Preservation Evoker: Midnight Expansion Preview

Welcome to our Midnight expansion guide for Preservation Evoker. Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about the Preservation Evoker spec in the forthcoming Midnight expansion, including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the state of the spec going into the expansion.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regular changes expected as updates hit the Midnight beta. This is not meant to be a launch guide for Preservation Evoker, but instead serves as a resource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, and what you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.

Heading into Midnight, Blizzard wanted to simplify the gameplay of Preservation Evoker. One of their goals was to make the spec much more approachable for new players while also removing some of the very tight timings that were required to execute the spec at a high level. Most notably, Lifebind is no longer able to be Echo'd. To compensate for this change, Evoker was given a ton of power in other areas of the kit such Emerald Blossom, Verdant Embrace, and Dream Breath. Additionally, Spiritbloom was removed which means that the Mythic+ rotation will begin to look way different without these two key ways of healing.

Below we will break down some of the core changes:

• Lifebind can no longer be replicated to other players through Echo.
• Spiritbloom, Emerald Communion and Cycle of Life have been removed.
• Call of Ysera has changed and no longer is triggered by Verdant Embrace. It now just increases healing of Dream Breath baseline.
• Dream Simulacrum is a new talent allowing you to cast Verdant Embrace without flying to the target. The healing is also increased.
• Wings of Liberty is a new talent that allows you to cast multiple Verdant Embraces back to back. This talent will still cause you to fly to your targets.
• Inner Flame returns from The War Within as a new reworked talent. For 15/20 seconds after casting Stasis/ Dream Flight, your healing over time is increased and your chance to generate Essence Burst is increased by 100%.
• Dream Breath will gain 2 charges when playing Flameshaper.
• Spiritual Clarity will also now reduce the cooldown of Dream Breath.
• Some other talents have received minor changes or changed positions in the tree.

The overall impact of these changes is quite large for experienced Preservation players. Spiritbloom and Lifebind were key components of healing in both Raid and Mythic+ and adapting to these changes may take some time. Much more emphasis will be placed on using Echo with Reversion and Merithra's Blessing or Dream Breath instead. Thanks to Apex Talents, Dream Breath will also do much more healing upfront, which can help negate some of the loss that comes from no longer having Spiritbloom. Additionally, since Evoker has existed, players have always used Verdant Embrace followed by Dream Breath in order to trigger Call of Ysera. Now that this talent has changed you will no longer need to do this, and breaking that habit might initially be tricky for long-time players of the spec. Time will tell how all these changes play out collectively, and it is going to be a major change for players who have been playing Evoker for a long time.

With Midnight comes the addition of Apex talents. Each specialization will have access to new talents, and Preservation Evoker will gain Merithra's Blessing. This ability procs from any ability that costs essence as well as Dream Breath. When it procs it transforms Reversion, causing healing to bounce between you and 5 allies. If no one else is injured, or you do not have 5 players within your range, it will bounce between the any players it can target. It is important to note that Reversion will still be left on players when you cast this. Beyond having an awesome animation, this ability is quite strong in performance too, and shifts a ton of focus into Reversion and Dream Breath usage.

In addition to Apex talents, you will gain access to additional talents within your Class and Hero Talent trees.

Chronowarden gains 3 new talents in Midnight. The very first of these talents is Chronoboon, which reduces Tip the Scales cooldown by 30 seconds, allowing you to more frequently use Temporal Burst. This also synergizes with many of the other benefits that you gain from your talent trees.

Overclock increases the maximum damage and healing of Chrono Flame by 40% up to 350%. This can provide a very large boost to what already makes up a large percentage of your damage and healing output as Chronowarden.

The final talent added is Energy Cycles. This causes Temporal Burst to grant Essence Burst every 6 seconds. While powerful, this will require you to constantly be aware of how many Essence Bursts you have. It will be crucial that you do not waste any procs, otherwise the value of this talent suffers heavily.

Flameshaper received numerous changes to its hero talents. Engulf, Flame Siphon and Red Hot have been removed. Below we will list the new talents:

• Ashes in Motion — Fire Breath cooldown reduced by 5 seconds.
• Deep Exhalation — Fire Breath damage over time lasts 4 seconds longer.
• Essence Well — Dream Breath and Fire Breath have a 50% chance to generate an Essence Burst
• Twin Flame — Consuming Essence Burst fires a twin flame which will deal damage or heal.
• Fire Torrent — Twin Flame bounces up to 2 additional targets.
• Burning Adrenaline — Redesigned to now cause Fire Breath to reach max empower level faster.

The redesigned and new hero talents for Flameshaper aren't very exciting and shouldn't have a massive impact on your gameplay. While Engulf may have been removed, it's effect still lives on through Consume Flame and Verdant Embrace, meaning that Flameshaper should continue to play the same for those in love with the playstyle.