World of Warcraft: New Evoker class is Dragonflight’s most exciting addition

World of WarcraftDragonflight’s Evoker is the first new class in two expansions (and can only be played by the game’s new Dracthyr race). Special alpha preview: DragonflightI qusted for approximately a level and half in one new zone. Playing exclusively with the new class,

Despite the Evoker being a spell-slinging caster class — the first non-melee ever added in an expansion — I believe it’s most comparable to the melee-focused Demon Hunter, added in World of Warcraft: Legion2016 This isn’t necessarily due to shared spells, but rather their more modern style, which game director Ion Hazzikostas said was no accident in a group interview.

“When we add a new class,” said Hazzikostas, “certainly to a game that already has 12 classes, 36 [specializations], a threshold question, or almost requirement, is ‘What is the thing that’s immediately going to make this feel fresh and feel different?’”

Demon Hunter, the Evoker, and Demon Hunter have wings which allow them to fly from high altitudes. Also, both are surprisingly mobile as casters. You can use flashy spells to stun your enemies (just like Demon Hunter), or you can fly in mid-combat between arena sides, igniting fire on uninvited enemies.

In our interview, Hazzikostas cited the Evoker’s action-heavy traversal, animation integration, and new Empower spells as the way Blizzard intends to make the new class pop — or, at the very least, make it feel like it belongs to a popular MMO in 2022 rather than one released in 2004.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

The most prominent addition to Evokers is the Empower spells. Instead of waiting for a spell to cast, Evoker spells can be cast modularly. By holding down the ability for only a moment, you’ll be able to cast a quick, low-powered version of the spell. You can cast a much more powerful version by holding down the button for several seconds.

We discovered a firebreath spell that increased damage by holding the button down during playtesting. That was interesting enough, and the type of thing you’d expect from class that can only be played by dragon people. But we also spotted a spell on the Evoker’s healer tree that healed more and more targets the longer the player held down the button before casting it, the use cases of which will change drastically depending on the type of content you’re running.

Simply adventuring around the world and beating up quest monsters, I didn’t get a great sense of the varying power of these Empower spells — when the monster isn’t much of a threat, there isn’t a reason not to hold down the button the entire time and get the most bang for your buck. Even though I only spent a brief time using my Evoker, it is clear that the Evoker’s varying charging times are very useful in more advanced content such raids anddungeons.

With Dragonflight’s reintroduction of talent trees and my limited time with the expansion, it was difficult to get the flow of what an Evoker “rotation” would look like — especially before some of the top World of Warcraft Theory crafters can get the class. It was thrilling to experience a class that feels unique to Warcraft, even though I only fiddled around with it to my best ability.

World of Warcraft: DragonflightThis year, Windows PC and Mac will be available for purchase.