Devastation Evoker Guide for The War Within

Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for Devastation Evoker. Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about the Devastation Evoker spec in the forthcoming The War Within expansion, including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the state of the spec going into the expansion.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regular changes expected as updates hit the War Within beta. This is not meant to be a launch guide for Devastation Evoker, but instead serves as a resource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, and what you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.

Devastation Evoker has received one major change to its talents thus far, with the capping of Animosity to a duration of 16 seconds, this will have a large impact on our Dragonrage window.

The War Within has major implications for all specs thanks to the Hero Talent Tree system, new tier sets, and the natural reduction in secondary stats when entering a new expansion.

Devastation Evoker gets to choose between the Flameshaper and Scalecommander Hero Talent Trees. In sections below, we will talk more deeply about the implications of these Hero Talent Trees for the spec, and some thoughts on what looks strong and weak ahead of launch.

The Flameshaper Hero Tree Talents are primarily based on interactions of Fire Breath and the new Flameshaper specific ability Engulf.

Gameplay-wise, Flameshaper brings Engulf which adds an additional ability into your core rotation that will be used at different times depending on the amount of targets you are aiming to hit it can be used with multiple charged in quick succession for a large amount of AoE burst damage or can be staggered in order to maximize the benefits of the passive aspects of the Flameshaper tree.

Power-wise, Flameshaper should excel in situations with high priority AoE targets that need to die quickly which can be done without any real loss to your ST damage, it will have a rotational change that will be mildly different from what you are currently used too with Devastation in DF, but it should be very comfortable and consistent after you've spent a little time working with it.

Defensively, Flameshaper does not add much to our toolkit, Draconic Instincts in situations of sustained damage will have some value but due to its unreliability its not something you will be able to consider a real defensive. Its alternate however Lifecinders allowing you to duplicate your Renewing Blaze on another target aswell as yourself will be very beneficial in both a progression raiding and high mythic+ setting.

The Scalecommander Hero Tree Talents are based around Mass Disintegrate and Bombardments the core rotation is more or less identical to what we currently have in DF with Deep Breath now becoming a real part of our rotation due to the massive buffs it has received, casting it will give you 3 different benefits, firstly it will reset a charge of Hover, secondly it will deal a substational amount of damage over time, and finally it will make enemies take 20% increased damage from Essence abilities like Pyre and Disintegrate and your Bombardments for 12 seconds, and to top it all off, it can be turned and adjust mid flight to cover a different area instead of a straight line, aswell as cancelled earlier now to reduce your casting downtime.

Gameplay-wise, the entire kit is a passive tree but the major benefits are active components which you will have to maximize through rotational adjustment in order to get the most out of Scalecommander.

Power-wise, Scalecommander is looking exceptionally good in basically every situation, while at its core it turns your ST damage profile into a 3 target damage profile, its ability when paired with other aspects of the Devastation tree primarily Charged Blast and how quickly you will be able to reach maximum stacks when channeling Mass Disintegrate means it has no real weakness in AoE either, it will not have the burst AoE that Flameshaper does, but it will be able to hold its own against most other specs and excel heavily on the single target and stacked cleave scenarios.

Defensively, Scalecommander has alot of benefits in mythic+ but very few in raid at this time, Hardened Scales increasing your Obsidian Scales DR from 30-35% is almost never going to be a relevant factor, its alternative however Menacing Presence which reduces the damage targets who were hit by Tail Swipe or Wing Buffet deal to you by 15% for 8 seconds, will be incredibly valuable in mythic+ and depending on how it interacts with immune targets in raid could provide a huge benefit there aswell.

Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Devastation Evoker in The War Within. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a brief note/commentary that is italicized.

• Evoker Devastation Season 1 2pc — increases the damage of your Disintegrate and Pyre by 10%, this is entirely passive and incredibly underwhelming
• Evoker Devastation Season 1 4pc — your Eternity Surge cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds taking it from 30 seconds baseline to 25, or 22 if you are talented into Event Horizon aswell as giving you a charge of Essence Burst upon use.

Both set bonuses are passive and should not have any real impact on your rotation.

The 2pc bonus is numerically very weak for Flameshaper being worth 2.5-3% dps on ST and slightly stronger for Scalecommander being worth closer to 4% ST and scaling up fairly well as a 2nd and 3rd target are added.

The 4pc bonus is very weak for Flameshaper also as it has no interactions with the passives or actives within the hero tree, for Scalecommander however due to both Mass Disintegrate and Bombardments being tied to your empower spells you can expect this to bring a much more substantial increase.

The total expected value of the Tier Set is around 5-6% for Flameshaper and 10-12% for Scalecommander, this is on the weak side compared to what we are used too for Devastation, especially for Flameshaper, but hopefully that will be adjusted in the future.

Strengths

• Still strong in every situation that it was previously.
• Now a very enhanced cleave damage profile when playing Scalecommander.

Weaknesses

• Burst AoE threat when playing Flameshaper is incredibly high and will take some getting used too for both you and your tank counterpart.
• The limited range continues as something we have to deal with.