This section covers each of the core rotational spells and abilities accompanying World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s newest Ranged DPS specialization, the Dracthyr Devastation Evoker. This includes how each ability works, how to use them, and even includes an overview of the new Empower mechanic unique to the Evoker class.
Devastation has nine neatly-categorised core rotational spells, four Red and five Blue, evenly divided between filler spells, Essence spenders, Empower spells, and special cooldown talents.
| Red | Blue | |
| Filler Spell | Living Flame Single Target Cast Time | Azure Strike Cleave Instant Cast |
| Essence Spender | Pyre Cleave Instant Cast | Disintegrate Single Target Channel Cast |
| Empower Spell | Fire Breath Damage Over Time Empower for Burst | Eternity Surge Burst Damage Empower for More Targets |
| Special Cooldown (Talents) | Firestorm Area of Effect Cast Time | Shattering Star Single Target Instant Cast Unravel Highly Situational Single Target Instant Cast |
Filler Spells
Filler spells are generally the lowest priority spells in a rotation, and serve to fill space between more damaging high impact spells and abilities. Devastation Evoker’s two filler spells Living Flame and Azure Strike each cost a small amount of Mana, but can otherwise be cast without restriction, generating valuable Essence Burst procs, and filling downtime in the rotation.
Living Flame
Living Flame is Devastation’s Red filler spell, and is a simple single-target projectile dealing moderate Fire damage with a base 2 second cast time. It can also be cast on allies, doubling as a direct healing spell.
Ruby Essence Burst gives Living Flame a 20% chance per cast to activate Essence Burst. Note that each individual projectile produced from Leaping Flames has an independent 20% chance to activate Essence Burst, meaning that you can proc two stacks of Essence Burst from a single cast of Living Flame. Leaping Flames interactions are covered in more detail later on.
How does it work?
Living Flame has a variety of interesting interactions and synergies within the Devastation kit which together elevate it above “basic filler” territory:
- Leaping Flames causes Living Flame to cleave onto additional targets after casting Fire Breath based on its Empower level, damaging additional enemies or healing allies. This interaction is covered in more detail later on.
- Burnout enables satisfying instant cast procs of Living Flame.
- Ancient Flame reduces the cast time of Living Flame, which coupled with Scarlet Adaptation encourages the use of Emerald Blossom and Verdant Embrace as filler globals, without seeing a loss in damage output.
- Snapfire causes Living Flame to enable instant cast Firestorm procs.
- The choice node between Engulfing Blaze and Ruby Embers offers a unique choice changing how Living Flame is used in rotation.
- Engulfing Blaze increases the damage and cast time of Living Flame, encouraging strong synergy with Burnout and Leaping Flames, but makes hard-casting Living Flame less attractive, especially in Dragonrage.
- Ruby Embers is by comparison a straightforward buff to Living Flame throughput in the form of an additional damage- or healing-over-time effect.
When do I cast it?
With current tuning, Engulfing Blaze is the preferred talent choice modifying Living Flame, and this has some consequences with respect to using Living Flame as filler:
Generally speaking, whenever Living Flame is available as an instant cast from Burnout, it should be considered your highest priority filler spell, both inside and out of Dragonrage.
When Burnout stacks are not available, Living Flame can still be hard-cast inside Dragonrage, as long as Iridescence is talented and active or Scarlet Adaptation damage is available. When no such conditions are met, then Azure Strike can be used inside Dragonrage in order to most efficiently proc Essence Burst.
Outside of Dragonrage, on single target it is still generally preferred to hard-cast Living Flame, even with the increased cast time. On two or more targets, fill with Azure Strike.
When playing Ruby Embers, this is generally simplified such that Living Flame is always used as filler on single target, while Azure Strike becomes preferable on 2 or more targets, unless playing around mechanics such as Leaping Flames, Iridescence, and Scarlet Adaptation.
Azure Strike
Azure Strike is Devastation’s Blue filler spell, and is an instant cast spell dealing low Spellfrost damage to two targets within range.
Azure Essence Burst gives Azure Strike a 15% chance per cast to activate Essence Burst. This is a flat chance per cast, and does not scale with targets hit.
How does it work?
Azure Strike is ultimately a fairly straightforward spell. Protracted Talons is the class talent taken in most builds which causes Azure Strike to hit an additional target, up to three when talented.
The other major interaction for Azure Strike is that each hit adds one stack of Charged Blast, which provides some synergy in AoE-oriented builds with Pyre.
When do I cast it?
Mostly covered above, as Azure Strike competes with Living Flame for your filler casts.
In the live game, Azure Strike is used as a secondary filler spell in Dragonrage after Burnout procs have been used, and no other relevant buffs are present. Outside of Dragonrage this spell is ignored in single target, but can be used on two or more targets after Burnout procs have been spent, particularly to help build stacks of Charged Blast in AoE when talented. As an instant cast ability with no cooldown, Azure Strike can of course be used as a last resort during unplanned movement.
