It’s quickly becoming clear that Devastation could use some help in both PvE and in PvP, and I believe it has a lot to do with the RNG nature of every damage-oriented talent.
Altering how these work would return a lot of agency in how the spec is played and give Devastation Evokers more viability at endgame. These changes revolve around removing RNG as a factor, favoring more consistent power and stacking bonuses to the affected spells instead.
Starting with Disintegrate, the “Scintillation” talent should cast its level 1 Eternity Surge at 20% power a total of 3 times throughout the full cast. One at the start, one in the middle, and one at the end. As it is right now, it’s a complete toss-up whether your Disintegrate will deal a decent burst or just tickle your target. While you could theoretically deal more damage with the talent as it is now, this change would make the damage output more consistent.
Next up is Firestorm’s “Snapfire” talent. Rather than the % proc chance and the cooldown reset, it should gain a stacking buff for Firestorm that reduces the cast time by 25% and increases the damage by 20% per Living Flame cast, stacking up to 4 times. This gives Firestorm a larger power spike when cast at full stacks, but removes the cooldown reset to balance.
To compliment this, Living Flame’s “Burnout” talent should no longer be a % proc chance either, and instead should gain a stacking buff on each tick of Fire Breath that reduces the cast time of Living Flame by 25%. This would guarantee a consistent flow of instant casts, and in AoE situations it would allow larger bursts of damage with Firestorm. This would also give Devastation a bit more survivability, being able to cast Living Flame for self-heals more consistently.
And finally Pyre’s “Volatility” talent should guarantee for Pyre to flare up and explode on a second target at 30% power. This would allow more consistent damage for your spent Essence, rather than leaving it up to chance.
There could certainly be other quality of life changes such as allowing Evokers the permanent ability to cast while moving, given their terrible range and the emphasis on mobility, but that’s still up for debate. I do feel, though, that Essence Burst is all the RNG the spec, and even the class as a whole, really needs. All of these RNG talents really make Devastation feel hit or miss in the worst way, with long periods of either nothing proccing or short bursts of everything proccing and waiting on the GCD to time down.
Let me know what you think. Is this too much? Too little? What would you change?
