Preservation Evoker Range

Classes Evoker
1

So, I just started playing a preservation evoker and I have it pretty close to 2500 and have done 1 heroic raid on it. I love the class and I have played every other healer, it’s very unique and pulling off combos feels satisfying.

The only real gripe I have with the class is the range. I feel the range issues are completely unnecessary, I know blizz wants it to be a “midrange” class and it is as your core spells require you to be in midrange to hit your targets but I feel the rest of the kit should be able to hit anyone at normal healer range. I should be able to hit range players with echo and reversion or fly over with a clutch verdant embrace, rescue is clunky and should be used for more emergency scenarios.

It feels bad to have to ask people before a dungeon starts to “stay in range”, people who pick range classes want to play in… You guessed it, range. They shouldn’t have to alter their positioning and play style to suit me, it feels bad for them and it feels bad for me, most people are okay with it but I can tell some people are annoyed.

I’m sure there’s already been a post about this but I just wanted to share my thoughts. I just see no reason for me not to be able to hit people with my single target spells at range, I’m aware there is rescue and good mobility and you can make it work but like I said, it just seems unnecessary especially when all other healers including melee healers have no range issues. Anyone else feel this way?

5 Likes
2

Welcome to Preservation Evoker. This range anxiety you’re experiencing is, unfortunately, a feature, not a bug. You either accept it and play the specialization, or move on to the more flexible and more forgiving healers.

Preservation is going to struggle with dungeons that have ranged comps, or bosses that have wide arenas or mechanics that force a lot of random movement or spread. If you’re not able to easily and consistently hit your entire group with Dream Breath without a lot of forethought or pre-planning, you’re going to have a lot of frustrating experiences that yes, other healers simply wouldn’t.

Every season I dust off my Evoker and do a few keys on him, and usually have fun in the early stages. But as the keys ramp up and I end up getting into the harder tyrannical bosses and more ranged comps, I am quickly reminded of just how frustrating the spec is to play. I ran a couple of pug Mist keys recently with fully ranged comps, and Tred’ova was a thoroughly infurating experience as Preservation.

2 Likes
3

Yup, same here. I received KSH all of Dragonflight as a healer. I refuse to do it this time around.

This. I hated having to heal range, and I shouldn’t have to feel that way. I especially hated hunters. But then again, why should another class’s mechanics force someone to change how they play theirs? It doesn’t make sense.

There are definitely posts about this, for sure. However, a loud minority of people here keep repeating the same rhetoric over and over again:

  • Skill issue.
  • It’s part of the class.
  • Use Hover more.
  • I don’t have that issue, so why do you?
  • Play another class. This one isn’t for you.
  • Players need to stack more.

This as well. Dream Breath is target-capped. Temporal Anomaly is target-capped. Spiritbloom is target-capped. I don’t see why their range needed to be nerfed. Evoker mobility isn’t great compared to other classes with better mobility that don’t have to sacrifice range for it. And yet, every time this feedback is posted, the same people say the same things I listed earlier.

This mid-range experiment does not work. Healing is already tough enough. Adding more to a healer’s workload is both stressful and mind-numbingly dumb. Players already don’t want to heal, and it doesn’t help that some players treat all M+ affixes as healer responsibilities. So how am I supposed to handle the affix other players are avoiding because it’s “not their job” while also reaching the ranged player in Narnia who’s just playing their class?

It needs to be patched. I can guarantee I’m not the only one not playing Pres., or evoker in general, because of its limited range. The added stress is not worth it.

2 Likes
4

What makes stuff “work?”

Is being part of meta not enough?

What you have is a preference, which, isn’t a design issue.

Every melee spec should be 40 yards so ranged players do not feel “stressed” when dpsing.

And every caster dps needs to solely have instant casts so melee players do not feel stressed when dpsing.

I believe I just described BM hunter.

5

Buddy, do not reply to me. You won. I’m not playing the class. GGs. You’re literally the person I spoke about.

Literally, you’re the reason that why I made that comment. You’re on every post on range issue, and you say the same things over and over again.

Literally not the same thing. My God, you’re tone-deaf. Melee doesn’t get targeted by ranged mechanics. Ranged gets targeted by ranged mechanics. If Evokers get targeted by ranged mechanics while in melee, it feels awful. But sure, keep making hyperbolic statements that make no sense.

Horrible analogy—once again—which completely misses the point.

Don’t bother replying. You’ve won. I’m done playing the class. I leveled it to 80 for Jewelcrafting, which seems to be more than you’ve done on yours. It seems like you’ve quit the class too, but whatever. Good for you, I guess? Just call me bad and move on.

1 Like
6

Prevoker is my other main. I finally came to the conclusion that where another player chooses to stand is not my responsibility. I mark my character so everyone will know where I am at all times, and I also have a macro so I can point it out in chat. Beyond that, if someone does not wish to move in just a tad, then so be it. I will do my best, but I will not rescue them. Prevokers have been around long enough that everyone should be aware of their limited range. Move in or don’t, not my responsibility.

Mind you, I love playing as a prevoker. I love love love it. I even love the smaller range because it forces me to be creative. I love the huge monster heals, I love the mobility, I love the utility. But it does have a shorter range, and it is not my job to makes others be in it.

