Introducing the long-awaited 3rd Evoker specialization: Augmentation. In this article, we’ll delve into Augmentation’s distinct features and highlight the differences it brings compared to the Devastation and Preservation specializations.
To begin with, let’s uncover the unique aspects of Augmentation that seamlessly blend in familiar elements from the other Evoker specs.
Augmentation Evoker Spec Overview
Augmentation Evoker is a fresh take on the Damage Dealer role. This unique specialization harnesses the power of the Black and Bronze dragonflights to enhance the abilities of nearby allies. The playstyle revolves around empowering your team with a diverse range of beneficial effects. Augmentation Evoker has the ability to directly cast supportive spells on your allies while also maximizing your damage-dealing abilities for added impact.
Your role as a force multiplier sets you apart, elevating your group’s capabilities and greatly boosting their overall damage output. However, Addons like Details do not yet know how to correctly calculate your personal damage. It can often happen that your damage is barely slightly higher than the damage that the Healer did.
If you want to know how much real damage you have done, then use Warcraftlogs. So far, this is the only way to find out the real damage of your group in dungeons and raids.
Augmentation Evoker Strengths and Weaknesses
| STRENGTHS | WEAKNESSES |
| Easy to play | Low range (25 yard) |
| Unparalleled capacity for group devastation by augmenting the offensive and defensive capabilities of both yourself and your group | The effectiveness of specialization is markedly diminished if any of the targets benefiting from your buffs perish during combat |
| Excellent survivability | No addon can correctly calculate your damage |
Augmentation Evoker Changes in Patch 10.1.5
In this section, we will keep you informed about the most recent class updates.
Make sure to visit regularly, as we will frequently update this information to keep you in the loop.
Leveling an Augmentation Evoker
The Augmentation Evoker presents a highly advantageous choice for leveling, equipped with numerous tools to manipulate foes and endure challenging confrontations. The journey commences at The Forbidden Reach, a sprawling map featuring diverse elevations, adding an element of enjoyment and intrigue as you learn to soar through the skies as a Dracthyr.
Here are some fascinating details about the starting experience of the Evoker:
- Each realm permits the creation of only one Dracthyr Evoker.
- Evokers belong to the esteemed Hero Class and embark on their journey at level 58, commencing in their exclusive starting area, the Forbidden Reach.
- As you venture through the Forbidden Reach, you will commence with a complete set of Uncommon gear with an item level of 206.
- Initially, you possess general Evoker abilities and will choose your specialization towards the conclusion of the starter campaign.
At the outset, Evokers possess five abilities: three Racial abilities and two spells. Throughout your progression in the starting zone, you will acquire additional abilities. These include:
- Glide (Racial) – Modulate your descent speed and maneuver midair.
- Tail Swipe (Racial) – Strike enemies within a 6-yard range with your tail, propelling them into the air. It serves as both an interrupt and a means to create distance.
- Wing Buffet (Racial) – Execute a forceful wing flap to repel enemies in front of you.
- The primary distinction between Tail Swipe and Wing Buffet lies in their direction. Tail Swipe affects all enemies within a 6-yard radius, even if they are positioned behind you, whereas Wing Buffet solely knocks away foes in front of you.
- Azure Strike – an offensive spell that simultaneously damages two enemies.
- Living Flame – a single-target spell that inflicts damage upon an enemy or heals either yourself or an ally, depending on your chosen target.
Augmentation Evoker Leveling Tips for Dragonflight
Here is a list of tips for playing as an Augmentation Evoker:
- Stay mindful of your cooldowns: Utilize your abilities frequently, including Breath of Eons, Ebon Might, Blistering Scales, Obsidian Scales, and Renewing Blaze. Avoid hoarding cooldowns and use them as soon as they become available.
- Master crowd control: Take advantage of your crowd control abilities like Terror of the Skies, Seismic Slam, Wing Buffet, Tail Swipe, and Permeating Chill (activated by Azure Strike) to control and stun enemies, especially in melee combat.
- Push your limits: Challenge yourself by engaging multiple adversaries and becoming proficient at handling groups of mobs through area-of-effect attacks. Pushing your boundaries will help you improve and level faster.