Essence Spenders
Devastation’s Essence spenders Pyre and Disintegrate can be cast without cooldown, but consume Essence as a resource in order to deal damage.
Essence is displayed under your character portrait as five small globes which automatically refill over time, at a rate of one every five seconds, scaling with Haste. There exist a number of interactions between the Class and Devastation talent trees to increase the rate of Essence regeneration, increase maximum Essence, and even allow you to cast Essence spenders for free with Essence Burst.
Pyre
Pyre is Devastation’s Red Essence spender, which fires a projectile dealing modest Fire damage to a target and all nearby enemies (within 8 yards of the primary target). It is the first of Devastation’s two spender spells that can be cast for free with Essence Burst.
How does it work?
Pyre is a typical instant cast projectile-based resource spender, detonating to deal damage to all targets in range of the primary target. The spell interacts with talents referencing Red spells, as well as those referencing Essence Burst and Essence Spenders, but there are two key talents that most directly affect Pyre‘s throughput potential: Charged Blast, and Volatility.
Charged Blast causes each individual instance of Blue spell damage to add one stack, up to a maximum of 20 stacks, which are consumed upon your next Pyre cast to increase its damage by 5% per stack (up to 100% increased damage at 20 stacks). This effect is particularly potent when combined with Dragonrage, as all three Pyre projectiles receive this effect.
Volatility gives each cast of Pyre a chance to cast again, chaining onto a nearby target. This effect seems to be able to chain indefinitely without limit, as permitted by basic probability. The rough expected value of this effect is 17.6% of the damage of unbuffed Pyre with 1 talent point, and 42.9% of unbuffed Pyre with 2 talent points invested. An important point to note is that these chained casts of Pyre from Volatility never benefit from or consume stacks of Charged Blast, and always act as unique, unbuffed casts of Pyre.
When do I cast it?
Pyre’s main strength comes from the fact that it deals uncapped AoE damage to stacked targets, and is cast generally cast at higher target counts. It can deal up to twice as much damage per cast when paired with stacks of Charged Blast, but strictly speaking Pyre should still be avoided in single-target.
In Patch 10.1, Volatility should always be talented when regularly encountering 3 or more enemies. With Volatility talented, Pyre should generally be cast with 2 or more targets with full stacks of Charged Blast, and 3 or more targets otherwise.
Disintegrate
Disintegrate is Devastation’s Blue Essence spender, dealing considerable Spellfrost damage to a single target over a 3-second channel, scaling with Haste. It also applies a baseline 30% slow that can be upgraded to 50% with the class talent Permeating Chill. Disintegrate is the second of Devastation’s two spender spells that can be cast for free with Essence Burst.
How does it work?
Disintegrate acts as a typical channelled damaging spell, and shares many expected interactions with other channel and damage-over-time spells in World of Warcraft, such as the Pandemic mechanic, as explained in a later section.
Disintegrate ticks 4 times over 3 seconds (2 global cooldowns) and scales with Haste, reducing the total channel time accordingly. The spell’s ticks occur at 0 sec, 1 sec, 2 sec, and 3 sec, or in other words, evenly distributed across the total channel with one tick at the very beginning of the channel and one tick at the very end.
Disintegrate is also at the core of some potent talent interactions that make up the centrepiece of Devastation Evoker’s gameplay at low target counts. Scintillation causes Disintegrate to trigger reduced-power Rank 1 Eternity Surge casts, and for one additional talent point, Eternity’s Span allows the Eternity Surge cast from Scintillation to cleave onto a second target, doubling its effectiveness.
This combination essentially defines the Devastation Evoker priority-target playstyle, and solidifies Disintegrate as the cornerstone and signature ability of the spec.
When do I cast it?
Because of its strong single-target damage, and support from key talent interactions including the ability to cleave, Disintegrate should be cast as your go-to Essence and Essence Burst spender in lower target counts and priority-target situations.
At 2 or more targets you may weave in a fully-buffed Charged Blast Pyre, and replace Disintegrate altogether only after 3 or more targets are in play. Even then, Disintegrate is much more capable at dealing damage to a single priority target, and also allows you to capitalise on Devastation Evoker’s Mastery: Giantkiller by selecting the highest health targets in a pack.
Empower Spells
Empower spells are a new feature in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, and are currently exclusive to Evokers. These spells have a variable cast time, so to speak, and have an increased effect when held for a longer period of time. Additionally, Empower spells each incur a short 0.5 sec global cooldown upon completing the spell cast.
All current Empower spells can be cast from Rank 1 to Rank 3 baseline, and can be cast up to Rank 4 with the talent Font of Magic.
