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(Updated Nov 19) Augmentation Evoker in Midnight

(Updated Nov 19) Augmentation Evoker in Midnight

We've now had a couple days to have a first look at the Midnight Alpha and I want to summarize a couple of my thoughts, but also document an initial impression as well as issues and possible solutions.

I will also be updating this post throughout Alpha and Beta cycles, but to give myself the change to test changes and gather a deeper impression, it'll always be delayed a bit, just like this one.

Table of Contents

Rolling Feedback

Problems

Some old, some new.

Ebon Might now splits its effect when applies to more than 2 other allies (...)

We're almost there. This needs the following tweaks:

  • (again, currently not re-tested) the extension range on Live is only 45 yards - please raise this to 100 yards. Why is it even ~45 to begin with?
  • make it increase its value if less than 2 targets are affected
  • make it re-evaluate its state once a buffed player dies or the aura expires on them due to outranging, e.g. on Fractillus you can currently be buffing players that spread to the far side, losing extensions

This is a major pain point for Aug in keys in particular since 11.2 now since you only buff the other two DPS: the moment a buffed dps dies, you lose a considerable amount of both of your buff and personal damage:

  • if a combat resurrection is available, you situationally want to avoid casting any extender now in anticipation of the resurrection, which leads to you losing Ebon Might early
    • you're thus forced to spam Living Flame , but now that you don't even have the +20% self-buff from Ebon Might anymore
  • if no combat resurrection is available, well, unluck I guess. You're locked out of most of your damage buff now because.

No spec gets punished for another party member dying. Why does Aug get punished twice?

more personal damage through the introduction of Duplicate

More and more personal damage means less and less reason to buff others. More buff damage offsets this and that has already happened here.

However, Prescience and Shifting Sands will still be significantly more impactful on the Aug player themselves over the tank or healer. It's time to update the smart-targeting logic.

Duplicate pet targeting

Initial testing suggests it's already behaving like that but time will tell whether that reliably checks out - but please, make it target our current target.

Dead Talents

Weird Talent Pathing

Neither Stretch Time nor Timelessness have any logical connection to Prescience . Neither are attractive for raid or the far majority of dungeon content.

Suggestions

Phase 4

  • prevent cancelaura'ing Ebon Might (and honestly, any Aug buff)
  • please, finally fix the essences. we're plagued with this for ages now

Phase 2

  • swap Arcane Reach with Bestow Weyrnstone
  • provide an alternative display for Essences
    • frankly, the default display for this is bad
    • bars would be perfect - there's a reason why every WeakAura pack went with a bar display

Phase 1

  • consider making Prescience the targeting driver for Shifting Sands
  • increase extension range of Ebon Might to 100 yards too
  • Ebon Might already updates its value once per second/on extensions. go further:
    • re-evaluate how many targets are currently buffed so deaths/outranging gets accounted for
      • as example, given 14 DPS in a raid that you buff and one dies, the value of Ebon Might should increase for the remaining 13
    • similarily, increase the effect of Ebon Might in dungeons if less than 2 targets are affected to avoid punishing the surviving dps
  • make it re-evaluate its splitting state once a buffed player dies or the aura expires on them due to outranging
  • move the +20% self-buff from Ebon Might to the general spec aura
    • this doesn't suddenly enable casting extenders outside of Ebon Might , but at least active dots and Living Flame won't be wet noodles
  • update Prescience /Shifting Sands smart-targeting logic to the following:
    • other DPS by proximity unless already buffed
    • self unless buffed
    • tank/heal by proximity
  • swap Arcane Reach with Stretch Time
  • make Aspect's Favor a one-pointer
    • it'll find a niche by that, but due to its problematic past, imo just replace it
  • make Symbiotic Bloom and Source of Magic reattribute in logs at least
  • remove Prolong Life / Dream of Spring or at a minimum, change them to something interesting

Bugs

A checked checkbox indicates this has been fixed since discovery.

