Our Augmentation Guide Writer, Jereico, discusses why players are less enthusiastic about raiding on their Augvoker and how the changes in Patch 10.2 will change the support spec.
Augmentation Evoker Guide
Dragonflight: Guardians of the Dream Update Development Notes
- EVOKER
Augmentation
Developer note: Augmentation’s contributions to the party, particularly in Mythic+, are too impactful and are making it difficult for other compositions to shine. As a result, we’re doing some targeted nerfs to their group utility by reducing the value of Aspects’ Favor, Molten Blood, and Ebon Might.
- Aspects’ Favor increases maximum health by 2/4% (was 3/6%).
- Molten Blood absorption reduced by 50%. This remains unchanged in PvP combat.
- Ebon Might grants 8% of the Evoker’s primary stat (was 10%).
- The above changes will be applied over the course of PTR via hotfix.
- Prescience now clears on raid encounter and Mythic+ start.
- Prescience now has 2 charges.
10.2 Augmentation Evoker Raid Impressions
When it comes to Mythic+, Augmentation is the complete package. It contributes plenty of damage and healing through its buffs, brings a variety of control options and defensive cooldowns, and has a simple to execute damage rotation perfect for calling the shots. With only two other DPS players to coordinate with, casting buffs and timing cooldowns is a breeze, and can even be communicated in real time if needed. Even accounting for upcoming tuning on the 10.2 PTR and some minor concerns I have with the newly-revealed T31 Tier Set Bonuses, Augmentation will continue to play an enjoyable and satisfying role in Mythic+.
Frankly, the role Augmentation plays is like a breath of fresh air when it comes to group play. It is natural and intuitive to have a DPS player focused on control, utility, and coordination. I am particularly looking forward to seeing other specialisations fill this role in the future, to provide players with more options to play their favourite specs when building their groups.
With how successful Augmentation has been in Mythic+ from a gameplay standpoint, I am genuinely sad to say that I simply haven’t encountered the same level of enthusiasm for Augmentation Evoker in Raid. In fact, many Evoker players I speak with seem to share a begrudging acceptance to play the spec out of obligation rather than their own enjoyment. While there is a chance that these players “just don’t get it”, I’d like to take the opportunity to dig deeper into the mechanics of the spec in a Raid setting.
What is really holding Augmentation Evoker back in Raids?
Disengage Autopilot, Activate Manual Override
Augmentation Evoker essentially has two modes of play: Autopilot and Manual.
Autopilot involves playing the game like you would approach most traditional DPS specs: simply target the enemy and cast your spells, moving your character to avoid enemy attacks and to perform mechanics. Buffs like Prescience and Blistering Scales generally prefer ideal targets, and Ebon Might will always hit the same players in a 5-person group. Generally speaking, this playstyle is entirely functional in a Mythic+ environment, alongside some coordination with teammates around cooldown timings and use of utility spells.
This is, however, simply not an effective strategy in Raid.
That is to say, playing Autopilot in a Raid setting is possible, but will generally result in poor performance when compared against the spec’s true potential. Contributing effective damage as Augmentation in Raid requires not only mastery of your own rotation, but also requires that you prepare for each boss in the raid with knowledge of each of your teammates’ damage patterns and cooldown timings. Augmentation’s buffs choose their targets using a priority system, and manually targeting buffs while using this priority is what ultimately defines player agency for Augmentation.
For the Manual player, the goal in Raid now looks something like this: determine which four players will deal the most damage over the duration of your next Ebon Might, have Prescience on as many of these players as possible, and attempt to position nearest to any ideal remaining targets. This of course is all happening at the same time as you and your fellow raiders are executing your rotations and individually moving to handle mechanics.
Prescience Setup: Like Playing Discipline, Only Moreso
But that’s not quite all… there are a few more elements to consider. In the current patch 10.1.7, using Prescience to manage Ebon Might requires setup—at least 12 seconds in advance of your Ebon Might—to ensure that you have two active Prescience buffs on the right targets. With the new T31 2pc set bonus, this prep time or “ramp” would have increased to at least 24 seconds, as you would aim to have 3 concurrent Prescience buffs active. In fact, whenever you cast Prescience you need to be thinking ahead to who will receive your next Ebon Might instead of the players currently dealing damage, which, despite the name of the spell, strikes me as comically unintuitive given that Prescience is itself a damage buff that you should want to cast on an active damage dealer.
(2) Set Bonus: Every third Prescience lasts 100% longer.
(4) Set Bonus: Casting Prescience enhances your next Eruption with smaller fissures for each Prescience you have active, each dealing 110% SP damage and extending Ebon Might by 0.2 seconds.
Achieving this Prescience setup on the 10.2 PTR was possible before the latest set of changes, requiring up to a minute before the pull, and at least 30 second pull timer.
