Evoker Guide
Welcome to our World of Warcraft The War Within Evoker Guide. Here you will find a quick overview of the specializations Evoker can pick and choose from, with links and in-depth information available to each specs Talents, Builds, Rotation, Gear and much more.
Conjure fiery spells and use your primal powers to unleash your draconic heritage against your enemies.
Heal your allies with the essence of life itself and grant them ancient draconic protection.
Augment your allies with the powers of the Bronze and Black Dragonflights, enhancing their strength and resilience.
The War Within Evoker Specializations
Devastation Evoker
Devastation Evoker is a mid-range DPS spec, specializing in high mobility, target swapping, and cleave damage. While other ranged DPS can struggle in high movement situations that don't allow them to cast, Devastation is able to always reliably get their damage out thanks to Hover allowing them to not only cast while moving, but also reposition quickly. Thanks to their mastery ( Mastery: Giantkiller), they are always looking for opportunities to swap to new high-health targets that need to die quickly. In addition to this, abilities such as Mass Disintegrate allow them to deal heavy damage to spread targets which some classes can struggle with.
Despite having a limited range, Devastation Evokers have all the tools necessary to output heavy amounts of damage no matter the target count. While their utility may also fall behind that of Augmentation, they still are able to take Time Spiral or Spatial Paradox which are both highly desired. They can even opt into Unravel, which will allow them to deal very high amounts of damage to shielded targets, which is a strength very few DPS specs in the game possess.
How Popular is Devastation Evoker?
Raid Popularity
In raid settings, Devastation can tend to be overshadowed by Augmentation due to the fact that Augmentation offers significantly higher utility. That being said, Augmentation is not able to match some of the AoE, cleave, or target swapping potential that Devastation does, making it an extremely strong pick in the right situations. Given the fact that you are able to play both of these specs in the same class, you will often see both being utilizied and swaps being made depending on the fight and what type of damage your group needs.
Mythic+ Popularity
Similar to raiding, Augmentation can overshadow Devastation due to utility, but that doesn't mean that Devastation is weak by any means. It continues to offer damage profiles that are extremely valuable in a Mythic+ setting while still offering much of the same group utility that Augmentation does. It only really lacks the ability to make your group tankier, which isn't often needed until the very highest level of keystones. For that reason alone, Devastation can be the more desirable spec (especially when tuned well!).
Preservation Evoker
Preservation Evoker is a healer specialization focused on utilizing Essence and Empower abilities such as Dream Breath and Spiritbloom to keep allies alive. Preservation gameplay can vary quite heavily depending on your talent choices, which gives you a nice variety of gameplay options. You can choose to focus on ramping for heavy damage windows by playing a Echo focused build, or instead react to damage as it occurs by playing a Emerald Blossom build. Regardless of which direction you decide to go, you will always have access to powerful cooldowns such as: Rewind, Emerald Communion, and even Stasis and Dream Flight at times.
As a Preservation Evoker, you will either focus on generating as many Echos as possible through spending essence but also by casting Temporal Anomaly with the Resonating Sphere talent. Once you have Echos out, the next healing spell you cast will be replicated to targets with Echo, allowing you to heal a large amount of players with a single ability, and with a healing spell that best suits the damage windows you are facing. Dream Breath for example can be useful when dealing with a lot of slow ticking damage while Verdant Embrace might be better to very quickly heal players up. If this playstyle doesn't intrigue you, Emerald Blossom builds focus on casting as many Blossoms as possible to deal very large AoE healing, and to also proc Cycle of Life which will allow you to store healing and equally distribute it among all players. No matter your preferred playstyle, Preservation has options to enhance it.
How Popular is Preservation Evoker?
Raid Popularity
Of every healer, Preservation is the only one with a 25-yard range, making it more difficult to reach other players to heal them. Despite this, they are often tuned to do very high amounts of healing and have also been given heavy mobility to counteract this weakness. They also possess one of the strongest healing cooldowns in the game: Rewind while also offering unique utility such as Time Spiral or Spatial Paradox. While they are far from mandatory in a raid setting, they are frequently brought due to their strong numbers and flexibility.
