suffer when the boss says spread.

Herald of the Sun Holy Paladin posts 282.6k at 19.1 percent popularity. It heals tanks and assigned targets better than anyone, carries Aura Mastery and Blessing of Sacrifice, and pays for it with the thinnest raid-wide coverage in A. Its PvE buffs came with the 12.1 notes, and Blizzard has not touched its raid numbers since.

B Tier: Discipline Priest and Mistweaver Monk

Voidweaver Discipline Priest logs 306.4k, fourth overall, yet only 2.4 percent of healers bother. The August 18 hotfix cut its PvE damage by 30 percent, and the September 22 buff of 40 percent to Atonement explicitly excludes raids, which tells you where Blizzard wants Disc. Pain Suppression, Power Word: Barrier and Power Infusion keep it on rosters, and one missed ramp keeps it off meters.

Conduit of the Celestials Mistweaver logs 280.9k at 7.8 percent popularity. It received three flat healing buffs between August 18 and September 22, plus 15 percent to Vivify and Sheilun’s Gift, and still brings weak single-target healing and little beyond Revival and Life Cocoon. It works when melee uptime is free, and Kith’ix does not hand out anything for free.

C Tier and Lower

No healer spec lands in C as a whole this season. Two hero trees do: Chronowarden Preservation at 238.1k and Lightsmith Holy Paladin at 219.9k, both roughly 25 percent behind their own spec’s main tree. D is empty, unless you count the Paladin still running Lightsmith because the damage numbers look pretty.

Hero Talent Trees Ranked Separately

The best healer hero talents in Midnight are, unsurprisingly, the ones everyone already plays. Off trees with 0.1 percent popularity post numbers from a handful of specialists, so one good guild moves their average more than any hotfix.

Spec and tree	Tier	Mythic HPS	Popularity
Oracle Holy Priest	S	322.7k	23.4%
Flameshaper Preservation Evoker	S	314.8k	14.4%
Wildstalker Restoration Druid	A	308.3k	11.9%
Voidweaver Discipline Priest	A	306.4k	2.4%
Archon Holy Priest	A	292.5k	0.1%
Farseer Restoration Shaman	B	291.1k	0.1%
Totemic Restoration Shaman	A	284.6k	20.1%
Master of Harmony Mistweaver Monk	A	284.2k	0.2%
Herald of the Sun Holy Paladin	A	282.6k	19.1%
Conduit of the Celestials Mistweaver Monk	B	280.9k	7.8%
Oracle Discipline Priest	B	269.9k	0.1%
Keeper of the Grove Restoration Druid	B	263.2k	0.1%
Chronowarden Preservation Evoker	C	238.1k	0.1%
Lightsmith Holy Paladin	C	219.9k	0.2%

• Voidweaver Discipline grades out as A on its own while the spec stays B, because the tree is fine and the roster demand is not.
• Master of Harmony Mistweaver edges Conduit by 3k HPS on a sample too small to trust, so it is A on paper and B in your raid.
• Farseer Shaman outlogs Totemic and still loses the slot, since Totemic is what the talent path around Spirit Link wants.
• Chronowarden and Lightsmith are the only trees in C, and both belong to specs whose main tree is fine.

How the Tier 36 Set Changes the Picture

Every Midnight Season 2 healer tier set rewards the rotation you already press, with one exception that charges you mana for the privilege. The set drops from the middle bosses of The Venomous Abyss, and the 4-piece is where two specs climb.

Spec	2-piece	4-piece
Holy Priest	Each Renew target adds 2% crit chance, up to a small cap.	Renew heals 10% more and Prayer of Mending always leaves a Renew on its first target.
Preservation Evoker	Consuming Essence Burst fires a free Living Flame.	Green spells heal 5% more and Verdant Embrace always grants Essence Burst.
Restoration Druid	Rejuvenation can grant Genesis, boosting all HoTs by 15%.	Big cooldowns always grant Genesis, now lasting 8 seconds longer after the August 25 hotfix.
Restoration Shaman	Healing Wave and Chain Heal can drop a free Healing Rain.	Allies inside Healing Rain receive watery absorb shields.
Holy Paladin	Infusion of Light adds another 100% to Flash of Light healing.	Holy Light always grants Infusion of Light but costs far more mana.
Discipline Priest	Penance deals and heals 20% more and shortens Mind Blast.	Mind Blast makes the next shield absorb 25% more.
Mistweaver Monk	Rising Sun Kick hits 30% harder and Rushing Wind Kick heals 100% more.	Kicks can reset themselves for free, at 25% chance since the hotfix.

