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There are many Leader role classes in D&D4.0 these days.
Which one makes the most effective healer by the numbers?
Numbers to be evaluated
Feel free to provide one per tier if it differs significantly (all should be in one answer).
That is a very hard question to answer, because it depends on tier and what you mean by the numbers. However, here are my leading candidates.
To summarize: clerics win for huge single-target healing. Warlords probably have the most stamina. Bards are right up there with warlords, albeit via temps rather than pure heals; and shamans are unmatched for party healing.
(And of course, there's nothing wrong with the ardent or the runepriest. Runepriests give really good buffs to their party, which is the other half of the leader's role; ardents have a superb range of at-wills and also grant temps rather easily. A well-played leader speeds up combat by buffing allies along with healing.)
As of December 2010, here is a list of leaders.
Thinking about the Art of Leading, or the art of healing, there is a third category "damage directly prevented."
Therefore, the following list will assess how much damage has been ameliorated over the course of an encounter, looking at every leader class, but only the "best" damage ameliorator of the class.
For all of these classes, we will assume that 2 level equivalent enemies are attacking the defender for the encounter, and that there will be one Opportunity Attack made by the enemies during the encounter. All math will be at level 11 for purposes of comparison.
Primary and secondary stats will be even, starting at base 18, at 21 (+5) Tertiary stat at +3.
Enemies hit 50% of the time, for 19 damage on average.
The combat will be 5 rounds long and there are 4 other party members, and everyone will hit 50% of the time. A standard surge at level 11 will be 19. I will assume 1 daily use, 3 encounters, and 1 at-will, with up to 2 utility if they are minor. and 1 Action pointed action.
I'm going to ignore item optimization (except for absolutely critical items), and calculate the effects of 1-2 non MC feats if necessary.
I'm going to assume 3 people can focus-fire a target that has a beneficial leader effect on it.
The best focused healer is the pacifist cleric, followed by the Inspiring Warlord (very counterintuitively, but those mass-heals boost healed damage incredibly.)
The best healer that is focused on other things is the Artificer, but he's almost as boring to play (having played one) as the pacifist healer, as he must use magic weapon as his at-will, because it's so good. Happily, interrupts make for an actually interesting fight. The Arti is easily the cheapest healer, dropping 145 THP at the start of the fight for 2 surges from the most healthy at the end. Ardent is a great "get in there and swing" and I suspect her numbers are a touch low.
There are some curious racial or non-class based PPs that modulate the above healing.
And of course there are innumerable feat combinations. The best feat to take for parties that are always short of healing is the Tribal feat Enduring Mountain:
Benefit: Whenever you spend a healing surge, you regain 2 additional hit points. You regain 1 more additional hit point for each ally within 10 squares of you who has this feat, to a maximum of 5 additional hit points.
While everyone has to take this feat for it to be effective, the +7 HP granted by the feat outweigh (until epic) any healing benefit granted by the PPs above or in the class calculations.
I don't have the numbers on hand to back me up but I would bet that a Pacificst Cleric outdoes everyone on the healing across every tier-- not just through direct healing, but also the effects of powers like Astral Seal.
there's also the Artificer, who althought not leading in any particular bit of healing, lets you move healing surges arround, which is tremendously useful
So I thought I'd post a 6th level cleric as a heroic tier baseline.
Dante Fairwood, level 6 Human, Cleric Background: Explorer/Guide, Windrise Ports (Explorer/Guide Benefit)
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 10, Con 13, Dex 8, Int 10, Wis 20, Cha 16.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES Str 10, Con 13, Dex 8, Int 10, Wis 17, Cha 15.
AC: 22 Fort: 16 Reflex: 15 Will: 22 HP: 50 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 12
TRAINED SKILLS Nature +15, Religion +8, Insight +13, Heal +15, Arcana +8, Diplomacy +11
UNTRAINED SKILLS Acrobatics +1, Bluff +6, Dungeoneering +8, Endurance +3, History +3, Intimidate +6, Perception +8, Stealth +1, Streetwise +6, Thievery +1, Athletics +2
FEATS Cleric: Ritual Caster Human: Pacifist Healer Level 1: Soldier of Virtue Level 2: Power of Life Level 4: Implement Expertise (Holy Symbol) Level 6: Deva Heritage
POWERS Bonus At-Will Power: Gaze of Defiance Channel Divinity: Healer's Mercy Cleric at-will 1: Astral Seal Cleric at-will 1: Sacred Flame Cleric encounter 1: Exacting Utterance Cleric daily 1: Beacon of Hope Cleric utility 2: Return from Death's Door Cleric encounter 3: Hymn of Resurgence Cleric daily 5: Iron to Glass Cleric utility 6: Spirit of Healing
So healing highlights:
That's not to mention the temp hp, saving throws and status removal effects you have. Also worth noting is that none of these powers work against your pacifist feat. Be warned, this character was about as fun to play as watching paint dry and was very disrupting at the table.
If you're looking for Big Heals, I'd go Pacifist Cleric - you can stack bonuses to the roof.
If you're looking for Lotsa Heals, I'm told Bards are the champs - you can multiclass into all the other Leader classes to gain extra uses of the various "let someone spend a healing surge" ability.
