Created by Gold Zephzellian

Summary

When you just need something dead, a caster tends to be the best at doing it. Evokers take this to a precision pitch; never missing their shots and making each one count.

The Evoker is a reliable, Ability-focused damage dealer that makes each Ability they use towards getting a target on the floor matter, always having some sort of impact. While their damage isn’t higher than normal without additional support, their sheer reliability and ease of use makes up for it. They make a great choice for learning how to play casters in general, but remain very powerful later.

If you want to be a reliable Blaster Caster, look no further than the Evoker!

Sub-Archetype Statistics

Ease of Use – ★★★★☆

Offensive Ability – ★★★★★

• Single Target – ★★★★★*
• AOE – ★★★★★*
• Disabling – ★★★☆☆

Defense – ★★☆☆☆

• Passive Defense – ★★☆☆☆
• Active Defense – ★★★☆☆
• Healing – ★★★☆☆

Support – ★★★☆☆

• Offensive Support – ★★★☆☆
• Defensive Support – ★★★☆☆
• Miscellaneous Support – ★★★☆☆

Skills – ★★☆☆☆

• Social – ★★★☆☆
• Physical – ★★☆☆☆
• Mental – ★★★☆☆

*: Depends on where you invest. Both can end up pretty good, though!

Use this Sub-Archetype if you want to…

– To be a simple, but reliable blaster caster without too many gimmicks. – If you want a good degree of accuracy with your Damage Abilities. – If you want to learn casters within a simple blaster caster chassis.

Consider avoiding this Sub-Archetype if…

– If you don’t want to use Abilities as your primary source of damage.  – If Willpower management doesn’t sound like your cup of tea. Casters everywhere need to, Evoker is no exception. – If you don’t want to be squishy. Casters are generally rather squishy (passively, anyways…)

Features

Tier 1 – Tracking Fire

Damage Abilities you use deal half of their damage against creatures you miss if they do not already do so. This feature does not work on Abilities with WP costs reduced to 1 or 0 by the Path of Damage or Path of Manouver.

So long as you don’t cast a Damage Ability through Path of Damage or Maneuver’s “free” cast, Damage Abilities will always deal half damage on a miss.

So, is missing Damage Abilities too depressing? Well, this will help ease the pain a bit, ensuring that you get something out of missing a Damage Ability, specifically, dealing half of the damage you would have. This is never ideal, but some damage is better than no damage. 

This single feature defines Evoker’s consistency, and ensures that your WP will never truly go to waste. Thanks to being Tier 1, other Damage Ability Users can take it relatively easily. Note that Maneuver Damage Abilities work with this feature as well; while not nearly as effective, it can work with them relatively effectively.

This feature only has one thing holding it back; it doesn’t work on Path of Damage or Maneuver cost-reduced Abilities. If those miss, they still deal no damage. As a result, you’ll need to actively manage your WP to use this feature effectively, which makes this a great way to learn caster WP management, since you’ve gotta in order to make use of it.

Tier 2 – Precision and Power

Your Ability Hit increases by 3 and your DR Power by 2 for Damage Abilities.

+3 Ability Hit and +2 DR Power, but only for Damage Abilities.

Accuracy problems, BEGONE! This handy little feature helps solve accuracy for Evoker. While more is always welcome, this is enough to get by for most standard enemies and will help make the difference on bosses. The only caveat is that it only works on Damage Abilities, but that shouldn’t be a big deal… That’s why you’re here, after all!

One other quick note; Ability Hit bonuses don’t apply to Damage Maneuver Abilities, which is kinda stinky for Path of Maneuver Evokers, but there are still ways to make use of the DR Power bonuses for them, at least!

Tier 3 – Reliable Firepower

You can reroll any 1 on a dice roll whenever you roll the damage for a Damage Ability. Treat it like a 2 in case you rolled another 1.

Reroll 1’s on damage dice for Damage Abilities. Rolling a 1 twice will treat it like you rolled a 2.

A straightforward, but surprisingly impactful feature. While only rerolling 1’s seems underwhelming on paper… here’s the thing; Damage Abilities roll a lot of dice. By now, you can easily pull 8 dice on a single Ability cast. As a result, this will come up far more often than you’d realize, especially if you use AOE Damage Abilities or Projectile Abilities, which tend to use d6s over d10s. This can help make those far more consistent, but even on higher damage dice, this still helps even your damage out a fair bit. Not too shabby!

Tier 4 – Relentless Bombardment

You can use a fully upcasted Damage Ability without using any WP. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Tier per full rest.

A number of times equal to your Tier per full rest, cast a fully upcasted Damage Ability at no WP cost.

Oooh, some free full upcasts each full rest? Don’t mind if I do! This is a superb economy feature, free WP per full rest is never a bad thing, especially since Damage Abilities are getting really expensive by now if you want to full upcast them.

Another great boon of this feature is that it doesn’t force you to select a specific Ability on obtaining it; you can just use any Damage Ability. That is great, and offers significant flexibility. These also work with Tracking Fire, since the discount isn’t caused by a Path, which is great for you.

Tier 5 – Full Power

When you use a Damage Ability, you can maximize the damage it does instead of rolling dice if you increase the WP used for this Ability by half. You can decide to do this after you know if your Ability hit or not, and the additional WP does not count towards your WP turn or upcast limit.

