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From Dubiosity (my other blog)


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Glyphs Glyphs, which are created by characters who have the new Inscription profession (if you didn't already know), add a pretty interesting new element to the game. They're basically alternative talents that, in many cases, do interesting or unusual things to your spells, and they can actually change the way you play, unlike most of the benefits you receive from the other professions. Here's a list of the new Shaman Glyphs, and whether or not they're worth getting.

 

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Chain Heal (Req. lvl. 40) - Your Chain Heal heals 1 additional target.
I like the idea of our Chain spells hitting additional targets, but this glyph may be a bit too weak, at least compared to other glyphs. This seems to increase your total healing done by CH by about 7%, which isn't terrible, but it all depends on your style, and how often you use CH. It'd be nice if this glyph also reduced the per-jump power decrease by 5% or something.

Glyph of Chain Lightning (Req. lvl. 32) - Your Chain Lightning strikes 1 additional target.
This seems like the same thing as the CH glyph, but because CL loses less power per jump (30% instead of 50% on CH) it winds up adding about 13% to your total damage done by a single CL cast. However, unlike CH, CL has a 6-second cooldown. With the Storm, Earth, and Fire talent, Elemental specs can get that down to 3.5 seconds, which makes this a pretty attractive glyph to use, especially in PvP. It's not bad for Enhancement specs too, but I think there are better ones for you to use.

Glyph of Earth Shock (Req. lvl. 15) - Reduces the global cooldown triggered by your Earth Shock ability by 1 sec.
This strikes me as something that'll probably be useful in Arenas, but not anywhere else.

Glyph of Earthliving Weapon (Req. lvl. 30) - Increases the chance for your Earthliving weapon to trigger by 5%.
Pretty small buff, but it's probably a good one to use if you're a healer.

Glyph of Elemental Mastery - Reduces the cooldown of your Elemental Mastery ability by 30 sec.
Personally, I don't think I'd even notice having this.

Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem (Req. lvl. 68) - Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Elemental Totem by 4 min.
The Fire Elemental does a pretty decent amount of damage, especially if you're Elemental-specced. A definite "maybe".

Glyph of Fire Nova Totem (Req. lvl. 15) - Increases the radius of Fire Nova Totem's effect by 2 yards.
If you use FNT a lot, this one's pretty good. Effectively, it's increasing the totem's area of effect by 44% (452 square yards vs. 314). The newest version of Improved FNT increases the totem's damage by 20% AND gives a 2-second stun (but no detonation time reduction anymore), so this will allow you to damage and stun a much larger amount of people, potentially.

Glyph of Flame Shock (Req. lvl. 15) - Increases the duration of your Flame Shock ability by 6 sec and it is not consumed by casting Lava Burst.
This one has just been updated, and it's phenomenal for Elementals now. Let's crunch some numbers: Rank 9 Flame Shock (lvl. 80) does 500 dmg, then 556 over the next 12 seconds. With the Storm, Earth, & Fire talent, 556 becomes 843. With the Flame glyph, that's 1264 over 18 seconds. To put that in perspective, baseline Corruption (warlock spell) only does 1080 over 18 seconds. AND you won't have to keep recasting it, because Lava Burst won't eat it up. Essential glyph. Will probably get nerfed.

Glyph of Flametongue Weapon (Req. lvl. 15) - Increases spell critical strike chance by 2% while Flametongue Weapon is active.
Not bad, I suppose. Extra crit is always good. If you're Elemental and can't find a glyph that you'd find more useful, get this.

Glyph of Frost Shock (Req. lvl. 20) - Increases the duration of your Frost Shock by 2 sec.
Meh. Go for it, if you do a lot of kiting or flag-pursuing. Dungeoneers shouldn't bother.

Glyph of Healing Stream Totem (Req. lvl. 20) - Your Healing Stream Totem heals for an additional 20%.
There are much better Resto glyphs. I wouldn't bother.

Glyph of Healing Wave (Req. lvl. 15) - Your Healing Wave also heals you for 20% of the healing effect when you heal someone else.
Great if you find yourself as Main Healer often.

Glyph of Lava - Your Lava Burst spell gains an additional 10% of your spellpower
I think this one kinda sucks. This would be great if it affected Lightning Bolt instead. But 10% more spellpower on a spell you can only cast every 8 seconds is pretty lame.

