Preservation Evoker

Preservation is the last healer spec that was added to the game with the Dragonflight expansion. It is rather unique in the way it plays and extremely bursty. Evoker is the first healer designed after Mythic + and it shows. It just fits very well.

I want to start by mentioning that the guides are made by myself, and I am not a class expert. Hopefully, this will help get you started and will include some information that was harder to find. I want to emphasize that these pages more than anything are here to act as a portal to the content creators and other useful links in the right column (or scroll to the bottom on mobile). They are the experts :) In the mean time, if you read something that you think is inaccurate in this website, please let me know, so that we can make sure no erroneous information is shared!

Starting Up

Evoker is a bit specific in that there are not many maintenance healing spells. However there are some core mechanics that need to be understood

Reversion

Reversion is a potent HOT, and with talents it brings two perks:

• On application, it will trigger Golden Hour, making it a decent spot heal.
• For the duration of Reversion, it will maintain Grace Period, making all your heals stronger.

You should aim to maintain Reversion on the tank at least. Remember that it is convenient to apply it to multiple targets with Echos and Temporal Anomaly

Temporal Anomaly

Temporal Anomaly is a solid spell on a short cooldown. It puts down a little shield on whoever gets hit by the orb, which is already decent on a short cooldown. But with Resonating Sphere, it also apply a smaller Echo on each target. This is where things get interesting. Smaller Echo means less healing transferred, however it also transfers the buffs at full potency. There are two very specific use cases for that:

• It will replicate Grace Period on each target, making it easy to maintain a 10% healing buff on your party
• It will replicate Lifebind onto each target when you cast Verdant Embrace, helping you setup specific burst windows (using a strong self heal, best example is Emerald Communion).

Temporal Anomaly + Reversion is always strong. There are not many bad ways to use Temporal Anomaly however, don't hold it too much, while managing your mana, since this will be your biggest use of the resource.

If you play the Nozdormu build, then you will simply use Temporal Anomaly for the shield it provides and the CDR on your empowered spells. Try to gauge when you want the CDR vs mana. Sometimes it is not a problem, but it will be something to keep in mind on higher tyranical fights!

Echo

Echo is our main Essence spender. Emerald Blossom sees really little use in Mythic +, especially since we do not take its supporting talents. Echo is mostly interesting for its replicating capacities. With Time Lord, it will really make it strong. This will lead you to create "mini-ramps" where you cast 2-3 echos and then cast a strong heal to use them.

There are many inventive ways to use Echo. Since we will use temporal anomaly to spread the buffs, you can focus on big healing with the "native" Echos. Verdant Embrace is a very strong choice for an instant and impressive AOE Heal, you can just cast it on you here to avoid putting yourself in trouble. Other strong choices are Dream Breath, to put a rather incredible double HOT on your group. Spiritbloom is most likely overkill but dont hesitate if it will save your group

Handling Big Bursts of damage

The nature of Preservation is such that we have already seen some ways with Echo + Verdant Embrace or Echo + Dream Breath. You still have more though

Spiritbloom and Dream Breath

Spiritbloom is very simply a strong spell, always useful. Cast it for just the number of people you need to heal, it will heal them back up close to full, job done.

Dream Breath is generally better used preemptively to apply a strong hot (see Echo section for max usage). However it can also become a strong upfront heal when charged to max if Spiritbloom is not available.

Both are strong candidates for Tip the Scales. Both will become massive AOE heals under this effect. The choice is likely to be which one is not on cooldown. At this point, Evoker already has better solutions than some classes to deal with bursts of damage at almost any frequency. We still have all their long cooldowns to talk about though.

Stasis

Stasis is very strong, can be min-max to the infinite, but this part should be left to raiders. In M+, what matters the most is to just use it as often possible. As soon as you sneak a Dream Breath or Spiritbloom into it, with maybe Temporal Anomaly, this will be very strong. Stasis helps cover holes in your rotation on tough bosses, or saves you GCDs to add more damage in easier times. Just make sure to use it always. This is so very strong.

There is one specific combo that is worth highlighting here. CauterizingFlame, like regular dispel, does not go on cooldown if there is nothing to dispel. However, it does register into Stasis. So that means that you can store 3 cauterizing Wounds inside you stasis without even putting it on cooldown, which means you can dispel 4 anything but magic in 2 GCDs on a 90 sec cooldowns. This has niche use cases, but you can think of the following for this season:

• Gash Frenzy in Brackenhide Hollow, you will remove the bleeds instantly.

Zephyr

What evoker needed next was obviously the best DR in the game in Mythic+. This is Zephyr. Most AOE damage is considered "area-of-effect". Notably those that are not are usually big bleeds or debuffs. For the rest, abuse this spell, 20% DR on a 2-min cooldown with some extra movement speed is abusive, but we did not design it, we can just enjoy.

Lifebind and Emerald Communion

Lifebind is an interesting talent that replicates 40% of the healing on yourself to the target of your Verdant Embrace for a few seconds. Now what is really interesting is that it is replicated by Echo, which opens the way to impressive combo via Renewing Blaze and Emerald Communion. You should consider that the Lifebind transfer rate is affected by the Echo transfer rate. Long story short it means that the target of VE gets 40%, the players with a real Echo get 42% (thanks to Time Lord), and the players affected by TE's Echo get 13%. In an even shorter story, it is always a lot :) And there is another thing: it ignores Line of Sight. So you can apply it, hide, heal yourself to heal the group. Almost a hack.

The good thing in Mythic + is that it is much easier to cover your group with Echo, so you can desync Stasis and Emerald Communion. Renewing Blaze healing also applies to the targets with Lifebind, for an even stronger combo.

