From the ashes of Augmentation, make a Tank spec!

Classes Evoker
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Let’s face it, Augmentation is a doomed spec. By its very nature, the only way it can be useful in groups is by being overpowered, because its performance is dependent on the performance of other players.

Even in a balanced state, Augmentation would be on the bottom of DPS charts and not worth a slot in a group. One avenue to alleviate this is to buff the power of tanks and heals.

However, recent actions by Blizzard have indicated that they don’t want Augvokers to go this route and only want them to buff DPS. There is certainly value in giving tanks a shield and increasing the range and mana regen of Healers, but overall that’s simply not enough to justify an Augvoker in the spot of a dedicated DPS.

Solution:

Make Augmentation a tank spec where your abilities can passively increase the power of your group. Since the purpose of tanks are survivability, DPS performance of the spec won’t be a concern, and Augmentation’s buffs can be altered towards survivability of the group over outright DPS performance.

Some basic ideas:

  1. Azure Strike becomes Burning Claws, and acts as the core ability of the spec. Burning Claws could trigger instant cast empower spells.

  2. New Empower ability: Searing Breath, applies a DoT (Molten Flames) and reduces the armor of its targets, while increasing your armor.

  3. Obsidian Scales becomes Molten Scales. While active, damage caused by attackers effected by Molten flames heals your for a % of the damage.

  4. Breath of Eons becomes Cataclysm. Fly forward, setting the path ablaze and burning all targets in your path with molten flame. Pressing ability again will port you back to your starting position.

  5. Boost to Blistering Scales, making it a core tanking ability. Still can be casted on other players.

  6. New Ability: Oppressing Howl: Pushes targets back and increases the damage of your next attack.

8 Likes
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Not going to happen—not on Blizzard’s Evoker developers’ watch.

From the initial patch notes, it’s clear that Augmentation is getting even stronger despite the so-called “nerfs.” PTR is coming soon, and we’ll see how it plays out.

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you should never play a tank spec. ever.

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How about just asking for a tank spec instead of asking for other players to lose something they enjoy so you can have your tank spec, you selfish jerk.

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It’ll keep getting nerfed on its way to being “balanced.” It’ll be buffed and then nerfed again. You can quote me on that. I’ll be here. The spec does not work. It relies on a variable that cannot be accounted for—player performance.

The best aug player cannot carry bad players. It’s that simple. If they tune it for casual players, it’ll be busted OP. If they tune it for high-end players, then it is trash for the majority of the player base. The spec needs to go. Delete Aug already. The vast majority of the community is tired of it.

If Aug only buffs DPS players, it’s going to be bad—especially in M+. Imagine they balance Aug. In an M+ group, let’s say each DPS does 100 damage. Aug contributes 40 damage on the meters but buffs the other two DPS by 30 damage each, keeping them at 100 damage. Now, imagine one DPS dies during a boss fight and there’s no battle rez. Suddenly, you’re losing not just their 100 damage but also the 30 from Aug’s buff. That’s a double penalty. While this is somewhat true now, it’ll be much worse if Aug becomes purely a buff DPS spec.

The community already discriminates against Aug players, and turning them into just another DPS spec won’t help. Aug can only shine if it’s overpowered, and if it’s balanced, it’ll feel mediocre at best. This isn’t going to end well.

The player base did suggest it. Blizzard, true to form, took that suggestion—just like they do with most player feedback (looking at Death and Decay)—and completely ignored it.

Personally, I think a lot of this “enjoyment” comes from Aug being the FOTM for several patches. I mean, who wouldn’t want to play a spec that’s practically guaranteed to be S or A tier?

No King rules forever and the Aug experiment is a failure.

6 Likes
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Making a new tank spec will not, in-fact, make people tank more. You need to give up and stop thinking that thought, you will be a happier person.

2 Likes
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According to the guide writers, what they received is actually not a buff nor a nerf in terms of DPS, even with Ebon Might no longer affecting tanks and healers. The reason is Close As Clutchmates is being buffed from 0% to 25% while in 5-man group content. Group survivability is only reduced by about 5%. Aug still brings a whole sloth of utility that no other spec/class brings. That alone will still make Aug an appealing pick.

The current consensus is Aug is not dead, but is no longer “mandatory” in high end M+ groups. They will still be a solid pick for high end keys.

Source: https://www.wowhead.com/news/augmentation-evoker-nerf-reaction-in-patch-11-1-355787

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I disagree with this fallacy. I know plenty of DPS players who tank because their friend group needs one. Granted, they don’t have an alt they tank on since their main usually has a tank spec—and the same can be said for healing.

Sure, they might not be a tank main, but players who main a class with a tank spec will often step up when needed. That means they’re already tanking more than players without the option. If we’re talking about Evokers, the tanking potential is literally zero right now. Adding a tank spec would mean any amount of tanking is “more” than what they’re currently capable of.

I did read the article when it was posted. Did you also read the slew of comments that followed? If you did, you’d know that Augs are actively disliked and discriminated against by the community.

The fact that they’re being touted as a “solid pick for high-end keys” and “no longer ‘mandatory’ in high-end M+ groups,” as you’ve mentioned, only worsens the bias and divide against Aug players. It creates a perception that Aug is either unnecessary or a risky pick, further isolating the spec.

