I’m talking about simple solo leveling content. For some reason, my Evoker is by far my squishiest alt (worse than any of my clothies).
Maybe it’s my rotation or my talents, but I’ve tried multiple guides including Icy Veins and I’m really starting to struggle with basic quests. One on one against a non-elite and I’m down to 25-35% HP before it’s dead. Two or three mobs at once and it’s game over with an elite mob being nearly impossible.
If anyone’s wiling to share their talent builds and rotations I’d appreciate it. I don’t care about dungeons, raids or PvP builds. Just simple, basic solo content.
Shaman here; can confirm. I went in to Thaldraszus at lvl 66 (I didn’t realize that the zone had lvl 68 enemies until I started questing), started questing, and got my butt handed to me on a silver platter by common enemies. COMMON!
I went back at lvl 68, and it was a bit better, but it still felt like I was made of paper.
Then again, it’s also an issue with how Blizzard designed the game. My Ret Paladin also feels like paper. I imagine I’ll run in to similar issues on other characters.
Eh, properly played warlocks and mages are both tanky as heck compared to most other dps specs.
Using mage as an example, you can use alter time to completely mitigate mechanics, greater invis (so long as there is another person on the mob) as a 60% DR on a 2min CD or just ice block the ability for 100% DR… on top of barriers and a health pot and/or stone.
Evokers do seem pretty squishy in keys relative to some other specs… but I’ve only run keys with a couple of them so it is a limited sample size.
Its probably because they can heal and they are ranged… you should not play them like a melee class.
I haven’t really played my evoker all that much but they really really seem to be able to pump out burst. Maybe check out icyveins to see if you are using the optimal rotation… I think the biggest trap with the class is not to overcharge your abilities… its a class that is made for people who frequent guides its not made for new players (its part of the reason they brought Metzen back IMO Ion just doesnt understand non-hardcore gamers or doesn’t care to make the game appealing to them).
You really have to learn to kite when solo as devoker. Comes down to good timing of mobility cds and smart use of what crowd control you have. Basically it is always a fighting retreat for devoker.
Also devoker should never count on their own heals to save them. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t heal, just don’t rely on it.
Feel free to look at my build in the armory! Sure it’s not top tier dps or anything but you can open up with fire breath, throw out Shattering Star and follow up with Eternity Surge for a good multi-target burst opener. I also talented into that skill which decreases Living Flame’s cast time by 40% when you use it to heal yourself. The instant cast for it procs enough that you can get an instant heal on yourself and follow it up with a couple quick-cast heals to help keep yourself alive.
Not saying we don’t need some survivability help but I’ve been able to solo elites and rares with this build and some practice, and my gear sucks!
As you get closer to level 70, the benefit you get from secondary stats goes way down while mob health increases. The result is you feel weaker and weaker.
This culminates when you finally hit level 70 and are still dressed in quest gear. You’re pretty much at your weakest point relative to monster strength.
As you gear up after hitting 70, the power curve initially stays relatively constant. Your gear is getting better, but the monsters are scaling with you.
Eventually, you reach the point where monster scaling caps, while your gear continues to increase. At this point, the power curve reverses and you start to become more powerful relative to the monsters. Eventually, most world monsters should feel trivial.
Some tips:
When leveling take ALL talents that boost self-healing or defense, such as:
Ancient Flame - increases cast speed on Living Flame by 40% when cast on self
Inner Radiance - boosts self-healing by 30%
Panacea - get an instant self-heal when casting Verdant Growth
Renewing Blaze - Heal back damage over 8 seconds
Verdant Embrace - if no target is selected this casts on yourself.
Engulfing Blaze - Living Flame deals 40% more damage and healing, but takes slightly longer to cast.
In combat, if your health starts to get low, don’t wait till the combat is over to self-heal.
Cast Verdant Embrace and Emerald Blossom on CD. They’re both instant on relatively short CDs.
If your health is still too low start spamming Living Flame on yourself. That should top you off.
If still too low, cast Obsidian Scales and Renewing Blaze.
This should be sufficient to handle any 1-2 target fight against non-elites regardless of your level or gear level.
Groups of targets can be tough for Evokers. My recommendation: Don’t try to tank 3 or more targets. Instead kite or run away.
Evokers can reliably kite up to 3 targets with Azure Strike. However, damage is very low so you’re probably better off trying to single-target them instead.
Evokers aren’t good at kiting over 3 targets since our spammable snare only affects 3 targets and is very short duration. If there are more than 3 targets, some will be moving at full-speed. I recommend running away.
I leveled one. It was certainly squishier than my WL or my frost mage, and harder to play as well. But it does work. What makes it challenging, I think, is that the range isn’t really caster range. It forces you into “mid” range, so you have much less time until the mobs are on you. You really need to optimize the strength of your charged abilities rather than maxing them, because of the time savings. You also need to use your mobility spells regularly, and your CC spells – they aren’t “for emergencies only” like they are for some classes, because you are a mid-range class, you need all of the mitigation you can get.
Clearly, it plays differently from other “caster” type classes due to its range, its charging mechanic and so forth, and so it seems like many people are taking a while to get used to it. And, even with that, in my own experience other casters are currently pumping out greater DPS with greater ease of play and less squishiness right now than the Evo is, and that’s just down to its design and current functioning relative to other casters.
I recently levelled my evoker, and yeh it felt much squishier than my rogue main.
You can cycle your cooldowns, tail swipe and wind buffet, use blue spells to slow the mobs down and hover to create distance whilst still doing damage, and there will still be more deaths then feels necessary haha
To be fair, levels 67-70 are always going to feel rough. You are the weakest you will ever be at that stage. It gets better again with max level gear.
