wow Augmentation Evoker Guide Writer Interview

[Staff 1,488]

If you plan on giving the new Augmentation Evoker spec a try next week, our guide writer Saeldur will tell you more about it.

Welcome to Icy-Veins as our new Augmentation Evoker Guide Writer. Please introduce yourself and tell us more about you.

Hi! I’m Saeldur, the new guide writer for Augmentation for Icy Veins.

I’m a passionate World of Warcraft player that enjoys playing at a high level and who does the theory-crafting for Evoker and other classes. I’m currently raiding with the guild Turtles on the Tarren Mill server. I’m super excited about the new Augmentation spec that is added in the 10.1.5 patch and look forward to playing a support role. 

Besides being involved in the Augmentation Evoker Community, what is your background in WoW?

I picked up the game back during Battle for Azeroth with the release of Uldir with some IRL friends and had a blast as a Subtlety Rogue. Ever since then I’ve been playing more and more and getting more involved in both theory-crafting and high end raiding while trying out new classes every tier.

During The Eternal Palace, I settled on playing Shadow/Discipline Priest as my primary class.
I started Theorycrafting Shadow Priest at the end of BFA, helping with implementation for Shadowlands, and then helped Publik maintain the Shadow Priest Simc module and was involved with Evoker theorycrafting since the alpha release of the class.

I reached my highest point during Sanctum of Domination with Bloom (Draenor) as a Disc Priest where we ranked world 70th before taking a break from the game till Dragonflight.

Can you tell us a bit more about the upcoming Evoker specialization?

Augmentation Evoker brings a fresh new coat of paint to DPSing in WoW. Augmentation is the first fully support-oriented spec they’ve added to the game and it looks like it’s going to make waves on the Meta.

Augmentation is a DPS-focused support with most of the class revolving around buffing the damage of other DPS dealers to contribute to a raid but you also bring unique utility to the raid with spells like Spatial Paradox, Bestow Weyrnstone, or, Draconic Attunements with Aspects’ Favor which acts like a party wide Rallying Cry.

How do you see Augmentation Evokers' role in the meta and the compositions of Raiding and Mythic+ respectively?

For raiding I can see Augmentation being a new “raid buff” where everyone will likely want at least one player with the spec. Augmentations rotation leans heavily towards having power in cooldown spells. This allows Augmentation to do mechanics on raid encounters while losing minimal DPS similar to how BM hunters have in the past provided value to the raid. This combined with the unique utility offered by Augmentation can easily offset lower damage, making tuning less of a concern and making them a worthwhile raid spot.

Additional Augmentations in high-end Mythic raid progression will be tuning-based, with a maximum of approximately 3.

For Mythic+ the value of Augmentation is going to be way more based on their relative tuning than it is in raid which makes it harder to predict how it’ll end up.

However, the defensiveness provided by having an Augmentation in a push environment is not to be underestimated. Bringing both Zephyr and Aspects’ Favor to a key group may allow them to run higher key levels than previously possible without being one-shot by mechanics or just letting the group survive through burst damage.

In terms of strength, where do you think Augmentation Evoker will be stronger - in Raid or Mythic+ settings?

Primarily Raiding as it stands, although I think it will be significantly dominant specifically in cutting edge Mythic+ keys where every last bit of damage and survivability matter.

Do you have any advice for new players that like to try out Augmentation Evoker?

Don’t overcomplicate things!

While there’s a lot of optimization based around “who should I buff” and when you should buff them you can still enjoy the class without considering that. Just throw your buffs on a friend or leave them to the auto-targeting Blizzard has built in. When you get used to the general rotation and feel of the class and once you’re comfortable with the spec consider looking into optimization.

Do you have anything else to add that our readers should know?

Augmentation is a very forgiving spec and this makes it relatively easy to pick up and play at any content level whether you are a veteran, a returning player, or completely new.

For further information about Augmentation, you should read my spec guide that will soon be available on the site (Link TBA) or ask questions in Wyrmrest Temple discord (https://discord.gg/evoker) where I can be found.