What makes this spec meta? Why do people think it’s good?
The other day I did a 21 waycrest. My understanding is that aug is supposed to buff the damage and / or healing of the other party members, so their individual numbers dont matter. Is that right?
Well, the final figures after the run were no different than what they would have been without the aug… which just made the aug feel like a hard carry…
“Oh well you just played with a bad evoker.” Maybe… but it has NEVER been different. Ever.
I’d rather have another player doing 200K sustained for a run than an evoker doing 70k and barely buffing anything else at all.
My experience has been, without exception, that whatever benefit they’re supposed to bring is not even close to worth it and just slows you down.
Support/durability. Buffing tank/healer also a big deal.
Because it is.
I’m not sure how that’s possible. Aug in general can be less damage than another dps, though, and if you’re just blasting through 20s that explode anyways then I imagine another Havoc might be better than an aug.
Aug makes healing easier, by a lot. On every healer I play I notice when there is an aug in the group it feels like 2/3 key levels easier than if there isn’t one.
The only complaint I have is aug doesn’t really work with things like thorn dude boss in waycrest manor, because there’s only one real dps going after the soul thorns if a real dps gets hit (which happens 2/3 of the time)
Aug is for people who dont want to or cant contribute in a meaningful way so they feel included. Pretty much all support specs in all games. It felt like a carry because it was.
Augs value in DPS is based on both their own capabilities and the capabilities of the group. You will never play with people good enough to make an Evoker worth for DPS in a 21, the players good enough for that aren’t doing 21s.
What you do gain is the increased survivability from healers having a tonne more int, two people having almost permanent 20% extra Vers, tank getting a huge permanent DR buff, and the value of breath giving a big group wide shield every time you do a big pull with all CDs.
Aug is less damage than a good DPS but it’s a lot safer, but a mediocre aug buffing mediocre DPS is just bad damage.
If you’re pugging it’s always going to be a “bad evoker” every single time. You could invite literally any other spec instead of a leeching lizard and your key will almost always be easier. The problem is because there’s no way to judge the spec in game so people playing Aug are allowed to just get away with being unacceptably bad at the game because you can’t even see if they’re playing correctly unless you’re looking at logs which of course you can’t do while in the key.
99.99% of people playing Aug are some of the worst players that just get boosted for free without actually doing anything because they have the auto invite pass.
Also zephyr which is a group wide 20% damage reduction on a 2 minute cd, so helpful for big aoe hits like BRH boss 1 soul burst, boss 4 part 2 first volley (before we get buffed) and even just dot aoe damage to give me a little breather.
I see. So there’s boosted survivability, but outside of that, better to just grab another big dam player.
Argue amongst yourselves. This is the info i wanted.
The assumption that i must be playing with bad to mediocre players is super funny though. Whatever you need to do to boost your own sense of self worth!
Its not an assumption, it’s a fact of how large the gulf in performance between people doing weekly 20s and pushing 29s is. Your DHs aren’t doing 400k sustained DPS across a whole dungeon, the DHs doing weekly 20s aren’t even aware such a thing is possible. That’s how good the players an aug is buffing need to be for aug to feel like it’s pulling it’s weight on damage.
Honestly I would prefer an aug in every 20 or 21. I don’t think you need good damage to time a 20/21 anyway. Plus I play a priest with PI and my own damage so I can probably make up the difference.