Which healer too pick?

[Pottu]

Just to add some statistics to this discussion:

http://realmplayers.com/RaidStats/Ranking.aspx?Bosses=00010203040506070809&realm=NRB

Top 50 healers for Nostalrius in Molten Core for efficient healing (raw heals - overhealing):

3 druids
11 shamans
18 paladins
18 priests

[The Shortest Path]

Keep in mind that druids will pretty much always have a ton of overhealing, that's just how HoTs work. Overhealing isn't really a useful thing to measure their effectiveness by.

[gotmilk0112]

Yeah, Paladin and Priest are the two de-facto healers in vanilla. Roll either one of those and you'll be fine.

Though rolling a Dwarf Priest will get you a raid spot just for Fear Ward.

[The Shortest Path]

Raids need a decent balance of all three healers, really. They all do their own unique thing that's generally necessary for most fights.

So basically, echoing what others have said and just play what you find fun. Druids are BY FAR the easiest of the four to level, though, so keep that in mind.

[Xylon666Darkstar]

any class that can heal + dispel. and l2dispel.

[Zaft]

Keep in mind that druids will pretty much always have a ton of overhealing, that's just how HoTs work. Overhealing isn't really a useful thing to measure their effectiveness by.

If you overheal a ton then you're doing it wrong. Druid in vanilla is not like in other expansions where HoTs are the name of the game. In vanilla you'll mostly be using Healing Touch at different ranks depending on how much health they are missing. Rejuvenation is for the most part used on targets that will continuously take damage such as tanks, or other targets prone to take damage over time, very similarly to how Renew is used. It's also used heavily in mobile fights as you're not as able to stand still and cast, though there aren't too many of those fights pre AQ and Naxx.
You don't want to spam HoTs around for the simple reason that it will overheal, and you don't want that.
For the most part all of the healers work quite similarly in vanilla when it comes to healing, with the exception of shamans. I know that there are some differences that makes some of the better tank healers and some support healing, but they the way they heal is not very different.

The biggest differences between the different healers you'll find in PvP.

So basically, echoing what others have said and just play what you find fun. Druids are BY FAR the easiest of the four to level, though, so keep that in mind.

Priest is also extremely easy to level as you almost never go oom and still kill at a reasonable rate, though the drawback is that you have to invest in a decent wand every 8-10 levels or so. Shamans are pretty decent as enh. Not sure about paladins, but if I remember correctly they're the "worst" of the bunch when it comes to leveling.

[PriestInOurTime]

Just to add some statistics to this discussion:

http://realmplayers.com/RaidStats/Ranking.aspx?Bosses=00010203040506070809&realm=NRB

Top 50 healers for Nostalrius in Molten Core for efficient healing (raw heals - overhealing):

3 druids
11 shamans
18 paladins
18 priests

Healing meters. Making healers not wanna dispel since 2005.

[gotmilk0112]

Priest is also extremely easy to level as you almost never go oom and still kill at a reasonable rate, though the drawback is that you have to invest in a decent wand every 8-10 levels or so. Shamans are pretty decent as enh. Not sure about paladins, but if I remember correctly they're the "worst" of the bunch when it comes to leveling.

Yeah, as Priest, my wand progression throughout the levels went:

Lesser Magic(Enchanting, BoE) -> Greater Magic (Enchanting, BoE) -> Cookie's Stirring Rod -> Gravestone Scepter -> Earthen Rod(BoE) -> Wand of Alistarj(BoE)

And I could generally kill mobs in under 30 seconds.

Also, it's not "never oom", but you do drink less than a mage or a balance druid or ele shaman. From level 5 to 30 or so, you can just shield -> Mind Blast -> dot -> wand, and end the fight around 75% mana or so, with a Spirit Tap to give you massive regen.

And yes, from what I remember, Paladin is the worst and most boring to level. Even leveling Ret, you still have the lowest damage of any healer class, and blue 2h weapons tend to be a lot more expensive than blue wands.

[Wulfgrin]

I've seen this a few times here - paladins as super healers. Is something very different from original vanilla or am I completely misremembering this? The way I recall it, the healing group in raids was like 1-2 paladins, a few druids, and a lot of priests. The first paladin did a lot of healing because of that buff that gave melee heals everytime they hit the mob. I even recall the super serious raiders having paladins at the front entrance to buff and then dropping group. Don't think that was just TBC. Mostly, remember everyone griping about priests were the only ones that got to heal and you took a few druids to innervate them.

[Zaft]

I've seen this a few times here - paladins as super healers. Is something very different from original vanilla or am I completely misremembering this? The way I recall it, the healing group in raids was like 1-2 paladins, a few druids, and a lot of priests. The first paladin did a lot of healing because of that buff that gave melee heals everytime they hit the mob. I even recall the super serious raiders having paladins at the front entrance to buff and then dropping group. Don't think that was just TBC. Mostly, remember everyone griping about priests were the only ones that got to heal and you took a few druids to innervate them.

I think you're "misremembering" things. Paladins were always great, though their main contribution would be buffing everyone with short-lived buffs. Paladins were always on par with priests when it came to healing, and they had/have fast mana efficient heals, which is a huge plus. Priests have review though, which paladins don't have. Paladins are more burst heavy than priests though with LoH, HS and DF, but lack the + armor when crit heals talents.

I don't know about your guild, but my guild had plenty of each healing class (not shamans of course duh). I think the ones we had the least of were druids actually, as paladins were quite popular in vanilla. I did not heal in vanilla myself, but I don't remember anyone whining about any healing classes, other than the fact that druids could only ress once every 30(?) min, and as a result they were sometimes not picked for instances, especially if you had the choice for another healer.