Why You Should & Shouldn't Play Preservation Evoker in Dragonflight Season 2 - Patch 10.1

Live Geposted 25.04.2023 um 08:44 von Voulk

Need help choosing a new Class in Season 2? Check out all the released articles in the 'Why You Should Play a Spec' series below:
Why You Should Play a Spec in Dragonflight Season 2 Series

Blood DK
Frost DK
Unholy DK
Havoc DH
Vengeance DH
Balance Druid
Feral Druid
Guardian Druid
Restoration Druid
Devastation Evoker
Preservation Evoker
Beast Mastery Hunter
Survival Hunter
Arcane Mage
Fire Mage
Frost Mage
Brewmaster Monk
Mistweaver Monk
Windwalker Monk

Holy Paladin
Protection Paladin
Retribution Paladin
Discipline Priest
Holy Priest
Shadow Priest
Assassination Rogue

Outlaw Rogue
Subtlety Rogue
Elemental Shaman
Enhancement Shaman
Affliction Warlock
Demonology Warlock
Destruction Warlock
Arms Warrior
Fury Warrior
Protection Warrior

Why You Should Play Preservation Evoker in Dragonflight Season 2 (and Why You Shouldn't)FeueratemTraumatemEchoGeisterblüte

Why You Should

Why You Shouldn't

Why You Should Play Preservation Evoker in Dragonflight Season 2Huge healing output - Beneficiary of the 25% damage and health buffZurückspulenGoldene StundeLebenskraftheilerErneuernde FlammenZwillingswächterSmaragdgrüne ZwiespracheUnique UtilitySegen der BronzenenZeitspiraleZorn der AspektereallyRettenZephyrZeitspiraleZorn der AspekteZephyrFlügelstoßSchwanzfegerUnterdrückenThe Role of Preservation in RaidZeitverschiebungRettenZwillingswächterZeitanomalieEchoGeisterblüteZurückspulenfrequency
2-Set - Evoker Devastation 10.1 Class Set 2pc: Geisterblüte applies a heal over time effect for 40% of healing done over 8 sec. Traumatem's healing is increased by 15%.
4-Set - Evoker Devastation 10.1 Class Set 4pc: After casting 3 empower spells, gain Essenzexplosion immediately and another 3 sec later.
UmkehrungLebensbindungnewEchoLebensbindungUmkehrungLebensbindung

Zeitanomalie -> Tiefgrüne Umarmung -> Geisterblüte or Smaragdgrüne Zwiesprache self, or

Zeitanomalie -> Umkehrung

TraumatemEcho

Zeitanomalie + Echo -> Geisterblüte (similar enough).

Stacking Ouroboros via Echo hard casts and dropping big Smaragdblütes when you can line up raid damage, high Ouroboros stacks and an Essenzexplosion.

4pc gives you free Essenzexplosions which you need to make sure you spend - either on Smaragdblüte or Echo depending on the situation.

Avoid any of the above Smaragdblüte casts overlapping with Zeitanomalie or Echo hard casts since you don't want them to be consumed by Blossoms.

GeisterblüteSchwebenTiefgrüne UmarmungZephyrZeitspiraleRückenwindRettenWhy You Shouldn't Play Preservation Evoker in Dragonflight Season 2

Strong raid capstones (Kreislauf des Lebens) are gatekept by two pointers that don't fit into the build at all (Schonfrist)

The last section of the tree where nodes should be most powerful is filled with quality of life or low throughput choices like Zeit der Not, Kraftnexus, Zeitlose Magie, Zunichtemachen and arguably Energieschlaufe.

The tree is so narrow and restricted that we're only really offered the illusion of choice. The tree has three chokepoints at Ruf von Ysera, Lebensbindung and Pünktlichkeit. After we take the nodes we're required to for pathing in the second section of the tree we're left with only 1-2 extra points. Instead of making interesting, fight dependent choices for these we instead put them into sub 0.5% nodes or even quality of life like Traumrausch since there's no alternatives nodes that are strong or even that offer utility.

Newer players often fall into talents that look good at a glance but don't actually offer much power like Exhilarating Burst and they're not even losing much from it since there are so many other low value nodes in the tree. For a spec with green dragon and time magic themes, we could do with at least 3-4 new talents. The design space here is really interesting and I'd love to see what more they can come up with to add to the tree. Maybe we could even see an expansion of the splash of Red that currently fills the center of the tree.

Our tree has a fairly strong DPS node in Lebenskraftheiler but its position in the center of the tree effectively makes it a four cost node. In Mythic+ this doesn't tend to be too big an issue since you're ok dropping a lot of healing for it but in raid it's too expensive to do so. Improving availability in the area would make it a much more interesting choice.

fairlyTiefgrüne UmarmungSchwebenLebende Flamme

Our offensive essence spender, Disintegrate, requires two talents to be a minor and situational DPS increase over Living Flame.

Azure Strike is sufficiently weak that we've mostly been using it to kill Explosives or when mobs are close to death. Given hitting a priority target is already more valuable than AoE damage, it could stand to deal more relative to Living Flame - particularly given it requires an investment in tier 3 node Protracted Talons to be castable at all.