Getting right to it – Augmentation is dramatically underperforming offensively this arena season.
One of the largest reasons for this, is that between Dragonflight and late into the beta, Ebon Might personal damage increase was nerfed from 33% damage increase to 20% for the evoker casting it. While I like being less dependent on Ebon Might for personal damage, this resulted in a 13% damage loss at our for most of the game, which is largely responsible for our clear underperformance in offensive output in arena.
Above all We REALLY need to see more Living Flame damage for both hero talents AND/OR low end Eruption damage raised (Not Mass Eruption), in order for this spec to find footing in Arena.
Other Underlying issues causing problems:
Chronowarden puts tons of increasing modifiers on Chrono Flame.
Scalecommander puts tons of increasing modifiers on Eruption.
Because each Hero talent tree greatly enhances 1 of these 2 spells, Living Flame feels really underwhelming for Scalecommander and Eruption is very low damage for Chronowarden.
Buffing the core spells Living Flame and Eruption in PvP, while tuning down their hero talent related PvP modifiers would greatly remedy this. (Chronowarden Chrono Flame legitimately hits harder than Eruption, there is almost no reason to use Eruption which is bad because its the essence spender)
Consistent pressure is lacking the most, as our offensive output falls off a cliff without Upheaval. Pushing for a net gain in Chrono Flame damage and Eruption damage (NOT Mass Eruption) I believe is the healthiest way to tune their performance.
I understand Augmentation has a support theme (Which the team has reallocated to personal features this xpac for PvP). Our healing is DRAMATICALLY gimped compared to Dragonflight and we legitimately get out healed by Elemental Shamans and Shadow Priests routinely as the support spec of the game, even with healing talents like Dream of Spring and Inner Radiance.
Summary – Referring to the chunk above, reducing aug healing is a fine direction for Aug, IF we get offensive compensation. The problem is, the compensation was a 13% personal damage nerf to our Ebon Might, with no offensive buffs. We are so far behind Devastation’s damage AND with 2x the cooldown on deep breath (Which is extra troubling for Aug Scalecommander).
If you’ve played against or played Aug itself this season you will see a clear underperformance in offensive output, and Aug isn’t “a Tanky offhealer” like it was in Dragonflight, especially compared to Shadow Priest which has way too short of cooldowns on disperse and desperate prayer. You also stand in 1 spot on shadow priest the whole game, where Aug you have to kite for your life, making it much more difficult to survive on.
Not really the direction of the specialization in PvP anymore. Augmentation factually has less defensive support than Shadow Priest and Elemental Shaman. And Ebon Might is only a 5% Intellect buff to teammates where Arcane Intellect permanent mage buff is 2%, this 3% doesnt warrant doing like 50-75% of the damage of every other spell caster
This is honestly a problem for almost all hybrids right now. Casted healing is pathetically undertuned.
The only hybrid with a comfortable level of healing is Enhancement. Everyone else is doing <10% heals while also OOMing.
Evoker is in a particularly rough spot though, since both their healing and mana were gutted. There’s no reason instant Living Flame procs for Devastation should cost mana, for instance, when other hybrids’ instant procs don’t.
I do agree with this take, hybrid healers got hit hard this expansion, but not all hybrids are created equally. Right now I think Spriest, Elemental Shaman, Enhance Shaman, and Possibly Balance Druid after the hotfixes today are performing at decent levels as hybrid healers.
Augmentation leaned into its healing support more in Dragonflight to make up for our offense also being dramatically undertuned in DF Season 3 & 4.
Augmentation was good for 2 weeks and people act like it was pure despair meanwhile shadowplay (Spriest Warlock) has been one of the best comps for 2 straight expansions because they are overly tanky and dampen games. Rogue has been overpowered nearly every expansion in PvP. I don’t like the argument that someone that doesnt play Aug, also doesn’t like Aug, so it deserves to be bad, because it was good for 2 weeks during its release. Too many double standards
Normally I sympathize with people who are playing underperforming specs and agree that they should be buffed. But in this case you should actually just reroll to devastation. Nobody wants augmentation in PvP.
Again such a bad take, I can’t humor this. Augmentation is listed a Damage Dealer. Would Rogues be happy if Assassination was bad all the time in PvP?
I mean your class is underperforming but “Nobody” wants Demon Hunters in PvP. Maybe you should just reroll Vengeance and play Solo BGs instead of arenas.
Agreed Kennie. Paladin very popular class so it’s in the “okay to be performing category” for the trolls.
But on a real note I’ve played lots of spell casters above 2400 rating and Augmentation feels very similar role wise to Elemental Shaman and Shadow Priest, just we are lacking a substantial amount of damage compared to those 2, while still doing less overall offhealing in 3s.
