Talent take rates
There is no single Preservation build. Take the spec talents on the floor list, then choose the rest from the keys you actually run.
PTR data, so tuning may have moved · leaderboard sourced, so this is the top of the spec and not the middle
The band samples are 36 runs at +10-14, 37 at +15-17 and 36 at +18 and up. That is 109 of the 109 builds recorded. These runs go from +2 to +20, so keys below +10 sit outside every band and the overall column is a different population from the band columns. At these sizes a 60 point swing is safe to act on and a 5 point one is not, so nothing under 20 points is listed below as a trend.
The floor: take these and stop thinking about them
56 talents appear in 95% or more of recorded builds and move by less than 20 points between bands, so the floor is stated as one overall figure rather than a per band one. There is nothing per band to report about a talent that never drops below 95% anywhere.
Those 56 are three different kinds of thing, and the difference matters if you are not on Flameshaper.
The 42 spec and class talents
These are yours regardless of hero tree.
Aerial Mastery, Attuned to the Dream, Blast Furnace, Call of Ysera, Cauterizing Flame, Draconic Legacy, Dream Breath, Echo, Energy Loop, Enkindled, Essence Attunement, Essence Burst, Expunge, Golden Hour, Grace Period, Heavy Wingbeats, Inherent Resistance, Inner Radiance, Landslide, Leaping Flames, Life-Giver's Flame, Lifebind, Lifeforce Mender, Lush Growth, Natural Convergence, Obsidian Bulwark, Obsidian Scales, Panacea, Renewing Blaze, Renewing Breath, Rescue, Reversion, Rewind, Scarlet Adaptation, Spiritual Clarity, Temporal Anomaly, Temporal Compression, Time Dilation, Tip the Scales, Unshakable, Verdant Embrace, Zephyr.
The 12 Flameshaper hero talents, and why they are not evidence
PTR data, so tuning may have moved · leaderboard sourced, so this is the top of the spec and not the middle
Flameshaper appears on the same list and is not a talent at all. It is the tree itself, recorded the way every other node is.
The apex talent
Merithra's Blessing is on the floor list at 100%, and it is a different tier of choice from everything else there. It is also not a button. It is a proc that upgrades your next Reversion, so what a log shows as a Merithra's Blessing cast is a Reversion that went out while the proc was up.
If you are on Chronowarden
Skip the 12 hero entries above. You cannot take them. Temporal Barrier is Chronowarden's version of Temporal Anomaly, same mana, same 1.5 second cast, same 15 second cooldown, so that slot on the floor list swaps rather than disappears. Temporal Barrier sits at 5% overall, which is about what you would expect from 6 Chronowarden runs.
Only the 12 talents named above were checked against the hero trees. If you are on Chronowarden, check the rest of the 42 against your own tree before copying the list wholesale.
Talents that come in as keys get harder
Pick these up at +15
Take rate per band, with the band's run count in its header. A band with fewer than five runs shows a count instead of a percentage, because a percentage off four runs implies a precision the sample does not have.
| Talent | Overall n=109 | +10-14 n=36 | +15-17 n=37 | +18 and up n=36 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lifespark | 77% | 53% | 86% | 92% |
| Lifecinders | 95% | 89% | 97% | 100% |
| Oppressing Roar | 87% | 72% | 89% | 100% |
Lifespark is the earliest switch in the whole set. It jumps 34 points between the bottom band and the middle one and then barely moves. Lifecinders and Oppressing Roar are in every recorded build at +18 and up.
Lifecinders is worth understanding rather than just slotting. It puts Obsidian Scales on your target or a nearby injured ally at half value, which turns a personal defensive into an external. If you have it, pressing Obsidian Scales early spends something the tank might have wanted.
