Augmentation Evoker DPS Guide — 12.1

Midnight Season 2 begins on August 18th and comes with all of the standard endgame activities that we know and love. There will be a new Mythic+ and PvP Season and a new 8 Boss Raid. We have linked below dedicated hubs to cover the new content during Season 2!

Along with Season 2 comes an expansive new area which features a whole host of new areas and activities alongside the endgame PvE and PvP Content. The new area is Coiled Isle and grants you access to Vaults of Atal'Utek which are the main locations where the story of Patch 12.1 happens, containing new rares and treasures to hunt, as well as new housing ans transmog items. Blizzard also significant updates to existing systems and added more quality of life improvements. For more information, check out our patch 12.1 hub linked below!

Augmentation Evoker has received some high impact changes to its Hero Talents for Midnight Season 2 that alter optimal Hero Talent choice, talent builds, and stat priority. We will briefly go over the changes below.

Scalecommander has had significant nerfs to Wingleader vastly reducing the power of the talent. You now get approximately half the cooldown reduction you previously got on single-target amount of cooldown reduction that is possible to get. Blizzard tried to offset the damage loss by buffing the damage nodes tied to Breath of Eons casts it was not sufficient to offset the loss of Duplicate uptime.

Chronowarden had Double-time redesigned to be a temporary buff upon casting Ebon Might instead of lasting for an entire cast. This change is approximately a 1-2% DPS nerf for Chronowarden and nerfs the Critical Strike Scaling of Augmentation.

Additionally, during Season 2 as an Augmentation Evoker you have access to a new set bonus, listed below:

• 2-Piece Bonus: Evoker Augmentation 12.1 Class Set 2pc — Upheaval's cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds.
• 4-Piece Bonus: Evoker Augmentation 12.1 Class Set 4pc — Casting Upheaval magnifies your Fate Mirror effects for 8 seconds, increasing the amount of damage echoed to 45% (normally 15%).

Due to all of the changes above and the new Tier Set, we will be moving towards Chronowarden buff centric gameplay. We will be focusing around stacking Mastery while playing Motes of Possibility for more powerful Shifting Sands and, higher uptime of other supportive buffs such as Prescience, especially with our new Tier Set improving the damage of Fate Mirror.

With a higher emphasis on Augmentation's buffs, the correct targeting of Prescience is now more relevant and is approximately a 3-5% DPS gain over using auto targeting.

To see the full list of changes please see below:

Click for Season 2 Changes.

Curse of Ula'tek Patch Notes

Augmentation Evoker

Developers' notes: The additional stopping power created by Duplicate-cast Upheavals was more warping to dungeon gameplay than desired, and could be frustrating in some situations due to its uncontrolled timing.

• Apex Talent: Duplicate — Upheaval casts by your Duplicate no longer knock enemies into the air.
• All ability and pet damage increased by 3%.
• The Midnight Season 1 2-set bonus no longer increases the duration that Eruption extends Ebon Might.
• Defy Fate, Emerald Blossom, Living Flame, Molten Blood, Panacea, and Verdant Embrace healing increased by 25%.
• Hero Talents
  • Chronowarden
  • • Developers' notes: The behavior of an Ebon Might critical strike's stat bonus lasting for the full duration of the Ebon Might put more emphasis on tracking Ebon Might's critical state than desired, and created an unintuitive decision space regarding whether re-casting Ebon Might was correct.
    • Double-time has been updated — The additional stats granted when Ebon Might critically strikes now last 15 seconds (modified by Mastery: Timewalker). If Ebon Might reapplies Double-time while it is already active, Double-time's duration is extended instead of overwriting the previous Double-time effect. Double-time's functionality with Prescience is unchanged.
  • Scalecommander
  • • Developers' notes: Wingleader's cooldown reduction mechanic strongly incentivized spreading Bombardments applications across multiple targets. We feel that this gameplay is unintuitive in isolation, and additionally creates unhealthy behaviors such as Mass Eruption pooling. This redesign is intended to retain the multitarget focus of the talent, while addressing those issues. We are increasing some of Scalecommander's sources of area damage to compensate for the lessened cooldown reduction the new Wingleader will provide, and will be keeping a close eye on Devastation and Augmentation’s performance over the course of PTR to make additional adjustments as needed.
    • Wingleader has been redesigned — Mass Eruption reduces the remaining cooldown of Breath of Eons by 1.5 seconds for each target struck.
    • Command Squadron's Pyre damage increased by 40%.
    • Maneuverability damage over time increased by 40%.

