A Holy Disc Priest's thoughts on the new Priest glyphs
by Matt Low 
Aug 9th 2008 at 6:30AM
A list of tentative Priest Glyphs have been released into the recent beta for Wrath of the Lich King. Since I am no expert in Shadow, I'll defer an examination of those Glyphs to the resident WI guru. All I can say for the most part is that these Glyphs show promise. I'll go over the Glyphs that affect the healing Priest (Discipline or Holy) and discuss their application raid environments, PvP environments and otherwise.
Alex Ziebart published his initial review of the Shadow Glyphs earlier today so be sure to give that a read after this one.
Glyph of Lightwell - Increases the amount healed by your Lightwell by 1 to 6%
So here is Lightwell as it is currently in the Wrath beta. As you can see, a level 80 max rank unbuffed Lightwell offers 4620 health over 6 seconds. Let's assume that lady luck is with you today and you managed to hit a 6% increase. Your Lightwell now heals for a whopping, jaw dropping, fear inducing 4900 healing (give or take). Now is that really worth a Glyph? I don't think it's worth a Glyph slot. But before we judge too quickly, lets move on down the list.
Glyph of Renew - Increases the duration of your Renew by 3 sec.
I won't go into too much detail on this one. I suspect that this would be a staple glyph of choice for both Discipline and Holy Priests. It reminds me of having the 4 set T5 bonus but without the actual T5. Out of all the Priest set bonuses in the game, I have to admit that this was one of my favourites. Glad to see it return in a Glyph form.
Glyph of Circle of Healing - Your Circle of Healing spell heals 1 additional target.
Wow. Now here's a Glyph. An additional player for Circle of Healing to hit at no additional cost other than a Glyph? Where do I sign up? I'd consider this to be a huge asset to CoH Priests everywhere. If picking Glyphs were anything like fantasy hockey drafts, then this would be my first round pick overall.
Glyph of Dispel Magic - Your Dispel Magic also heals your target for 3% of maximum health if it removes a damaging effect.
Now this Glyph in particular seems to be catered towards the PvP crowd. Assuming your friendly target is being loaded up with DoTs by opposing Warlocks (or something), then a Dispel should restore 6% of maximum health if it removes 2 damaging effects. I think that's a fair ability to add considering Dispel consumes 14% of base mana. You are getting more bang for your buck, it would appear.
Glyph of Fear Ward - Reduces cooldown and duration of Fear Ward by 30 sec.
I'm not sold on this one yet. The PvP uses of this Glyph are obvious. The duration of Fear Ward isn't going to matter much. But the 30 second cooldown reduction can be advantageous. As for how well it will operate in a raid environment, that is going to largely depend on the upcoming raid encounters. If this Glyph were in action right now on the live servers, I would most likely pass over it. My guild paid extra for stance dancing warriors anyway.
Glyph of Flash Heal - Your Flash Heal has a 50% chance to reduce the cast time of your next Greater Heal by 0.3 sec
Who would've guess Blizzard would have given our bread and butter heals unorthodox Glyphs? I don't care what anyone else says. Flash Heal and Greater Heal will always be tried and true staples of Priest healing whether it's in a traditional dungeon, PvP or raid environment. Personally, I thought they were going to pass out increased healing coefficients but this mechanic might not be such a bad idea. For Flash Heal to have a coin toss of a chance to reduce the spell cast time of Greater Heal is a plus. Priests, no matter how they are specced, are not constantly AoE healing all the time. When the raid is not sustaining copious amounts of raid damage, then we are busy supplementing main tank healing or general raid healing. I can't help but wonder if adding a Rank 1 Flash Heal to your bar in order to repeatedly cast it and maintain this Glyph buff is what we'll be doing in a few months. Actually, that does sound too complicated. Anyway, the thought of having a 2.2 second Greater Heal as an option is something worth considering adding to your arsenal.
Glyph of Prayer of Healing - Increases the radius of your Prayer of Healing spell by 5 yards.
This is another situational Glyph to use and it is going to largely depend on the nature of Wrath raids and instance encounters. In other words, whether or not this Glyph is for you to use is based upon how often you intend to cast Prayer of Healing. If you don't have Circle of Healing, then this you might want to consider this Glyph.
Glyph of Holy Nova - Your Holy Nova spell heals for an additional 30% but deals 1 to 0% less damage.
