Devastation Evoker Rotation Guide

Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2, this guide covers the optimal Devastation Evoker rotation, opener, and spell priority for raids and dungeons in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight.

Single Target Opener

In Patch 10.2, Dragonrage continues to be played more as a spell priority than as a fixed sequence, in order to support the main goal of extending its duration through Animosity and Causality.

Initial Dragonrage Opener

1. Hard-cast Living Flame (Before Pull, Pre-Cast)
2. Dragonrage
3. Eternity Surge Rank 1
4. Fire Breath Rank 1
5. Shattering Star
6. Combat Potion (Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power)
7. Disintegrate
8. Disintegrate

Priority List for Remaining Dragonrage Duration

1. Eternity Surge Rank 1 on cooldown
2. Fire Breath Rank 1 on cooldown
3. Shattering Star on cooldown
4. Disintegrate Loop Priority (Essence Burst Build/Spend)
   • Disintegrate to Spend Essence Burst and Essence
   • Instant Cast Living Flame (if Burnout is active) for Essence Burst
   • Hard Cast Living Flame (If Iridescence Red and Scarlet Adaptation are active) for Essence Burst
   • Azure Strike for Essence Burst

Optimal Trinket Usage

Optimal timings for trinkets differ slightly from past seasons due to the ramping effect of the Tier 31 set bonus Emerald Trance. The general case for on-use trinkets which buff your stats (which typically have a duration of around 20 seconds) is to delay usage until you’ve reached 4 stacks of the Emerald Trance buff, in order to line up with the back half of Dragonrage. There are a couple of special cases to consider.

Nymue’s Unravelling Spindle has a long channel time which can affect Dragonrage extension; it’s best used before entering Dragonrage. Belor’relos, the Suncaller also has a short cast time (which can be started during the global cooldown) and does not buff stats, so it is also best used before entering Dragonrage. When using both of these trinkets together, use Nymue’s Unravelling Spindle before Dragonrage, and then use Belor’relos, the Suncaller on cooldown 20 seconds later, ideally during the global cooldown of an instant cast ability to best minimize downtime.

When playing with any other combination of two on-use trinkets, one should be used on pull, or at the start of Dragonrage, and the other 20 seconds later on cooldown to cover the back half of Dragonrage.

Advanced Concepts

While Tip the Scales can be saved for utility or movement, it is generally optimal to spend it on cooldown during Dragonrage. Assuming that you’re playing in Patch 10.2 with the recommended build (which skips Font of Magic) Tip the Scales is now optimally used with the second Fire Breath cast of Dragonrage, as this maximizes damage output without losing Fire Breath uptime. This is a minor gain over the Season 1 rotation which used Tip the Scales with the first Eternity Surge cast of Dragonrage, but does not represent a particularly substantial difference on average.

It remains generally optimal to clip Disintegrate after the third tick inside of Dragonrage, as this continues to increases the Damage Per Effective Time of each individual Disintegrate cast without substantially affecting Disintegrate uptime. This causes you to cycle Essence Burst more quickly in order to more reliably achieve higher damage output without meaningfully affecting Animosity duration extension.

Finally, with Arcane Vigor talented, make sure to avoid overcapping Essence Burst when casting Shattering Star by managing resources appropriately.

Single Target Rotation and Spell Priority

1. Maintain uptime on Fire Breath by generally casting your Empower spells on cooldown when not holding for Dragonrage.
   • Generally cast Fire Breath at Rank 1, and Eternity Surge at Rank 1
2. After your opening Dragonrage, aim to maintain a short delay between casts of Eternity Surge and Fire Breath in order to maximize value from Power Swell.
   • This delay may carry into future Dragonrage windows and that is okay, this continues to be beneficial by providing value from Power Swell.
3. Cast Shattering Star on cooldown.
   • Generally speaking it’s most important to avoid losing uses and to maximize value from Arcane Vigor.
4. Spend Essence Burst and Essence on Disintegrate whenever possible, unless pooling for Shattering Star.
   • Chain Disintegrate casts after the 3rd tick of the channel as described in the guide section detailing the pandemic mechanic in order to optimize damage and avoid capping resources.
   • The addition of Arcane Vigor, as well as taking talents like Power Swell and Innate Magic have made pooling resources for Shattering Star somewhat more of an afterthought.
5. Instant Cast Living Flame with Burnout active as filler, to pool and generate resources.
   • Casting Disintegrate, especially during Blazing Shards and Shattering Star empowerment windows remains higher priority, but do aim to avoid capping on stacks of Burnout.
6. Hard Cast Living Flame as filler outside of Dragonrage.
7. Cast Azure Strike as filler during Dragonrage (when Burnout is not available), or for movement when all other movement abilities and useful instant cast spells have been exhausted.

Note that Deep Breath is not typically a core part of the Single Target rotation. It can be used in place of filler on lower enemy health totals due to Tyranny, and perhaps otherwise for repositioning when better options are not available.

Opener Adjustments for Multi-Target

Opening with Dragonrage in cleave or AoE follows a similar sequence and priority, with a couple of notable adjustments.

1. With Shattering Star and Arcane Vigor talented, cast Shattering Star before Dragonrage to free up a global and retain one Essence Burst.
2. Simply replace Disintegrate with Pyre at 3 or more targets with Volatility talented.
3. It is generally advisable to uprank Fire Breath to maximum rank, and Eternity Surge based on target count.
4. Tip the Scales is optimally used immediately with Fire Breath, just be weary of the fact that this generates an enormous amount of threat very early in a pull. You may wish to delay its use if threat is a concern.
5. Living Flame has a high degree synergy with the AoE rotation through Leaping Flames and Scarlet Adaptation, and ideally should be cast once per Fire Breath to make use of these effects. With Burnout talented, try to wait for Burnout to be active, otherwise hard cast Living Flame once as filler whenever Leaping Flames is active (and with Scarlet Adaptation value whenever possible).
6. Outside of these conditions, cast Azure Strike as generic filler in AoE.

Multi-Target AoE Rotation and Spell Priority

1. Cast Empower skills on cooldown when not holding for Dragonrage.
   • It is generally advisable to uprank Fire Breath to maximum rank, and Eternity Surge based on target count.
2. Cast Shattering Star on cooldown.
   • Generally speaking it’s most important to avoid losing uses and to maximize value from Arcane Vigor.
3. Follow high rank Fire Breath casts with a cast of Living Flame (preferably as an instant cast with Burnout) whenever possible to benefit from the various Leaping Flames interactions.
4. Spend Essence Burst and Essence whenever possible.
   • Cast Disintegrate on lower target counts (around 1 to 2), and Pyre on higher target counts (around 3 or more).
5. Use Deep Breath liberally and often in AoE to apply stun, and to deal strong burst damage at low enemy health with Tyranny. In sustained AoE this is generally used on cooldown, and after Dragonrage.
6. Tip the Scales can be used inside Dragonrage to instantly cast Rank 4 Fire Breath or Eternity Surge as desired, just be weary of threat.
7. With Engulfing Blaze talented, cast Living Flame with Burnout procs for priority filler damage.
8. Cast Living Flame, ideally with Burnout when possible, to make use of Leaping Flames and Scarlet Adaptation cleaving onto multiple targets.
9. Otherwise, cast Azure Strike as main filler inside Dragonrage, or on 2 or more targets.