Click for Previous Season Changes

Show Patch May 5th Class Tuning Hide Patch May 5th Class Tuning

Augmentation Evoker has received additional tuning. These changes do not alter talent builds, and their impacts are detailed below.

• All ability damage and pet damage reduced by 5% — This does not reduce the damage done of Augmentation Evokers buffs like Ebon Might and Prescience. As a result, the nerfs are smaller for Chronowarden than they are for Scalecommander, where the buffs are a greater proportion of your damage breakdown.
• An issue where Inferno's Blessing and Bombardments were not affected by Evoker's Specialization passives. These abilities have been tuned so they also receive a 5% nerf in this patch — Going forwards, both of these abilities will scale with damage adjustments, whereas they were previously unaffected.

The changes combined are approximately a 2.2% nerf for Chronowarden in raids, 3.1% for Scalecommander in Raid and, 3.8% for Scalecommander in Mythic+ and on Lightblinded Vanguard.

Show Patch 12.0.5 Class Tuning Hide Patch May 12.0.5 Class Tuning

For Patch 12.0.5 Augmentation has received two notable changes to talents. The talent Molten Embers has been removed and replaced with Mighty Inferno. For Chronowarden, the talent Energy Cycles has been replaced with the new talent Chronal Dynamo. To see what the new talents do expand the section below. These changes impact your talent choices and rotational decisions which will be explained below in the second section.

The full list of changes can be found here: 12.0.5 Development Notes.

• Removed Augmentation Talent: Molten Embers.
• New Talent: Mighty Inferno — Replaces Molten Embers which has been removed. Increases Inferno's Blessing damage by 40%. All effects that extend Ebon Might now extend Inferno's Blessing.
• Removed Chronowarden Talent: Energy Cycles.
• New Chronowarden Talent: Chronal Dynamo — Replaces Energy Cycles which has been removed. Reduces the cast time of Living Flame (and Chrono Flame) by 0. 2s and increases the damage done of non instant Living Flames by 50% (Excludes Afterimage).

Overall, the changes are approximately a 2% nerf for Chronowarden at all target counts. For Scalecommander, we expect these changes to be approximately a 1.5% on single-target, neutral at two targets, and approximately 1.5% DPS loss on higher target counts.

As a result of these changes the gap between Chronowarden and Scalecommander in raid has shrunk to 3.6% between the best builds. If you opt to play the easier Chronowarden build Interwoven Threads instead of Time Skip then it is only 2.8% ahead. With differences this small we recommend playing whichever option you enjoy more, as both are fully viable for all groups. That said, Scalecommander still performs significantly better on encounters with extended two target cleave and in Mythic+.

The loss of Molten Embers makes it correct to uprank Fire Breath in all situations where you can as generating more Leaping Flames is efficient. Previously getting as high uptime on Fire Breath was correct for Molten Embers.

When playing with the new talent Mighty Inferno there are no notable gameplay decisions to be aware of. The talent will just passively function increasing your overall damage with Inferno's Blessing. This ends up being a reasonably strong ST talent and is better than Molten Embers was on ST. However, the loss of Molten Embers is noticeable especially on Scalecommander in Mythic+ in high target count pulls.

The new Chronal Dynamo talent is considerably worse than the old Energy Cycles. Despite the faster cast time on Living Flame with Chronal Dynamo, you will generate far fewer Essence Bursts than before. This results in far lower uptime on Duplicate. The increase in damage to Living Flame does slightly compensate however, this only applies to Living Flame from casts and not from Afterimage.

Show Midnight Release Class Tuning Hide Midnight Release Class Tuning

Augmentation Evoker received some last minute additional tuning, nerfing the power of its Tier Set. To compensate for the Tier Set nerfs, they increased Augmentation Evokers damage by 13%. This change results an additional 5% nerf on ST, and 6% nerf on AOE. Combined with the 5% nerf that was already happening on March 17th, Augmentation will be 10-11% weaker.

This last minute tuning has once again adjusted the best builds slightly and has brought Scalecommander closer to Chronowarden for raids, closing the gap between the two options, although Chronowarden remains the stronger choice of the two by ~4%. Additionally, it has lowered the value of Overlord based builds, resulting in a return to Molten Embers for Scalecommander.

The change to Motes of Possibility has significantly reduced the power of the talent and means we no longer recommend playing it. Previously, Motes of Possibility would automatically give Shifting Sands to an appropriate player no matter who picked up the Mote (E.g. always to a DPS when possible). Now it will always place it on the player who picks up the Mote which a large portion of the time will be you. This is a very significant nerf.