7

You realize some mechanics are far easier to handle at range than being in melee? The mechanics that target everyone.

Melee aren’t exempt from all mechanics, and some mechanics are only an issue because they are melee.

8

Before I answer any of your questions, I just have one for you. Why did you stop playing evoker? It’s meta as you pointed out. You clearly enjoy playing it, since you’re always on this class forums.

What made you stop?

1 Like
9

Melee has harder time with “loose spread” or “run out” mechanics because the space they can work with is more crowded when considering uptime.

Ranged has a harder time with “dodge the thing” and especially frontal cone mechanics.

Surprisingly, the best place for a ranged to be in PvE is between melee range and DPS evoker range.

10

I still do play evoker. I just post on this character because it’s a retired main. My main is another preservation evoker.

11

LOL.

I’ll answer your question. WoW has quite a few mechanics—like spread and soak, just to name two—that are often delegated to ranged players since they can still attack from a distance, unlike melee.

If I’m forced to drop a puddle away from the boss, usually at the edge or something, and a DPS player takes avoidable damage (because pugs love doing that) while I’m away, it only adds to the stress of being a healer. Most DPS players prefer to “zug zug” and ignore mechanics, leaving healers to pick up the slack. This is just a fact. Mechanics that require ranged players to spread out or soak things far away from others feel doubly bad for a healer with limited range.

I could for sure be this person. But it’s not another player’s fault that a healer has reduced range. A Hunter player chose that class because it can snipe from a distance—not to huddle close to others. I understand where they’re coming from. I can’t impose my frustration on others because of the limitations of the class I chose to play.

Nor would I do this, since a healer’s job is to heal. If you’re not healing, then you’re not doing the job you signed up for. This mindset feels a lot like those tanks with god complexes, where it’s “their way or the highway.”

12

The fun part about this is after a certain point, people die, and it’s not your problem anymore. Plus, unless if you’re against the concept of healing in general, it’s part of the fun.

Every class has their own challenges.

You can though, if they don’t position properly, they die.

13

Nah, I like having chill runs. Letting others die isn’t chill. It’s awesome when players tell me how sick my heals are—even though I was raging at them the whole run (internally).

I’m okay dropping the class. It’s fun, but I won’t be playing it until they address the range issues.

Side note: It’s super aggravating to charge up a big Empower healing spell to top someone off, only for them to move just slightly out of range. Then I have to charge it up again, and they either die or get lucky if Verdant Embrace is off cooldown. Why Hover doesn’t work on Empowered abilities is beyond me. I’ll never understand it.

Edit: typo

2 Likes
14

because class would be too strong.

And I’ve like never really experienced this. (I’m sure it happened.) But like, it’s not a concern really. The only spell you should really charge up is spiritbloom (and, usually on self.) If people move out of range, oh well.

15

This seems to be the consensus for some. It’s just not my style.

16

Lols. Don’t acknowledge the trolls’ presence. That piece of garbage has gotten far more attention then they deserve already.

Over here in reality, the game has been designed and built around a 40 yard range. That’s all there is to it, discussion over. Take any situation, raid or dungeon, and it is always, inarguably better to have any healer besides pres, because they can play the game as intended, and the evoker can’t.

As I’ve said plenty of times, a truth that the idiots never confront cause it makes them flat out wrong, is that pres gets no benefit to match their hefty drawback of about 25% less range than every healer in the game. They have it to be “unique and different”, which is the objectively incorrect way to design anything, game or otherwise.

In the middle of a fight, someone gets knocked to 17% health. You go to respond with lets say verdant embrace and…“out of range.” Now you must judge where they are compared to yourself, move to get in range (if its even safe), and respond again…if they aren’t already dead. On any other healer with proper range you would just…heal them and move on.

Mobility does not make up for this because:

A. Mobility does not equal distance, and anyone with a functioning brain won’t think it does;

B. Plenty of other healers have great mobility and full range, making this “point” automatically and empirically wrong by default.

I wouldn’t hold my breath for anything to change though, cause Blizz is notoriously stubborn with things like this (LoL Rune of power) and tend to think they are correct just because they are the developers. Its unfortunate too, cause I really like Pres’ overall design, but the low range just kills its potential. Healing is just too important of a role to have to wrestle with a pointless disadvantage for no reason at all.

7 Likes
17

Yeah, I believe it. A few people are just saying to let them die if they’re out of range. I don’t believe this should be the answer to Evoker’s limitation.

I’m not worried about it. I’m not playing the class. Someone made a post and I just wanted to give my input. I do like the class and the combos that can be done, but the limitation is stressful for an already stressful role. It’s not worth the effort.

18

Is being blatantly overpowered not a benefit? (Was true for season 1 raiding.)

And even if there’s not a benefit, so what? It’s inline with melee dps vs ranged dps. No benefit due to being melee, in a world where BM hunters exist.

If it were down to healing profiles, I’d say Pres has quite a few benefits over other healers.

19

Love trying to time an Ara Kara and have all of the dps somehow be out of range and at critical health when i’m in the middle of the room. Hope temporal anomaly hits one for a pity heal

5 Likes
20

If any of the evoker specs had 40 yard range, they would be OP in pvp. Especially against melee. Some of their AOE’s ( eternity surge) are getting longer range in 11.1