• Restoration Druid gains the most at 4-piece, since Nature’s Swiftness, Tranquility, Incarnation: Tree of Life and Convoke all guarantee Genesis and the hotfix doubled its bonus duration.
• Mistweaver Monk climbs from low B toward A at 4-piece, because free Rising Sun Kick casts are its entire rotation and the proc chance went from 20 to 25 percent.
• Holy Priest widens its lead quietly, since guaranteed Renew procs feed the 2-piece crit stack.
• Holy Paladin is the only healer whose 4-piece costs something, as Holy Light gets more expensive in exchange for guaranteed procs on Flash of Light.
• Preservation gains steady value through Essence Burst, and Discipline through Penance and Mind Blast, without either changing tier.

What Moved Since 12.1 Launched

Patch 12.1 arrived August 18 with 25 percent more player health and 25 percent more creature damage, and the hotfix hose has not stopped since. Here is who got watered.

• Holy Priest went from middling preseason projections to the top of Mythic logs on the back of the August 18 Enlightenment, Words of the Wise and Preventive Measures buffs.
• Restoration Druid gained two flat 4 percent healing buffs, a HoT pass on August 25 and a longer 4-piece Genesis window.
• Mistweaver Monk collected three flat buffs plus Vivify and Sheilun’s Gift increases, and moved from bottom of B to middle of B.
• Preservation Evoker received Verdant Embrace, Living Flame and Dream Simulacrum buffs on August 25 and stayed S.
• Discipline Priest lost 30 percent of its PvE damage, then got mana relief on Penance and Shadow Mend that does not fix raid output.
• Holy Paladin and Restoration Shaman received only PvP tuning and bug fixes, which is why both slid from early S and A talk into plain A.

One raid-wide change matters more than any of these. The Fury of the Dead buff in The Venomous Abyss adds 1 percent damage and healing per week up to 15 percent, and you have to pick it up by quest, so the healer who skipped it is losing to a checkbox.

Kith’ix enters the final phase at 25 percent with Stygian Howl, and from there Last Light doubles all damage and healing your raid deals until Eightfold Eclipse finishes or the boss dies. Every major cooldown burned before that point is one you did not have when it counted double. Plan healing cooldowns backward from 25 percent, not forward from the pull.

What 12.1.5 Is Expected to Move

The patch 12.1.5 healer changes from the September 15 and September 29 PTR notes are trims and bug fixes, not a reshuffle. Nobody changes tier on launch day.

Spec	12.1.5 change	Expected effect
Discipline Priest	Master the Darkness lasts 30 seconds instead of 1 minute.	Small Voidweaver nerf, stays B.
Holy Priest	Ultimate Serenity and Holy Celerity swap places in the tree.	Aimed at Mythic+, raid placement unchanged.
Restoration Druid	Nature’s Bounty now makes Regrowth heal up to 3 allies with Rejuvenation for 15% of its healing.	Smoother rotation, neutral to slightly positive.
Restoration Shaman	Riptide extension now extends instead of resetting, and instant Healing Rain procs work again.	Bug fixes that feel like buffs, stays A.
Preservation Evoker	Merithra’s Blessing lasts 30 seconds instead of 1 minute, and Consume Flame stops double dipping healing increases.	Mild Flameshaper nerf, still S.
Holy Paladin	No changes.	Stays A.
Mistweaver Monk	No changes.	Stays B.

The Season 2 key is a different list. The Ultimate Serenity move and Disc’s Atonement buff outside raids both target Mythic+, so do not use dungeon rankings to argue your raid spot.

