WARNING: Extremely detailed / Long post.
Hi, for those who dont know me I go by Kinndy or JD. I am multi-gladiator on mage and have been maining devastation exclusively since its release on beta. Ive hit 3k in shuffle and I create youtube content and guides for devastation in arena. I also stream nightly, both links I will include at the end of my post.
My suggestions are purely from a pvp standpoint but will highlight some painpoints for pve when relevant.
My rework would begin with the mastery, it doesn’t make sense to have a reverse execute in any format simply because players don’t feel rewarded becoming weaker as the fight progresses, especially in raid when the end is usually the most hectic/crucial stage.
In pvp, you will always have difficulty finishing a kill because the mastery says so. I feel that if i play well and create kill windows i should not do less damage just because the target is low on health.
In arena, this forces players to stack mastery just to be competitive in damage when no other spec in the game has to go to such extremes. Mastery should be a compliment to your kit, not dictate the way a player gears or operates.
In mythics, players have experienced ripping aggro from the tank which causes friction within the group and forces players to hold off on damage which does not allow for the full benefit of the mastery anyway.
Ive come up with a few variants that are similar to current masteries from comparable classes. I kept it simple.
Mastery ideas
Up in Flames (version 1)
Increase your damage to targets afflicted by your fire breath by X%. Targets receive the full effect during dragonrage.
Up in Flames (version 2)
Your direct damage spells to targets afflicted by fire breath burn for an additional X% over 8 seconds. Double during dragonrage
Mastery: Energy Surge
Increase your chance to trigger an essence burst and increases all fire and spellfrost damage you deal by X%
Quick note: fire breath to me (as a dot) does not feel like i am applying any pressure, even in dampening. When a warlock applies UA or an ele shaman applies flame shock those things are impactful if not devastating in certain scenarios. Fire breath should serve the same function.
It should also have dispel protection. Its our core ability with a 25 yard range and a small cone. It should mean something if i find the time and space to apply it.
New effect:
- When fire breath is dispelled, it disorients the target for 1.5 seconds
Empowered ability thoughts:
I like the concept and I would argue to keep it as is with a few adjustments.
Fire breath - instead of dot duration vs up front burst - it could all share the same dot duration with the difference between rank 1-4 being the size of the dot. Rank 4 burning for the maximum.
Reasoning, tip the scales is a 2 minute cooldown, if i use it I would want to gain more value than a small dot, its nerfed into the ground (mostly) in pvp anyway.
This does two things, removes the chance of a one shot mechanic and gives the player more options when it comes to how to deal damage and apply pressure.
Eternity surge - all targets within 25 yard range receive the damage with your primary target receiving the most.
Remove the amount of targets hit by rank and just apply the standard does reduced damage beyond X targets
My idea for eternity surge:
Rank 1 - as is
Rank 2 - slows the targets by 70%
Rank 3 - Disorients the targets for 3 seconds
Rank 4 -stuns the targets for 4 seconds
This is an empowered ability, it should have empowered mechanics behind it. If i create the time and space to make it happen with the 25 yard limitation, it should mean something. Im a dragon.
Abilities
Hover - when testing in the beta I always felt that the mechanic for mobility plus casting and moving did not have to be the same thing. There are times where I need to dash but I don’t necessarily want to cast while moving.
A mechanic im stealing from valorant is the ability recharge concept.
Hover would be able to be toggled, (off the gcd) and depletes over a duration and once the resource runs out, you have to wait for it to recharge before using it again.
This concept is really what i imagined when reading about blizzards idea for the mobility for evoker, they wanted us to carefully choose our actions and this I believe would help support that idea more accurately than having 2 hover charges on a 30 second cooldown.
My idea New ability:
“Pursue” - 15 second cooldown, 2 charges: dash in a targeted direction granting hover for 3 seconds
Pyre - should hit harder somehow, possibly based on targets hit, theres no reason to press it in arena, not even if everyone is on top of each other because it provides zero pressure outside of a stacked up charged blast + skyfury + some luck with a crit from dragonrage on the initial 3 pyre launch.
Disintegrate - should spend essence based on tick. Getting kicked immediately and losing 3 essence feels terrible. Or cancelling your cast to move out of randomly spawned swirly mechanic. No aspect Ive ever read about would tolerate that.
Dragonrage - its interesting moving into dragonflight how classes like warlock lost the cooldown of dark soul while mages still have icy veins / combustion.
If devastation is to have a cooldown, dragonrage could stay as is and just provide another modifier like crit or haste, or the new mastery with the burn effect or enhanced damage used with essence burst.
On that note, pvers dislike having to “aggressively clip” disintegrates just to extended dragonrage. I agree, its counterproductive. Why rush actions that forces a loss of damage to potentially gain more uptime for a compacted/forced window that doesnt allow you to get full value.
My idea: change the animosity talent to extend dragonrage based on essence spent and adjusting the timers for it to make more sense, you will fully channel disintegrate without being punished, rewarded for proper chaining and essence spending.
Rework feed the flames / causality to reduce the cooldown of dragonrage by X-seconds based on empowerment level.
Again more fluidity, actively working towards something and being rewarded for using empowered abilities off cd or finding windows to cast at higher empower level.
Talent Everburning flame rework idea:
the damage of your fire breath is increased by red spells up to 8 stacks ( so 8 ticks of damage ) up to 100%. Could be fun rampup for big aoe fights.
Defensives:
no one likes being paper, its clear dev needs more mitigation. Call me biased but as the hero class and as a dragon they should be hard to kill. To end deathwing , all the homies channeled their full energy to spirit bomb him to take him out.
Ideas
Tempered scales armor increase could be higher and include a reduction of dot damage by X%
Additional passive:
Hardened scales, taking direct damage of 10% max health or more causes your scales to harden, spreading out the damage over 5 seconds instead.
Obsidian scales usable while stunned
Renewing blaze unaffected by mortal wounds OR
Chrono loop usable on yourself and allies (insane plays i could make)
Time stop freezes an ally in time for 4 seconds, recast to teleport them within 30 yards. Now that would be sick.
Or, time stop usable on enemies freezing them in time and reducing their haste to 0% effectively silencing them for 4 seconds. Similar to strangulate.
Talent tree - all the passive talents have to go. Tie them to abilities / cds
Iridescence - i like the concept but it should not be limited by a 10 second window. Could potentially store damage similar to charged blast function where blue increases red and vice-versa
Hoarded power removed, a capstone only having a 20% chance to work is horrendous.
Imagine telling a warlock “hey your dimensional portals only have a 20% chance to work sorry”
This is the HERO class, whatever team put together devastation was clearly rushed. There were probably things up high in executive land that was more pressing than making a functional/competitive class for the new expansion so I understand if the developers didnt get the time they needed to make it complete.
Im on the side of the devs, they have the talent and skill but they need the freedom and green light to make moves. When they are able, they do insane stuff, look at rets rework, its tight, its detailed, im excited for that and i dont even play paladin.
Devastation will have its day, and those who participate in this forum will be doing us all justice by showing blizzard we care and are willing to provide this type of feedback.
If you have ideas for the spec pls dont hold back, be thorough. The dev team has often claimed that we highlight issues but dont provide solutions. Go the extra mile and discuss your ideas. There are a TON of insanely creative people on this forum and I wanna hear your thoughts on how to improve the spec.
Links from earlier:
I make arena guides / content on my youtube.
Every night I stream what I call the pain and grief simulator in solo shuffle at around 2.5/2.6 mmr on my alt for now. Im rank 9 on ladder on main and will be making a push for rank 1 crimson legend later in the season.