- Escape unfavorable situations: If you find yourself in a difficult or losing battle, don’t hesitate to retreat. Use abilities like Hover and your increased movement speed to create distance and evade enemies. Defy Fate can also save you from death.
- Embrace flying with Soar: Take advantage of your ability to fly using Soar. Flying is faster than walking and can help you navigate the world more efficiently, saving time during your journey.
By the way, don’t forget about Consumables. The right consumables will significantly speed up your leveling:
- Cosmic Healing Potion – for emergency Healing.
- Potion of Spectral Intellect – for more DPS.
- Shadowcore Oil – for even more DPS.
- Heavy Desolate Armor Kit – increases your HP bar.
- You’ll greatly benefit from consuming Fried Bonefish or Bear Tartare, as they provide a significant boost to your movement speed upon defeating enemies.
Basics of Augmentation Evoker Gameplay
If you’re already familiar with how Evoker functions, you’ll quickly adapt to Augmentation. You’ll notice that some skills from your existing kit, like Hover, Fire Breath, and Living Flame, remain intact. However, there are certain skills that are noticeably absent in Augmentation’s arsenal.
The core focus of Augmentation revolves around providing various buffs to your allies, amplifying the power of Ebon Might, and generating massive absorb shields for the entire group using abilities like Breath of Eons and Chrono Ward.
One of the notable advantages of Augmentation is the automated application of buffs to your allies. Unlike other specializations that require manual targeting or the use of macros, Augmentation streamlines the process. You have the option to skip targeting altogether if you prefer, although it’s still available when needed. Here are a few examples of the buffs you can expect to find in Augmentation:
| Ebon Might | Ebon Might is a buff with a short cooldown that enhances your allies’ abilities based on your intelligence. Similar to Icy Veins, this buff can be prolonged to remain active for the majority of the time, provided you can consistently cast spells. However, maintaining this buff becomes more challenging when there is a lot of movement involved. Nevertheless, the short cooldown ensures that even if the buff expires, you only have to spend a brief period without its benefits. |
| Mastery: Timewalker | Mastery: Timewalker bestows a versatility buff automatically whenever you utilize empowered spells. It requires no additional input from you to activate. |
| Prescience | Prescience is a targeted critical strike buff that not only increases your chance of landing critical hits but again deals a portion of damage through Fate Mirror. This buff automatically prioritizes damage dealers and can be applied to multiple players simultaneously, allowing for its presence on different individuals at the same time. |
| Blistering Scales | Blistering Scales is a buff specifically designed for tanks, which triggers an explosive effect upon receiving melee attacks. This ability inflicts damage to multiple enemies within range. By utilizing talents such as Reactive Hide, the potency of this ability can be significantly enhanced, resulting in even greater damage output. |
| Spatial Paradox | Spatial Paradox is a unique buff that allows casting while moving, benefiting both you and a designated healer. It provides advantageous effects to both of you, even while on the move, allowing for increased flexibility and mobility during combat. |
| Timelessness | Timelessness is a valuable buff that enables the Devastation Evoker to be a viable choice in Mythic+ scenarios whithout AoE taunts or Misdirection effects. This buff empowers the Devastation Evoker, providing the necessary tools to effectively handle multiple enemies and contribute to the group’s success in challenging Mythic+ encounters. |
| Motes of Possibility | Motes of Possibility are orb-like entities that you generate, and their purpose is to decrease the major cooldowns of your allies. It appears that these orbs spawn at a rate of approximately two per minute. The effectiveness of this talent largely hinges on the specific class for which you are reducing cooldowns. For instance, if you are a Frost Mage relying on Icy Veins, the value of Motes of Possibility may be minimal. However, if you are a Devastation Evoker utilizing Dragonrage, this talent becomes incredibly desirable and beneficial. |
| Draconic Attunements | Draconic Attunements offers a stance that grants additional benefits in the form of increased speed or enhanced health. When combined with Aspects’ Favor, using Obsidian Scales not only activates the stance but also bestows a remarkable 20% boost to the health of both yourself and your allies. This powerful combination ensures greater durability and resilience for you and your team during combat situations. |
Apart from enhancements, your main focus lies in activating the Ebon Might buff and ensuring its duration lasts until the end of each battle. To achieve this, you utilize essence and empowers in combat.
