DEVASTATION EVOKER ADVANCED TIPS

DEEP BREATH TIPS

In this section of the course, we're going to be going through your core abilities in depth, allowing you to use each one to their full potential without any confusion.

The first ability we're going to cover is Deep Breath, which comes in at a one-minute cooldown, which is then reduced through our Wing Leader Hero talent. Deep Breath is probably the most versatile ability in our tool belt, as it can be used for increasing damage, applying crowd control, and even to make us live longer.

So let's find out how to use it. So before we get ahead of ourselves, there are some basic rules to using Deep Breath that you definitely need to know.

First off, you're going to want to be canceling our Deep Breath as soon as we've achieved our objective of stunning the target by pressing it again to land. There's nothing worse than flying too far away, as you're just going to get yourself in a poor position and end up too far from your team.

Second of all, you want to be fairly close to your target. It's much easier to run away from you if you're trying to fly in from the other side of the map.

And lastly, it's also... pretty dang important to know that Deep Breath resets hover, so you should always use a hover before using Deep Breath, as otherwise, you're just straight up wasting mobility.

So with the basics out of the way, let's see how we can actually use Deep Breath efficiently, starting with increasing our damage. On the surface, Deep Breath is pretty straightforward once you know how it works, as you simply press it, steer it into as many targets as possible, cancel it, and then burst.

You can also use it to buff your empowered spells, applied bombardments, and that volcanic dot to the target thanks to our hero tree of Scale Commander.

The damage we gain from using it in this way is so powerful, in fact, that many high-rated evokers simply send Deep Breath even if the stun is diminishing return, as the damage you gain is just that high.

Damage isn't the only thing we can use Deep Breath for, though, as we can also use it to land crowd control, as even though it applies a damage over time effect, it doesn't do enough damage to break the game. It's a great way to break Sleepwalk.

Doing this enables Smite to win the round, as the enemy Monk was unable to escape the chain. We can even take this a step further by extending it with our Oppressing Roar, like JD does here, transforming our short stun into something similar to a Rogue's length.

We can also use it for survivability, as Smite does here, utilizing his Deep Breath and Hover Reset to expertly kite the Rogue around the map until his healer is able to save him.

And finally, though you will need some very good awareness and even better timing, you can use it to immune crowd controls, as you can't be CC'd while mid-fly.

DRAGONRAGE TIPS

Welcome back! In this short, we're going to be covering our biggest burst cooldown, Dragon Rage, which enables us to do some of the highest damage in the entire game.

Coming in with its 2-minute cooldown, Dragon Rage is probably one of the scariest burst abilities of any ranged class, rivaling even Boomkin's Incarnation.

This is because it's going to make our giant killer mastery apply to all targets at any health, which increases our damage drastically in its own right, as well as allowing us to constantly generate extra Essence Burst, meaning our Disintegrates will all hit very hard due to the Titanic Wrath talent.

Now, because Dragon Rage is a 2-minute cooldown, and since shuffle rounds are usually around the 3-4 minute mark per round, we're going to want to use Dragon Rage as soon as possible each game, as it's going to allow us to get two uses out of it per match.

And as you see here, it's also a very good idea to pair it with a Hover and Obsidian Scales to make sure that you take as little damage as possible. and can't be kicked on your Disintegrates.

Remember, the other team are probably going to be popping their cooldowns off the bat too, so using Wall is both offensive and defensive.

In the same line of thinking here too, it can also be a good idea to pre-cover yourself with your Nullifying Shroud on Dragon Rage as well, if you're facing a composition with multiple instant crowd controls, but do take note that this isn't great into Rogues, as they can just sap it off if you're out of combat in the opener.

Other than these two factors, it's also integral that when we pop Dragon Rage, we always make sure we have tipped the scales, as we'll be using this in combination with Fire Breath to make it instant and hit for its max rank, enabling it to deal a ton of pressure.

But as you can see in this clip here, this doesn't mean you need to tip the scales instantly to get value, just make sure you're doing it in the Dragon Rage window at some point.

Now as for the actual Dragon Rage rotation itself, which you should know by now from our first rotation videos, we're going to be using both our Empower Abilities as frequently as possible, not just with tipped.

