Preservation & Devastation Evoker Cast Range in Dragonflight: Is 25yds Too Restrictive?

Posted 2022/09/20 at 8:00 AM by Wowhead

Questionably EpicCurrent Range Limitations on Preservation & Devastation EvokerDream BreathFire BreathTemporal AnomalyDeep BreathDream FlightVisualizing the Evoker Range LimitsThe white area is 20 yards, the minimum range for Deep Breath / Dream Flight.
The green area is 25 yards, the effective range of Evoker.
The orange is 40 yards, the baseline for most other ranged specializations.
The red outer border is 50 yards, the range of Deep Breath / Dream Flight.How are Preservation and Devastation Impacted Differently?How Would Evoker Struggle in Shadowlands Encounters?Preservation

Sludgefist: You’re required to play toward the front of the “ranged section” in order to reach melee & the tanks (who are taking heavy damage). Half of your kit including Verdant Embrace & Dream Flight are near impossible to use, others like Temporal Anomaly and Spiritbloom only have very limited uses. Your mobility is difficult or impossible to use – even Hover has to be used very carefully.

The Jailer: Phase 2 presents quite a few issues with our short range preventing us from healing both the raid and Blood of Azeroth soakers without putting ourselves in a perilous position. The general spread of the raid here is also pretty difficult to play around. 40 yard range specs can contribute to the phase in a much more effective way.

Sylvanas: Multiple moments in P1 but particularly near the end in the intermission. The raid is bleeding out from Domination Chains, you’re constantly on the move, and Evoker can only cast a few of its spells. It should be worth mentioning though that Preservation would have been very good in phase 3.

Lords of Dread: Preservation's biggest problem here is our designation as a ranged character. You’re unable to stack with melee, and you’ll end up in a mid range zone between the longer range specs and the melee. You’ll never be able to hit ranged and melee with the same spell, you’ll make the fight more dangerous by spawning Cloud of Carrion much closer to the boss and you’ll have worse bait spots for Slumber Cloud. The upside is that Evoker’s healing style is a great fit for the Swarms.

Fatescribe: Rune and bomb targets are frequently spread heavily and it leaves the Evoker chasing them around. Playable but you’re working much harder than the other healers here.

Skolex: The raid is split into ranged and melee stack points and the ranged stack point has to be more than 20 yards away from the boss due to Devouring Blood. This creates a scenario where the Evoker is unable to heal tanks and often the melee themselves unless your raid is willing to sit in a risky ~25-yard range zone.

Devastation

Halondrus: In the pre-nerf version of the fight I don’t see Evoker as viable due to the inability to carry a bomb in ranged without it being a nightmare for you and your partner. Typically the range stand far enough away to not be affected by the Planetcracker Beam.

Lords of Dread: This fight is already a nightmare with too many ranged, I don’t see any reason you would willingly bring an Evoker to Lords of Dread, since you want to bring the exact minimum required for Cloud of Carrion and baits. Having a 25 yard range would mean you would likely need to stay near melee for most of the fight when ranged are beyond 25 yards.

The Jailer: Depending on your strategy, Evoker would likely play as a melee for most of this fight. Evoker would not do well as a Blood of Azeroth soaker unless they are able to go with the melee group. Chains of Oppression would also likely require you to idle while other ranged can continue dealing damage (similar to melee). Evoker could do just fine on this fight, but bringing one means one less ranged to do a lot of the important jobs.

Sylvanas (Phase 1): Many of the ranged baits for this fight would be out of range of the boss. This doesn’t make Evoker unviable, but it does mean that bringing one means one less ranged to actually do the important mechanics. Devastation would likely do well at killing chains with burst AoE, so Evoker might be good for Phase 1 despite needing special treatment.

Sludgefist: If Evoker can be paired with Boomkin or MM Hunter in this fight, it’s going to be a bad time for everyone involved. Being paired with melee is probably just as bad since Hover would snap chains unless the melee you are paired with reacts quickly. Evoker would probably be fine on Sludgefist, but you would need to make a rule for the raid that whoever is paired with them has to play at the very front.

Current Evoker Mobility in Dragonflight

Hover: +30% movement speed for 6 seconds with an optional push forward on cast. Allows you to cast non-empowered spells while moving. Can talent into +4s duration, a sprint for the first 4 seconds and a second charge. 30 second cooldown with Blessing of the Bronze active.

Verdant Embrace: 25 yard range spell that moves you to an ally and heals them. No movement if you’re right next to them. 24 second cooldown for Devastation and 18 second cooldown for Preservation (both reduced by haste).

