Fine, you want to cripple evokers with miniscule range? Make it a REAL mobile caster. Every spell is catable on the move baseline, 30 percent slower while moving like the warlock ability, except empowered spells. Make hover the movement increaser it is now, but it also removes the 30 percent debuff to spell casting times on movement. Now the 2 charges (which EVERYONE is forced into, why even have it a deep choice, it should be like row 3) will ACTUALLY be useable for repositioning/keeping up with the party/pvp evasions.
25 (or 30) yard range is crippling. This change should be a minimum and greatly improve the class functionality, in pve AND pvp (which it is a joke right now, at least devastation is).
Make their 1.5 second cast spells 1.95 seconds. Make their channel spells take 30 percent longer to finish, instants stay instant like moonfire for druids, among other spells. I hardly think that makes them broken considering many of their spells are 25 yard range, and empowered spells would still require you to be still.
I haven’t played Evoker yet so I can’t say if I agree or disagree, but adding any ability to cast while moving has to be done extremely carefully because it has the potential to render other casters obsolete with how movement-heavy both PvE and PvP have become in recent expansions.
I think casters could use a mobility boost across the board, not unlike how DKs and DHs brought QoL improvements to melee in general.
On my fire mage, I cast scorch on the move. I dont think it breaks the game. And there are so many instants I usually have 2 or 3 while positioning too. If you saw how abysmially weak their main attack is (think fireball with a 25 yard range) you would be like “yeah, ok this class definatley needs SOMETHING” Try it on the beta. I was shocked how much weaker I was than even my poorly optimized arcane mage is.
Yeah mages have scorch, but it’s pretty laughably weak. Very much a better than nothing sort of spell. It feels like a modern analogue to wanding.
The instants are nice for sure but also not terribly difficult to exhaust. It’s pretty easy to end up in a position where the most you can do is spam scorch sneaking in the occasional fireball.
But this is a problem with casters in general. Having to plant yourself to do mentionable damage runs exactly counter to the emphasis on movement these days. Blizz could really stand to experiment with caster mechanics… cast speed penalties for moving like you mention aren’t a bad idea, but there’s a lot of other things they could also try.
At 25 yard range, it would make it hard to keep up with the groups, as well as in pvp make you a free kill. The increased cast times with full mobility seems to fit their “vision” of a mobile caster much better. DRUID is a mobile caster, evoker is not.