Builders
Augmentation harnesses the powers of Living Flame and Azure Strike to enhance your abilities. While these spells function similarly to what you’re already familiar with, they offer new possibilities for experimentation. Pupil of Alexstrasza and Echoing Strike serve as two potential paths to explore, but Pupil of Alexstrasza stands out as the superior choice. Its synergy with Leaping Flames is truly remarkable.
Spender
Upon experimenting with Augmentation, you’ll quickly observe that Disintegrate has been substituted with a new casting ability called Eruption. This versatile spender gradually escalates in damage, affecting up to five targets simultaneously.
Its main purpose is to facilitate cooldown reduction for Upheaval, your newly acquired empowering ability. While Eruption is a nifty skill, the need to repeatedly cast it while stationary may not provide the most satisfying experience. Although Hover aids in alleviating this issue, the absence of a mobile spender like Pyre becomes noticeable, particularly when in motion.
Cooldowns
In terms of cooldown management, Ebon Might serves as a crucial component, capable of being maintained indefinitely with continuous uptime. Prescience, on the other hand, is a brief cooldown and the only instant cast in your rotation, allowing you to utilize Hover during its activation. It would be quite satisfying to have multiple charges of Prescience, as it would alleviate the pressure of using it precisely on cooldown every time.
Replacing Deep Breath, Breath of Eons assumes the role of your primary cooldown ability. It functions similarly to an area-of-effect Touch of the Magi, which both you and up to four allies contribute to building up. Once fully charged, it unleashes a guaranteed critical hit while also granting you and your allies an absorb shield based on the damage dealt through Chrono Ward.
Stats
- Item Level
- Mastery
- Critical Strike
- Haste
- Versatility
Mastery: Timewalker extends the duration of your beneficial effects. Haste and Critical Strike also play significant roles in maintaining your uptime, as Haste grants you faster casting speed and Sands of Time can critically strike.
How to Gear Up an Augmentation Evoker
When your Augmentation Evoker reaches the maximum level, his gearing will be no different from any other character. We reviewed gearing in more detail in our comprehensive “How to Gear Up Fast in Dragonflight” guide.
In this guide, we highlight BiS items and Embellishments for Augmentation Evoker. Of course, it is a 4 piece tier set.
- 2 piece tier set: While Ebon Might is active, your empowered spells deal 30% increased damage.
- 4 piece tier set: The bonus granted to allies based on your total intellect is increased by 1%.
The prevailing recommendation for the optimal trinket setup in Augmentation Evoker revolves around utilizing the Irideus Fragment and Vessel of Searing Shadow.
The Irideus Fragment primarily functions in conjunction with the cooldowns of other players. By synchronizing its usage with their abilities, you aim to maximize your intellect and empower your allies to the greatest extent possible.
This setup emphasizes the importance of coordinating with teammates and strategically timing the activation of the Irideus Fragment for optimal effectiveness in boosting your intellect and supporting the overall performance of the group.
Some other good options are:
When selecting your two Embellishments, you have several options to consider:
- Pure DPS: For maximizing your damage output, you can opt for the Acidic Hailstone Treads paired with a Toxified Armor Patch. This combination typically yields the highest numbers, surpassing other alternatives by around 1K DPS. However, it’s important to note that this setup comes with a permanent 20% slow effect. Given the Evoker’s inherent mobility, this drawback is generally manageable but worth keeping in mind.
- Non-slow options: If you prefer to avoid the slow effect, there are alternative combinations available. For instance, you can pair Acidic Hailstone Treads with a Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch. This provides a balance between damage and mobility. Alternatively, you can utilize two Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patches for a focus on increased survivability and defensive capabilities.
Ultimately, the choice between pure DPS and mitigating the slow effect depends on your personal playstyle and preferences. Consider your mobility needs and desired balance between damage and other aspects of gameplay when selecting your Embellishments.
Augmentation Evoker in Dragonflight
It is clear that the true might of the Augmentation Evoker lies in the harmonious collaboration with fellow champions.
With each ally, a symphony of power unfolds, as their abilities entwine with the Augmentation’s own. The tuning of this class may become a delicate art, where some classes will find themselves moderately empowered by Augmentation, while others may become defined by its essence.