When inviting an Aug player to your group, there are a few questions that inevitably come up:

  1. Are they actually good? Or have they been carried by players who are good, making their performance look better than it is?
  2. Does their value depend on the rest of the group? If the other two DPS are solid pumpers, sure, an Aug can shine. But if the DPS are duds, even the best Aug player can’t make trash DPS great.
  3. Is it worth the risk? Why deal with 1 and 2 when you could just bring another DPS that doesn’t come with all this baggage?

Personally, I’ve seen plenty of Aug players who don’t understand their role extends beyond just boosting damage. They often don’t have their utility spells keybound or know when to use them effectively.

Aug may not be “dead,” as some in the community claim, but perception is everything. Community bias determines how long you’ll sit in the LFG queue and whether or not you’ll even get accepted into a group. That’s the real issue.

They’ll definitely buff Aug in the foreseeable future and then nerf them again. The only way I see Aug working is if they turn the spec into a healing spec—the true support role of the game. The best Aug players are usually healers anyways from my experience.

2 Likes
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makign them a tank wouldnt remove that community bias, despite all tanks being capable of timing the same level of keys. people still think brew and bear are super turbo weak and shouldnt be played, people still think all tanks weakness is “magic” when magic isnt a issue.

your trading one community issue for another community issue, sadly blizzard cant fix the smooth brain key community that swears they need a “meta comp” to time their level 8 key

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Tanks are in short supply. I main a tank and it’s super easy to get accepted into keys. If I wipe a key, no biggie. I’m onto the next one. It’s that easy. No one wants to tank, just like no one wants to heal. It’s all about supply and demand. And tanks are in high demand.

Sadly, this is not true. It is twice as fun to pump and play dps. You can also screw up mechanics and have more leeway for number of errors you can do. Tanks and healers, on the other hand, they have a very small margin of error since their screw ups effect everyone in the group.

With this in mind, I can que up quite easily for mostly anything. The demand for tanks is uber high. The demand for dps is not. It’s that simple. The community can dislike brewmasters all they want, but they can get into a key easily enough.

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cause tanking this season is degen cause theres a billion casts that need to be interupted or you explode. keep in mind dps players dont like to interupt or stun.

its just fustrating to multiple tank mains to do all these jobs and then get blamed when they explode for something out of their control and the key depletes. you go next thats fine, thats the logic everyone uses as a tank main, but its gets so very very very tiring.

the demand for tanks is high yes, but as you go higher people only want specific tanks. iof you die as brew in a casual key your entire group blames the spec “i shouldnt have invited t his brew” ive seen it multiple times in pugs. your still being subjected to that community bias

i cant tell you how many times i was insulted for “not playing sigil of chains” in a weekly key, and then when i did play chains i was insulted for “being a bad vdh for not rupting” when i RAN OUT of things to stop things with CAUSE dps players dont like to interupt

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This will never change. DPS players, in general, don’t like to interrupt or stun—it’s just how it is. And now, these same players are rerolling to Aug, a spec that not only requires those abilities but so much more.

That’s the mentality you have to have. You have to shrug it off and move on. It’s worse for dps who wait X amount of minutes for a key to wipe, be blamed for it, and then have to wait again. It sucks. It’s one of the reasons I don’t play Spriest.

You’re bound to hit the meta slave ceiling eventually, even for dps. It’s just takes a bit longer for tanks to get there and, on some occasions, they’ll often overlook it because they really need a tank.

Take this for example: a DPS pulls a pack they saw pulled in the MDI, completely ignoring the fact that I don’t have CDs ready for it. We all die, and guess who gets the blame? “Man, this tank sucks.” “Tank, what are you even doing?” “Your route is trash.”

And, of course, it’s always followed by some comment about how they’re much better than you because they main the class you’re playing… on their alt, no less. It’s frustrating, but at the end of the day, you just have to shake it off and move forward. You can’t fix other people’s egos.

Once again, it’s the DPS players themselves who are the issue here. The best Aug players I’ve seen are usually healers because they’re already used to the demanding nature of their role—balancing utility, awareness, and support.

DPS players, on the other hand? Most of them just want that free, smooth-brain ride. They pick Aug thinking it’s an easy way to be relevant without putting in the effort required to fully utilize the spec. And that’s where a lot of the problems stem from.

In order for Aug to succeed, the spec relies heavily on the player playing Aug and the dps being buffed. Blizzard cannot balance player performance.

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if aug became a tank spec before shamans got one, someone would definitely raise caine on blizz HQ. Shamans have been vehemently pushing for this since they removed our ability to crap tank back in cata.

1 Like
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hopefully is never going to happen

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I wanted a melee DPS spec.

Using magic and their claws to deal damage, would have been pretty nice.

Instead we got this wannabe support spec that only caused problems, isn’t even fun to play, and is basically a DPS in disguise at this point.

If they wanted to do this properly they should have added a 4 the role, make dungeons for 6 and basically completely rebalance the entire game for this new role, but at a certain point you have to ask yourself, is this even worth it?

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I did read some of the comments and share their same views. I haven’t played Aug since it first released in season 2 of Dragonflight.

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I honestly don’t see this spec surviving in its current iteration after this expansion.

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i hate to burst bubbles, people people especially the casual base were asking for a support bard class in wow for ages, blizzard would be insane to remove it completely from the game or change it to a tank spec for some small niche group of players

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See, this is the dumb stuff that the forums leave me scratching my head over. You have absolutely no idea how many people do or do not want a tank spec any more than you know how many people (a) wanted a bard, and (b) are even remotely happy with aug as opposed to an actual bard.

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its easier to track how much people wanted a support spec because threads twitter and reddit posts have been appearing asking for one for 20 years you goober.