General

Cooldown Manager

Nameplates

Phase 4

October 22, 2025, Source

Changes

Thoughts

  • the removal of Threads of Fate doesn't come as a surprise after the introduction of Chronoboon
  • Quell (and related talents) getting moved around doesn't affect Aug in particular but is part of a design shift re interrupts for healers which I'm just surfacing here in case you've missed it
  • the Imminent Destruction redesign I'm cautiously positive about:
    • notably, the buff for it is now 30 seconds long, not 15 as before
    • logs suggest I'm currently casting an average of 9 Eruption s per Imminent Destruction
      • some of that is during lust
      • some of that is because of season 3 stat budgets - with less Haste I wouldn't be able to cast as many
    • thus going from a theoretical upper limit of 8 in 12.0 assuming the current implementation over 15s, to 6 in 30s that are still cost-reduced isn't a huge deal
    • however, the now-absent accompanying damage reduction on Eruption may just not make the talent worth anymore
  • Molten Embers in its initial form was already a buff to Black spells during Fire Breath and now we're back to that, except its 25% instead of 20%

Phase 3

October 15th 2025, Source

Changes

No tuning/talent changes for Evoker in this phase, however:

  • talent changes from the previous week are now actually in and testable
  • we're getting an early look at the next tier sets for Augmentation Evoker

Thoughts

Tier Set

These are again designed with the intent of being not overly complex due to the loads of changes happening with the 12.0 patch, something to keep in mind.

Evoker Augmentation 12.0 Class Set 2pc: Eruption damage increased by 15% and it extends Ebon Might by an additional 0.5 sec.

Yet another Eruption modifier which I don't mind. Extending Ebon Might longer is certainly interesting.

Evoker Augmentation 12.0 Class Set 4pc: While Ebon Might is active, empower spells deal 20% more damage and cool down 20% faster.

Since you should only use empower spells during Ebon Might , this is putting more emphasis on good play. Making them more available during Ebon Might also leads to more Ebon Might uptime itself in addition to Shifting Sands .

Neither bonuses something you actively have to think about at all but honestly, pretty decent in general design wise.

Talent Positioning

Phase 2

Oct 10th 2025, Source

  • Developers' notes: We were unhappy with Rescue being occasionally used solely for its absorb effect, so we're redesigning Twin Guardian . The new talent focuses on its value as a way to save yourself or allies who are out of position. Renewing Blaze was an extra defensive keybind that we felt could be better served as an improvement to Obsidian Scales . Finally, we're adding some new talent options to increase player choice as they level up and gain new talent points.
  • New Talent: Stretch Time - While flying during Breath of Eons or Deep Breath , 100% of damage you would take is instead dealt over 10 seconds.
  • New Talent: Strike from Above - Glide speed and height increased by 20%.
  • Twin Guardian has been redesigned - Rescue increases movement speed by 100% and allows spells to be cast while moving for 3 seconds.
  • Renewing Blaze has been redesigned - Now upgrades Obsidian Scales , causing it to heal you over 8 seconds equal to the amount of damage it reduced.
  • Several talents have changed position in the final section of the class talent tree.
  • Fire Within has been removed.
  • New Talent: Improved Defy Fate - Defy Fate healing increased by 100% and its cooldown is reduced by 1 minute.
  • Bestow Weyrnstone has swapped places with Stretch Time .
  • Stretch Time has been removed.

Thoughts

While Aug / Evoker in general was spared from last weeks ability pruning, this week we lose 1.5 defensives, but also kind of gained another more reliably: Stretch Time in the class tree.

Loss of Renewing Blaze

This one is going to hurt. Renewing Blaze was a stupidly strong button situationally, so I'm happy we keep it in a way, but pairing it with Obsidian Scales was already only really useful in very high keys or Mythic raid progress. It's absolutely overkill for anything below.

Then again, there's the raid death statistics and - while Aug and Pres are roughly in the middle of the pack - Devastation Evokers apparently really like dying:

Augmentation Evoker deaths in Manaforge Omega

How a class that has to actively use its mitigation ahead of damage is suddenly expected to live more by removing agency over when to spread out defensives however is something only Blizzard will understand. If a talent like Draconic Instincts was baseline/in the class tree I'd be more inclined to call this a positive change.

It's evident Evoker has very good defensive tooling, but if people don't use it, you can have all the tools in the world. The class needs more inherent tankiness if you want to fix the death statistics problem.

Loss of Twin Guardian

A long overdue change. Rescue in general is not only somehwat unpopular, but also often simply a disruptive experience for all parties involved.

That said, its removal also does away with the sole "oh shit" reactive button to smoothen out unexpected damage, so having no compensation here feels - at this time - problematic.