This is because each Empower Ability used actually extends our Dragon Rage's duration, allowing us to make it significantly longer than if we were to just spam out Disintegrates.

Doing this also just flat out increases our damage too, as Eternity Surge buffs our Disintegrates damage through the Iridescence talent, making them hit far harder.

Because of all of these factors, you should be making sure you're able to tip the scales, you have both your empower spells before entering dragon range life definitely isn't perfect though and sometimes you just have to pop dragon rage without having everything in your kit at your disposal now because of this you're going to often run out of disintegrates to press due to you either being essence starved or not having any essence burst procs to consume in these cases the best thing to do is to either use your burnout procs or azure strikes to fish for essence burst in no circumstances do we want a hard cast living flame though as it's a massive damage loss now while we're on the subject of crowd control it's not always necessary to set up your dragon rage with cc on the healer as the damage alone is pretty overwhelming regardless however as we've learned from our previous video deep breath can be a great tool for getting into dragon rage as it's going to increase our damage and lock the target down meaning they can't react although if you can get distance and just free cast a lot of damage you can still get a lot of damage but if you're cast away like smite does here it's not always necessary to deep breath especially if you have a rogue stunning for you anyway and you don't want to ruin the diminishing return

TIME STOP TIPS

Welcome back! In this video we're going to be going over the honor talent, Time Stop, which in the right hands can be the most powerful button in the entire game.

Time Stop does exactly what it says on the tin, freezing time around a friendly player for 4 seconds or until it's cancelled, by putting them in an effect very similar to Cyclone, where you can't be affected by any ability, be it friendly or unfriendly.

While also making all buffs and debuffs not lose any duration, it really is a Time Stop. While this may sound obscure at first glance, most high rated devastation evokers actually pick this a ton as it can save your life every 45 seconds.

Most situations where you'll use Time Stop look like this one here, where your healer gets put into crowd control, so you Time Stop yourself so that you don't take any damage on the go, completely shutting down the team.

You can even finesse rogues with it like Smite does here, Time Stopping when his healer gets sapped to bait the rogue to open on him and destroy the enemy team's initial go. Time Stop isn't just great for yourself either though, as you can also use it on your teammates to immune crowd control or outlast enemy cooldowns.

Here you can see Gelu do just that as he shuts down the Frost Death Knight's setup by using Time Stop on his Priest, making the Death Knight lose a ton of uptime on his Pillar of Frost. If Gelu didn't use Time Stop here, his Priest would have had to use their Trinket to survive.

Now as a final note on Time Stop though, do be aware that it's not without its drawbacks, as it is going to immune friendly spells too, so when there's a lack of communication like in Shuffle per se, you can end up wasting huge defensives from your team by immuning things like your teammates Void Shift.

So make sure you're not using it too late, or you may risk immuning vital defensives.

DEVASATATION RESOURCES

In this video, we're going to be covering resource management as an evoker, allowing you to deal maximum damage at all times.

Now, outside of mana, which, let's be honest, hasn't really had an impact on any caster in the past 10 years, the main resource of evokers is essence, which we're going to be using on disintegrates for massive damage.

When starting a game, we'll always begin with six full essence, making it a high priority to use disintegrate early on so we can make it begin recharging as soon as possible. Each disintegrate costs three essence, so making sure we have essence recharging fast will enable us to do more damage in the long run.

It's also worth knowing that essence recharges at a rate of around one every five seconds, which, to be honest, is a pretty long time.

However, by following our sustained priority guide and using our empowered spells on cooldown, we can buff this rate by 100% thanks to the power swell talent, so make sure you're keeping up with your game.

Now, other than essence, we also have essence burst, which, while not necessarily a resource, will make our disintegrate free of charge. Needless to say, using these procs is vital to our overall damage.

We'll also want to be using them as soon as possible as they only stack two times. To get essence burst, we're going to be gaining them through the ruby essence burst and azure essence burst talents, making our living flames and azure strikes have a chance to give us a lot of damage.

Now, we're going to be using them as soon as possible, as they only stack two times. To get essence burst, we're going to be gaining them through the ruby essence burst and azure essence burst talents, making our living flames and azure strikes have a chance to give us these procs.