Mythic+ Popularity
In Mythic+, Preservation has consistently remained a top pick. The range weakness is not nearly as prevalent in a Mythic+ setting which allows their strengths to better outshine their weaknesses. It is also extremely easy for Preservation to output very high amounts of damage. While other healers may have to sacrifice healing to deal damage, or even have complex DPS rotations, Preservation can simply use Fire Breath and Deep Breath to deal high damage.
Devastation Evoker
Devastation Evoker is a mid-range DPS spec, specializing in high mobility, target swapping, and cleave damage. While other ranged DPS can struggle in high movement situations that don't allow them to cast, Devastation is able to always reliably get their damage out thanks to Hover allowing them to not only cast while moving, but also reposition quickly. Thanks to their mastery ( Mastery: Giantkiller), they are always looking for opportunities to swap to new high-health targets that need to die quickly. In addition to this, abilities such as Mass Disintegrate allow them to deal heavy damage to spread targets which some classes can struggle with.
Despite having a limited range, Devastation Evokers have all the tools necessary to output heavy amounts of damage no matter the target count. While their utility may also fall behind that of Augmentation, they still are able to take Time Spiral or Spatial Paradox which are both highly desired. They can even opt into Unravel, which will allow them to deal very high amounts of damage to shielded targets, which is a strength very few DPS specs in the game possess.
How Popular is Devastation Evoker?
Raid Popularity
In raid settings, Devastation can tend to be overshadowed by Augmentation due to the fact that Augmentation offers significantly higher utility. That being said, Augmentation is not able to match some of the AoE, cleave, or target swapping potential that Devastation does, making it an extremely strong pick in the right situations. Given the fact that you are able to play both of these specs in the same class, you will often see both being utilizied and swaps being made depending on the fight and what type of damage your group needs.
Mythic+ Popularity
Similar to raiding, Augmentation can overshadow Devastation due to utility, but that doesn't mean that Devastation is weak by any means. It continues to offer damage profiles that are extremely valuable in a Mythic+ setting while still offering much of the same group utility that Augmentation does. It only really lacks the ability to make your group tankier, which isn't often needed until the very highest level of keystones. For that reason alone, Devastation can be the more desirable spec (especially when tuned well!).
Augmentation Evoker
Augmentation Evoker is the only support specialization in the game. Rather than focusing on healing allies or simply dealing damage, you instead provide your allies with very strong buffs, allowing them to increase their own damage/healing. They can also provide utility that no other specialization in the game can such as Blistering Scales or Draconic Attunements in addition to class-wide utility such as Time Spiral or Spatial Paradox.
The core gameplay of Augmentation is based around Ebon Might and Prescience. Both of these buffs provide your allies with strong increases to their output. As an Augmentation Evoker, you will be tasked with determining the best targets for these buffs and then extending the Ebon Might buff as long as possible by casting certain abilities such as Eruption, Breath of Eons, and any Empower ability. The more casts you have of these abilities, the longer your Ebon Mights will last, allowing your group to be even stronger.
It is important to keep in mind that while you are a support class, you are still considered a DPS. This is the role you will fill in dungeon and raid groups and while you are primarily buffing your allies, the healing and damage they do is attributed to you in Damage Meters and when looking at logs. The better your allies are playing their classes, the more damage you will do. The worse they are doing, the less you will do. You are highly reliant on your own teammates gameplay in order to truly succeed.
How Popular is Augmentation Evoker?
Raid Popularity
Since Augmentation was added to the game, it is extremely rare to ever see a raid not contain one. They are the most desired Evoker spec in order to gain the Evoker raid buff: Blessing of the Bronze due to their high amounts of utility and the fact they are an extremely durable class, always have defensive options available. While they are unlikely top the meters, they are invaluable in any raid group.
Mythic+ Popularity
Augmentation Evoker is a consistently strong and popular Mythic+ specialization. Due to very high amounts of utility that include not only crowd control, but boosts to group damage, healing, and survivability, the spec is extremely desirable. They are frequently used for many of the highest level keystones.
This guide has been written by Mytholxgy, who plays healer in Liquid. He is a Templar in the Paladin class discord. You can reach him on Twitter and watch him stream on Twitch.
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