So as someone who has never played a healer in either EQ or EQ2, what would be a good pick for both groups and possible end game raids. This is for the purpose of playing on the new time lock servers. I know the basics of some of the healer classes, such as clerics have the reactive healing, and druids have wards, (not sure about the shaman) Im not really looking for what the big healer at the time is, but more what class over the long haul will be wanted in both groups and raids. Thanks for any information
Clerics (Inqusitor and Templar) have reactive heals as their specials. Druids (Warden and Fury) have heals over time. Shaman (Defiler and Mystic) have wards. All have some form of direct heal, though warden's direct heals even have a heal over time component. The most important part of picking your class, is picking the one that actually appeals to you most (especially with healers). All the healers are going to be desired as long as they are played well. So pick one you enjoy the mechanics of and learn their abilities strengths and weaknesses.
If you're new to healing, druids are going to be the most forgiving. Especially warden, as they get a bit of passive healing with their apores. With spirit of the bat they are also going to have better powermanagement on any fight that blows through wards/reactives quickly enough that clerics and shamans have to recast them enough times. (Which ia gonna be pretty much every fight that matters.)
I don't know that wardens can count on spirit of the bat, as that was originally introduced with the second adventure pack (Bloodlines Chronicals). I don't know if wardens will have that spell line or not in TLE. Basically though I'd agree with Finora- pick what you'd prefer to play. As Finora said, play what you are most comfortable with. Keep in mind that the cap is level 50 on the TLE servers, so abilities that classes have on regular servers will be different than what is available on TLE. It's hard to say which will be the "best" from a performance perspective, as you can't count on some of the abilities that those classes count on in the regular servers.
To add to Finora's post: All druid heals are considered Direct heals, just some of them are released over time. This is important to know if you are looking at heal numbers from a group. The game 'reads' Wards first, Reactives second and All direct heals (including HoT) last. In order for druid heals to 'count' and not be wasted, they have to heal when wards and reactives are gone. This can be frustrating, but it still doesn't stop druids from being really fun classes to play. Later on, when you start min/maxing, and a druid has a tough time getting a heal in edgewise - that's when you might have a problem. Otherwise, you are a welcome healer in any group.
Whatever healer is wanted most changes from expansion to expansion (or campansion) and depends a lot on the content you want to do. At the moment, for the top raid and heroic content, shaman are the most wanted. If you're going to do Dino heroic runs, any healer class can get the job done. And we don't know what the next expac will be like. Maybe it goes back to every group needing a druid for TShell. Maybe every group is going to need a cleric for Equilibrium. Maybe we'll go back to spamming single target cures instead of healing.
Right now, on the TL servers, Druids are the better healers because Clerics and Shamans don't have any haste. At all. No items, no AA...nothing. But when AA is added, Druids, especially Wardens, will end up being pushed out of the way for min/maxing groups - which is pretty much everyone at later levels.
Mystic inq or fury for pve Warden for pvp defiler mystic and templar will be good for pvp later as well
There is another thing to consider. When the timelocked servers first came out everybody and their brother started as Wardens. There are quite a few less of other types of healers. That will put you in more demand for being any healer besides a warden. One other thing to consider. General type of armor looks that each class gets. Plate/Chain/Leather pick the type of class depending on how you want your character to look since class choice isn't as important.
