Stacking Augmentation Evokers inWorld of Warcraftallowed raiders to breeze through Heroic Aberrus at a fraction of the time, but this short-lived exploit has come to an end, as the developers introduced a hotfix that severely limits the new Support role’s power. ThoughAugmentation Evokers inWorld of Warcrafthave already become an indispensable part of the Mythic Keystone meta, their contribution to raid groups bordered on the absurd. Despite player warnings on the Public Test Realm, Blizzard released the new Evoker specialization without placing a cap on the amount of Evoker buffs a character could benefit from.
The result of this decision caused curious raid leads to stack Augmentation Evokers in their group, and thus allow their buffs to ramp up the damage potential of specs such as Unholy Death Knight to astronomical numbers. Suddenly, characters were doing anywhere from 3.5 million to 11 million DPS, as even the more difficult Aberrus boss fights were getting melted down in less than a minute. ThecurrentWorld of Warcraftraid tierwas completely trivialized, threatening the legitimacy of the upcoming Race for World First.
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Bearing this in mind, the hotfix introduced by Blizzard today came as little surprise, as all Augmentation Evoker buffs now have a hard cap on the amount of stacks a single character may possess. Under the new limitations,World of Warcraftplayers will only be able to benefit from four stacks of Ebon Might, Prescience, or Shifting Sands at a time, thus eliminating the latest exploit while still keeping the Augmentation Evoker valuable.
The new Support role inWorld of Warcraftmay take some getting used to, as players have largely tackled endgame under the traditional trinity of Tank, Healer, and Damage Dealer. For some in the community, especially those who play non-meta specs, Augmentation Evokers almost feel like an existential threat, as high level Keystonedungeons inWorld of Warcrafthave shown to be much smoother with a Support role in the group.
Ultimately, with Blizzard being open tointroducing more Support classes toWorld of Warcraftin the future, the concept is certainly here to stay. Though the debut was a bit rough, the Augmentation Evoker has already transformedWorld of Warcraft’s endgame, and fans are very excited about where the developers will take the concept next. Demon Hunters still lack a third specialization, and concepts for a Support version of Mages and Monks have already been circulating in the community. Though stacking twenty-two Evokers in a group may be a thing of the past, it remains to be seen how raid compositions will stabilize in the coming weeks.
World of Warcraftis available now for PC.
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