Show March 18th Class Tuning Hide March 18th Class Tuning

The full list of changes can be found here: Midnight Class Tuning

• Scalecommander's Mass Eruption — Damage bonus per missing target has been reduced from 15% to 10%.
• Molten Embers — Damage bonus reduced to 15% from 25%. This is no longer ran by Chronowarden for any builds or Scalecommander in Mythic+.
• Duplicate — Duplicate Rank 4 Primary Stat bonus reduced to 75% from 100%.
• Motes of Possibility — This received a bugfix that caused the Symbiotic Bloom and Inferno's Blessing buffs to be granted to the Augmentation Evoker instead of the player who picked up the Mote. This also had the consequences of making Shifting Sands buffs go on the player who picks up the Mote every time. Previously, the Shifting Sands buff would automatically choose an appropriate target no matter who picked up the ball. This is a significant loss and we no longer recommend talenting Motes of Possibility.
• All ability and pet damage increased by 13%.
• Evoker Augmentation 12.0 Class Set 2pc — Eruption damage increased reduced to 10% (was 15%) and Ebon Might extension bonus reduced to 0.1s (was 0. 25s).
• Evoker Augmentation 12.0 Class Set 4pc — Empower Cooldown Reduction Rate bonus reduced to 10% (was 20%) and the empower damage bonus reduced to 10% (was 20%).

With the Midnight Expansion Augmentation Evoker has received a number of changes that slightly adjust how it plays with a general goal of simplifying its moment to moment decision making regarding buffs, primarily in Raid. We have broken down these changes into smaller categories to make it easier to understand the changes that Augmentation Evoker is receiving during Midnight. All of the changes Augmentation Evoker has received have been listed below.

While leveling in Midnight you will gain access to Apex Talents. These are powerful nodes at the bottom of your Specialization Tree. You will be able to put a talent point into these at levels 81, 84, 87 and 90. Augmentation's Apex Talents are listed below:

• Duplicate
• Duplicate
• Duplicate

Augmentation's Apex Talent is focused around Duplicate. This makes Breath of Eons summon a pet that casts Upheaval, Fire Breath and Eruption alongside you. These casts only deal damage and do not extend your Ebon Might or cause Shifting Sands. During Duplicate you receive significant boosts to personal damage and the power of Ebon Might thanks to the fourth Apex Talent Point Duplicate.

Augmentation Evoker's Second and Third Apex Talent Points Duplicate and Duplicate will cause anything that extends Ebon Might to also extend the Duplicate at 50/100% effect. This causes you to shift towards focusing on Haste and Critical Strike Chance as these both impact the uptime of the duplicate while Versatility and Mastery do not.

For more information on the Apex Talent please see the dedicated section on our Talents Page.

We have received significant changes to how our buffs work. These changes do not affect gameplay in Mythic+, while making Raiding play more similarly to Mythic+. In Raid going forward, the only buff that you will need to manually target on players will be Prescience, which no longer has secondary implications, as Ebon Might now affects everyone. This lets you focus on buffing your allies that are doing the most damage now, without having to think about how much damage they will be doing in 30 seconds.

These changes result in a slight buff power decrease for Raiding, a large simplification of buff management for Raiding and a significant potency increase for buffs in Mythic+ (+45% for Ebon Might and +36% for Breath of Eons).

Altogether, these changes bring Raiding and Mythic+ gameplay more in sync for both rotation and output, normalising how the class functions in all content. This should make it significantly easier for Blizzard to tune going forwards.

Click to expand to see changes.

Midnight Beta Test Development Notes

Developers' notes: The goal of these changes is to simplify Ebon Might targeting in raid environments. Since it now applies to all members of the raid, there is no need to micromanage who it should go on. There will still be some buff management gameplay with Prescience, which will continue to have a smart-targeting option for those who do not want to swap targets between enemies and allies frequently. Overall, this should make raid gameplay much smoother and similar to dungeon gameplay.

• Ebon Might applies to all damage dealing allies within 100 yards and DPS can now be affected by any number of Ebon Might.
• Breath of Eons and Breath of Eons now reduce their effect if affecting more than two other allies.
• Ebon Might now grants 8% Primary Stat (was 5%).
• Breath of Eons now accumulates 15% of damage (was 10%).
• Close as Clutchmates has been disabled as it no longer is needed to bring Mythic+ and Raiding to parity.
• Prescience is still capped to a maximum of 2 (1 per Augmentation Evoker).
• Shifting Sands is still capped to 1.

