Since World of Warcraft’s (WoW) new expansion launch is imminent, players may be debating over what class to “main” — and I’m one of them.
Last week, the new Dracthyr Evoker class became available for play. And my time with the class has solidified it as a serious contender. The community-dubbed “lizard wizard” is fast, mobile, and surprisingly nuanced. But I have some hang-ups with it that have led to fierce internal debate.
Dracthyr Wardrobe Malfunction
Firstly, while Dracthyr players have human-like visage forms, Evokers only fight as “Dragons.” This means you’re essentially playing two characters, but you only ever see one of them in combat. I’m no “scalehead” or “scale-lover,” which is to say the Dragon form doesn’t appeal to me. I appreciate its utility and relevance to the class — how else would one flap their wings and breathe fire? But I don’t have much interest in being a Dragon.
Secondly, being an Evoker limits your transmogrification (fashion) options: Your Dragon form only shows shoulder, chest, and waist items. Equipment elsewhere (hands, feet, head) is overwritten by your character creation selections. This isn’t a big deal because you can swap to your stylish visage form anytime out-of-combat. But since you can’t currently transmog your visage and Dragon forms separately, there’s a good chance your appearance selections will clash, resulting in a mismatched appearance.
Blizzard may correct this later. But since I get a kick out of designing and customizing my characters, this quirk is admittedly off-putting.
Healing Stresses Me Out
While I’ve been playing the Evoker Preservation healing spec so far, I’m not sure how long that will continue.
Preservation is fun, but I can’t get past the fact that healing stresses me out. Being solely responsible for your group’s survival no matter how carelessly they play or how much damage they take is quite a burden. I’ve done well with the duty so far in dungeons, but I don’t particularly enjoy it. It feels like I’m trying to “unfuck” everything rather than focus on my performance (like DPS).
I know Warcraft is just a video game, but I mostly play with random groupmates who aren’t always polite. There’s a fair amount of toxicity in this space and possibly facing it as a consequence of underperforming doesn’t sound fun.
Either the grass is greener on the other side of this mental hurdle, or it’s a good reason to not main this class.
Evokers Can’t Use Weapons
A big part of WoW’s gameplay loop is collecting ever-better epic items — including weapons. And like most classes in WoW, Evokers can equip weapons. But they can’t actually use them.
The class doesn’t have any weapon-centric abilities — only spell casts. Strange, right?
As a result, I’ve been reacquainting myself with my Enhancement Shaman character to determine whether or not weapon absence will bother me.
Conclusion (For Now)
Unfortunately, as fun as Evoker is, there are several reasons not to main the class in Dragonflight. We’re about a week out from the expansion’s launch, so hopefully, I’ll have made my mind up in the days to come.
Byte-Sized Worlds 