Devastation evokers

PVP Arenas
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I have to admit the absolute torture of playing devastion in any realistic rated PvP scenarios…as well as random BGs(which has oddly been more successful due to people ignoring you more). Preservation is a whole different story, they are strong healers, so i’m not talking about them, even though they suffer with similar issues to an a lesser degree.

But devastation…ugh…

Now, their damage is good, even though Fire breath has been nerfed to the ground and now serves as a filler, mostly level 1 for the DoT…which gets pretty much always dispelled by healers anyway. But you can still do decent burst/pressure through disintegrates + scintillation and occasional Eternity surge and Shattering star…if you align them perfectly, but it’s easily ruined by hugging pillars due to shattering star’s short duration, and the fact Scintillation doesn’t proc when Disintegrating someone behind a pillar, allowing opponenty to easily recover.

But that all pales compared to their survivability…i have never experienced something so awful. Going up against melee classes in particular is a nightmare…

The healing is trash without talenting into specific Living Flame nodes which, if you do, comes at a cost of damage output and utility like 1 less hover charge…and no Deep Breath stun, no Rescue shield(which has saved lives on numerous occasions) Renewing Blaze(damage taken converted into healing)…even during burst phases…simply cannot keep you alive, even though Obsidian Scales up.
The worst offender is the choice node in the spec tree - Imposing Presence/Inner Radiance. Less CD on interrupt or more self healing…no matter which you pick you are at a massive disadvantage. Picking healing means your only interrupt has a 40 sec CD…and for a support/teamplay class…that is really bad. Yet i have to take healing option because otherwise i will just die as even the best healers cannot keep me up due to sheer sustained pressure from melee cleaves or even affli and demo warlocks…

The biggest issue of devastation is its inability to deal with incoming damage, no way to prevent it or heal it, i can use and time all my hovers, time stops, wing buffets and tail swipes and melee are still training me like a target dummy until healers get exhausted and i run out of CDs and i die. On top of 25 yard range where you are an even easier target.
Mages have blocks, novas, poly…blinks and alter time, priests - disperse, insta passive healing and damage reduction, shields, warlocks…no explanation needed. Dev evokers - sitting ducks being the punching bags of everyone.

I’ve tried various talent setups, but the issue remains the same. The only thing that has brought a measure…of ‘‘success’’…is putting every point in Deep Breath talents possible for a 1 min CD, a stun and potnetial burst, to buy me extra 20 seconds of life.

The spec is more or less fun to play…but when you get trained…you really feel it like no other, you can last for a minute or two before your defensives and mobility get exhausted.

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Honestly I think this is a ‘some melee needs a dmg nerf’ more so than a devastation evoker issue.

I play a warlock, and I know people are gonna say ‘hurr durr warlocks are so tanky they can’t die’ but honestly, I can’t survive these DHs and Fury warriors either. Their mobility far exceeds mine (which is why warlocks are tanky btw) but I just cannot stay alive when these melees train me.

I’m all for nerfing demo, cause this spec is an abomination in PvP with all these pets. But warlocks needs to be tankier simple due to having less mobility than almost all other classes, but with this damage output I’m struggling too. ‘You can last a minute or two before your defensives are exhausted’ is my experience atm too

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Yessir say it loud!!

Devastation damage is good, can be great burst with good crits.

Mobility is strong, but can be exhausted (which is fine).

But we are the only class that has a DoT as an integral part of the spec with no PvP dispel protection. Shadow priest, elemental shaman, affliction warlock all have protection. Only classes that don’t have protection that are similarly dot centered are boomie and destro… and they are both horrible in Pvp right now also (notice a trend?), but even then none have a 30s cd on their main dots. They can just recast.

And we have horrendous survivability with so much utility on longish CDs. Renewing blaze ticks too slow for pvp, obsidian scales doesn’t do enough damage reduction.

It’s my favorite thing to play in spite of all of this, so I’m sticking with it but I hope additional tuning helps correct this, either through direct buffs or nerfs to offending classes.

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When Blizzard first mentioned a mobile caster I had visions of an Arcane Mage seeing as Arcane is the only ranged spec in the game that can still truly kite even the most mobile melee (DH, WW).

