In an unprecedented move, 10.1.5 introduced a new specialization for a class in the middle of an expansion. The only time we've ever seen a class gain a new specialization before was in Mists of Pandaria, when the new (now-defunct) talent system required Feral Druids to be split into two specs (for those who started playing afterward, Druid Tanks used to also be Feral, but would choose different talents to ensure that they had the survival in Bear form to effectively tank).
The Evoker - itself only introduced this expansion - began similarly to the Demon Hunter, having a single DPS spec and a single non-DPS spec. The Demon Hunter had been introduced in 2016 with only two specs out of a desire to concentrate all the iconic Demon Hunter abilities into the specs people would play - they said that they didn't want to do a ranged DPS spec for them because they felt that Havoc would have to lose Eye Beam to give it to the ranged spec.
But given how long development on these things take, there's no way that Augmentation wasn't in the works from the start. My theory was that they were still ironing out the kinks in it by the time they had to have things ready for launch, and rather than have another Azerite Armor situation on their hands (a feature that didn't make it to the Beta until mere weeks before Battle For Azeroth launched, and proved to be a headache for the rest of the expansion - arguably one of the worst mechanics in WoW history, which is why you don't even get it anymore when you level up through BFA content) they instead chose to tinker at it until they felt it was presentable, which wound up happening after Dragonflight's second raid tier had already come out.
On top of that, and probably the reason why it took them so long to figure it out, Augmentation is weird.
Now, in the past, a lot of classes/specs were built around buffing allies. DPS Shamans used to get a lot of their utility out of totems that buffed their parties (back in BC, Bloodlust/Heroism only affected those in your party, so high-end raiders wanted to have a shaman in each group within the raid - and Time Warp and other variants wouldn't come in until later). Paladins also used to have to distribute Blessings across all the different classes (I don't recall when Greater Blessings came about - these would put the buff, either to attack power or mana regeneration, or if you were specced for it, some other blessings, on everyone in the raid of the same class, and last a whopping 30 minutes, but consumed a reagent, so when I was raiding in Wrath of the Lich King, I'd always restock up to 200 Symbols of Kings before heading out to ICC so I wouldn't run out of them).
But even then, there was still a sense that the main power of DPS specs like Enhancement was meant to be their own damage output.
Augmentation is different.
Secondhand, I've heard stories about Augmentation Evokers being kicked from groups because of their low DPS. And yes, the damage Augmentation does itself is definitely lower than Devastation, the Evoker's more conventional DPS spec. On the raiding target dummy in Valdrakken, my Evoker can put out something like 57k dps with an item level of 409 or something (with full tier set bonus.) That puts it ahead of a lot of dps specs at that item level (my poor Demonology Warlock, at about the same gear level, is like mid-40ks). But my Augmentation Evoker has to push really hard and nail the rotation to get to like 30k dps.
But, of course, that's not their point.
Through buffs like Ebon Might (that one most of all,) Augmentation significantly boosts the damage of their allies. By how much? That's hard to tell. And that's part of the issue.
Damage meters - the addons like Recount that allow you to determine how much damage you're pouring out - don't know how to handle the contribution that Augmentation Evokers are providing. What we see instead is that the allies who are benefiting from the Evoker are doing significantly higher dps.
Other systems, like Warcraft Logs, have managed to find a way to show their contribution, and it turns out that, if you count the extra damage that the Evoker is providing to its allies as its own rather than the allies', it actually looks like Augmentation might be the best DPS spec in the game currently.
I'd even consider that Blizzard might aim to keep them that way - certainly some players will enjoy the novelty and just the rotation of the spec, but I think if Augmentation was only on-par with other DPS specs, players might be turned off from it.
Balancing specs has always been a huge challenge, but I think Blizzard has made the challenge even greater with Augmentation. Granted, I really respect a big swing.
Aesthetically, also, I actually love Augmentation. My favorite of the five main dragonflights is the Bronze one (I've always been obsessed with time travel) and I was bummed that Devastation really focused more on the Red and Blue ones, leaving Green and Bronze to the healers (every now and then I tell myself I'm going to try playing a healer, and then I get stressed out just thinking about it and remind myself that I play lots of tanks, so I'm still making queues shorter for people that way). Augmentation focuses on Black and Bronze (though admittedly more Black,) and I really dig the erupting earth and sands of time aesthetics to it.
What I'm hoping - and I have very little sense of what this would entail - is that Blizzard can find a way to make it easier for add-on makers to track the contributions that Augmentation is making. We do see in the in-game UI little orange numbers that I assume are meant to represent the greater damage our allies are doing because of our Ebon Might, but I don't know if damage meters are able to parse that.
The spec is very new, of course, so I'm hopeful that such changes will make it in.
Until then, I'll have to kind of remain faithful that when I play my Evoker in Augmentation spec, I'm making a good contribution to the group.
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