After you know if a Damage Ability hit or not, you may spend half of the WP you spent on it, not counting towards Limits. If you do, MAXIMIZE its damage dice.

Holy moly, what a fantastic capstone! Guaranteeing max rolls on Ability use is a pretty common capstone effect for Casters, and Evoker is no exception! Relatively straightforward way of triggering it too, requiring little in the way of foreknowledge to use it well. A pretty dang great capstone with some good power behind it, but keep in mind the WP cost; that can get pricey.

Synergies & Tips

Synergies

• Path of Damage: Pretty much the defacto Blaster Caster pick. While Tracking Fire doesn’t work with it, the ability to reliably have an Ability you can throw out is still great and scales well, even later on. A solid, safe pick for new Evokers, and remains useful for veterans as well who want a reliable cantrip, dammit!
• Path of Maneuver: Yeah, I’m surprised too! Path of Maneuver actually works with Evoker, since all those Maneuver Damage Abilities apply to Evoker. Much like Path of Damage, anything made “free” by it doesn’t work with Tracking Fire, but the extra damage applies regardless of how you cast, and that damage does go through with Tracking Fire. A fun alternative playstyle for Evoker that many don’t know about.
• Path of Polymathy: Good for alllll casters, Path of Polymathy gives you more Abilities and WP to play with, but definitely puts the pressure on you to manage your WP well. Not something I’d recommend for first time players, but for those of you familiar with the Caster playstyle, this can be great if you can manage your WP well.
• Extra To-Hit: You already get extra accuracy from Precision and Power, but why not stack more on? It can help you not have to rely on Tracking Fire so much, and Abilities already hit plenty hard.
• Other Damage Ability and Ability-Centric Sub-Archetypes: Due to how non-specific Evoker’s bonuses to Damage Abilities are, Evoker synergizes nicely with other Sub-Archetypes that do Damage Abilities too. As always, other Ability-Focused Sub-Archetypes are great as well for any Caster; more tricks up your sleeve is never a bad thing!
• Enhanced By Series: While Tracking Fire won’t ensure that these go through, the extra accuracy that Precision and Power provides alongside some other accuracy bonuses can help you land these reliably.
• Charged Super Move: Your penalty for missing a Charged Super Move is far less egregious than most thanks to Tracking Fire, but it can still take awhile to cast. Good if you want to save WP or get a big ‘ol hit, but that cast time can be a bit mean.
• WP Regain: Casters need WP. Damage Abilities are very expensive. Means to get WP back good. ‘Nuff said! Clothes of the Mage and Blood Sacrifice are both my personal favourites here, and thanks to you being Mental, their gains are doubled! Very nice.
• Free Upcasts: These are your best source of free damage on Evoker, getting these is a great idea if you want some more oomph. A ton of options for these, so go wild!
• Overwhelming Ability: For you DR Damage Ability users out there, disadvantage on DRs can help make them more consistent on targets with very high saves. 3WP is a bit expensive early on, but it can be worth the hassle.
• Rhythm of Combat: You use a lot of Damage Abilities, and this will provide you more damage or consistency, depending on the circumstance. It’s pretty good.
• Damage Abilities: Yea, you need em. This is your whole thing, dude. Bolts are probably the most reliable user of Tracking Fire, but Projectiles and AOEs can also be very effective. Look through the whole selection; many of them can be useful in different ways.

Tips

• WP Management is key for any caster, but especially Damage Ability users. Being one, carefully upcasting your Abilities to the target is key to ensuring you make your WP last.
• Other than that, not really. Most of your features are pretty simple, and using them at the right time is generally pretty easy.

Sub-Archetype Build Showcase

Simple Build

Fire? Fire. This build makes use of a lot of Heat damage abilities, all of which are capable of Burning targets thanks to Advanced Heat Damage. If they opt to not put themselves out, that’s likely to end badly for them thanks to you having Immolation, and if they do, that’s them wasting actions. It’s lose-lose for them! With Clothes of the Mage and Always Charged, you’re surprisingly WP efficient, and you’ll always do something with your Heat damage thanks to Damage Type Expert (Heat). It’s very simple, but by lord, it’s very effective. Just keep in mind you’re squishy; you’ll need to rely on Barrier and Ranged Heal to keep yourself (and potentially others!) alive.

Experimental Build

Remember when I mentioned the fact that Path of Maneuver works with Evoker? This build takes that idea and runs with it, alongside getting a little more bulk with Fighter Affinity. A One-Handed Precision Scope Hand Crossbow alongside a wide range of Will DR inflicting Strike Abilities, Special Forces Bolts, and Wand Slinger T1 to provide a surprisingly WP efficient Maneuver build, especially when combined with Perseverance Master to provide a total of 5WP per level.

You also have a suite of Buffs and Debuffs to either increase the potency of your save effects, heal yourself or friends, and some further efficiency gains. Other Abilities serve to make you more mobile and surprisingly durable for a Caster. While it does lack as high of a damage output and the AOE of the Simple Build, it makes up for it with overall more reliable damage and powerful control effects on the side. 

Conclusion

Overall, the Evoker is ‘ol reliable for Damage Ability usage without too many gimmicks, and there isn’t anything wrong with that! Thanks for reading! If you have any fun builds that could help show off Evoker more, feel free to send them to me on Discord at goldzephzellian!