Pick these up at +18, they climb the whole way
Three talents that rise at every step rather than switching on at one key level.
| Talent | Overall n=109 | +10-14 n=36 | +15-17 n=37 | +18 and up n=36 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field of Dreams | 62% | 36% | 57% | 94% |
| Fluttering Seedlings | 64% | 39% | 59% | 94% |
| Foci of Life | 79% | 69% | 73% | 94% |
Take Field of Dreams and Fluttering Seedlings together or take neither. Field of Dreams grows one of your Fluttering Seedlings into a new Emerald Blossom, so it does nothing at all without Seedlings. Both hang off Emerald Blossom, which is already one of the most pressed buttons in a ramp window. These two buy you more from a button you press anyway.
Pick these up at +18, they dip in the middle first
The middle band is the low point for all five, and the top band is the high point for all five.
| Talent | Overall n=109 | +10-14 n=36 | +15-17 n=37 | +18 and up n=36 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shape of Flame | 63% | 58% | 43% | 89% |
| Dream Simulacrum | 63% | 69% | 35% | 86% |
| Regenerative Magic | 50% | 47% | 32% | 69% |
| Protracted Talons | 51% | 50% | 35% | 69% |
| Overawe | 43% | 39% | 32% | 58% |
Do not read the middle dip as a reason to drop these at +15. With 37 runs in that band a dip of that size is real, but the reason for it is not in the data. All five are more common at +18 and up than anywhere below. Shape of Flame and Dream Simulacrum are close to universal there.
Talents that drop out
Thinned out by +18
Five talents that survive in the bottom two bands and thin out at the top rather than disappearing.
| Talent | Overall n=109 | +10-14 n=36 | +15-17 n=37 | +18 and up n=36 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wings of Liberty | 37% | 31% | 65% | 14% |
| Trailblazer | 37% | 42% | 57% | 11% |
| Extended Flight | 49% | 53% | 62% | 31% |
| Clobbering Sweep | 44% | 50% | 51% | 31% |
| Terror of the Skies | 34% | 44% | 35% | 22% |
These five are not one category, whatever the shared shape of the numbers suggests. Trailblazer and Extended Flight are the mobility talents, and both of them are Hover talents. Clobbering Sweep and Terror of the Skies are crowd control: one cuts Tail Swipe's cooldown, the other adds a stun to Deep Breath. Wings of Liberty is neither of those: it is a second charge of Verdant Embrace, which is healing. So whatever is pushing these out of top band builds, it is not one decision about movement. Wings of Liberty and Trailblazer both peak in the middle band and then collapse, to 14% and 11% at +18 and up. The others survive in a minority of top band builds, so they thin out rather than vanish. Below +15 all five are common enough that keeping them is not a mistake.
Gone, or nearly, by +18
The time themed cluster. Four of the six reach zero in the top band, which is a different thing from thinning out.
| Talent | Overall n=109 | +10-14 n=36 | +15-17 n=37 | +18 and up n=36 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time Lord | 47% | 61% | 57% | 22% |
| Titan's Gift | 50% | 61% | 62% | 25% |
| Just in Time | 15% | 25% | 19% | 0% |
| Stretch Time | 13% | 28% | 11% | 0% |
| Timeless Magic | 9% | 22% | 5% | 0% |
| Spatial Paradox | 12% | 19% | 16% | 0% |
Just in Time, Stretch Time, Timeless Magic and Spatial Paradox hit exactly zero among the 36 builds at +18 and up. Time Lord and Titan's Gift survive at 22% and 25% in the top band and are far more common below it. If you are pushing above +18, most of this cluster goes entirely and the rest is a minority choice.
Two that do not follow a line
Time Spiral peaks in the middle at 43%, against 11% below and 31% above. Ancient Flame goes 72%, then 54%, then 78%. Take them or leave them.
Not moved by key level
4 talents are common enough to be near default. Nozdormu's Teachings at 94%, Instinctive Arcana at 91%, Bountiful Bloom at 86% and Expanded Lungs at 92%. Take them all unless you want the points elsewhere.
