Devastation Evoker DPS Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)

Evokers are highly mobile ranged DPS that can sustain very high uptime while moving with the usage of core abilities. Evoker is the only class with a range of 25 yards, which is something that will take getting accustomed to. There is a good amount of depth in the talent tree to allow you to specialize for single target, cleave, and AoE combat scenarios. For these, you will utilize the Red and Blue Dragonflights' schools of Magic.

Evokers utilize a resource called Essence, which regenerates over time. You spend Essence on Disintegrate and Pyre to deal single-target or AoE damage, respectively.

Evokers also have a class-specific spell set called Empowered Spells. As you cast the spells, they power up, having different interactions based on how long you Empower them. Devastation has access to two Empowered Spells in the form of Fire Breath and Eternity Surge.

While your spell prioritization may seem simple at a glance, the talents you pick change how you will use these spells, adding more depth to the class and your combat choices.

Strengths

• Can specialize for specific damage profiles and perform well for their chosen type.
• Can deal very high amounts of damage to new targets.
• Very mobile.
• Can save team members with Rescue.
• Can remove a wide array of effects on players with Expunge to remove Poisons and Cauterizing Flame to remove Bleeds, Poisons, Curses, and Diseases.

Weaknesses

• 25 yard range takes some getting used to.
• Can die easily due to low HP.
• Two personal defensive cooldowns which must be used before the damage happens in order to utilize them properly.

Devastation is staying relatively unchanged in the 11.0.5 patch, the only noteable adjustment is Unravel being buffed by 25% and is now affected by Iridescence.

Devastation received an undocumented buff to our tier sets 4pc bonus, originally it reduced the cooldown of Eternity Surge by 3 seconds, now it reduces it by 4 second aswell as reducing the cooldown of Shattering Star by 4 seconds.

The Evoker class tree is receiving a minor change with the removal of the choice between Heavy Wingbeats and Clobbering Sweep.

For a full breakdown of all Class Changes in Patch 11.0.5, check out our dedicated page below.

The Devastation Evoker playstyle is very fluid, and you will always be casting something that interacts with your next cast. Some examples are listed below:

1. casting Blue Spells with Charged Blast talented will increase the damage of your next Pyre;
2. casting Empowered spells during Dragonrage with Animosity talented will extend its duration;
3. casting Fire Breath with Leaping Flames talented will make your next Living Flame hit additional targets (based on the Empower level);
4. healing other players with Scarlet Adaptation will increase the damage of your next Living Flame;
5. the cooldown of your empowered spells is reduced when you spend Essence with the Causality talent.

As you can see, there is a good amount of depth in your combat rotation from just a few of these interactions, making this a more involved and interesting DPS specialization to play.

Evokers will now start at level 10. You can follow our dedicated leveling guide that will walk you through the best talents to choose on your journey and also provide you with a number of tips and tricks. Before you start on your journey, though, we recommend setting up your UI so that you can familiarize yourself with it before you reach the maximum level.

Once at maximum level, we recommend checking out our Easy Mode guide, linked below. This guide will briefly go over what you need to do to play your character optimally, though, of course, the main Rotation and Talents pages are slightly more optimized.

If you are new to Devastation Evoker and would like to learn the basics of the class, we also recommend looking at the Spell Summary. We also have full guides for the Devastation Evoker talents and rotations below.

Your talent choices dictate how well Devastation Evoker plays in different scenarios. However, when you pick a talent build that is not ideally suited to the combat scenario, your DPS will be much lower, such as, for example, using a single-target raid build in Mythic+. Having multiple talent trees set up will prevent this from happening.

Evokers do not have high health or base mitigation but come with very powerful defensives, which will prevent death in the majority of situations when used appropriately; they are also a very mobile class, making avoiding abilities quite easy to do once you get more familiar.

We bring multiple different forms of utility to both a Mythic+ and raid environment.

1. Blessing of the Bronze will reduce the cooldown of the movement abilities of all raid members, such as Hover.
2. Time Spiral will grant everyone in your raid one free usage for of movement ability, regardless of whether it is currently on cooldown.
3. Spatial Paradox lets you and a healer of your choice cast while moving and drastically increase your range during its uptime; this was added to the Evoker class tree in the The War Within pre-patch.
4. Rescue lets you pick up a target and carry them to a location of your choice; this can also be talented with Twin Guardian to provide both you and your target an absorb shield for 30% of your maximum health.
5. Zephyr grants you and your 4 closest allies a 20% reduction to damage taken from AoE abilities for a short duration; this shines in Mythic+ as it is a full group cooldown.

1. Wing Buffet will knock enemies in front of you backward over a short distance; it is good for interrupting casts and helping to reposition mobs when necessary.
2. Tail Swipe will knock enemies straight up and down in an area around you; useful as an interrupt or an AoE stop ability.
3. Deep Breath by itself does not have any crowd control, but when talented into Terror of the Skies will inflict a 3-second stun on any enemy hit; this can be very useful as it can cover an enormous area.
4. Oppressing Roar situationally very useful, this roars in a cone in front of you and applies a debuff on every enemy hit that will increase the duration of CC effects by 50%, this is particularly powerful when paired with stuns or silences from other sources.
5. Landslide a long-range root that covers a very large distance, very helpful for controlling enemies that are approaching slowly or accidentally pulled.

Critical Strike is your most important secondary stat as a Devastation Evoker. However, Intellect will give twice as much DPS on average per point than any secondary stat. As a result, you are much more drawn to item level than optimal stats, with the exception of trinkets and specific pieces of gear that may be significantly stronger than the alternatives.

We maintain a page with gearing advice for the current patch, including Best in Slot alternatives from different content sources. You can find a link to this below:

Once you have started to gear, you will need to make sure that you have the appropriate consumables, gems, enchants, and more. We have a dedicated page for exactly this, as shown below, as well as the stats page, where you can find more information on the possibility of a changing stat priority and the necessary changes you may need to make for consumables.

Once you have reached the max level, you will want to work on optimizing your damage output. Fortunately, we also maintain a set of pages containing tips, tricks, and strategies for all end-game content:

Devastation Evoker has a core feedback loop where your current action will impact your future actions. Knowing when to use your Empowered Spells, extend Dragonrage, and when to use Dragonrage are a few core concepts to master.

We have collected a list of common mistakes, along with explanations for each of them, resources to train and counter them, and tips on how to truly understand what makes the spec tick. You can find these below: