This is my proposed Devastation gameplay update/rework.
I’m a Evoker main that exclusively plays PvE, with 0 PvP knowledge. Thus anything below could be wildly OP there. Please let me know what, and preferably also why.
I’m playing in a world 500 raid, and usually clock in at about 3k m+ rating.
Why do I want to update the Devastation gameplay?
Firstly I’m going to start by saying that I enjoy Devastation in its current form. But in my opinion it suffers from multiple issues:
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Multiple problems with its Talent tree
- multiple unavoidable “filler” nodes.
- A Talent tree split into AoE and Singletarget with one side vastly outperforming the other (in any situation)
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A overly simple rotation and
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extremely low actions per Minute
I’m going into more detail on each of these below.
Talent Tree
Filler Nodes
If you take a look at the talent tree for Devastation you will find that the top of it is filled with multiple “filler” nodes.
“Well just don’t select them” is what you might say if you don’t know the layout/positioning of said nodes. But if you do know the tree you will know that it is virtually (or even actually) impossible to create a decent build without picking said “filler” nodes.
But what is a “filler node”?
For me a “filler” node is a talent that is placed on the tree without any purpose other than making the tree look less empty.
- The best example for one such node is “Dense Energy” or Pyre costs 1 less Essence.
I’d imagine even many Devastation players don’t know baseline Pyre costs 3 essence, because you simply cannot avoid picking this node for any build.
Even pure single-target builds that never intend to cast a single Pyre MUST pick this node for pathing even though the talent’s effect will not get used once!
Additionally it just feels very redundant to get the first point in Pyre and then 2 points later already change the cost.
- The other major filler node(s) are the two “Essence Burst nodes”.
While more useful than Dense Energy this effect is so basic and required for the spec to work it feels weird to spend 2 points for them. And it’s not like you can avoid picking one, as you’d severely limit your pathing options by doing so. With Augmentation we’ve seen that blizzard isn’t opposed to placing both effects on a single talent node either.
- And lastly the Imposing Presence/Inner Radiance choice node
While I don’t mind a required defensive node on a tree, especially the Quell node feels super weird. You’re basically required to pick Quell in the class tree, but then you make it super bad with a 40 sec cd? Only to force us to spend another point on it on our spec tree to make it on par to other interrupts. All other 25+ seconds interrupts come with a reason/tradeoff on it, not Quell (Silence silences, Solarbeam also silences and is a small AoE).
Meanwhile Inner Radiance really doesn’t “do anything”. It buffs self healing. But only from Living Flame and Emerald Blossom. It doesn’t affect the more valuable selfheals (Renewing Blaze, Verdant Embrace and Panacea).
On top of this the additional healing is so miniscule you hardly notice the additional 250%.
The Split Tree Problem
Devastation’s talent tree is split into 2 sides, the right “blue” side that focuses on enhancing the blue (Spellfrost) spells, which are mainly used in single target encounters and the left “Red” side that focuses on the red(Fire) spells that are usually more AoE focused.
These two sides aren’t balanced however, as the Red side suffers from focusing on the Firestorm ability, which suffers from a multitude of design problems and is thus outscaled by the Blue side even in AoE situations (where it SHOULD be stronger).
Overly simple Rotation
While the current rotation is fine, to me it feels like it is missing a little something. Something to look out for during your normal rotation. This might be a little buff here, a dot to track there… just something…
Extremely low Actions per Minute (APM)
According to Simulationcraft, Devastation’s APM are at almost half the average at just above 30. This means on average Devastation presses a damaging spell only every 2 seconds. This is a vast difference to the average across all specs of ~60 APM (1 ability/second)
Even the gap to the 2nd slowest (Affliction) at about 44 APM presses about 50% more buttons over a fight then Devastation.
(Numbers according to the S3 Simulationcraft results)
And for this last point I can give a distinct reason as to why Devastation plays so so slow: Disintegrate.
Devastation is the only spec in the game that uses a channeled ability as its main spender. And it’s not a fast channel, at baseline 3 seconds it’s one of the longer channeled abilities in the game.
But since it’s a spender shouldn’t it be cast somewhat infrequently?
If that were the case Dev would certainly play somewhat faster, but why can it be cast so frequently? The answer is a specific talent near the capstones of our tree (and it used to be a capstone 10.0.)
Hoarded Power this node is in my opinion the core to alot of problems devastation faces from a design standpoint:
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It limit’s the power of our spenders by making them available extremely frequently.
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It slows down any single target (or cleave) situation, due to us having access to many more spenders then we would without it.
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It decreases the value of any Essence cost reductions or Essence Burst granting talents. (you don’t need Essence if you got Essence Bursts all the time)
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It dulls down the gameplay; Pressing the same button 4+ times in a row is not exciting.
TL;DR:
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Basic rotation is lacking something.
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Talent Tree got multiple filler nodes you can not path around.
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Many Disintegrate casts = low APM
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Hoarded Power is a badly designed effect.
