Major glyphs: the whens, wheres, whys, and hows
The prodigal tank returns! This is actually a topic that someone on Twitter suggested to Anafielle, who then proceeded to dither with writing it, allowing me to steal the idea in the dead of night. Or the middle of the day.
In any case, this is a topic near and dear to my heart, because I love the way the major glyphs work. I am elated whenever situational forethought is rewarded, and the ability to adapt to specific circumstances with specific glyphs is very rewarding. Below I’ve listed instances where each major glyph has a particular use at 80. I’ll have to do this post again in a month or two for 85, but for now, this should be fairly comprehensive.
Glyph of Consecration — Great choice for an AOE tanking build, and especially useful for fights with lots of adds like Dreamwalker (rot worms!), Gunship defense, or OTing ghouls/shamblers during LK. And, of course, can award some nice threat for trash tanking. Not that dps will wait long enough for Consecrate to tick before they attempt to roll their faces all over the dps meters.
Glyph of Dazing Shield — I still swap this in for the Lich King, for an additional slowing effect on the Valks. Just in case. Because I’m paranoid. Usually best not paired with Glyph of Focused Shield, because the value is multiplied in cleaving that slowing effect. Moreover, this is a good choice for pvp I would assume.
Glyph of Divine Protection — This glyph is killer for high magic damage fights (read: Sindragosa). With the short cooldown it’s ideal to hit as many of her Frost Breaths as you can, and thus take the edge off one of the biggest attacks that she brings to the table. Other fights in ICC have a much higher proportion of physical damage taken over the course of the fight, so it makes more sense to keep the ability unglyphed and roll Divine Protection off-cooldown as a damage-taken-over-time reduction.
Glyph of Focused Shield — An absolute must have for any single target spec. Also: a must have+1 for fights like Saurfang, where there’ll be adds you do not want to hit and possibly yank from the dps. Maintanking Lich King is a similar circumstance, because you don’t want to build threat on his ghouls and make the OT’s life harder.
Glyph of Holy Wrath — Ruby Sanctum. We’re not in the expansion pack full of dragons and elementals just yet, but nonetheless, you can take this glyph for a spin in the only majority-Dragonkin raid we have currently. Great for rolling on the massive packs once the commander is separated and slept out of range of your HW.
Glyph of Salvation — When tanking Festergut, I like to (on the tank switch) self-cast Hand of Salvation, cancel Righteous Fury, and then go to town on Fester with a full stack of Gastric Bloat. Combine the temporary threat drop with the removal of my threat buff, and I don’t have to worry about catching Anafielle for the rest of the fight.
Glyph of Turn Evil — Fun toy for ICC trash if you’re so inclined. No real practical use in any boss fight, unfortunately.
Glyph of the Ascetic Crusader — Mana isn’t really much of a concern at all in single target, provided you avoid Consecration and judge when necessary, so this is really just a budgeting glyph. Probably our most boring choice. I most often use it on bosses for lack of a better choice.
Glyph of the Long Word — I’ve got nothin’. Maybe in Cata?
If you’re not carrying a stack or two of Vanishing Powder at all times, you’re not doing it right. Major glyphs are a tool–a valuable one–and one that should be exploited whenever there is a gain to be had, no matter how minute it may seem.
15 Comments to “Major glyphs: the whens, wheres, whys, and hows”
Leave a Reply
Armory Feed
You take suggestions? Can I vote for a post on how terrible Vengeance is? I’ll even provide you with a title to lessen the workload.
It Burns: How I Learned to Love the Fire
@Rhidach
16 November 2010 at 2:18 pm #
Always. I’ll add it to the list!
(You know, if you want to write that post I’d be way more than happy to post it. I love getting additional voices here from time to time.)
Okay, I’ll take a swing at something after tonights raid.
I like where this is headed. While this will always be your blog, having more voices means more opinions and points of view; if you could snag a few regular writers (I’m looking at you, Meloree!) you could have a pretty unique base of knowledge going on here.
Personally I don’t even bother with consecration anymore. I’m only using Hammer of the Righteous on AoE trash pack.
@Rhidach
16 November 2010 at 2:21 pm #
Sometimes I’ll use it if I’m in my AOE spec and I don’t have anything else to hit, but that’s about it. Never drop it in single target spec.
On Topic: I like the major glyphs in principle. I’ve yet to find myself swapping glyphs at all, though, there’s isn’t really anything overly useful to swap. I don’t even bother swapping out the Focused Shield glyph on trash, it’s not worth the 5 seconds.
Err, that’s not a last blog, just the most recent post on our guild forums – I evidently neglected to click it off.
@Rhidach
16 November 2010 at 2:37 pm #
I took it out.
Glyph of the Long Word actually sounds pretty cool. The problem is that it can’t be found in the game right now.
If we can assume it works like the original Glyph of Flash of Light with 150% total healing compared to the original spell then I bet it will be very useful in the Cataclysm healing model. I haven’t rebuilt my Protection spec since the patch so I’m not sure how it would rank there, but for Holy I can see it being a decent fall back Glyph for ‘normal’ fights.
Joe Ego’s last blog ..Prepare Your Bags and Bank For Cataclysm
I am hopeful for Long Word but that depends on how the HoT works with Guarded by the Light.
@resonate1794
16 November 2010 at 3:35 pm #
I absolutely love the Divine Protection glyph. It’s very nice for tanking Keleseth on Blood Princes in addition to Sindragosa.
That’s also a really good point about the Focused Shield glyph on Saurfang — obviously, the main benefit of that glyph is better single-target TPS, but using it on fights where you specifically DON’T want to grab adds is a great idea.
Resonate’s last blog ..Welcome to Guarded By the Light
Posting to bump Rhidach’s comment count =)
@Rhidach
16 November 2010 at 4:55 pm #
Hahaha, thank you, my friend.
You are right, having a few stacks of vanishing powder is a must for any ICC tank. I run both a Prot and Holy spec so I cant change specs from AOE to Single Target but I can at least change two glyphs (one prime, one major) and essentially change me from an AOE to single target tank.
Now Rhidach you really need to do a post on what are optimal values for Dodge, Parry, and Expertise for a tankadin in general.