Bestow Weyrnstone Position Change

Headscratcher, really. As mentioned before, the talent has no niche. Moving it to a more prominent position doesn't fix it. I just hope it's a placeholder for later changes.

Improved Defy Fate

With this change, last week's change makes a bit more sense. It now heals ~66% of your maximum health over its duration. Whether this scales properly we'll have to see. If it does, we'll have to keep an eye for on for how much it heals others, especially in raid.

Generally a positive, the one minute reduced cooldown on Defy Fate itself is not something I'm going to say no to but we're still in that awkward spot where you need to pick one of Bestow Weyrnstone /Timelessness or now Improved Defy Fate to get access to Prescience , so for now, it's locked in, as the alternatives are borderline useless in all scenarios.

Stretch Time to Class Tree

On paper this is great, in practice I can see it being problematic here and there, since - if ever needed - delaying your major cooldown for defensive reasons would be very questionable design. It might just never get to that, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Nameplates

Coming soon, needs retesting first!

Phase 1 - Initial Alpha Launch

Oct 1st 2025, Source

  • Developer's notes: The goal of these changes is to simplify Ebon Might targeting in raid environments. Since it now applies to all members of the raid, there is no need to micromanage who it should go on. There will still be some buff management gameplay with Prescience , which will continue to have a smart-targeting option for those who do not want to swap targets between enemies and allies frequently. Overall this should make raid gameplay much smoother and similar to dungeon gameplay.
  • Apex Talents: Duplicate
  • New Talent: Clairvoyant - Motes of Possibility may now grant Prescience to allies and have a 10% increased chance to activate.
  • Regenerative Chitin has been redesigned - Blistering Scales no longer loses charges and deals 20% more damage.
  • Ebon Might now grants 8% primary stat (was 5%).
  • Ebon Might is now applied to all damage dealing allies within 100 yards.
  • Ebon Might now splits its effect when applied to more than 2 other allies and is no longer is limited to 2 maximum applications.
  • Breath of Eons ' debuff Temporal Wound is now visible to all allies, and indicates how much damage it accumulates on the aura tooltip.
  • Temporal Wound now reduces its effect when Ebon Might is applied to more than 2 allies.
  • Breath of Eons accumulates 15% of damage (was 10%).
  • Defy Fate healing increased by 100%.
  • Molten Blood absorption increased by 30%.
  • Inferno's Blessing now only targets you and 1 nearby ally (was all allies with Ebon Might ). New visual of a flame sprite added to represent the blessing. Damage increased to 350% spell power (was 88% spell power).
  • Ignition Rush has been relocated to Rockfall 's location and now increases the damage of Eruption by 20%.
  • Rockfall has been removed.

Thoughts

Raid Changes

Let's talk about Ebon Might becoming raid-wide first:

Contrary to popular belief, for all of War Within already it wasn't needed to min-max buff targeting to perform well outside of maybe the RWF or a similar world rank. There's still a burden of preparation on the player, needing to know encounter timings and which spec/which player in your raid is the best to buff for the given scenario, but that's trivial, especially for farm. That burden will also continue to exist, as you'll now want to target the best players with Prescience instead. Some encounters like Nexus-King or Dimensius make it also very easy to swap buff targets situationally.

It's worth noting that while 100 yards application range is great and technically unchanged, the current extension range is only ~45 yards and leads to awkwardness in too many scenarios. We still have to re-test whether this also got adjusted.

Previously, Prescience was the targeting mechanism for Ebon Might , which then was the indicator for which players Shifting Sands should go on. Now with Ebon Might on everyone, Shifting Sands would just apply to the closest Ebon Might -buffed player unless targeting gets updated. It's of course a question of whether this is now considered unwanted, but Prescience becoming the driver for Shifting Sands targeting would be a reasonable adjustment.

Apex Talent

Not extremely fond of introducing more pets with possibly wonky targeting or pathing. For context, the current Scalecommander set summons a Dracthyr Commando which will Pyre while flying and then continue to Disintegrate for a bit. Unforunately however, they don't choose your target so they'll happily slap some irrelevant minion next to your own target half of the time.