Rescue (optional talent): 30 yard range spell that grabs an ally and moves both of you to the targeted area.
Exuberance (optional talent): +10% movement speed while above 75% health.

Deep Breath / Dream Flight: 20-50 yard range ability that causes your character to damage or heal everyone in your path. You are immune to movement impairing and loss of control effects while flying. This is a 2 minute cooldown, but for Devastation it can be reduced to 1 min with the Onyx Legacy talent.

Dream FlightDeep BreathZephyrDoes Mobility Solve the Range Issues?Being able to reposition quickly does help a little and Hover is our key piece of mobility. You can use it to set up better Dream Breath casts, fire a more useful Temporal Anomaly and to get you through mechanics where being fast is worth a premium. Unfortunately it isn’t sufficient to solve the range issue but it’s an interesting balance against how long Preservation cast times are. A lot of the difficult Shadowlands fights wouldn’t be solved with more mobility since you’re often not able to even move into the areas you’d like to be present in (near the blood line on Jailer or in the melee zone on Skolex). The only real solution is a 40 yard range. It’s also worth highlighting other healers mobility kits which are often similar in power to Evokers already or in some cases even stronger. We’re currently in a position where we have the slowest casts, the worst range, and do not even possess the games strongest mobility kit.For Devastation, mobility makes a huge difference for any mechanic that is “baited” into a specific position, so long as you don’t have to stay out of range. In situations like this you can play closer to the boss than the rest of the ranged then Verdant Embrace out to do the ranged mechanic and swoop back in with Hover or similar spells. Devastation only needs to worry about the short range when the strategy involves staying stacked for a prolonged period. No amount of movement will help in these situations, unless you are able to “cheat” into the range of the boss during downtime between mechanics. Unfortunately because Hover and other spells for movement are on the GCD, movement still affects your damage quite a bit.Does Evoker Range Need to Be Extended?Preservation would benefit greatly from a 40 yard range on key targeted spells. Half measures like even more mobility or temporary range increases are likely to prove insufficient and an aura that increases the range of healing spells when you spec preservation should be an absolute priority. Personal positioning can still be a focus in the Preservation Evoker Design by leaving breath spells at their current 30 yard range and keeping Temporal Anomaly as a projectile that you shoot forward. Verdant Embrace, Echo, Reversion, Naturalize, Spiritbloom, Emerald Blossom and Time Dilation should all be increased to a standard range and that consistency will also make raid frames as easy to use as they are on other specs. You can keep all of what makes Evoker special like emphatic, high value spells and an awareness of where you and your raid are positioned without making the spec endlessly frustrating to play. It’s ok for a spec to have strengths and weaknesses and Evoker has these already. You prefer stacked allies, you are fast (via mobility) but also slow (via long cast times). The limited range is unnecessary and feels like a burden rather than an interesting dimension of the spec.
The biggest change I would like to see is Hover coming off of the GCD and allowing it to be cast while casting. If the primary purpose of this spell is to aid in movement, it would make sense for you to not lose uptime when using it.

Preservation is far worse off with a 25 yard range. With healing, it's best to consider your coverage in terms of the area around your character, and a 25 yard range results in less than half the effective healing coverage of a normal healer. I don’t really see a benefit that would make Preservation worth bringing into a typical raid encounter in its current state. This seems like something that will likely change, it’s just a question of when.

For Devastation, the ranged limit is less restrictive than Preservation but it is still something to consider. Is it worth it to account for an Evoker in your raid, or change already planned range movements and strategy based on 40 yards to accommodate an Evoker? Will Blizzard be mindful of Evoker’s shorter range and exclude them from mechanics that would make them not viable in an encounter? Will they continue to do this for every fight from now on?

These are the questions that I’m most concerned about for Evoker. I also wonder if giving a class a short range is innovative or if having a gimmick like this improves the design of the class. More than anything else, the range restriction seems like it will be a thorn in the side of encounter designers.

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Comment by XalonMJG2No one wants to play a dragon that casts. It is ridiculous.

At least give them some melee abilities. It is like having the tank spec of DH be spell-slingers.

Totally ruins the concept of playing as a dragon/dragonkin.

Where is Chris Metzen? We need him back to get things back on track.