My Rework
What is the goal of this update/rework?
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Both sides of the tree should be viable.
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Filler nodes are getting cut.
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Adding a bit of complexity to the normal rotation.
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Adjusting existing talents to make sense with added effects rather than deleting them for something new.
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Remove Hoarded Power!
What isn’t supposed to happen?
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Major changes to the current gameplay.
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Excessive changes to existing spells.
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A major reshuffle of the talent tree.
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Major changes to anything that works currently
Let’s start by removing any node that is problematic for some reason.
Ruby / Azure Essence burst
As noted above.
I didn’t really remove them as i merged both nodes into one “Essence burst” node like on Augmentation’s tree
Dense energy
Read “Filler Nodes” above
Imposing Presence/Inner Radiance
Read “Filler Nodes” above
Hoarded Power
Read “Extremely low Actions per Minute (APM)” above
Firestorm
I could not find a way to make Firestorm work. It’s the main reason the redside of the tree is bad and feels somewhat uninspired
Raging Inferno + Snapfire
With Firestorm gone, both talent’s that build off of it had to go as well.
Feed the Flames
With Firestorm gone, getting free Firestorms didn’t really make sense…
Imminent Destruction
An essence discount linked to DeepBreath was a bit wonky and did not really work well. It also incentivised 5+ Pyres in a row, which (as I noted before) I think is bad design.
This leaves one talent i will remove:
Iridescence the core of my changes
I think the idea of one color buffing the other is very interesting! Even though the name implies such an effect, it doesn’t actually work this way.
Additionally tying it to our empower spells makes this very infrequent.
Lastly, in Devastation’s current state there really aren’t any specific spells you’d want to hit with the Iridescence buff.
You just play your normal rotation with 2 of your spells randomly being 20% stronger.
My entire rework/redesign is built on the core idea of Iridescence or one color buffing the other. I’ve split this into 3 new separate effects/talents that replace the 3 filler nodes on the top of our talent tree:
Shifting Affinity - Passive:
Dealing Damage with a Red spell grants Blue Affinity, increasing the damage of next Blue Spell by x
Dealing Damage with a Blue spell grants Red Affinity, increasing the damage of next Red Spell by x
The new bread and butter of Devastation. There are a few similar effects in the game already, like Windwalker mastery or Twilight Equilibrium for Disc, but I think this is unique enough.
Since we use Red and Blue spells in either AOE or Single target i think this would work well.
I Intend for you to keep cycling between red and blue spells to maximize the number of spells cast with the respective Affinity buff active.
(new) Iridescence - Active/Spell - 20? sec CD - Instant - 2 Charges
Blast the target with ever changing Magic, dealing x damage to your target and less damage to enemies around it.
Activates both Affinities.
This Spell does not benefit from active Affinities.
This Spell will consume Temperature Shock (explained below this) stacks but does not add any.
A new filler spell which fits both Affinities to keep the circle rolling by granting both buffs, making this useful in either AoE or Singletarget.
Gets replaced by Shattering Star (if chosen), adding the +dmg taken effect to primary target(s).
Should be about the same priority as SS
Temperature Shock
Dealing direct damage with Blue Spells builds stacks of Cold on the targets.
Dealing direct damage with Red Spells builds stacks of Heat on the targets.
Dealing direct damage with a spell of the other color consumes these stacks to cause a Temperature Shock, dealing damage based on the number of stacks consumed.
This is supposed to function as a tradeoff for when you don’t have Essence or Essence Brust to keep the Alignment circle rolling.
Can’t cast a Disint next? No need to cast Azure strike for a shift, cast another Living Flame to get another stack, that gets popped with you next Blue spell
Disint only adds 1 stack per cast. (or cold deal less dmg than fire per stack)
These stacks are also what i’ve designed most of the “Red” side around, as i manipulate their application and grant payoffs for consuming them.
These 3 effects/Spell are supposed to spice up the rotation while not majorly impacting it.
You still want to cast Disintegrate, but you don’t want to chain them back to back to back anymore as you’d usually want to enhance your cast with the affinity bonus.
If you get flooded with essence, you can cast the new Iridescence spell to act as a quick way to gain the affinity you want without needing to cast a filler.
I imagine it as a wildcard of sorts.
You are out of essence? No matter just keep using Living Flame until you proc a Essence Burst and use it to consume the Temperature Shock stacks you generated while fishing for the proc…or keep changing the affinity with Azure Strike.
Since the Affinities would majorly impact our priority while Dragonrage is active:
Added effect to Tyranny:
During Deep Breath and Dragonrage you gain the maximum benefit of Mastery: Giantkiller regardless of targets’ health.
Dragonrage activates both Affinities and Affinities are not consumed during Dragonrage.
This way we will still be able to spam Disint without losing value from the Affinities.
