Yep. It has only ever existed in terms of damage profile. They have always primarily boosted the trinity roles. Granted, they often had utility added on, and became more hybridized with other roles over time, but the core is making your allies better.
In a word? Augmentation.
Eh, be early with your feedback. Even if this isn’t the way things are going, I see no harm in voicing my concern that it could.
I really hope augvokers are just a horrible joke and that they will just become another dps spec like they should be. The nerfs are good, but more is needed.
What do you think has to change for the spec to reach a healthy state where it’s desired but not meta warping? I’ve already mentioned one thing (Upheaval), do you agree and is there anything else you see as a clear target?
Aug is a DPS spec it will be balanced as such.
For the very same reasons we’re seeing blasted all over the forums. It is difficult to balance. It is unique as a role.
From my perspective, though? The only flaw is that it is alone. It should have come with a few friends. I wouldn’t be opposed to Enhancement being returned to its core theme, which sold me on the class all those years ago as the “offensive support (with a new melee DPS spec for those that enjoy the current iteration).
But there’s room for more “support”-esque roles elsewhere. I’d love to see a “mezzer” take on the concept with debuffs providing the value added.
Oh… you mean like healers being harassed to do moar damage?
Yeah, I agree with ya. Keep specs pure and true, aye.
I think that’s a false equivalence. Buffing a dps and doing damage are both contributing group damage.
It’s more like if BM hunter’s pet contributions suddenly dropped to 20% of the spec’s overall.
Disagree completely.
Healers and tanks DPS, and their damage is balanced all the time. DPS is always a factor, even if peripheral for these playstyles.
If they’re going to keep the current utility, your 3 DPS value should be like 2.8 with an Evoker. Nothing is being sacrificed right now for that utility. It would only make sense to provide more than that 3 DPS if the utility wasn’t out of line with any other class - in that case, you’re getting a bit more damage out of a best case scenario while increasing your risk (as it is crippling to the Aug to have any DPS die).
Alternatively, keep it over that 3 DPS value mark, but expand the role to other classes. Let groups seek a support DPS in the way they would a ranged or melee DPS - preferable to have a balanced group, but a lot of options to achieve that balance, and still viable if you don’t or can’t get an ideal composition.
All that being said… I think it’s perfectly fine to require one at high keys. You “require” a lot of things at that level of content, Aug existing or not.
So let’s say they keep aug at the value of a full dps.
What’s on the chopping block in your opinion?
Yep. I’m with you on that.
Remove the personal DPS buff and find a happy middle ground where the purpose isn’t lost.
We want more support stuff in the future and this would be a terrible direction to have it all dumpstered because of fear.
I’m not sure I’d agree with that. When Enhancement was at its ‘core theme’ other specs also filled that support-esque role. Didn’t stop any of them from becoming what they are today. And personally whenever I want to play the ‘offensive support’ role I just pop onto something like Disc Priest or Holy Paladin. Been meaning to try Mistweaver Monk as well. That or Ret Paladin, for off heals and bops and such. Warlock works well with its toolkit though I’d love it if the curses were more impactful in PvE at least. And especially been enjoying Dev Evoker to scratch that itch. Some off heals, movement abilities, and with last week being raging felt great to oppressive roar raging off huge mob packs.
And I think returning Enhancement to what it was before is gonna be a hard sell if Graham is to be believed.
Having a better Commanding Shout is a big one. Probably the biggest. To better cater to the support role, if it can’t be eliminated entirely, it should apply exclusively to the tank. Helping the tank to tank is support - helping everyone is utility.
Alternatively, like I’ve said, add more specs. Make wanting that support DPS to balance out your group as ubiquitous as wanting melee DPS and ranged DPS.
I do not.
The point of the post is to highlight people trying to push for something that suits them personally more (ie for pushing whatever epeen thing they’re looking for), instead of focusing on keeping a spec pure.
You are playing offensive healers. Not offensive supports.
Unless you want to be a semantic literalist, ignoring the definition being used in the discussion in favour of the dictionary definition just to aggravate. Like all the people going, “Actually, gear is borrowed power!” whenever that discussion was had, deliberately missing the point and contributing nothing.
They need to nerf Spriest and Mage, not Augmentation. But there’s apparently a rule that they can’t nerf Spriest without beating it into a pulp and Mage is the main character of WoW, so that’s not getting nerfed. Expect another hit to bear soon, even though this is the first time this xpac it’s been good.
They need to resist the QQ that comes from these changes. Otherwise we’ll never get a class like EQ’s shaman or EQ’s bard or EQ’s enchanter.
WoW is exceptionally plain in many regards. The trinity DPS / Tank / Healer is one such plain setup.
So to make a quick list.
Black atunement ebon scales
Blistering scales applied to tank only
Upheaval Knockup(?)
Yeah I think if they got rid of those 3 things and continued to tune the spec’s total output (Without affecting ratio) we’d be in a much healthier place
Yep. All that utility is just superfluous fluff. As long as the core support role is preserved, I’ll be happy.
But again, best case scenario is to suffer through this expansion with a single support DPS and expand the availability next.