Glyph of Lava Lash - Damage on your Lava Lash is increased by an additional 10% if your weapon is enchanted with Flametongue.
I'm still trying to figure out how LL will affect Enhancement players, but this looks pretty weak. Even weaker than Glyph of Lava Burst.

Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave (Req. lvl. 20) - Your Lesser Healing Wave heals for 20% more if the target is also affected by your Earth Shield.
This makes it easier to keep your MH (or yourself) alive in a pinch. Depends on how often you use LHW, I guess.

Glyph of Lightning Bolt (Req. lvl. 15) - Reduces the cost of your Lightning Bolt ability by 10%.
Probably essential for raiding shamans.

Glyph of Lightning Shield (Req. lvl. 15) - Increases the damage from Lightning Shield by 20%.
Pretty powerful if you also have Static Shock and Improved Shields.

Glyph of Mana Tide Totem (Req. lvl. 40) - Your Mana Tide Totem grants an additional Spell Power of each target's maximum mana each time it pulses.
Makes a powerful totem even more poweful? Sure, go for it.

Glyph of Stormstrike (Req. lvl. 40) - Increases the nature damage bonus from your Stormstrike ability by an additional 8%.
Could add a pretty decent amount of extra DPS to your meter.

Glyph of Water Mastery (Req. lvl. 20) - Increases the passive mana regeneration of your Water Shield spell by 30%.
A good one if you're having troubles with mana, although you may want a different glyph instead (like the ones that affect Lightning Bolt or Mana Tide).

Glyph of Windfury Weapon (Req. lvl. 30) - The attack power bonus on the additional attacks granted by Windfury Weapon is increased by 40%.
Seems good, but not as powerful as it once would have been, since I think just about everyone's going to be going WF/FT now instead of WF/WF.

 

Minor Glyphs

Glyph of Astral Recall (Req. lvl. 30) - Cooldown of your Astral Recall spell reduced by 2.5 min.
For those people who are so neurotic that they need to get to the AH more than 5 times every hour. Otherwise, worthless.

Glyph of Ghost Wolf (Req. lvl. 20) - Your Ghost Wolf form regenerates an additional 1% of your maximum health every 5 sec.
Not too bad for Enhance shamans, actually.

Glyph of Renewed Life (Req. lvl. 30) - All stats increased by 5% for 1 min when you Reincarnate.
Improved Death glyph. If you have Imp. Reincarnate and you like to pop up and finish off the guy who just finished YOU off, this could be handy to get the upper hand.

Glyph of Water Breathing (Req. lvl. 22) - Your Water Breathing spell no longer requires a reagent.
I don't think I should have to get a glyph to have this effect. But I will anyway, because the other minor glyphs suck.

Glyph of Water Walking (Req. lvl. 28) - Your Water Walking spell no longer requires a reagent.
See above.

Glyph of Water Shield (Req. lvl. 20) - Increases the number of charges on your Water Shield spell by 1.
Probably most useful for Resto shamans with Imp. Water Shield and Imp. Shields.

 

Dammit, I want a Glyph of Hex. I want to be able to turn people into penguins or skunks or other critters, like Mages can turn people into sheep, pigs, cats, snakes, and turtles.

Anonymous said...

Fri Nov 07, 02:17:00 AM 2008

Glyph of Water Shield is a minor glyph not a major. I took it along with the reagent glyphs, because the others just suck. I'm elemental, so it's nice to having to cast quite as much while soloing.

Not sure what I'll go for my third major glyph, probably Glyph of Lightning Bolt unless Glyph of Lava gets boosted.

Anonymous said...

Tue Dec 02, 04:38:00 AM 2008

For enhancement shamans the 'order' is;

Stormstrike Glyph > Earth Shock Glyph* > Lightning Shield** > Windfury Weapon > Flametongue Weapon

However for LS, WF and FT the difference between them is literally under 5dps max.

* Earth Shock Glyph is bugged and doesn't work properly atm

** Lightning Shield is useless if you ever have to use Water Shield, use Windfury Weapon Glyph.

Therefore, currently you should use Stormstrike Glyph, Windfury Weapon Glyph and Flametongue Weapon Glyph.

When they fix Earth Shock Glyph, replace Flametongue Glyph with it.

(Mostly taken from various EJ forum posts)

Anonymous said...

