Hello, I just wanted to concisely document some PvP Changes that I believe would help trend Augmentation into a viable direction in Arena/PvP based on a large sample of play time.
My credentials: I have extensive experience on the class, got 3 solo Shuffle R1’s on Aug, and have been Gladiator or above level every season since it has come out.
Eruption currently does not do meaningful damage as Chronowarden (400K damage on a 1.7 second cast, longer than Chaos Bolt), and Mass Eruption spikes over 2million crits for Scalecommander, with less empowered versions hitting for 500k. We need to narrow this damage range heres how with PvP Modifiers –
Eruption PvP Only Changes:
Mass Eruption now increases damage by 5% per missing target down from 15% (PvP Modifier from 1.0 to 0.33) for a 30% nerf to the high end.
Might of the Black Dragonflight now increases black spell damage by 10% down from 20% (PvP Modifier from 1.0 to 0.5)
Unrelenting Siege now is 67% effective in PvP (10% increase on the high end down from 15%, PvP Modifier from 1.0 to 0.67)
Eruption base spell damage increased by 35% in PvP only (PvP Modifier 1.0 to 1.3)
Eruption Summary: This would nerf the high end damage of Mass Eruption by 10%, while buffing the low end normal Eruption damage by 25% (400k damage eruptions in PvP right now by 25%).
Generalized PvP Changes:
Living Flame damage increased by 20% (Targeting offensive increase for Chronowarden and for the spell to feel more impactful for Scalecommanders looking more meaningful hits from this spell while generating essence burst).
Deep Breath cooldown reduced to 1 minute (Speccing into Breath of Eons still will increase the cooldown to 2 minutes, making it more Eons more desirable for PvE, but keeping SC Aug competitive with SC Dev as the 50% shorter CD for Dev makes ScaleCommander much more impactful).
Emerald Blossom healing increased by 35% (Severely underperforming relative to DF and Living Flame + Verdant Embrace heal).
New PvP Talent - Bolstering Scales: Blistering Scales may now consume charges to deal damage to ranged and magical attackers (Our highest damaging spell, sucks to see it absolutely useless verse ranged and magical attackers).
I’m not necessarily recommending every single change is implemented, just using my experience to help navigate a healthier direction for Augmentation so that it has a viable place in PvP. Currently it is doing 50-70% the damage of every other spell caster in arena, all for 5% primary stat on Ebon Might while mages bring 40% of that value in a permanent Arcane Intellect buff for the team. It is also hard to balance this spec when Blistering Scales is the highest damage dealing ability if there is a melee in the arena game, but does absolutely no damage versus only spell casters, where Augmentation already struggles with a smaller range than the other spell casters. This would certainly help normalize performance more.
Please avoid valueless comments. If you disagree please provide examples of why. Augmentation should not be the only PvP spec balanced by its haters.
The spec was marketed poorly as a “Support” when its really just a “Damage Dealer” role in the game, and the pve crowd really wanted another tank which is where this trolling stems from.
Elemental Shaman, Enhancement Shaman, Shadow Priest, Retribution Paladin, etc. all bring similar “Support”. Dark Archangel provides damage boosts for Priests, and Shadow Priests, Retribution Paladins, and DPS Shamans all provide “Tanky” Support as well with Life Swaps, VE Heals, Grounding + Tremor Totems, Earth Shield + Healing Stream Totems, Ret with Blessing of Sanc and Lay on Hands thats immune to dampening. Please atleast look in the mirror if you are calling Aug a “Tank” When it is an intellect based spell caster.
what “trolling” the spec was a massive failure
it completely destroyed m+ for an entire half expansion, it completely ruined a full arena season
it was received terribly and the vocal majority of the community spoke out against it
some ideas fail it’s good that they’ve moved on; hopefully they can just make it a literal tank role spec in the coming expansions
ret is the only spec that brings similar support (to a much lesser extent) and that same support most people have issue with as well
So lets do some math here. Right now lets just say eruption is 100% damage, and we have 15% from unrelenting siege, 20% from might, and up to 30% from mass eruption. This puts it up to 179.4% damage at the top end. Factoring out unrelenting siege and mass eruption gives us a baseline of 120%.
Now we are increasing eruption’s damage by 35%, so eruption is now 135%. Unrelenting siege is down to 10%, might is down to 10%, and mass eruption down to 10%. This puts the damage at 179.7% at the top end. Again factoring out unrelenting siege and mass eruption, we have a new baseline of 148.5%, an increase of 23.75% over the previous.
In other words, you have not reduced the top end at all and have increased the baseline damage by 23.75%.
It’s still destroying keys because it’s the only spec that buffs what matters when timer isn’t a concern, which is healers making throughput checks and tanks actually surviving.
Appreciate you bringing that to my attention. My bad I do notice now that this spell has to hit 1 target atleast so it can only benefit from the damage bonus twice, and not three times. Just an oversight while writing this. With the summary I provided below, it still paints the end goal well.
Decrease the highest end of mass eruption damage by 10% while lifting the lowest floor damage up 25%. That way we dont have an eruption that can hit for 400k or crit for 2+ Million. I still think my suggestions help us get there, and further reducing unrelenting siege or might of the black dragonflight could bridge that gap from my error.
You’ve trolled me before, and I’ll give you the equivalent answer your telling me. Just go play Vengeance DH in Solo Blitz, you’ll be useful.
Not even an argument, nothing would be “viable in PvP” if we let people who play other classes balance. I don’t like playing against Sub Rogue, Demo Lock, Spriest because I think they are overpowered and have toxic gameplay, but you really don’t see me trying to balance these specs.
I don’t think Augmentation should be the lone spec balanced by its haters in PvP, when certain specializations have been oppressive for multiple expansions in a row.
