Devastation needs help in M+

Classes Evoker
1

Tl;dr devastation needs a lot of help in M+ both defensively and offensively. It lacks a niche and doesn’t really serve any purpose in a group comp that can’t be better served by other specs.

Season 1 has been an absolute disaster for this spec mostly because of augmentation existing, amongst many other things. Devastation is in need of some series help on many fronts if you’re want to push keys semi-competatively alongside aug. As much as I enjoy both aug and dev, having it be so one-sided doesn’t sit well with me. Even after recent aug nerfs, the spec is still miles ahead of dev and its not even close.

Defensively, even when played well, it is very weak and can often fall over with no answers to your problems. Self healing is among the weakest of all the hybrid specs. High keys with constant rot damage is difficult to deal with and a lot of times praying someone has an external or the healer has cooldowns.

Offensively its average at best and doesn’t excell at anything that other specs can’t do better. Single target is below average outside of cooldowns and even with cooldowns its roughly average at best. It also completely lacks priority damage, making it even less desirable for comps.

Ever since the prepatch, dev evoker has lost its niche with big bursty AoE damage due to the many Consume Flame nerfs time after time. Prior to the consume flame nerf, I was completing up to +23 keys over the prepatch period and even reached #1 in the NA region for the spec because of that (yes I know its prepatch and it doesn’t matter in the slightest, but I wanted to mention this to point out the significance of these nerfs). Scalecommander deep breath can cover the bursty AoE somewhat, but is nowhere near as potent and puts you in a risky position more often then not. Other times you can’t even use deep breath without risking killing your team (2nd boss of skyreach for example). Yes its possible, but again, very risky. It does have the saving grace that you can cheese some mechanics.

I feel that to push dev in the right direction, it would need three things: increased defensiveness via an extra button and/or better self healing, damage in general to be improved outside of disintigrate on both the single target and AoE front, and something that helps the spec deal some amount priority damage outside of borrowed power. Also tip the scales is borderline useless for both dev specs. It basically functions as a method to extend rage longer and has to be used on eternity surge specifically. Using it on firebreath is a dps loss due to how catalyze and consume flame works.

I love this game and I love playing evoker. I would love to see dev shine alongside aug in the best case scenario, but we all know that will never happen. All I ask is for SOME kind of help. And no a 5% aura damage boost won’t fix the problem. The hero talents and how they play is what needs help. Give us some kind of niche we can fulfill, because right now we’ve got nothing.

5 Likes
2

Its tough.

I say that because Augmentaion is in the class of its own, as in there is no other support class in the game and while the support class as a concept works and it clearly does right now there isnt anything that can be done to Devastation that would make outshine it.

It does not get any better if Augmentation gets broken becuase then you are just another range dps and you will get assessed by those standards.

In a simplistic terms, for Devasation to be meta, Augmentation as a support class needs to be not good, and Devasation needs to be one of the best caster damage dealers to the point they make up for lack of utitility, which would make them grossly overpowered in their own right.

Devasation Evoker is the Enhancement Shaman of the range classes.

I say all this as someone who plays Preservation but switched to Aug for M+…dont hate the player, hate the meta kind of deal.

2 Likes
3

Yup, I completely agree with your take. Dev on its surface will never be meta unless something about the core of its spec changes. Even with an immense amount of damage, the lack of a useful kit will continue to hold it back.

Over the coarse of beta, it had a funny bug that caused consume flame to funnel all pyre damage onto a single target. You’re basically launching tactical nukes from your mouth lol. It deleted any mob from the face of the planet.

Stuff like that, albiet with much less potency, is what dev needs in my opinion. Basing from memory, that bug was so broken that dev almost ascended past the meta for a few weeks.

2 Likes
4

I still firmly believe that Firestorm, Weyrnstone, Time Dilation, Defy Fate, Draconic Attunements, Nourishing Sands, Dream of Spring, Arcane Reach, Font of Magic, Essence Attunement, and Power Nexus should all either be baseline across all specs or a part of the class tree rather than the spec trees, with talents that enhance different aspects of some of them on the spec trees instead.

These all either fit the Evoker class fantasy too well to be limited to a specific spec, or rather just awkwardly placed in the spec trees and would see more value in the class tree. Dev could really use the defensive capabilities of Time Dilation and Defy Fate though, as well as the self-healing from Nourishing Sands. The loss of Renewing Blaze as a reliable defensive was some brutal overkill for a spec already suffering from being too squishy.

2 Likes
5

Devastation Evoker will never be taken over Aug barring massive Aug undertuning for the simple fact that the gap in survival between Dev and Aug is MASSIVE.

Aug gets a built in cheat death via Defy Fate that also heals the group. That needs to be put on the general class tree for all 3 specs or Augmentation will always eclipse the other 2 specs in higher M+ keys.

The other problem is Augmentation gives a 30% HP shield every breath of eons and a 2% hp increase aura, while the other specs bring no particular exclusive utility.

So whenever Aug is not in the dumpster in terms of damage contribution, and it’s close enough to Devastation and Preservation isn’t far ahead of other healers, people will just bring an Aug evoker instead.

Again, Defy Fate and the draconic auras needs to be put on the class tree. The HP shield from breath should also go on the class tree for utility and replace a lot of useless crap that is in there.

3 Likes
6

I have no idea why Nourishing Sands isn’t a class-wide talent. It’s insane.

7

That would be a nice addition for sure.