Chronowarden has received relatively significant changes that smooth out the overall gameplay experience, making it more consistent to play and lowering rotational friction. The design now focuses on stronger Prescience casts, while removing constraints like trying to maximise the number of empower casts during Temporal Burst. These changes align with making Chronowarden the main buff focused Hero Talent for Augmentation Evoker.

Click to expand to see changes.

• Removed Talents: Threads of Fate and Master of Destiny.
• Reworked Talent: Golden Opportunity mdash; now makes Prescience last 15% longer (Previously 20% chance to be 100% longer).
• New Talent: Nozdormu Adept — Reduces the Cooldown of Prescience by 2 seconds and increases the Critical Strike Chance Buff provided by 1% to 4%.
• New Talent: Chronoboon — Reduces the Cooldown of Tip the Scales by 30 Seconds.
• New Talent: Energy Cycles — Temporal Burst grants an Essence Burst every 6 seconds (5 Essence Bursts in total).
• New Talent: Overclock — Chrono Flame maximum damage is increased by 40%.

Scalecommander has received relatively minor changes opting to further double down on increasing the damage of Eruption and the personal damage output of Augmentation Evoker. These changes do not change your gameplay and allow you to further specialise in what Scalecommander already excelled at.

Click to expand to see changes.

• New Talent: Command Squadron — While flying during Breath of Eons or Deep Breath summon 2 Dracthyr that will cast Pyre up to 4 times each (8 times total).
• New Talent: Concentrated Power — Mass Eruption strikes 1 additional target.
• New Talent: Refined Essence — Eruption deals 15% more damage.
• Adjusted Talent: Slipstream — Now grants only one charge of Hover instead resetting all charges.

Augmentation Evoker received several nerfs to its defensive talents, resulting in a slight decrease in survivability going forwards, the most notable being the loss of Twin Guardian as a defensive option. Other Specializations are receiving comparable nerfs to their defensives as part of broader, game-wide changes to healer and defensive balance, so Augmentation Evoker is still very durable relative to other classes.

Click to expand to see changes.

• Reworked Talent: Twin Guardian — Now increases movement speed of you and the target of Rescue by 100% and allows cast while moving for 3 seconds instead of giving an absorb shield equal to 30% of your health.
• Reworked Talent: Renewing Blaze — This is now passive and causes Obsidian Scales to heal you equal to 100% of damage it reduced over 8 seconds (Was an active Defensive).
• New Talent: Improved Defy Fate — Reduces the cooldown of Defy Fate by 1 minute and increases its healing by 100%.
• Moved Talent: Stretch Time — This is now on the Class Tree instead of the Specialization Tree and has been buffed to stagger 100% of all damage taken during Breath of Eons.
• Removed Talent: Inner Radiance

Augmentation Evoker received several changes to Spells and Talents which only cause minor changes to rotation. The most significant rotational change comes from Molten Embers. With the new Molten Embers, it is now optimal to only use Rank 1 Fire Breath rather than upranking it. The other changes mainly contribute to quality-of-life and small adjustments to damage output.

Click to expand to see changes.

• Spell Change: Hover — Can now be cast while casting granting you the Hover buff. It also no longer has an Animation Lockout letting you use it at almost any time (except during Empowers).
• New Talent: Clairvoyant — Increases Motes of Possibility chance to Proc by 10% and allows it to grant Prescience to allies.
• Reworked Talent: Molten Embers — Enemies affected by Fire Breath now take 25% increased damage from Black Spells (Previously, scaled between 10 and 40% depending on Empower Rank).
• Reworked Talent: Imminent Destruction — Breath of Eons reduces the Essence cost of your next 4 Eruption's by 1, stacking up to 8 times (Previously lasted for 15 seconds and increased Eruption damage by 10% for the duration).
• Buffed Talent: Ignition Rush — Essence Burst reduces the cast time of Eruption by 40% and increases its damage by 20% (Previously only reduced the cast time). Moved to Rockfall's old position.
• Buffed Talent: Regenerative Chitin — Now increases the damage of Blistering Scales by 20% and stops it from losing charges (Previously, added 5 charges and gained an additional charge every time you cast Eruption).
• Buffed Talent: Inferno's Blessing — When casting Fire Breath you and one nearby ally gain the Inferno's Blessing Buff. Inferno's Blessing damage buffed 4x to compensate for affecting less targets (Previously affected you and 4 allies).
• Removed Talent: Rockfall
• Quell is now learned in the Augmentation Tree.