However, as noted earlier in the course, you should always prioritize azure strike over hard casting living flame, as it's simply more damage due to its instant cast.

Although, this definitely does change when you get a burnout proc living flame, as these will then take priority as it's going to hit harder than an azure strike while also having 5% more chance of generating a proc.

Similarly, if we're in dragon rage, both living flame and azure strike will have a 100% chance of generating a proc. So, if we're in dragon rage, we're going to have to use these procs.

However, as noted earlier in the course, you should always prioritize azure strike over hard gathering and azure strike while also having 5% chance of generating an essence burst. So, these if you run out of essence by using an azure strike.

Living flame and azure strike aren't the only way we can gain essence burst though, as we can also generate it through shattering star if respect into arcane vigor and bombardments from our deep breath if respect into diverted power, which random chance doubles down our point earlier of always using essence burst before you reach 2 stacks, as otherwise you're going to end up winning.

So, make sure you're generating these procs. over capping by accident. So in our next video, we're going to be covering how to manage your mobility.

We'll see you there.

DEVASTATION MOBILITY TIPS

Now it's time to cover Devastation's mobility, as without proper usage you're going to find yourself not only dying, but also dealing far less damage than you should.

Our first and most important mobility spell is, of course, Hover, which allows us to launch in any direction every 35 seconds and remove our snares, while also giving us a sprint and the ability to move while channeling our non-empower abilities.

Hover usage makes or breaks Evoker, as due to our Disintegrate being such short range, if we don't hover after our target when channeling, it can often snap, causing the spell to end early as our enemy get too much distance.

Now because of this, we're going to want to generally be hovering every time we want to cast Disintegrate on a non-stationary target, allowing us to chase them down if they try to escape.

It's also awesome when we're looking for slingshot-type targets, as they can be used to kill enemies, or even kill enemies with a slingshot-type weapon.

We're also going to want to use our Disintegrate to get a good amount of sleepwalks, as we can follow healers wherever they go, making sure they can't get out of line of sight.

But as we mentioned earlier, if you're going to be casting your empowered spells or your utility, it's worth holding onto Hover till after you complete them, as otherwise you're going to be wasting a lot of mobility.

Now, other than chasing our targets with Hover, we can also use it to take less damage from melees while keeping up our pressure.

You can see Smite do this here, as he maintains Disintegrate on the warrior, which applies his snare, while also being unslowable himself, meaning the warrior can't get a crumb of uptime despite using all of their mobility.

And with a similar mindset, we can also use it to take less damage from casters, by ducking in and out of the pillar, as the Disintegrate will continue to channel through, allowing us to still deal damage while reducing the amount we take.

Now, if you're wondering when to use your first Hover in a game to get the ball rolling, it's actually very good to use it as one of your first Globals, as we can reset it with Deep Breath, which we'll also be using very early on.

So moving on, the next ability we're going to be covering is Verdant Embrace, which honestly, most of the time we're going to use as a quick heal to enable us to get Ancient Teachings up for a faster Living Flame. However, if we're really in a pinch, we can also use it to jump to our teammates and get out of harm's way.

You can see Smite do this here to kite the Rogue, as he chains his Rescue into his Verdant Embrace, making him very difficult to pin down. And while we're on the topic of Rescue, let's cover that a little as well to avoid any confusion, as it's one of our strongest defensives.

Now, Rescue, much like Verdant Embrace, will move your character to your partner. However, unlike Verdant, you'll then both move to a new location of your choice, while also giving you and your partner a massive absorb with the Twin Guardian talent.

This ability is, quite frankly, insane, as you can't just move targets on the X-axis, but also move them up the Y-axis, allowing you to put yourself and your teammate on bridges and ledges, making enemies have to commit more mobility to reconnect.

Now, as for when you should use Rescue, since it's such a long cooldown, you can kinda just use it early on in a match for extra healing, but more often than not, you should try and do it when your healer is Crowd Control, so you at least have some healing on the enemy's go.

But do be aware that you're not pulling your healer into a precarious position by doing that, doing so or you may end up doing more harm than good, so it's probably better off dragging them away from the enemy team.