Also, why does WOWHEAD seem to think all WOW players are level-rushing, content-skipping, rush rush rush ASAP players? Many of us actually enjoy the game. Not just in it for loot or endgame only.Comment by FreeasacarReduced range isn't a problem. If it was we'd have no melee classes. Reduced range + lack of mobility is a problem and it's something that various melee specs have struggled with for years. Blizzard simply needs to keep an eye on Evokers and add more mobility where appropriate if they're struggling in upcoming tiers.Comment by TheRadikidFor Devastation, the ranged limit is less restrictive than Preservation but it is still something to consider. Is it worth it to account for an Evoker in your raid, or change already planned range movements and strategy based on 40 yards to accommodate an Evoker? Will Blizzard be mindful of Evoker’s shorter range and exclude them from mechanics that would make them not viable in an encounter? Will they continue to do this for every fight from now on?Comment by HelloViviiFor Devastation, the ranged limit is less restrictive than Preservation but it is still something to consider. Is it worth it to account for an Evoker in your raid, or change already planned range movements and strategy based on 40 yards to accommodate an Evoker? Will Blizzard be mindful of Evoker’s shorter range and exclude them from mechanics that would make them not viable in an encounter? Will they continue to do this for every fight from now on?Comment by zolphinusThe Evoker is meant to be constantly moving imo. (Based on the kit they designed and the direction it seems.) I don't think it's fair to write up an article, (pretty much saying the class needs to be changed, albeit not much. But enough.) Before the vast majority of testing (or play) had been conducted. Will they need tuning after launch? For sure. Do they need a rework pre-launch? No. (For the players who absolutely are adamant on the range increase,) I'd suggest playing a different healer. :).Comment by zolphinusFor Devastation, the ranged limit is less restrictive than Preservation but it is still something to consider. Is it worth it to account for an Evoker in your raid, or change already planned range movements and strategy based on 40 yards to accommodate an Evoker? Will Blizzard be mindful of Evoker’s shorter range and exclude them from mechanics that would make them not viable in an encounter? Will they continue to do this for every fight from now on?Comment by SilthisAfter playing beta for a couple of weeks now and mostly playing my devestation evoker i'm 50/50 on the range issue. Sometimes its fine but there are more and more scenarios that make it difficult to deal with. When you have hover available it's not so bad however the empowered abilities aren't effected by the hover cast while moving so you have to be planted to cast your firebreath for example which is a very lengthy cast.

When you don't have hover you're also locked down with lengthy casts on Living flame especailly when playing with the talent Engulfing blaze, you're also locked in place during Disintegrate because the resource cost is front loaded so if you have to move and cut off the cast you still pay full resource which is punishing.

My solution is to essentially play as melee but this causes its own issues with regard to how squishy you are as evoker. I think if they made evoker a bit more resilient it might be ok but I guess I don't really see the point of making them a 25 yard mid range class. We haven't seen the benefit or real purpose of it and I am dreading what raid encounter design will be like as there are already some dungeon boss fights im having range issues on. Ultimately as preheat put it... "I also wonder if giving a class a short range is innovative or if having a gimmick like this improves the design of the class. More than anything else, the range restriction seems like it will be a thorn in the side of encounter designers."Comment by MaXiiczekMake the Evoker count as melee in stacking mechanics just as Holy Paladin, problem solved.Comment by neescher1Make the Evoker count as melee in stacking mechanics just as Holy Paladin, problem solved.Comment by DeltaLimaCharlieOh yeah ... Change to range to the same like any other class, maybe Change the new charging spells mechanique and while you are at it make it exactly the same like any other class. Than everything is balanced and we never need to think or pick another class since each and every class has litraly the same spells and utility.

FFS let somthing be unique for once... Not everything has to be the same. Let it have it's niche I'm sure some ppl will play it for the RP and it's strengths. Maybe they won't be taken to raids that much... So? Who cares maybe they'll be perfectly fine in m+. If you wanna raid play somthing else also, maybe get an alt ...

I'm so sick of people crying about a certain class having something more or less than another class, it's a @#$%ing mmo"RP"g deal with it. If every class has the same toolkit and the same damage and healing than why even bother having classes?Comment by AesiriaI just want to say that whoever wrote this is colourblind, lol.Comment by 2136358pogComment by CyberTitan420Lol see if they were a tank we wouldn't be having thid problem 🤣 not sure why blizzard hates tanksComment by SeniaaLol see if they were a tank we wouldn't be having thid problem 🤣 not sure why blizzard hates tanksComment by ScrotaciousSo yesterday i was doing quest on my evoker, and it asked me to kill some bird, and you know what? they where too far away couldn't pull any even from the hill close to them.

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