The 3 AoE healing spells given to Priests have the option of being buffed. It's up to you to decide which one you want to use the most. Compared to the CoH Glyph and the Prayer of Healing Glyph, I'd probably rank this last only because I don't see myself using it that often in order to heal my own party. I could easily accomplish the same thing with Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing.
Glyph of Spirit of Redemption - Critical heals cast while Spirit of Redemption is active increase the remaining duration of Spirit of Redemption by 4 sec.
I could not have said it any better than fellow WI Priest colleague Alex and he would be absolutely right:
Spam Circle of Healing, be dead forever. At least, in theory.
Glyph of Inner Fire - Your Inner Fire has 10 additional charges.
I don't like this Glyph. In PvP, Inner Fire will get purged anyway at some point. In PvE content, you're not expected to really tank anything for a while. The initial charges you get should be enough to keep you alive for you to be saved by nearby players. Your healing buff from Inner Fire should not be affected by the number of charges remaining.
Glyph of Shackle Undead - Extends the range on Shackle Undead by 5 yards
It's a situational use spell for PvE. Even then, I'm hoping there are other classes besides the Priest in the group that can crowd control the necessary mobs. 5 yards isn't much of a gain here. Maybe if the Glyph allowed players to shackle Dragonkin in addition to Undead mobs or something. What do you think? How could this Glyph be improved?
Glyph of Mass Dispel - Reduces the mana cost of Mass Dispel by -20%.
Unless my understand of percentages and math is horribly wrong, this means that Mass Dispel will only cost 13% of overall mana instead of 33%. This is a solid utility Glyph to pick up whether it be used for PvE or PvP.
Glyph of Smite - Increases the chance you'll resist spell interruption when casting your Smite spell by 50%.
If I can pick this Glyph for leveling, I will gladly do it. This may also be useful for Arena Discipline Priests who plan to dish out some pain in addition to healing.
Matt's Top 4 Picks
If these Glyphs were in the game right now, here's what I would choose:
- Glyph of Renew
- Glyph of Circle of Healing
- Glyph of Flash Heal
- Glyph of Mass Dispel
Don't forget to check out Alex's Shadow Glyph overview!
Filed under: Priest, Analysis / Opinion, Classes, Buffs, Inscription
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Abies Aug 9th 2008 6:47AM
Just a note... "33% of base mana" does NOT mean 33% of overall mana. Base mana is the amount you have when naked.
Every time people make this mistake.
Hansbo Aug 9th 2008 6:46AM
Excellent article, good information, and man are those inscriptions yummy. However:
"Glyph of Dispel Magic - Your Dispel Magic also heals your target for 3% of maximum health if it removes a damaging effect."
I think, from the description, that this heals your target for 3% per CAST, not per damaging effect removed. That is, it will heal for 3% even if you remove two effects. I could be wrong though.
"Glyph of Mass Dispel - Reduces the mana cost of Mass Dispel by -20%."
This would not lower the base cost from 33% to 13%, but rather from 33% to 0.33*0.8=0.264, that is, 26.4% of base mana. Still, a substantial decrease in mana cost.
Memzer Aug 9th 2008 7:06AM
I would definitely be taking the CoH & Renew Glyphs; but there is a definite allure to a potentially unlimited SoR :)
Freedomfighter Aug 9th 2008 7:27AM
You misunderstand the glyph of Mass Dispel's tooltip. It is not saying it reduces the base mana used, it is saying the spell costs 20% less mana. It is the same as if any other spell cost x% less mana.
So if mass dispel cost 500 mana before the glyph, it would cost 400 mana after.
Jill Aug 9th 2008 8:20AM
Since we have 2 slots for each level of glyph (major, minor, and lesser), why don't you break down the glyphs by their categories? Sure, you can pick four, but they all could be four major glyphs. I think having that context would be useful in assessing their benefits.
Isay Aug 9th 2008 8:26AM
I would be really nice if glyph of renew could stack, since you can have two of whatever type of whatever class of glyph it is. Two extra ticks of renew, nice. All the other glyphs seem too situational to even bother with them.
Uth Aug 9th 2008 8:25AM
Ok so with the SoR glyph, if you crit a Flash Heal 2 seconds after entering SoR (so 8 seconds left), you then gain 4 seconds (12 seconds left). That would give you the chance to res someone right? Can you res yourself?
If that works it'd be amazing. Enough crit chance on your Holy Priest and you will never die :D
GreatLich Aug 9th 2008 10:47PM
well, there's some flaws to your argument:
1) You need to die to go SoR so "Enough crit chance on your Holy Priest and you will never die" is right out.