How does the Empower mechanic work?
Empower spells will be cast at the rank indicated by where the needle points in the Empower Bar. Once the needle reaches the end of the cast bar, the empower spell will automatically be cast without any additional input.
You can release the button at any time during the final section to cast a maximum rank Empower spell.
The game currently offers two input options for casting your Empower spells.
Option 1: Hold and Release (Default)
Hold and Release is currently the default option, requiring you to press and hold the Empower spell keybind until you are ready to cast, which you do by releasing the key.
With this option selected, simply tapping the key without holding it down will automatically cast the spell at Rank 1 as soon as the needle reaches the Rank 1 threshold.
Option 2: Press and Tap
Press and Tap (my current preference) requires one key press to begin casting the Empower spell, and a separate second key press to release the Empower spell.
With this option selected, tapping the key a second time any time before reaching the Rank 1 threshold will automatically cast the spell at Rank 1 once the needle reaches the Rank 1 threshold.
I would encourage you to try both options before deciding which one you prefer. The option to change between these two input styles is in the Options Menu under Gameplay and Controls, as in the image below.
Devastation Evoker has access to two Empower spells, Fire Breath, and Eternity Surge.
Fire Breath
Fire Breath is Devastation’s Red Empower spell, which deals immediate Fire damage to all enemies in a narrow frontal cone, and leaves a harmful damage-over-time effect on the affected targets. Damage is reduced beyond five targets.
How does it work?
Fire Breath deals the same total damage per spell cast at all Empower ranks before considering additional talent interactions. Empowering Fire Breath increases the initial damage and decreases the duration of the damage-over time effect to a minimum of 2 seconds (6 seconds with Blast Furnace), in a manner as follows:
Rank 1: Deals low damage immediately, and the remaining damage over 20 (24) seconds.
Rank 2: Deals medium damage immediately, and the remaining damage over 14 (18) seconds.
Rank 3: Deals high damage immediately, and the remaining damage over 8 (12) seconds.
Rank 4: Deals highest damage immediately, and the remaining damage over 2 (6) seconds. (With Font of Magic)
What about Pandemic?
Note that Fire Breath, like most damage-over-time spells, benefits from the pandemic effect, and can be refreshed early without penalty or loss of remaining duration. The maximum duration that can be carried forward is 30% of the duration of the new Fire Breath cast (from 7.2 sec at Rank 1, to 1.8 sec at Rank 4).
What Empower rank do I use?
In longer, sustained single target and multi-target engagements, Fire Breath will generally be cast at low ranks, to ensure maximum uptime of the potent damage-over-time effect, along with key synergies in Burnout and Catalyze.
However, when cast at high ranks, Fire Breath is a particularly potent burst damaging spell, and can be used to great effect when burst damage is needed, in short add engagements, and can potentially be paired with Tip the Scales and Shattering Star to great effect.
Eternity Surge
Eternity Surge is Devastation’s Blue Empower spell, and simply deals high direct Spellfrost damage to enemies within 12 yards of the primary target.
How does it work?
Empowering Eternity Surge increases the number of targets hit up to a maximum of 4 targets, in a manner as follows:
Rank 1: Damages up to 1 enemy.
Rank 2: Damages up to 2 enemies.
Rank 3: Damages up to 3 enemies.
Rank 4: Damages up to 4 enemies. (With Font of Magic)
Additionally, with the talent Eternity’s Span selected, Eternity Surge will hit twice as many targets:
Rank 1: Damages up to 2 enemies.
Rank 2: Damages up to 4 enemies.
Rank 3: Damages up to 6 enemies.
Rank 4: Damages up to 8 enemies. (With Font of Magic)
What Empower rank do I use?
In a pure single target scenario, Eternity Surge is always cast at Rank 1, as additional ranks do not confer any additional benefit. With additional targets, simply adjust the rank based on the number of targets to hit as many targets as possible.
Eternity Surge is generally not paired with Tip the Scales in low target counts, but this combination can be used situationally to instantly deal substantial burst damage to multiple targets, and is occasionally used inside of Dragonrage to reduce time spent casting and improve chances of extension with Animosity.
Special Cooldowns (Talents)
These spells each require investment in the form of Talent Points in order to be activated, but provide Devastation Evoker with an active, unique twist to the basic spell rotation.
Firestorm
Firestorm is Devastation’s Red special cooldown talent. After a 2 sec cast, it creates an 8-yard radius damaging Area-of-Effect at a targeted position, where it deals moderate Fire damage to all targets in its radius over 12 seconds, and has a 20 sec cooldown.
Snapfire is an accompanying talent to Firestorm, and the two are generally taken together. Snapfire creates a new gameplay interaction where Living Flame has a chance to reset the cooldown of Firestorm, making it deal additional damage, and allowing it to be cast instantly.