Finally, let's cover Time Spiral, as with its 2 minute long cooldown, you may feel a little overwhelmed using it, when honestly, it couldn't be simpler.

Basically you're just going to be using Time Spiral early on in the game after you've committed your hovers to get another one free of charge, making us very slippery at the start of the game.

But if we happen to not be the target of choice, we can even use it to give our partner their mobility spell too, which is often great if we're not the target. But the majority of the time, just use it for yourself, as you're going to end up doing far more damage as a result.

SURVIVING AS A DEVASTATION EVOKER

Alright, now that we've covered the mobility tools for Devastation, let's dive straight into our defensives that's going to help you stay alive much longer in your games.

Now, this video is going to mainly focus on our two key defensives of Obsidian Scales and Renewing Blaze, but we're also going to briefly touch on some of our other heals later. So, let's get into it.

Alright, let's start with Obsidian Scales, one of your core defensive tools as a Devastation Evoker. Knowing how and when to use this is really often going to make the difference between surviving a big go or just getting absolutely deleted.

So, what in the heck is Obsidian Scales? Well, it's our 30% wall which gets bumped up to 40% due to our hero tree of Scale Commander, and thanks to the Obsidian Metal PvP talent, it also gives us Aura Mastery, making it even stronger.

Now, because of this, it's especially powerful when paired with Dragon Rage, letting you reduce incoming damage during your first window and avoid invading the game. So, let's get into it.

This fact doubles down in the opener as this is when the enemy team are also going to be spamming out their offensive cooldowns. So, by using Obsidian Scales early, we can protect ourselves while also dealing pressure.

And that leads into the golden rule of using this cooldown, using it at high HP. Don't wait until you're already low.

Since it's a damage reduction, it mitigates more total damage the earlier it's used, giving your healer breathing room, and really preventing unnecessary cooldown trades. And don't worry about getting interrupted.

Obsidian Scales is on the Black Spell School, which only shares a school with Deep Breath. So, unless you're planning on discovering a new dragon ability to cast, you can never get locked out before needing this spell.

And as a final note on Obsidian Scales here, if you really want to get the most out of it, start tracking your stun diminishing returns. This is especially valuable against rogues or ferals who really rely heavily on clean stun setups.

So, you can do this by activating Obsidian Scales just as you're coming off stun DR, as this can delay their go, as they're going to wait for your cooldown to fall, or even better, you can bait them to set up into your massive damage reduction.

So, moving on to our next defensive cooldown, we have Renewing Blaze, which heals us for all damage we take while the effect lasts. If you know anything about Mage's Temporal Shield in the past, this is basically just a copy-paste.

Just keep in mind, though, Renewing Blaze is on the red school, so you won't be able to cast it if you've been locked out from spells like Fire Breath or Living Flame. Be mindful of this during your burst, especially if the enemy team is trying to shut you down.

Ideally, you want to use Renewing Blaze when Obsidian Scales is on cooldown to get the most value out of both of them. But in some situations, some is the key word here, especially when you're dipping a little bit too low, you're going to need to overlap both defensives just to stay alive.

And that's totally fine, but survival is going to be the priority here. With a one-minute cooldown, Renewing Blaze is great for matching enemy offensive cooldowns.

Much like Obsidian Scales, you're going to want to track your DR and aim to use it before you get stunned since you can't activate it while crowd control. Now, as for heals on Devastation, we're not really going to be using them too often outside of Rescue and Verdant Embrace, as shown in our Mobility video.

However, if we're in a pinch, Living Flame can be a lifesaver if literally everything else is on cooldown. So, if you're on cooldown, just make sure that you've used Verdant Embrace or Emerald Blossom first to benefit from the cast time reduction.

And lastly, we have Cauterizing Flame, a utility heal and dispel that's especially useful against high-pressure dots like Feral Frenzy or Deathmark. You can also use it to cleanse important curse CCs like Hex or preemptively dispel a Destruction Warlock's Havoc before they get a Mortal Coil.

But even if there's nothing game-breaking to dispel, use it often. Passive healing it provides is pretty solid, and in a fast-paced game, every single bit of health really does matter.