Augmentation Evoker turned the balance of World of Warcraft upside down. A Blizzard employee says that was intentional. The new specialization of the Evoker is one of the most powerful in the game. MeinMMO reveals what it’s all about.
Which class is it about? The “Augmentation” specialization of the Evoker is one of the strongest specializations of the MMORPG. In an interview at BlizzCon with PC Gamer, game director Ion Hazzikostas defended the enormous power of the Evoker and referred to the decision as intentional
, while also admitting that the specialization was obviously too strong
.
The new WoW patch Guardian of Dreams
was released on November 8. Here you can watch the launch trailer:
The Augmentation
-Evoker caused a stir in the community
What is the deal with the support class? For the first time, a class received a completely new specialization during an ongoing expansion of World of Warcraft. The Evoker was equipped with the Augmentation
specialization, which focuses on enhancing the damage, performance, and endurance of teammates.
However, the unique new playstyle caused an uproar in the community after the release of the Augmentation
specialization. Since the Augmentation
-Evoker itself deals little damage but enhances teammates through buffs, it appeared in the DPS meter as if it contributed very little. As a result, Evokers were kicked from groups.
Through a clever tactic, the damage of an Unholy Death Knight in a raid was increased to an impressive 13 million DPS, as it was buffed by 22 Augmentation
-Evokers. This led to the boss melting in just a few seconds and significantly disrupted the balance of the MMORPG.
In Mythic+ dungeons, a powerful combination of an Augmentation Evoker, a Shadow Priest, and a Fire Mage quickly established itself – known in the community as the God Composition
.
What exactly does Blizzard say? Game director Ion Hazzikostas explained that the intention behind the strength of the new Evoker specialization was to convince players to accept the new specialization. The developers wanted the class to be on the strong side.
To that, Ion Hazzikostas says:
One thing we’ve learned when introducing something new, especially a new playstyle – the community is inherently skeptical of things they don’t understand, things they don’t know.[…]
Ion Hazzikostas via PC Gamer
He admits that they made the Evoker too powerful and compared the situation to the overhaul of the Discipline Priest in the past.
Concerning this, he writes:
Do you remember when we revamped the Discipline Priests so they could deal damage? They were getting thrown out of dungeon groups left and right. Why is this healer doing DPS all the time? Where are the healers?
Ion Hazzikostas via PC Gamer
The strategy involved introducing the class strongly
and then toning it down a bit.
Obviously not as strong as we came out with. I think there is still a lot to do
. – (Ion Hazzikostas via PC Gamer)
Hazzikostas also said that there are currently no immediate plans for another support class
. In the future, there is a possibility that multiple classes will be playable for Dracthyr, although they are currently only available as Evokers.
He said that the Dracthyr are intelligent and adaptable beings that would eventually be able to learn to wield a sword or dagger over time.
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