As you embark on your journey as an Augmentation Evoker, remember that your strength is found not only within yourself but within the unity forged among allies. Adapt and strategize, for the path to victory is illuminated by the cooperative prowess that Augmentation brings. Together, may you shape the destiny of Azeroth and etch your name into the annals of epic legends.
Augmentation Evoker End-Game
Within the realm of end-game content, three primary forms take center stage: raiding, Mythic+, and PvP. Each of these avenues presents unique variations in class performance. To optimize your effectiveness in your preferred content, we strongly advise delving into our dedicated Mythic+ guide and Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible guide. These comprehensive guides are specifically tailored to provide valuable insights and strategies for excelling in PvE. By following our expert recommendations, you can elevate your performance and maximize your potential in this challenging content.
Improving as an Augmentation Evoker
If you find yourself facing performance issues and believe there is room for improvement, we encourage you to read a comprehensive list of common mistakes and frequently asked questions to address your concerns.
Prescience issue
Many Augmentation Evoker players, especially at first, are wondering: who should Prescience aim at? To maximize the effectiveness of your major buffs, it is recommended to apply Prescience to the target that will inflict the highest amount of damage throughout the duration of those buffs. By doing so, you ensure that Prescience’s benefits are utilized most efficiently, enhancing the overall damage output during crucial moments.
Strong Opener at Start of Encounters
- Unholy Death Knight
- Arcane Mage
- Devastation Evoker
- Enhancement Shaman
2-Minute Classes
All of these specifications make excellent choices for buffing throughout the fight, especially considering the advantageous two-minute cycle of Breath of Eons.
- Frost Death Knight
- Devastation Evoker
- Marksmanship Hunter
- Shadow Priest
Overall Options
- Destruction Warlock
- Frost Mage
- Fire Mage
- Demonology Warlock
Time Skip or Interwoven Threads
Presently, Time Skip appears to be the superior choice in extended, controlled encounters like raid bosses or Mythic+ dungeons. It enables you to maximize the benefits of your Breath of Eons burst window by granting additional casts of Empower abilities, prolonging the effects of Ebon Might, and allowing you to have up to four Shifting Sands buffs active simultaneously. When combined with external effects such as Bloodlust or Power Infusion, this setup possesses remarkable damage potential during the initial minute or so of a fight. The synergistic combination of Time Skip with other external enhancements amplifies your overall performance, making it a compelling option for such encounters.
Empower Spells
Fire Breath – as an Augmentation Evoker, it is typically recommended to empower Fire Breath to its maximum rank to fully leverage the advantages of Leaping Flames. Even in single-target situations, this empowers Fire Breath to cleave onto injured allies, providing additional opportunities to trigger Essence Burst, especially when effective healing is being applied.
However, in scenarios where all nearby allies are in perfect health and there is no possibility of benefiting from Leaping Flames, it may be more appropriate to utilize Rank 1 Fire Breath.
Upheaval – empowering Upheaval increases the radius of the spell’s area of effect, allowing it to affect a larger number of targets. In single-target scenarios, Rank 1 Upheaval is typically sufficient to achieve the desired impact. However, in situations where multiple enemies are present and you are dealing with AoE damage, it is advisable to increase the rank of Upheaval to encompass as many foes as possible within its expanded area of effect.
Easy way to Rank 1 Empower
There is a simple method to quickly achieve Rank 1 Empowerment based on your keybind settings.
- For the “Press and Hold” setting, you can swiftly activate Rank 1 Empower by pressing your keybind and promptly releasing it. This prompt release will cause the ability to trigger as soon as it reaches Rank 1.
- On the other hand, if you have the “Press and Tap” setting enabled, you can achieve the same effect by pressing your keybind twice in rapid succession. This action will initiate the ability as soon as it reaches Rank 1.
In conclusion, the Augmentation Evoker is a powerful and versatile class that brings unique strengths and weaknesses to the table. Throughout this guide, we explored its overview, discussed the changes it has undergone, and delved into the leveling process. We also covered the basics of gameplay, including tips on gearing up effectively. Lastly, we touched upon the end-game aspect of the Preservation Evoker. Armed with this knowledge, you’re now ready to harness the potential of the Augmentation Evoker and excel in your adventures. Best of luck on your journey! Remember that Overgear is always here in case you want to buy Augmentation Evoker Gear Boost!
