WoW's new specialisation deals damage by buffing everyone else, so of course it's getting booted from groups for 'low DPS'

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The Augmentation Evoker is doing well, players just don't understand it.

An Augmentation Evoker from World of Warcraft: Dragonflight unleashes draconic power.
(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

The Augmentation Evoker came to World of Warcraft with patch 10.1.5 last week, bringing a whole new type of DPS to the game. For the uninitiated, this new spec works by buffing party members to bump their damage numbers rather than melting faces itself. It's comparable to the Dancer from Final Fantasy 14 or the Bard from Dungeons & Dragons—basically, when an Augmentation Evoker's in the group, everyone does better.

So obviously they've been getting kicked out of groups for no reason. A reddit thread on the World of Warcraft subreddit emerged with a compilation of screenshots from the Wyrmrest Temple discord, community server for Evokers. Typing "!augdps" in the augmentation channel will have Carlygos, the server's friendly bot, drop an ever-evolving montage of people missing the point:

A montage of Augmentation Evokers getting unfairly kicked from groups, with a faded image of a laugh-crying Dracthyr layered atop it.

(Image credit: The Wyrmrest Temple Discord / Blizzard Entertainment)

WoWhead confirms that as it stands, popular damage meter addons aren't properly tracking the Evoker's contributions to their group. Despite Blizzard's mission statement that they aren't designing the game around them, WoW's numbers-obsessed community combined with a new experimental specialisation is a recipe for disaster.

These DPS meters will however track the increased damage of the Augmentation Evoker's party—so if you're getting chewed out for "low damage", chances are it's by a DPS with numbers that are much higher than they would otherwise be. A success they owe to you, the person they're yelling at. 

This is despite the fact that the specialisation is—according to the community—really good. "One side of the [World of Warcraft community] is over here kicking [Augmentation Evokers], while the high end of the [community is saving] a group spot for them" writes Reddit user TempAcct20005.

"My first dungeon after patch with my [item level 420] Devastation Evoker, I got paired with a [item level 421] Augmentation Evoker. I did things in that dungeon that violated the Geneva Convention," adds user WorthPlease.

Their power only grows the larger the group is, too. Buff two other DPS, and you're helping tremendously. Buff an entire raid? Your impact ramps up fast. I'd hope that the community at-large will get wise to the way this new class works, but given the responses we've seen, I'm not holding out hope. I did Mythic+ for a little bit in Dragonflight with randoms for a while and let me tell you, some people are just looking for an excuse.

Harvey Randall
Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.