Introduction
Hello there, I’m Gurke! After taking a step back from the RWF during the first tier of Dragonflight, I couldn’t resist when I got offered the chance to compete in the RWF with Method as a Devastation Evoker main.
Throughout this guide, we’ll go through the strengths and weaknesses of the class, rotation, gearing choices and just about everything else you need to know to top the meters of any raid or guild you join. And you’ll do so in style: By literally hovering around your opponents, spitting fire, shooting laserbeams out of your mouth and, just in case you’d ever get bored, even rescue your teammates!
Shout-out to Tokaine for laying the groundwork of the Lizard Wizard guide in 10.0!
Strengths
Highly Mobile - Evoker is probably 1 of, if not the most mobile ranged class in the game. Through the use of our ability Hover, we can cast almost all of our abilities while moving. The only abilities we cannot cast while moving are our 2 empowered abilities, Fire Breath and Eternity Surge.
Unique Mastery - Evokers have an interesting mastery called Giantkiller, meaning we do more damage to enemies based on their current health. The higher the health, the more damage we deal. This makes Evokers exceptionally strong at the start of a fight and excellent at handling new targets, an example being a high-priority add that just spawned and needs to die fast; an example of this would be the Dutiful Attendant in Castle Nathria.
Large Utility Toolkit - Evokers have a variety of abilities to provide assistance to your allies. This can be done through off-healing, debuff removal, and unique positioning abilities such as Rescue to help your allies out of a tough situation. Additionally, we also bring the raid buff Blessing of the Bronze, which reduces the cooldown of major movement abilities for all party and raid members by 15%.
Weaknesses
Squishy - Evoker is weak in the defensive department compared to other ranged DPS classes. We only have 1 real defensive, which is Obsidian Scales. Besides that, we also have the ability Renewing Blaze, which is like a much weaker version of the old mage spell Rewind Time. Compare this to something like a warlock; we might struggle to survive in certain situations at the end game. Standing in a one-shot mechanic is not something we can expect to survive - we’ll have to make use of our superb mobility instead.
Lower Casting Range - Evoker only has a 25-yard casting range; this puts it in a weird position where we have to almost stand between the ranged camp and melee camp, as most casters have a 35-40 yard casting range.
Limited Talent Options - Evoker has to really commit to 1 style of damage type with their talents, meaning you can choose to go heavy into ST, but then your AoE severely lacks and vice versa. With how the new talent trees are, there isn’t really a “best of both worlds” option.
Edit: This has changed a bit going into 10.1, with the partial rework of the talent tree, we have a lot more options to pick from. This being said, we still lose out on quite a lot of single target for committing to further AOE options, so this is still mostly accurate.
What has changed
First Impressions
From what I’ve played of Evoker on the Beta, I think they are a good mobile DPS class, excelling in burst AoE situations. The class will reward players with fight knowledge, allowing you to maximize your kit in output and utility. However, they do fall short in the defensive department. Unfortunately, they don’t bring much to a raid outside of their damage, and their raid buff is not mandatory. The class is a bit simple to play, which can make it feel less rewarding in the long run.