Augmentation Evoker as a party support class, the Bard of WoW, if we can call it that, was certainly a novel idea by Blizzard. After dominating the Mythic+ landscape in Season 1 and pretty much since it arrived on the scene, being the default pick for any group, it was time to change that. Unfortunately, no middle ground was found, and after the 11.1 nerfs, the spec is basically useless now, sitting at the very bottom of all rankings and tier lists.
So what does the future of Aug hold? Can it even be balanced? Here’s what the community thinks.
A Boring DPS?
The community is also starting to wonder what Blizzard’s ideas are for what we can probably call their boldest, but flawed, class move in the game. There are many theories, and more than a few threads, so let’s dive into some of them.
Incredulous_Rutabaga guesses that Augmentation’s uniqueness will be further watered down and turned into a DPS spec, while ThyNynax goes deeper into the overall functionality of the only support role in the game. Imagine if Blizzard reworked the support role and added a few more support classes into the game. Sadly, that would probably require a drastic redesign of end raiding and M+, so we’re not holding our fingers for that one happening.
Unlikely_Minimum_635 further expands on the Augmentation’s functionality and possible reasons why it was broken as a spec. Who would’ve thought that making the entire party tankier would cause issues?
A Less Boring Tank?
And then we have what seems to be the most prevalent angle, the tanking one. Many even seem to be willing to die on that hill, claiming that Blizzard blew a perfect opportunity to create a mage knight.
Ceskil‘s thread, where they explain the potential solutions and expand on the tanking angle, gained immense traction, a ton of upvotes, and reached 380+ comments at the time of writing. It sure seems the community is on board for a winged mail tank.
Their main three points for why turning Augmentation into a tank would work are as follows:
- Mail tank = fresh gameplay: Right now, all mail users are either DPS or healers. A mail-wearing tank would be awesome for class variety.
- Black dragonflight fantasy: We’re talking about a spec descended from Neltharion – the Earth-Warder himself. A big, hulking black dragon standing on the front lines, shielding allies with obsidian scales and tanking hits with sheer will? That’s peak thematic gameplay.
- Better design fit: The “augment your allies” theme could shift into a more personal, defensive angle – protecting allies by controlling the battlefield, reinforcing them with earth magic, and shielding with draconic might.
We think those are some well-thought-out and fun reasons for a mail tank. On the other hand, Silent_Working_2059 couldn’t miss an opportunity to take a jab and compare it to the Brewmaster, which also seems to not get much love in the higher keys.
Just a Little Break?
AESATHETIC follows the same train of thought as Ceskil, taking some notes and hints from Blizzard’s previous playbooks. SerphTheVoltar offers a different line of thinking. Maybe people are just burnt out on the “Augmentation being meta for the 5th season in a row”, and it needs some downtime on the beaches of Undermine.
And then there are those, like Relevant-Intern3238, who love playing Friday night bingo with the future and usefulness of WoW classes and specs. We can’t blame them, it’s probably better than a game of Light’s Gambit against Faerin and Anduin.
We can’t even possibly begin to cover all the lanes players’ ideas took in all the discussions. But we do have to agree with the tanking angle being the most common one. The large thread by Ceskil is definitely a recommended read, especially if you’re interested in theories and mechanical aspects of classes and specs.
Augmentation’s future is definitely up in the air, with no solid intent or news by Blizzard, except the already mentioned nerfs. It does sadly seem that the spec’s uniqueness doesn’t seem to have worked as an experiment, at least for now. What are your thoughts on the state of it? What would you do to Augmentation?
