Quick Start Guide to Devastation Evoker in Dragonflight 10.0 Pre-Patch

The launch of Dragonflight Pre-Patch Phase 2 is just days away, and the Dracthyr Evoker will finally be playable on Live servers. Having received a number of questions and requests on how to build and play Devastation Evoker at level 60 for the two short weeks of Pre-Patch remaining, I have compiled in this post a Quick Start Guide to Devastation Evoker for Dragonflight Pre-Patch, covering talent builds, secondary stats, legendaries, covenants, and more. Enjoy!

What is Devastation Evoker?

Devastation Evoker is World of Warcraft’s newest ranged DPS specialization coming with the Dragonflight expansion. As members of the new Dracthyr race, these once-proud soldiers of Neltharion wield the powerful magic of the five dragonflights, with Devastation specializing between the focused, overwhelming Spellfrost magic of the Blue dragonflight, and the fast, explosive Fire damage of the Red dragonflight.

At its core, Devastation Evoker features a refreshingly compact offensive toolkit, and presents the player with a simple challenge to be met: as a ranged caster, overcome the 25-yard cast range restriction and maximise uptime of your most damaging spells.

What are the basic spells available to Devastation Evoker?

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

Devastation Evoker’s gameplay loop, in its simplest terms, involves using your Empower Spells (Fire Breath and Eternity Surge) roughly on cooldown, spending Essence (Disintegrate on 1-2 targets, Pyre on 3+), and otherwise casting filler (Living Flame on 1-2 targets, Azure Strike on 3+).

For a more detailed explanation of Devastation’s core spells, including topics such as the new Empower system, and major spell interactions, visit the Core Spells and Abilities section of the full guide.

What talents should I use at level 60?

The following template talent builds offer suggested talent setups for Raid, Mythic+ Dungeons, and Open World gameplay specifically for level 60 characters, and are all missing key talents that would be included in a typical level 70 setup.

I generally encourage everyone to take time during Pre-Patch to experiment with different spells and setups to get a broad feel for the specialization. These builds are specifically provided as a courtesy for those who may feel a bit lost with the new talent system, or who are looking to really maximize their output in pre-patch content.

The Builds

For a better look at how to build Devastation Evoker at level 70 to be ready for the Dragonflight expansion launch, you can find the best up-to-date talent builds including options and variants in the full guide.

What is Devastation Evoker’s general rotation?

I will cover a few of the main rotational ideas in this section, but for the full detailed opener and rotation, be sure to check out my Full Rotation Guide.

Dragonrage (Major Cooldown)

Dragonrage is Devastation’s major two-minute offensive cooldown. While it can be delayed for additional value from Tyranny, you will always cast this with Bloodlust when possible, so expect to open with Dragonrage relatively often.

Cast Empower Spells on Cooldown

Generally speaking, Devastation should aim to use its strong Empower Spells (Fire Breath and Eternity Surge) on cooldown, maximizing the duration of the Fire Breath DoT when possible, especially in single-target, to benefit from powerful synergies like Catalyze. With this in mind, Fire Breath is typically cast at Rank 1, but can be cast at higher ranks for more burst damage, at the expense of higher sustained damage through interactions.

Cast your Empower Spells during Dragonrage whenever possible to benefit from Animosity.

Cast Special Cooldowns on Cooldown

Next in the priority is any Special Cooldown talents, such as Firestorm and Shattering Star. These are also essentially used on cooldown when available to increase your damage. Given the nature of Shattering Star‘s damage amplification window, you may lightly pool Essence or Essence Burst to ensure that you have Essence Spenders available to cast while the debuff is active.

Spend Essence, Cast Filler

Beyond that, simply cast your Essence spenders whenever possible (Disintegrate on 1-2 targets, Pyre on 3+), and otherwise cast your filler spells (Living Flame on 1-2 targets, Azure Strike on 3+ and always during Dragonrage).

Quick Note on Deep Breath

Do note that Deep Breath is not typically a core part of the Single Target rotation, but can be used in place of filler on lower enemy health totals due to Tyranny, or otherwise for repositioning when better options are not available. Deep Breath is generally a strong ability in AoE situations, and can be cast as a high priority spell outside of Dragonrage.

What is the secondary stat priority at level 60?

Mastery > Haste > Critical Strike >> Versatility

Based on some quick Level 60 secondary stat sims, before considering the effects of trinkets, soulbinds, or other external effects, I recommend Mastery, Haste, and Critical Strike in a balanced mix of 4 to 3 to 2. That is to say, if given 1000 secondary stats, at level 60 with the recommended talents, consider allocating roughly 450 to Mastery, 330 to Haste, and 220 to Critical Strike.