Temporal Anomaly or Echo Ramp -> Verdant Embrace -> Renewing Blaze and/or Emerald Communion.

Rewind

The ultimate joker. Rewind will save you out of almost any situation. It has been nerfed, but it should be enough to ensure nobody dies!

Single Target Burst/Bleed

Handling repeated Single Target patterns is what will distinguish the good Prevokers from the great. Our kit gives us solutions here and there without giving a clear answer. Lets review the palette so that you are never out of ideas.

Golden Hour

First is Golden Hour. Particularly efficient in the case of a 1-hit pattern (or anything that's not too long), it will do a lot of healing in one GCD (make it even better with 2 GCDs: press Echo first to double the Golden Hour effect). And obviously the Reversion will take care of the rest.

Verdant Embrace

VerdantEmbrace is a strong ST heal, but it has this slight disadvantage of moving you to the target. Be extremely careful when the damage on your ally left a puddle down for example... Mistakes have been made.

You will also play with Ancient Flame, which makes VerdantEmbrace into LivingFlame an extremely potent combo to top up a player in danger.

Cauterizing Flame

Against a bleed, Cauterizing Flame is the ultimate answer: just remove it. Don't hesitate to use it, it will save you mountains of healing.

Rank I Spiritbloom

In an emergency, a rank I Spiritbloom can do the trick. Don't see it as a waste, if it saves a life it is worth it.

Time Dilation

By its nature, delaying the damage, Time Dilation is best used on tanks. The reason is that it converts a ST Burst in a ST Bleed. As you might have concluded from above, this is not our forte. On a tank however, it is perfect, they can manage themselves, and you have to consider that Time Dilation calculates the damage absorbed pre-mitigation, so that it scales perfectly even with Stagger for example.

Twin Guardian

Twin Guardian is a strong pick for Evoker, but you will not take it always as it cost you a bottom talent point. I think it is worth the investment still as the shield it provides can be a life savior once you have good timings to use it. Not mandatory though.

Double Magic Dispel

Prevoker does not have any particular utility to handle a double magic dispel. If we dive a bit, there are two types of "double magic dispel". One is the magic dispel on the whole group, the typical mass dispel pattern. Here, Prevoker is sorta ok, since it has so many tools to burst AOE. The issue is the actual double magic dispel, when a mechanic including a magic dispel happens more often than every 8 seconds. In this situation you will have to default to your ST bleeds tools.

Defensives

Obsidian Scales

Obsidian Scales is a very standard preemptive defensive. Not much to note about it, just make sure to use it.

Reniewing Blaze

Renewing Blaze is a little more interesting in its usage. It is very strong, as long as you do not get 1-shot. But it will ensure that you are very strongly healed during a damage event to make full use of your mastery. It is a short cooldown so use it often!

Emerald Communion

Emerald Communion with Rush of Vitality gives you 20% max health, which makes a great defensive. Basically, you do not need to use another defensive when you use Emerald Communion.

Utility

Evoker as a whole has very niche utility, but quite unbeatable when it is needed.

Tail Swipe and Wing Buffet

You get two good AOE stops, just make sure to be careful with Wing Buffet since it will push the enemies away from you, which can be great if controlled and catastrophic if not.

Oppressing Roar and Overawe

Oppressing Roar is a weird spell as it makes the next crowd control effect on them last longer (Stuns, slows etc). The best usage in an organized group is before a very strong AOE stun (e.g. Leg Sweep). In a PUG situation, using it on pull almost ensures that something is going to proc it, or use it before Deep Breath if you are talented into Terror of the Skies.

Overawe is a must have in raging week as it is the only AOE "derage" in the game. it is ok to take if you have zero "derage" in the group and there is a mob that absolutely needs to be.

Other Mentions

Quell is a lengthy interrupt, but it is handy when there is this one cast that is about to go off.

Landslide can be taken to provide a "Mass Root", which can be useful to group enemies.

Blessing of the Bronze is not the best group buff, but since you have it by default, make sure to use it.

Sleep Walk is very useful against the Incorporeal Affix.

Damage

Prevoker damage is okay at best, but it has the advantage of being simple

Fire Breath

Fire Breath is to be pressed on cooldown. Using it at level I on a boss or in general on a single target is very efficient. In multiple targets however, you may want to charge it so that you get more from Leaping Flames. Fire Breath IV -> Leaping Flames boosted Living Flame is just very very strong.

Scarlet Adaptation

Scarlet Adaptation is quite passive, while being very strong. It can be beneficial to hold the trigger on Living Flame a few seconds before using Fire Breath since Scarlet Adaptation does cleave with Leaping Flames.

Other than that, just make sure not to overcap the damage storage on it, which is basically just about weaving in Living Flame from time to time.

Tip the Scales for damage

If you are confident you will not need Tip the Scales for healing, you can use it on Fire Breath to make it an instant max Leaping Flames cast.

Deep Breath

Use it on cooldown!

What's next?

This was hopefully a nice and helpful introduction, but if you want to get further into healing with Discipline Priest, you should look for more information, from more expert players. IV Prevoker Guide and Wowhead Prevoker Guide might include more than this present guide, and be more precise about the priority list.

When it comes to video content, I really recommend Aerith Heart's Youtube Channel, starting with his video guide for the spec:

At this point, you should have enough information to get pretty high. What's left will be gear and stat optimization, for which you should use the QE: Live tool.

And then it is really watching the very best play, review some logs, ask for for feedback in the class discord or in the streams chat, and get better, one step at a time. Good luck!