I was wondering if someone could tell me where the three melee healers rank in terms of soloing with locked AA? I have a warden I have been enjoying and someone mentioned that Inquisitors edge them out in terms of general questing and named killing. I realize that as a healer I will never put out the kind of damage that scouts do, and I am fine with that. I just would like to know if the other "battle priests" work a little better in terms of general soloing. Thanks for any information!
Given what I've seen and the weapons currently available to melee healers in T9, it's pretty tough to beat a mystic. As a shaman, they get access to some very powerful 2H spears (ivory bladed yuri, for example) that after the recent 2H buff are pretty crazy when it comes to putting out damage. Inquisitors and Wardens are left a bit more in the cold when it comes to good 2H for meleeing, the 2H DPS weapons for generic priests are poorly itemized this expansion (all of the ones I have from raid are balanced partially towards casting, which means they take a serious hit on DPS).
I remember the good old days during which mystic were getting 100% crit with auto-attack as last talent of their battlepriest tree. According to me the warden is better at low levels, later inquis get stronger due to selfbuf; moreover at high level casting time are way faster and inquis won't get as much issues self healing. Warden main asset are : extreme cast time, antiaoe, antistun, infinite mana Inqui : fantastic buf (group wide alacrit cleric tree end talent, haste, dps mod etc ...), plate wearer, clicky while moving group cure. Note that in most zone you can run everywhere with a warden due to their anti-snare, anti-root + evac.
Melee healers are still beasts no matter is its solo, small group or PvP. The only thing I'd liketo see is the AA trees to be updated with a CA version of Wrath(sp).
IMO and without taking into account late game, grouping, or raiding, I would say hands down the best for solo questing is warden. Low-Mid level dungeon crawls I would also give the nod to warden. Late levels when mobs hit harder, I might give the nod to Inquisitor, however in areas where Adds are prevalent warden may still win out cause of the roots. The ports, evac, runspeed buffs, anti-snare AA, roots (wardens have 4 total, one is an AA), high focus, and fast casting heals make it easier to kill in the low to mid levels on with the warden. Warden doesn't face the interrupts that kill the mystic and inquisitor. Yes, even with steadfast, inquisitors get interrupted more than warden does. The inquisitor will do more damage, especially in early to low levels, due to more dmg focused abilities and more dps oriented AAs early on. I can't compare mystic, as I deleted mine cause of the slowness of ward casting combined with the lack of dps at low levels with low AA. If you want to factor in group or raid desirability at end game, wardens will take a big hit. In response to the comment about availability of end game weapons, there are some nice 2h hammers for dps. Unfortunately, the best one comes from a zone that only the best raidforces gamewide are having a lot of success in and that's Underfoot Depths.
