After playing this season as Aug, I am starting to understand why everyone thinks this spec is bad for the game.

I'm attempting to push title this season as Aug, and I've heard a lot of Aug slander along the way. People either hate the spec because "any Aug not 3200 io is bad", or because the spec is "always going to be OP". Either way, the consensus among the community this season, at least for me, has been that the game would be better off without the spec - and I was definitely a bit offended. However there's actually something critical about how this spec works that is "gamebreaking" which has since swayed my opinion.

Simply put, a huge part of Aug's strength comes from the fact that DPS stacks multiplicatively, so when you sync your DPS cooldowns with Aug's cooldowns you end up pumping massive DPS during key mob packs in the dungeon. This is a big reason why you can justify Aug's lower overall DPS - because most of their DPS is coming during times when you need it, rather than times when you don't, and that's huge for M+.

None of this is super game breaking - it's just how Aug plays. What's gamebreaking is that in every season I have ever played of WoW, there has always been "S-tier" specs which have gapped the average DPS by 10, 15, even sometimes upwards of 20%. The issue is that as soon as you introduce a spec which does damage by amplifying another spec, you start to magnify the gap between the "S-tier" specs and the "B-tier" specs.

For example, let's say the S-tier spec of the season is doing 15% more DPS than the average B-tier spec. If an Aug increases the S-tiers damage on average by 20%, you end up with (1.15*1.2 - 1.2) = 18%. So now just by introducing Aug into the game, the S-tier spec gaps the B-tier spec by 18% rather than the initial 15%. Keep in mind that this is just on average, during cooldowns these gaps can be significantly higher.

The ripple effect of this is massive. Classes which deal most of their DPS in cooldowns start to become disproportionately reliant on Aug versus classes which do steady DPS. Class buffs like Mark of the Wild start to gain a much higher impact when there is an Aug in the group, again, causing the class to become more reliant on Aug. I just don't understand how you can balance a game like that... you would need to balance the game for two instances; one where the class runs with Aug, and one when they don't. I suspect the only reason this doesn't spill over into raid right now is because 1) class balance is tighter in raid and 2) you don't benefit much from the DPS profile Aug brings, so you can't justify their low DPS over other Evoker specs.

I don't really know how you can fix this without completely reworking something fundamental about the spec. I have enjoyed playing the spec this season and I would really appreciate the "buff upkeep and utility" play style to stay, but I am going into next season wanting to try something else out and I feel very discouraged due to the state of balance in the game.

EDIT: I want to be clear that the point of this post is not to single in on one aspect of Aug and attribute this as the reason they are OP. People keep feeling the need to mention that Aug is OP because of added defensive's and utility.. like duh? The point I am making is that Blizz has had to rebalance the game around Aug and I don't believe tuning the spec is possible without killing it.