Lots of new Potential
My 2 new passives (Temperature Shock and Shifting Affinity) would open up a lot of possible design space for new effects (like for Tier Sets)
Like this one for example, which i placed in Hoarded powers old place:
Adaptive Affinity
Affinity’s also increase the casting speed of affected spells by x%
A single target oriented buff to cast/channel speed.
The Fire (or Red) side of our Tree
Now let’s start with the currently very troubled Red side of the tree.
As noted, I believe Firestorm is the reason the Red side fails, even if Firestorm was tuned to be competitive the nature of a long duration, ground-targeted AoE just doesn’t feel great to use. Added oddities like the single target filler resetting its cd instead of the AoE filler just add to a spell that’s struggling to fit into the rest of the toolkit.
Thus I cut it (and all talents that interact with or build on it), from the tree and instead double down on one of my previously introduced passives, Temperature Shock.
By letting you apply more stacks of “Heat” at once, granting Essence Burst from consuming TempShocks and making them AoE to tease the more impactful ones.
(Note: I’m not good with names… so i kept most of the current ones and moved them to a new effect that made somewhat sense for the name)
(new) Imminent Destruction
Firebreath applies 1 stacks of “Heat” per empowerment level to targets hit. (instead of only 1 total)
You’d often empower Firebreath in AoE anyways, now you get a big Temperature Shock as a follow up as well. (Maybe add Eternity Surge?)
(new) Snapfire
Consuming x (10-15 maybe more) stacks of Temperature Shock grants you Essence Burst.
(Tracked as a buff on yourself)
*This is supposed to work as an engine to keep the AoE rotation rolling.
Pyre/Firebreath/EternitySurge grant a lot of stacks of Temperature Shock as soon as you’re fighting multiple enemies. Which should give you a decent amount of EB procs for more Pyres.*
(new) Raging Inferno
After Deepbreath damages 3 or more enemies, you gain Raging Inferno, doubling the “Heat” your Red spells apply for x(5-10) seconds
It keeps its role as a (mostly AoE) burst talent, now interacting with the Temperature Shock mechanic instead of giving an Essence discount.
(No interaction with Disintegrate as single target builds can benefit from bigger TempShocks, too)
Quench
Temperature Shocks now erupt in a steam explosion dealing x Frostfire damage around the affected enemy based on stacks consumed.
This lets you trigger an entire pull’s firestacks with a single Bluespell. You apply a ton of Heat stacks with your Red spells, then chainreaction them with a blue spell to trigger an entire pull’s Stacks.
This also gives you the choice to stack very high stacks to trigger them in a huge burst, or to keep triggering frequent 1-2 stack Shocks.
Added effect to Azure Strike
Azure Strike will try to hit targets within range that have “Heat” active on them.
This is just to avoid weird cases in which you’d need to search through a high mobcount to find targets you want to trigger TempShocks on. Azure Strike will just passively search for and trigger them.
Feed the Flames
Consuming “Heat” on a target extends the duration of your Fire Breath’s damage over time by x (2-3?) sec per stack.|
Old FtF modified a bit to interact with the Temperature Shock effect. Without Firestorm I’d imagine FtF would lose quite a lot of value which is why I’m changing this…
Resulting Tree Design
As you can see I base the Blue side mostly around frequent affinity shifts to frequently benefit from the damage buffs provided by it.
Meanwhile the Red side largely ignores the affinities to cause big or frequent Temperature Shocks. Getting Essence Burst and more AoE damage in return.
Impact on Hero Talents
While I thought up most of these before any Hero talents got released, I did go over them and couldn’t really find any of the new effects that would clash with my changes.
Scalecommander
At most the “Bombardment” effect could be problematic for Temperature Shock due to the damage being Vulcanic (Nature/Fire), but since it shouldn’t be considered “direct damage” it should impact my additions. (Maneuverability is a DoT and thus no problem)
Flameshaper
The only effect that would synergize is Engulf, which would act like pyre in the rotation and thus shouldn’t cause friction.
While I have your attention
While I was thinking about talent I came up with some other ones. These aren’t really connected to the rest which is why I want to distinctly separate them from the ones above! These are things i’d love to have though they might clash with Blizzards design intentions.
Oscillating Power
Mastery: Dragonkiller now ramps back up on targets once they reach low health. Low health (20%) targets start taking more damage based on missing HP.
This can be balanced in multiple ways: the most elegant one would probably be to only go up to 80 % (or whatever number is Balanced instead of 100%). Alternatively as a “kiss/curse effect, by also nerfing baseline Mastery “Mastery is 5% less effective but ramps up on low hp”
Seething Rage - Choice node with Animosity
Casting an empower spell reduces the cooldown of Dragonrage by x.
*You’d get long DR or Frequent DR.
This should be slightly weaker then Animosity, but offer more flexible cooldown windows for situations where the fairly long duration of DR does not provide value (lower M+ Keys where packs die in 10-15 seconds for example)*
I’m looking forward to reading feedback to this. I’ve worked quite a while on this and am very interessted to hear why/where you think my design fails or if you like my ideas. Please leave your thoughts 