Tue Mar 17, 01:15:00 PM 2009

first off, this guide really isnt too great in showing true priorities between glyphs or in explaining proper uses for each one. quite honestly, you may be better off figuring it out yourself.

but anyways, i completely disagree with pretzle's enhancement priority order. reason being, you wouldnt even want to consider flametongue weapon as a glyph, let alone use it on your offhand. the buff recieved to your lava lash is incredibley insignificant to have FT on OH compared to having windfury in its place. both of your weapons should have a 2.5+ weapon speed, because of WF procs it will overall deal more damage. also, using 2 different glyphs for 2 different weapons is a complete mistake when you can maximize your dps by using one glyph to benefit both weapons. especially on boss fights, a good 30% of your dps should be generated through windfury procs.

the earth shock glyph is not a good glyph to use either because a global cooldown is only one second, and the enhancement shaman rotation provides enough leeway between cooldowns where it wouldnt even matter to have it.

water shield is not something that should ever have to be used as an enhancement shaman. your mana pool should be great enough so that it wouldnt make a difference. shamanistic rage, when used, should regenerate your entire mana pool while active, and the cooldown is short enough so that its back up by the time you begin running low again. By using lightning shield with static shock and improved shields you are maximizing your dps output.

so, in short, i highly recommend the following:
Glyph of Windfury, Glyph of Stormstrike, Glyph of Lightning Shield

in short, make sure 2.5+ weapon speed, both having windfury on them. using those glyphs, slow weapons, lightning shield, and dual-windfury, it should bring out the best of your dps in a raid, hands down.

Anonymous said...

Tue Mar 17, 01:20:00 PM 2009

oh, and to the comment previous to pretzle's from "anonymous"...

there are two glyphs that relate to water shield, one being the Glyph of Water Mastery, which increases the passive regen of your water shield by 30%. This is a major glyph and it is only useful to a resto shaman.

The glyph you are thinking of is called Glyph of Water Shield, which increases the number of charges on water shield by one, making it 4 total. This is a minor glyph and once again, would only be found useful to a resto shaman in raid.

Anonymous said...

Tue Mar 17, 01:31:00 PM 2009

To complete any questions people may have about glyphs for other specs, i will list out what 3 glyphs i see to be most useful. keep in mind that i do not PvP whatsoever, and that everything i recommend is strictly for raiding purposes.

Elemental: Glyph of Flame Shock, Glyph of Lightning Bolt, Glyph of Elemental Mastery

Resto: Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave, Glyph of Earthliving Weapon, and Glyph of Water Mastery

Enhancement: Glyph of Windfury, Glyph of Stormstrike, Glyph of Lightning Shield

of course, these glyphs are only beneficial if using the correct rotation for each spec. glyph priorities will vary depending on your talent build and rotation, use your best judgement.

thanks for reading, hopefully my information helps :)

Totemstorm said...

Fri May 01, 09:52:00 PM 2009

To be honest, using FT on your offhand weapon is far better than WF/WF. With windfury on both hands, the chance for it to proc goes down 5%. When I hit 80, I was using WF/WF and was pulling 2200 DPS with decent gear (10m geared). I trained up my FT, put it on my offhand, and i saw my dps jump from 2200 to 2800. With the increased spell power, the +fire damage on hit, and the 25% damage bonus to Lava Lash. Along with the 10% increased damage Lava Lash glyph, that's 135% damage for offhand.

Also, the DPS rotation for raids (not including procs on weapon enhancement) should be stormstrike - earth shock - lava lash - lightning bolt(if Maelstrom is at 5 stacks)

Zarmanii (Fizzcrank) said...

Tue May 12, 12:11:00 PM 2009

This is regarding Enhancemet glyphs
since 3.1 has come out, there is the new glyph of feral spirits, which boost your wolves atk pwr by 30% of yours. since they are also afflicted by bloodlust now, the glyph plays a priority roll.

so take out glyph of windfury, because even if your dual widfury, 2% more chance to proc it isnt going to help its base 20% to proccing it more often, since there is a 3 sec CD on the proc even being possible.

same goes for glyph of ligtning shield, it is based on a proc chance so it's not viable. besides, lightning shield applicationg are only 5-8% of your dps depending if you lean more towards haste, atk pwr, or crit chance, So a much better glyph to have is glyph of lightning bolt, which increases lightning bolts passive damage by 4%, 8% if it crits, which makes more sense because 16-20% of your dps comes for l bolt (depending if your dual wf or wf/ft, and depending what buffs you stack). if you use wf/ft, definantly use glyph of lava lash instead of lightning sheild, because yet agai, passive ability, less reliant on chance.