This ideal mode of play currently presents a host of negative and awkward experiences which raiding Augmentation Evokers will be well acquainted with. For one, it can be incredibly complicated and time consuming to “optimally” prepare for each raid fight. While external tools like WoWAnalyzer and this other nifty page have emerged to parse your logs and help you choose buff targets, a simple roster change that swaps just a couple of DPS players can leave you scratching your head and returning to the drawing board.
Additionally, most DPS player UI setups (especially the game’s base UI) are simply ill-equipped to handle Manual buff targeting. Many Augmentation Evokers have turned to using custom Weakauras or configuring addons like Vuhdo, MRT, and OmniCD to organise raid frames and display active dps cooldowns. On top of this, Augmentation has a 25-yard range on Prescience and Blistering Scales, which I’d like to believe is an oversight, as this alone leads to countless moments of sheer frustration when your active tank or designated buff targets are positioned where they should be, but are just out of reach.
The Second (and Third… and Fourth) Aug Problem
Another important factor to consider is that adding additional Augmentation Evokers and allowing them to stack buffs onto optimal targets is strictly beneficial from a damage standpoint, but also dramatically increases the complexity of playing the spec, requiring careful coordination with others. Stacking Augmentation Evokers in a raid has incredible potential, but also increases the risk of Augmentation Evokers hitting each other with their buffs, which is a highly frustrating experience that represents an absolute loss in throughput.
The new T31 2pc set bonus encourages raids to stack Augmentation Evokers by permitting near-perfect selection of buff targets under the right circumstances, while avoiding buffing undesirable targets like other Augmentation Evokers. Ignoring for a moment talent choices and cheesy strategies involving Time Skip, the new tier set provides reliable uptime of 3 (and can reach up to 4) active Prescience buffs, meaning that Augmentation players may only have to worry about one other player at most for full Ebon Might coverage. This of course assumes that all Augmentation Evokers are coordinating buff targets, have pre-planned positions or markers, and have successfully set up their Prescience casts in advance.
In Patch 10.2 it will be easier to ensure that four (or more) Augmentation Evokers can stack buffs on the same targets, and avoid buffing each other, as long as you plan ahead.
I want to be clear about one thing before I continue: coordinating buff targets and planning positioning in the strategy phase of preparing for a first boss kill can absolutely present a fun and interesting puzzle for raid teams to overcome, especially if that sort of problem solving is something that you specifically enjoy and seek out. I personally find playing Augmentation to be especially interesting when it comes to taking on some of the most challenging Raid encounters the game has to offer.
At the end of the day, the largest pain points for Augmentation Evoker in Raid simply come down to the devil in the details. The amount of homework and coordination needed to play Augmentation at a moderate to high level is considerable compared to other traditional DPS specs. It is of course possible to compromise and simply play Autopilot, or in a semi-Manual fashion, selecting specific buff targets some of the time, but this of course is less than optimal, and ultimately represents a gameplay concession that is essentially unique to Augmentation.
If you ask me, there exists a foundational design dilemma when it comes to choosing buff targets. Too much player agency in selecting buff targets using Prescience is what currently has the potential to result in homework overload and a frustratingly rigid spreadsheet-style rotation. However, too little player agency can make your individual contribution each pull feel completely random, depending entirely on which players get buffed and how well they perform. While it’s absolutely clear to me that much thought went into balancing this ideal when designing the spec, I am nonetheless left wanting with how Augmentation currently plays in practice.
A Light at the End of the Tunnel
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In a manner that directly addresses early player feedback, and with truly impeccable timing for the purposes of this article, this week’s latest 10.2 PTR patch notes include two short and sweet changes to Prescience which have the potential to have a big impact on how Augmentation is played in Raid.
Guardians of the Dream PTR Development Notes – September 27, 2023
Prescience now clears on raid encounter and Mythic+ start.
Prescience now has 2 charges.
While these changes weren’t accompanied by a Developers’ note, we can certainly infer the design intention and direction behind these changes, and give some thought to how this might ultimately play out in Patch 10.2.
The first change is simple enough, and is obviously aimed at curbing the lengthy pre-pull setup shenanigans alluded to earlier in this piece. While it technically remains possible to achieve a similar effect as long as Ebon Might is cast before the start of combat, I have to assume this will simply be addressed in time, as the design intention behind this change is abundantly clear.
Next, adding charges to Prescience is in my opinion an excellent change that immediately addresses two obvious issues: First, it compensates for the removal of pre-pull Prescience by allowing you to cast the spell twice immediately on pull. Second, and more importantly, it allows you to bank charges instead of casting the spell on cooldown. This has the potential to significantly improve the feel of Augmentation gameplay in Raid, as you will be able to cast Prescience on two ideal targets right before casting Ebon Might, whereas before a lengthy and unintuitive setup was required where Prescience was cast on players well in advance of their burst windows.