What we got was a discount Fire Mage with a DH/GameCube controller sized toolkit locked behind cast times and a 25 yard range.

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Nope lol devastation is honestly so squish. Try the spec out, it’s really challenging.

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100% true. Empowered spells castable on the move would help so so much. Surprised they force you to forfeit 1-2s of hover to get a spell out when the range is so so short.

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Melee cleaves are a huge issue right now, DHs and warriors do absurd damage and can heal to full with in a single global. This
My biggest gripe going against warlocks is the their sustained pressure and their shields…which is like what…45 sec CD? As an evoker i have to pop my defensive just to survive that even when running away…and thats not even a Darkglare/Tyrant burst. My AoE root has a long CD…so the demo pet army still has like a 90% uptime on me.
In all matches…i never peel warlocks because i just melt…and their shields and healing means i cannot even get them below 80%

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Demo is an abomination right now, don’t feel too bad the whole game is melting to them right now. Affliction sustain is BiS too.

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Absolute horsesht defensives wise. Would rather play another game on ele while being chased by dh/dk for the entire game than queue again on devoker

Sustained damage is surprisingly good now tho too

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As a Devastation Evoker main I support these comments.

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Honestly bro, I think dev evoker do need a buff, but I’m playing demo lock in solo shuffle doing 12-20k dps while these melees who can outrun me times 2 do 30k dps. Idk if you’d find demo that bad (besides the obnoxious amounts of pets on your screen) if deva evoker wasn’t undertuned. But EVERYONE is getting destroyed by these melee cleaves atm it seems

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i just wish they would fix deep breath pathing…

in Nagrand arena i coulden’t even cast deep breath for some reason even tho i was in the middle of the arena pointing towards meters of open arena…

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Yes, i’m fine with it as well. Sadly melee classes have insane mobility with a far higher uptime. Warrs, monks, DHs…you name it. Palas and DKs are worse…but their slow and magic immunty allows them to catch up eventually.

But we are the only class that has a DoT as an integral part of the spec with no PvP dispel protection

Indeed. a 24 sec DoT it gets dispelled within like 3-5 seconds at best.

Yes this in particular has been irrritating me, it’s suppose to be an anti-burst tool by design, but the healing is not only insufficient, but slow to act. It’s easily outbursted. I have been using the Foci of Life talent for that extra 20% healing…and even then its barely enough to survive against 1 dps, let alone 2 at the same time. Not to mention a long cooldown, meaning youre likely to die from sustained pressure after.

Same. Despite the struggle i still find the spec fun to play. Yet getting into arena and fighting for your life all the time and torturing healers because they have to blow every cooldown on you alone is downright depressing.

Id say not just fire mage, but mage in general. Every other caster besides evokers is incredibly versatile, where they lack in one area, they are compensated in another. Mages are squishy, but have excellent utility and damage prevention. I mage who properly utilizes alter time is a beast.

Hard to say, i think the dev evoker damage is quite good. Disintegrate with Scintillation procs can really hurt with a bit of luck, particularly with mastery items. They already nerfed Fire breath because it was insanely bursty every 2 mins, so they need to be quite careful when tuning.
But i have to say that other classes have a far better sustained damage overall with far less effort…and instant cast at that.

I can agree with this. At times when i can free cast, and no one is going after me, the pressure can be massive. I’ve seen healers having to run and hide and mages use 2 blocks just to live within a single minute window.
Unfortunately that doesn’t work when youre the target and get trained.

This is why the only thing that has been a little bit helpful are Deep Breath talents, the stun and 1 min CD in particular, enough to give a little bit of breathing room, cant escape clutch situations otherwise. But those talents come at a cost of sustained damage and mobility/healing or team support talent like the Rescue shield. There really is no win-win scenario.

P.S. Just a side note, in all my plays i have not seen a single dev evoker, not a single one. Preservation - from time to time. The last time i saw 1-2 dev evokers was in random BGs and skirmishes while leveling from 60-70. But in rated pvp ive seen every class and spec combinations…except for dev evokers. That is the strangest thing ive seen in a long time…and never for a new class.

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