2) Resurrection isn't a healing spell.
3) Even if it were, you're still in combat.
Charlie Aug 9th 2008 8:28AM
Are these all major glyphs or what?
For those that don't know, glpyhs have three ranks. Major, (something else), and Minor. Major being the huge changing one, will minor are aestetic changes mostly (like poly-penguin and polar bear form).
Depending on if their top tier glyphs, or just middle, changes what were going to use them for.
Anyways, i'll be taking CoH and Imp Death. You're casting on 12 targets every 3 seconds (save lag) With ~8% crit (geusstimate) you can heal forever.
Uth Aug 9th 2008 10:47AM
There's going to be a hidden cooldown on the SoR glyph, there has to be. I guess there'll be a cooldown of maybe 6 seconds?
Saelorn Aug 9th 2008 3:01PM
The internal cooldown on Spirit of Redemption glyph is only speculation. The existence or not of this will determine whether or not I retire my druid.
Zach Aug 9th 2008 9:12AM
"Glyph of Mass Dispel - Reduces the mana cost of Mass Dispel by -20%.
Unless my understand of percentages and math is horribly wrong, this means that Mass Dispel will only cost 13% of overall mana instead of 33%. This is a solid utility Glyph to pick up whether it be used for PvE or PvP."
I believe that the 20% reduction is not applied to the base mana cost, but the cost of the spell taken from base mana. Essentially 80% of what it costs now -- 865 mana -- so that's around 692 mana.
If it costs only 13% of base mana, that would be 341 mana. Ridiculously cheap for such a powerful spell.
Kinnabari Aug 9th 2008 10:11AM
In the future, could you please curb your use of bold text? I believe you think it adds emphasis, but when used so copiously, it's not only robbed of impact, but makes the blocks of texts much more difficult to follow. Imagine if someone was speaking to you and yelled a few key important words while they were speaking; those words would stick with you. Now imagine if they did it for half of every sentence. It would quickly become annoying.
I had other comments, but the earlier comments made all my points about the content itself for me.
mensrea Aug 9th 2008 10:31AM
Completely agree with this comment. Also? The more appropriate place to use bold would have been on the glyph names.
As a general rule, the writing should emphasize itself. If you have to use formatting to make your point, your writing is probably on the weak side.
Tim Aug 9th 2008 12:16PM
--- I want a Glyph of Prayer of Mending that gives a percentage chance for it to split and hop to 2 targets instead of just 1. Maybe reduce the healing if it splits, who knows.
--- Glyph of Renew that gives it a chance to acquire some kind of healing glow, bathing party/raid members near target with a small percentage of the HoT.
Cosmetically, I want minor Glyphs like these:
Glyph of Song of Angels -- adds an inspirational angel choir sound to Prayer of Healing (or maybe some other spell).
Glyph of Bathing Grace -- adds a holy glow to either shielded targets or Prayer of Mending
Seriously, give us *interesting* effects, not just slight augmentations.
Zep Aug 9th 2008 1:56PM
Even with a cooldown on SoR you'd still have a chance to crit your first heal, ending up with 10+ seconds. The question of whether you can rez yourself is interesting.
On the other hand, I believe Priests cannot be rezzed while SoR is active (had issues w/ that trying to combat-rez them on my druid).
Sarah Jan 19th 2009 12:15AM
When in SoR form we are essentially counted as alive and therefore cannot be rezzed.
Hurode Aug 9th 2008 3:20PM
Heh, the fantasy hockey bit made me laugh. Out of curiosity, who would your top fantasy hockey draft pick choices be?
That said, as an IDS-specced priest respeccing to an 18/53/0 build for Guardian Spirit come Wrath, the Flash Heal and CoH glyphs look very, very nice. I'm looking forward to Wrath so much more now, especially because I'll be making a DK with Inscription as probably my second main.
Matticus Aug 9th 2008 5:37PM
Well Hurode, since you asked:
Crosby, Sidney
Ovechkin, Alexander
Zetterberg, Henrik
Malkin, E.
Iginla, Jarome
Lecavalier, V.
Thornton, J
Datsyuk, P.
Spezza, J.
Brodeur, M.
Nabokov, E.
Kiprusoff, M.
Those are my first 12 when I start doing my draft later on this month.
Hurode Aug 14th 2008 7:17AM
I see goalies and forwards, but I'm noticing a distinct lack of defensemen. Good to see who you're a fan of though ^^