While I think Devastation Evoker has decent mitigation in Obsidian Scales and Renewing Blaze, I find that spells like Verdant Embrace, Living Flame (healing), and Emerald Blossom all have very poor “reactionary” value. In situations where there is unexpected—or unprepared for—high-damage moments, I find myself stuck with very few tools to save myself in a pinch.
As someone who primarily mains Paladin, something I really like about the class is that I have the option to spend my holy power on a potent heal in Word of Glory/Eternal Flame, spam-heal Flash of Light, or drop a big healing nuke in Lay on Hands. In dungeons especially, I feel like I can really contribute as a temporary off-healer in moments of need.
When I play Evoker, I always expect Verdant Embrace to be equivalent to Word of Glory in healing done, but it feels like it barely moves my health bar in any meaningful way. Similarly, Living Flame, the equivalent to Flash of Light, feels like it should heal me more if I choose to spend my instant-cast Burnout procs to heal myself, but instead it just tickles my health more than anything. This is not to even mention Emerald Blossom, which I question why I even have it keybound at this point with how little it does.
I’ve not touched Aug since S1, but I recall it having some interaction that caused Emerald Blossom to offer a huge self-heal on a proc, which I really enjoyed having. Unfortunately, I do not care much for Aug otherwise, so I’ve always felt wanting that interaction on Devastation and am still searching for a reactionary-healing answer.
So, to reiterate, am I missing something? Or is this just the reality of Dev’s self-healing potential?
Well, that is unfortunate. I do like how mobile dev is, but you would think our limited range would warrant us to have more sufficient self-healing. I’m sure that sentiment has been shared ad nauseum, but I hope it gets addressed someday.
Do you happen to remember at what point in DF that happened? I’ve been playing dev since it released and now that you mention it, I do recall there being times where I would spend the Burnout procs on self-healing Living Flames and it actually being beneficial.
I think Dev should have that empowered Emerald Blossom effect that Aug has when a mob dies.
Defy Fate should be the baseline for all Evoker specs. The Preservation “purgatory effect” is awful. The Devastation just doesn’t have one.
The Aug 50% of incoming dmg as a DoT during Breaths should be baseline for all Evoker specs. Stopping all accidental breath deaths, as well as a mitigating.
I wish they had a internal mechanic, casting Verdant Embrace makes your next FRIENDLY LIVING FLAME instant.
The Firebreath Healing effect should be a healing effect for all the specs to heal themselves, the presvoker talent version should be the modifier that makes it heal allies as well.
Emerald blossom has been sucks since the expansion began, because they inflated the health pools and didn’t scale our self heals accordingly. It not sucking would be nice.
Verdant Embrace could stand to be a touch stronger too. They made it benefit from Panacea which helps but it could use more.
Renewing Blaze is great since it’s percentage based.
Or just put defy fate in the class tree. That’d do it.
It certainly feels undertuned and I agree it could use a slight boost. But remember we’re running with insanely low versatility.
Also, the talent Panacea feels grossly undertuned. The extra heal this provides is only 2% of my total health. Because this is in the way of source of magic, I refuse to pick up SoM unless absolutely necessary or im raiding. Panacea is completely dead to me.
It’s more similar to Mage where they have bad sustain but amazing “cockroach” capabilities to just avoid or revert damage outright.
I’ll only verdant/blossom if I’m desperate for a smidge of healing to help a healer if the situation is rough or to possibly heal a tank a little.
But for the most part you need to know damage patterns like healers need to know. And then strategically use your core defensives. It’s a lot easier being a healer main personally.
Flameshaper is weaker defensively. But Scalecommander has it good.
Overall:
8% stam/magic DR talents
75% bonus armor passive + mail armor for physical dmg that doesn’t ignore armor (boss AOE tends to ignore)
40% DR 1.5m CD, 2 charges. That’s basically Pain Suppression on half the CD.
10% avoidance on hover, big uptime
Renewing Blaze 100% effective DR on most things if you won’t get one shot every 1m
Rescue 30% bubble on you and an ally every minute. This is enough on its own to survive most one shots.
Zephyr which can be a personal defensive on its own for some things
Compared to what shamans have going for them evokers are doing great defensively. Renewing Blaze is basically on par with Altered Time for mages.
I wouldn’t be mad if they baked in personal leech on fire breath though.
We have baked in personal leech on all of our abilities because we have a general talent which just gives leech.
Most of our sustain comes from Leech and renewing blaze with things like health potions and health stones to help cover for a moments of more intense damage, and the open world end up with more self-healing from leaping flames having the extra go straight into yourself and visage offering silly out of combat regen, especially when paired with the leeching fangs cloak enchant.