Kith’ix: What the Fight Asks of Healers

One boss, Story through Mythic, with a flexible Mythic roster of 15 to 25 players. Phase one stacks Voidswarm add waves and steady raid damage, Suffocating Darkness at full energy, and Abyssal Grasp tendrils that absorb healing and kill in 8 seconds. Lady Liadrin stuns the boss with Divine Radiance, but each cast stacks Exhausted on her, so later ones help less.

• Burning healing absorbs rewards heavy single-target throughput, which favors Holy Priest, Holy Paladin and Preservation.
• Constant raid damage in phase one rewards HoT coverage, which is where Restoration Druid earns its A.
• The doubled final phase rewards burst cooldowns such as Rewind, Divine Hymn, Tranquility and Spirit Link Totem.
• A flexible Mythic size means many guilds run three healers, and utility decides who gets the third slot.

The best healer for Kith’ix on paper is Holy Priest, with Preservation second and Shaman or Paladin taking the utility seat. This is not a full Unbinding of Kith’ix healing guide, because PTR timers and damage numbers changed between builds and will change again.

Difficulty	Item level	Note
Raid Finder	285	Veteran track.
Normal	298	Champion track.
Heroic	311	Hero track, tested at 10 to 30 players.
Mythic	344	One PTR build moved it back to the standard Myth track, so trust the live tooltip.

The healer trinket is Sigil of the Impending Eclipse, one item per difficulty per week. Outside the raid, the Labyrinth of Kindo’jan is a nine-chamber solo grind and the Aqir Invasion hits Eversong Woods or Zul’Aman every hour. Neither changes raid placement, both punish healers with no self-sufficiency.

The Gap Between Tiers

Across the 12.1.5 raid healer rankings, S is not running away. Oracle Holy at 322.7k is 2.5 percent ahead of Flameshaper, 4.7 percent ahead of Wildstalker and 14.2 percent ahead of Herald of the Sun.

Druid is one hotfix from S. Shaman and Paladin are not, and do not need to be, since they are invited for buttons no meter counts. B sits about 15 percent behind S, which is a real gap, not a bench.

Play What You Already Have

• A Priest should heal as Holy with Oracle, because it is the top raid healer and the class you already leveled.
• An Evoker should run Flameshaper Preservation and leave Chronowarden for regret.
• A Druid should run Wildstalker Restoration and chase the 4-piece before anything else.
• A Shaman should run Totemic Restoration and stop apologizing for the meter.
• A Paladin should run Herald of the Sun and treat Lightsmith as a damage hobby.
• A Monk should run Conduit of the Celestials and beg for fights with melee uptime.
• A Disc Priest who refuses Holy should run Voidweaver and find a raid leader who plans ramps.

Bad on Paper, Fine in Practice, and the Reverse

Discipline looks dead by popularity and posts fourth-best throughput, and Master of Harmony looks like a meme and logs within 1 percent of Totemic Shaman. Both are fine in the hands of someone who reads the timeline.

The reverse is Holy Paladin and Restoration Shaman. Together they fill almost 40 percent of healer slots and sit near the bottom of the main-tree throughput chart, carried by utility. Archon Holy Priest also looks better than it is, since 292.5k on 0.1 percent popularity is a sample, not a trend.

Where This Ranking Comes From

Most Midnight Season 2 healer tier list pages copy each other and call it research. This one combines an aggregate of 34,152 Mythic Venomous Abyss healer parses, Blizzard hotfix notes from August 18 to September 30, the 12.1.5 PTR development notes and the official 12.1.5 content update notes.

• HPS counts what got healed and ignores what got prevented, which undersells Discipline and every external cooldown.
• Low-popularity trees post inflated numbers because only specialists play them.
• Every Kith’ix placement is a projection from Venomous Abyss logs and PTR pulls, not a measurement.
• PTR data can change before October 13, and the Mythic loot track already did once.

Date of This Ranking

This ranking is accurate as of October 4, 2026. It covers Mythic raid content, meaning The Venomous Abyss on live 12.1 and The Unbinding of Kith’ix on the 12.1.5 PTR. It will be wrong the first time Blizzard posts a hotfix, which is usually a Tuesday.