Preservation Evoker Healing Guide — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

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. If you previously found Preservation to be too overwhelming or difficult, it may be worth trying again with the large amount of changes. Below we will list some of the core changes to the spec that are worth noting:

• 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 now just increases the healing of Dream Breath and Living Flame.
• Engulf has been removed and Consume Flame has been reworked. Rather than healing the entire raid when you proc the effect, you will only heal the player you targetted.
• Dream Simulacrum is a new talent, increasing the healing of Verdant Embrace and also making it so that you do not fly to your target when using Verdant Embrace.
• Wings of Liberty is a new talent, granting you an additional charge of Verdant Embrace.
• 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.

In addition to these changes, you will gain access to the new Apex Talents as well as 3 new Hero Talent choices. Our Apex Talent: Merithra's Blessing is incredibly powerful but you will be unable to access it until Midnight Launch. Additionally, you will be unable to select every Hero Talent until you reach max level in Midnight.

Flameshaper has received two very important changes as we have briefly touched on. Consume Flame works completely different, no longer triggering an explosion of healing on the entire raid. Consume Flame will be a much smaller part of your rotation and will matter much less overall. A ton of the value in Flameshaper will come through the new Legacy of the Lifebinder talent. This gives you two charges of Dream Breath. Due to Dream Breath always proccing Merithra's Blessing, you can execute consistent ramps and Echo Merithra's for very large healing. During Pre-Patch, this won't be possible as Merithra's Blessing will not be out until Midnight, but you can still play around with the changes to Consume Flame.

Chronowarden will play largely the same as there are no notable changes/additions that should play a large role in your output. The only one worth noting is Nozdormu Adept which reduces the cooldown and mana cost of Temporal Anomaly. This makes it incredibly important to keep Temporal Anomaly on cooldown as much as possible, to maximize the amount of Echos you generate through Resonating Sphere while also outputting a ton of shields.

In Midnight, you can expect significant rotational changes in every form of content. What contributes the most to these changes are the loss of Lifebind and Spiritbloom. Losing these abilities means that you will not need to execute very precisely timed ramps in order to achieve your full healing output. While Verdant Embrace can still be powerful with Echo for burst healing, you will often find yourself utilizing Echo with Reversion like done in previous patches. Additionally, Twin Echoes creates an interesting change in the rotation where it can be highly valuable to press Emerald Blossom (which has received significant buffs in Midnight) with Essence Burst inbetween your ramps to get free Echo casts. Previously, you were forced into one or the other but with the Twin Echoes talent you have high flexibility with your rotations.

In Mythic+ settings, the loss of Spiritbloom will be even larger and you may find yourself relying on Living Flame even more when Chronowarden. As Flameshaper, you will gain an additional charge of Dream Breath to help you manage difficult moments. Outside of this though, you will focus on using Verdant Embrace for burst healing and Reversion and for standard healing.

The final rotational change worth mentioning is for Flameshaper specifically. Due to changes to Consume Flame, you will no longer be executing large burst heals on the entire raid. Your gameplay will focus on utilizing Dream Breath casts for Merithra's Blessing burst healing, which won't be possible during the Pre-Patch, and Reversion/ Verdant Embrace otherwise. Flameshaper specifically will not be at full strength until Midnight, but you can begin playing around with changes to Consume Flame right away.

We hope this summary helped you prepare for the Midnight launch on March 2nd, or February 27th with Early Access. If you want to prepare for your leveling journey in Midnight, make sure to check out our recommended consumables and items that can help you reach max-level in Midnight faster!