Changes to Lock Glyphs in Cataclysm

for HolyCow

I was looking at the Cataclysm Glyphs. With 9 total glyph 'slots', we're going to definitely get some breathing room. No longer forced to sell our Souls only to get a flying kilrogg. I don't know about you, but weren't you giddy with exhaustion that your demon enslaved FASTER. (He only lasts 1 MINUTE, every milisecond counts!) Seriously, having these 6 options and only get mediocre low-level glyphs, was, well sort of an insult. 35 glyph options and we all knew EXACTLY which ones you absolutely had to have.

~3 Minute preview of (a mage) New Glyph UI!



Coming soon, we'll get 34 glyph options (7 Minor, 14 Major and 13 Prime). Most of the Prime glyphs are existing Major (3.3) glyphs, so you'll need to move them around from your major slots to the Primes.

Prime glyphs aren't going to be exciting in a 'change up your rotation' style. We want primes to be unambiguous dps (etc.) increases so we figured they might as well be easy to understand rather than something so convoluted that everyone would just go to a fansite to see which 3 to pick.

The majors are more interesting, because they are either not dps increases at all, or dps increases in ways that are tricky to math out. We think players will debate and geek out more about which majors to use, and with the new glyph design, swapping them out once in awhile isn't very painful.

Minors are basically convenience or fun.

Here are the Glyph changes as of today:
Prime:

• Chaos Bolt - moved to prime
• Conflagrate - only reduces CD, consumes Immolate
• Corruption - moved to prime
• Bane of Agony - name change only
• Felguard - only improves Legion Strike spell, not all damage
• Haunt - moved to prime
• Immolate - moved to prime
• Imp - moved to prime
• Incinerate - moved to prime
• Metamorphosis - moved to prime
• Lash of Pain (fka Quick Decay) now buffs Succubus
• Shadowburn no CD if fails to kill target below 25% (instead of slowdown)
• Unstable Affliction - moved to prime

Major:

• Fear - target doesn't run around, but trembles in fear (10s cd)
• Life Tap - reduce cd of spell, removes SP boost.
• Soul Swap (fka Searing Pain) - leaves dots on source also, increases CD to 10s.
• Shadow Bolt - reduce mana cost to 15% from 10% in 3.3
• Soulstone - change in amount of health recovered.
• Seduction (fka Succubus) - only name change

Minor:

• Drain Soul - returns mana (upon death of target) instead of extra shards
• Health Funnel (downgrade from major)

So, what does this mean for Elk? In Wrath - Affliction build, he's running major glyphs of Haunt, Life Tap and Quick Decay. It appears that LT and Quick Decay are not going to have any spell power boosts, so I'll be swapping them out for something else.

• Haunt - move to prime
• Bane of Agony - add to prime
• Quick Decay - out major -> Corruption - in prime

• Life Tap - out major -> Soul Swap - in major -- this one looks promising, as my biggest complaint with Soul Swap was that the former target lived on and now lost dots, dying slower.
• Fear - add to major - understand Cataclysm is going to need more CC, this is perfect!
• Shadow Bolt - add to major 

For his Destruction (mostly PVP) build, he's currently running major glyphs of Chaos Bolt, Soul Link and Conflagerate. Soul Link stayed a major glyph, but the other two moved to Prime slots. Since the Immolate is now consumed even with the conflag glyph, it's primary benefit may be voided. I am considering picking up a alternate.

• Chaos Bolt - move to prime
• Conflagerate - out of major -> Imp - into prime
• Incinerate - add to prime

• Soul Link - add to major
• Howl of Terror - add to major
• Shadowflame - add to major

Overall, I am liking the Affliction glyph changes the best. Soul Swap needed this and adding a tremor function to Fear is wonderful. You can now safely use fear in close-quarters areas and not worry about aggroing the entire room; successfully moving the spell from PVP-only to PVE. Sorry to see Conflagerate getting 'nerfed' to an only CD reduction glyph. I guess you could roll with Imm, Conflag, inc inc inc, and repeat much quicker??