You can find additional context and in-depth analysis of Devastation’s Level 70 secondary stat priority in the full guide.

Are there any specific trinkets to look out for?

I haven’t run much in the way of sims on Level 60 trinket selection, but Shadowed Orb of Torment is probably a pretty safe bet, as an on-use Mastery trinket with a 2 min cooldown is essentially ideal for Devastation Evoker. Consider coupling with any strong generic passive caster trinket such as Cabalist’s Hymnal and you should be fine.

Which Shadowlands Legendaries should I craft?

Devastation Evoker is fairly limited in its selection of Shadowlands Legendaries for the Dragonflight Pre-Patch, as you only have access to the pool of generic all-class legendary effects. While there are a few to choose from, here are my suggestions if you want to craft Legendaries for your Level 60 Devastation Evoker:

Unity

Unity can be crafted in any slot, so choose a high-value slot such as Chest if you don’t intend to gear past item level 291, or pick a low-value slot like Wrists or Waist if you do intend to gear your Level 60 Evoker.

Echo of Eonar

Echo of Eonar can be crafted on Wrists, Waist, or Finger, so your choices are fairly limited. Choose whichever slot best suits your gear or personal preference.

Be sure to craft both legendaries with Mastery and Haste secondary stats, in line with the current Devastation Evoker stat priority for PvE content.

What are the best Shadowlands Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits to play?

From a playstyle perspective, there is not a significant difference between the four Shadowlands covenants for Devastation Evoker, as all four provide Evoker with the same Boon of the Covenants Class covenant ability. As with trinkets, not much has been done in the way of detailed sims for Level 60 Devastation Evoker conduits and soulbinds, but here are my suggestions from a general standpoint.

Covenants

While I would give a quick honorable mention to Necrolord as a strong contender with its Fleshcraft signature ability and strong Mastery-based single-target damage in the Marileth soulbind, I would probably recommend Night Fae as the go-to all-around pick for Devastation Evoker in Pre-Patch.

Soulshape brings even more mobility to a range-limited class, and all three soulbind options are all reasonably useful in different situations: the Niya soulbind brings to the table strong Mastery focus from Grove Invigoration, Dreamweaver for the irreplaceable Podtender cheat death ability for difficult content, and Korayn for its Wild Hunt Tactics first strike ability which has strong synergy with Devastation’s Mythic+ damage profile.

Conduits

I’ve ranked the following conduits based on apparent usefulness and personal preference, but feel free to adjust based on your individual needs.

Where can I gear up during the Dragonflight Pre-Patch?

Fated World Bosses (285 ilvl)

During Shadowlands Season 4, World Bosses corresponding to Fated raids also became Fated, and had the chance to drop 285 ilvl loot. At this point in time, since all of the raids are available as Fated raids simultaneously, all of the active Shadowlands World Bosses are also Fated. These World Bosses are on a weekly lockout, so you should have two tries at each before Dragonflight.

World of Warcraft 18th Anniversary World Boss Event (272 ilvl)

During the 18th Anniversary Event between now and the release of the Dragonflight expansion, there are a number of old World Bosses dropping 272 ilvl gear which can be looted once per day.

Primal Storms and Primalist Invasions Pre-Patch Event (252 ilvl)

Also coming with Phase 2 of the Pre-Patch is the Primal Storms event, which will reward you with a variety of 252 ilvl catch-up gear, as well as some unique armour appearances.

End-game: Mythic Dungeons, Mythic+, Raids, PVP (262 ilvl to 311 ilvl)

If for whatever reason you’re incredibly serious about gearing your character to its maximum potential in the two short weeks before the launch of Dragonflight, there’s no substitute for end-game group content. Get grinding!

What are some useful Weakauras?

Here are just a couple of suggestions of individual Weakauras and Weakaura packs that I’ve been using on the Dragonflight Beta. Feel free to reach out to me and suggest your favourites!

Publik’s Evoker Pack

Hijack’s Evoker Pack

Dorovon Cast Bar

Any other questions?

Once again, be sure to check out my full, comprehensive Devastation Evoker Guide for more detailed explanations of the individual spells and abilities, talent builds and rotation guides for level 70, and so on.

If you have any further questions, consider joining my community Discord, where you’ll find a small-but-growing community of excited soon-to-be dragons, as well as a forum for just Devastation-related questions.

Special thanks to all of you!

Finally, once again I just want to take a moment to thank all of you for your ongoing support. This site is being hosted ad-free as a community resource and personal passion project and I couldn’t have done this without the support and kind words of each and every one of you.

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Until next time, have a good one!