Exhilarating Burst sits at 62% and does not move by key level. It is the one genuine split in the data. Several talents land nearer 50/50 overall, but those split by key band rather than by preference, and you will find them in the tables above.
Below that, Flow State at 27%, Twin Guardian at 15%, Innate Magic at 8% and Font of Magic at 9% are minority picks. Font of Magic is the one worth knowing about, because it raises your maximum empower level by one. For the other 91% of builds, maximum rank means rank III.
The rest of the list sits lower still. The key level movers above still carry overall rates in the teens and twenties even where they hit zero in the top band, so do not read a low overall figure as a dead talent without checking its band column.
Every talent below the floor whose rate moves less than 20 points across the bands, sorted by overall take rate. These are real choices that the key level does not appear to make for you.
| Talent | Overall n=109 | +10-14 n=36 | +15-17 n=37 | +18 and up n=36 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nozdormu's Teachings | 94% | 86% | 97% | 100% |
| Stasis | 94% | 92% | 95% | 97% |
| Expanded Lungs | 92% | 94% | 86% | 94% |
| Instinctive Arcana | 91% | 81% | 95% | 97% |
| Bountiful Bloom | 86% | 83% | 78% | 97% |
| Exhilarating Burst | 62% | 64% | 62% | 61% |
| Flow State | 27% | 31% | 27% | 22% |
| Twin Guardian | 15% | 11% | 24% | 8% |
| Spatial Paradox | 12% | 19% | 16% | 0% |
| Font of Magic | 9% | 8% | 19% | 0% |
| Innate Magic | 8% | 14% | 11% | 0% |
| Sleep Walk | 8% | 11% | 11% | 3% |
| Enkindle | 8% | 6% | 14% | 6% |
| Draconic Instincts | 5% | 11% | 3% | 0% |
| Temporal Barrier | 5% | 11% | 3% | 0% |
| Inner Flame | 5% | 8% | 3% | 3% |
| Exuberance | 4% | 0% | 0% | 11% |
| Twin Echoes | 4% | 8% | 3% | 0% |
| Unravel | 4% | 8% | 3% | 0% |
| Tailwind | 3% | 6% | 3% | 0% |
| Forger of Mountains | 1% | 3% | 0% | 0% |
| Power Nexus | 1% | 3% | 0% | 0% |
| Source of Magic | 1% | 3% | 0% | 0% |
| Potent Mana | 1% | 3% | 0% | 0% |
| Tempo Charged | 1% | 3% | 0% | 0% |
| Dream Flight | 1% | 3% | 0% | 0% |
| Time of Need | 1% | 3% | 0% | 0% |
How these numbers were measured
Runs come from Warcraft Logs. Preservation Evoker only, Mythic+ only.
Only one report counts per key. Two players in the same group each upload the same run, so the raw data holds that key twice. 27 of 352 logged rows are a second copy of this kind, and only one of each pair is counted. That is where 325 comes from.
Runs whose event stream was cut short are excluded, because their totals would be low by an amount nobody can measure. None have hit that yet.
A pull is listed only if it appears in at least 60 percent of that dungeon's runs. What you see is the dungeon's spine, not one group's exact route. If your group skips a pack listed here, or takes one that is not, nothing is wrong.
An ability is called part of the ramp only if it appears in at least 60 percent of the runs with ramp casts for that pull. One player's habit on one key does not reach the page.
Casts are only collected from the 30 seconds before a damage spike. That is a setting, not a finding, so nothing here can tell you whether a ramp starts earlier than that. Where you see a window, it is the window we looked in.
Ramps are worked out one run at a time and then compared, rather than by taking each ability's average timing separately. Doing it the second way produced ramps of six casts inside four seconds, which is faster than the game allows anyone to press buttons.
Damage figures are the whole party added together. Nothing here records who took the damage, and most autoattack damage lands on the tank. Use these numbers to compare one pull against another. They are not an amount you have to heal.