Overall I would say I am quite excited for these changes, though there are a couple of implications, particularly around the new tier set, which may warrant discussion.
The addition of charges to Prescience, along with the playstyle it encourages, introduce a small anti-synergy with the new T31 4pc set bonus, as casting Prescience in succession before casting Ebon Might causes the buff to Eruption to be overwritten, significantly reducing the value of the set. You could weave an Eruption in between the two casts of Prescience, but you would be spending resources without earning any Ebon Might extension. If possible, I would like to see this set bonus adjusted so as to not clash with the improved playstyle afforded with the upcoming changes to Prescience.
Additionally, it remains possible to guarantee Ebon Might on four specific targets on pull, but it now requires either waiting up to 12 seconds into the pull before casting Ebon Might (the time needed for a third charge of Prescience to come off cooldown, or casting Time Skip just to return charges of Prescience, which feels like a highly inefficient use of a powerful cooldown. Ensuring that Ebon Might hits four specific targets is a highly attractive prospect, especially when stacking Augmentation Evokers, but neither of these setup options sound particularly fun to pull off.
Impact of Upcoming Tuning and Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, I am left with one simple conclusion which sums up most of my thoughts on the matter. Augmentation Evoker is simply more fun to play in Mythic+ than it is in Raid, unless you spend a non-trivial amount of time outside of the game preparing for each encounter, and your teammates are directly invested in seeing you succeed–at least for the time being.
The developers have shown that they are actively listening to player feedback around the game’s newest spec, and are willing to make adjustments to improve quality of life without compromising on their vision. The upcoming changes on the 10.2 PTR are encouraging, and begin to address some of the spec’s major pain points.
The Manual playstyle centred around identifying buff targets in advance using Prescience currently leaves quite a lot to be desired, be it due to the setup time required, the 25-yard range on buff spells, the need for complicated UI solutions using Weakauras and addons, or the need to carefully coordinate buff targets and positioning with other raiders in order to not lose damage. The fact that Ebon Might targets other Augmentation Evokers with equal priority as actual damage dealers remains a frustrating and contentious issue.
Guardians of the Dream PTR Development Notes – September 20, 2023
Developer note: Augmentation’s contributions to the party, particularly in Mythic+, are too impactful and are making it difficult for other compositions to shine. As a result, we’re doing some targeted nerfs to their group utility by reducing the value of Aspects’ Favor, Molten Blood, and Ebon Might.
Aspects’ Favor increases maximum health by 2/4% (was 3/6%).
Molten Blood absorption reduced by 50%. This remains unchanged in PvP combat.
Ebon Might grants 8% of the Evoker’s primary stat (was 10%).
When it comes to damage tuning, the most recent nerfs on the 10.2 PTR most notably hit Ebon Might throughput to the tune of 20%, or roughly 6% of Augmentation’s overall damage. Enthusiastic players will argue over whether this is “enough” of a nerf to achieve some arbitrary level of balance, but in general, this is not likely to dramatically change the spec’s representation in Mythic+. It also does not meaningfully discourage ambitious teams from stacking Augmentation Evoker buffs in raid for maximum benefit.
What this tuning does actually accomplish is that it brings the average Augmentation Evoker in Raid closer in line with Devastation’s expected output, providing some conflicted DPS Evokers with a more practical decision over which spec to choose in a given spot. Sure it’s true that Augmentation still completely outclasses Devastation from a survivability standpoint–even considering upcoming improvements to Devastation survivability–but with similar damage potential and absent the need for homework or carefully coordinating buffs, some players who prefer the direct damage playstyle may actually choose to play Devastation. I might very well play some Devastation myself next tier, especially on some of the lower pull count bosses and then eventually on farm.
url=https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/33#metric=deaths&dataset=0]
A 6% nerf to overall damage would certainly bring Augmentation’s median damage more in line with Devastation, but the difference in the Deaths statistic is hard to ignore.
Now if it’s not too much to ask, I would actually love to hear from you, dear reader. Are you having fun playing Augmentation in Raid, or would you rather be playing Devastation? What do you think about these recent changes, and what would you personally like to see changed about how the spec plays? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, and I’ll be sure to see you in Amirdrassil!
About the Author
This guide is written and maintained by Jereico, author of the Jereico Evoker community site. Previously a long-time Shadow Priest main, Jereico has been involved as a theorycrafter and contributor in the Evoker community since the early Dragonflight Beta. If you want to get in touch, you can find him in his Community Discord, on Twitter, posting videos to YouTube, and occasionally streaming on Twitch.