The non-pet elements are intriguing however:

  • doubling the effects of Ebon Might for a minimum of - currently - 20 seconds sounds very strong for keys in particular as Breath of Eons - again currently - is available for every pull as Scalecommander
  • the extension isn't particularily exciting but just happens naturally anyway so why not

Ultimately not extremely surprising for Blizzard to introduce yet another source of personal damage. First impression is also that it seems to favor Scalecommander rather significantly over Chronowarden for a variety of reasons:

  • Scalecommander simply has more Breath of Eons available, so more Duplicate s
  • Scalecommander is also more likely to play Upheaval -empowering talents to begin with, or at least has been historically
  • the only blatantly obvious synergy with Chronowarden is Double-time getting gigabuffed during Duplicate

Rotational implication is minimal. Before you wanted to Fire Breath ahead of Breath of Eons , now you'll want to do it after, unfortunately counteracting Imminent Destruction .

Also worth noting your Future Self is entirely doing its own thing. It doesn't interact with any of your own talents, its casts don't extend. Full on personal damage bot.

Talent Changes

  • new talent: Clairvoyant
    • more power to Motes of Possibility - I'm ok with that. Currently you have a 33% chance to roll an entirely irrelevant buff - Symbiotic Bloom - that doesn't even reattribute in logs, now it'll be 25%.
  • changed: Regenerative Chitin
    • good quality of life change, paired with an undocumented change to Blistering Scales in general: it now lasts 60 minutes baseline!
    • Blistering Scales damage was painfully low, so 20% more won't fix anything but also certainly doesn't hurt
  • changed: Defy Fate healing
    • irrelevant, doesn't hurt
  • changed: Molten Blood absorb
    • irrelevant, still dead
    • absorbs 2100/54860 when at max health (3.8%)
    • absorbs 5249/54860 when at ~10% health (9.5%)
  • changed: Inferno's Blessing
    • it seems to now do approximately 75% of an Eruption
    • welcome change, as it did terribly low damage before in AoE
    • since it can also be rolled from Motes of Possibility , we'll take those
  • changed: Ignition Rush
    • position change is nice
    • damage increase to Eruption slowly starts to read like some of those Mistweaver Renewing Mists mods (15% here, 20% there, 25% over there) but Eruption is our bread and butter still so I'll take it
  • removed: Rockfall
    • entirely ok with this. annoying RNG talent

New Hero Talents

Scalecommander
  • Command Squadron

    While flying during Breath of Eons you are assisted by a squadron of Dracthyr who assault enemies with Pyre, dealing (365% of Spell Power) Fire damage to nearby enemies up to 8 times.

    • basically half of the 11.2 set with minor QoL improvements:
    • the squad now fires at your target before you hit something with Breath of Eons if you don't hit something with Breath of Eons within the first ~1.5 seconds. If you have none, they'll pick a close by target.
  • Concentrated Power

    Mass Eruption strikes 1 additional target.

  • Refined Essence

    Essence abilities deal 15% additional damage.

    • effectively just another Eruption amp, we stack plenty of those already but its on theme for Scalecommander and continues the trend of increasing personal damage done
Chronowarden
  • Chronoboon

    Tip the Scales ' cooldown is reduced by 30 sec.

    • also basically half of the 11.2 set, except halfed in power
    • confusing, because you'd always want to sync it with Breath of Eons but due to this talent, its now guaranteed to be ready ~15s ahead of each Breath and you end up holding it for Breath anyway
    • so.. what's the point of this talent then?
  • Energy Cycles

    Temporal Burst grants Essence Burst every 6 sec.

    • kind of a throwback to the Evoker Devastation 10.2 Class Set 4pc (do not mention this to Devastation Evokers , that set is not remembered fondly)
    • probably ok for Aug to have just due to how little Essence Burst it can reliably generate
  • Overclock

    Chrono Flames ' maximum damage or healing is increased by 40%, up to [(Spell Power * 3.5) * (1 + Versatility)] Arcane.

Tuning

Ebon Might now grants 8% primary stat (was 5%)

Breath of Eons accumulates 15% of damage (was 10%)

Straight forward W from a current point of view. Sims will tell more once we're there.

Do note that this is paired with an undocumented removal of Close as Clutchmates .

Ebon Might now splits its effect when applies to more than 2 other allies (...)

This is a very welcome change and something I've been advocating for for a while. We'll circle back to that under Problems in just a minute however.

(...) and is no longer is limited to 2 maximum applications.

Time will tell whether this can become problematic.