How does it work?
Firestorm ticks once every 2 sec over a 12-second duration, with neither quantity scaling with Haste. The spell only benefits from Haste in the form of a reduced initial cast time, and much more subtly, by allowing you to cast Living Flame more frequently, increasing the frequency of Snapfire procs.
In addition to the basic tooltip description, the combination of Firestorm plus Snapfire has two major strengths within the Devastation Evoker kit.
- The spell deals respectable uncapped AoE damage to all targets within its radius.
- Each individual hit of Firestorm counts as a Red spell for the purpose of extending Fire Breath through the capstone talent Everburning Flame.
When should I take this talent?
Firestorm generally has not made its way into most current recommended build setups due to its long cast time, strict positional requirements, despite potential synergies afforded through Snapfire, Raging Inferno, and Feed the Flames.
These talents could potentially be played in a sustained stacked-cleave AoE encounter, such as the Primalist Council in the Vault of the Incarnates, where one might forgo investment in talents supporting Disintegrate, however such a fight profile simply does not exist in the current patch.
Shattering Star
Shattering Star is Devastation’s Blue special cooldown talent. It is an instant cast spell that fires a fast-moving projectile dealing moderate Spellfrost damage to a target, and increasing the target’s damage taken by 20% for a base duration of 4 sec upon hitting the target, on a 15 sec cooldown.
Shattering Star is accompanied by a choice talent node with the following two options:
- Focusing Iris increases the duration of the damage taken debuff from 4 to 6 sec.
- Arcane Vigor causes Shattering Star to generate 1 Essence Burst on cast.
Arcane Vigor was changed in Patch 10.1 to cause Shattering Star to generate Essence Burst instead of Essence, which has enabled these two talents to be picked up for all forms of PvE content as both a significant improvement to the rotation, as well as a versatile pick for both single and multi target.
How does it work?
While Shattering Star is a relatively straightforward spell, there are some subtleties to its mechanics and interactions.
Shattering Star benefits from the talent Eternity’s Span, allowing it to cleave onto two targets instead of one, making this a particularly potent spell in two-target cleave.
Because it is a projectile, Shattering Star has travel time, and as a result it is possible to shift the window of increased damage taken by moving closer to or further from the target. Generally speaking, this means that it is usually slightly advantageous to stand at maximum range so as to consume as much of Shattering Star’s global cooldown during projectile travel time as possible.
Here’s an example of being able to fit an additional 2 ticks of Disintegrate inside the 6 sec Shattering Star window by standing at maximum range.
Additionally, many of Devastation Evoker’s projectile spells (such as Eternity Surge and Living Flame) have their damage calculated at the end of their cast, rather than on spell hit. This means that the target must have the Shattering Star debuff on them at the moment the spell is finished casting in order to benefit from the increased damage taken effect.
When should I take this talent?
The obvious answer here is that Shattering Star shines most in single-target and two-target stacked cleave situations and will generally always be taken in these situations.
With the change to Arcane Vigor in Patch 10.1, Shattering Star is generally taken in all PvE builds, including M+ oriented builds. In AoE, Shattering Star is simultaneously used to generate Essence Burst and amplify damage on priority targets.
Unravel
Unravel is a Blue special cooldown talent available to both Devastation and Preservation as part of the Evoker class talent tree. It is a powerful instant cast spell dealing considerable Spellfrost damage to a single target on a 9 sec cooldown, with one caveat: it can only be cast and deal damage to a target if it has an active absorb shield.
How does it work?
Unravel is a pretty straightforward spell, but has relatively narrow use cases in PvE content. The spell can only be cast if the target has an active absorb shield, and will never deal more than the remaining size of the shield in damage. That is to say that the tooltip damage indicates the maximum damage that can be dealt before applying modifying effects.
As a Blue spell, Unravel does interact with related Devastation talent interactions, including generating stacks of Charged Blast on cast, and consuming stacks of Iridescence.
When should I take this talent?
Unravel represents a somewhat unique take on the traditional Purge-style buff-hate spell by encouraging you to bulldoze your way through absorb shields rather than remove or steal them. While not as strong as a removal spell on shields that can be removed, it is the next-best thing, dealing quite substantial damage for an instant cast spell.
Where Unravel shines best is in encounters with bosses and enemies with absorb shield mechanics that cannot otherwise be removed outside of damaging them down quickly. A typical example of this mechanic is the Melidrussa Chillworn encounter (first boss of Ruby Life Pools), where Melidrussa will apply a shield to herself and begin channelling a deadly AoE, which cannot be interrupted until the shield is removed. This type of mechanic, while fairly niche, is what makes Unravel such a strong situational pick for one talent point in the class tree.