The inimitable Matthew Rossi, our burly Shaman and Warrior expert, had his hands full with the overwhelming number of Warrior glyphs that popped up in the new Wrath Beta build. Since the few Shaman glyphs this build got me a little excited -- more than the yawn-inducing Paladin ones last week, anyway -- I thought I'd cover this one while Matt does the heavy lifting with the Warrior changes.

Glyph of Water Breathing
Your Water Breathing spell no longer requires a reagent.
An excellent glyph. I'm a huge fan of these no-reagent glyphs for obvious reasons. Although Shiny Fish Scales are abundant and cheap, they do take up bag space. What I like about these types of glyphs is that they'll literally pay for themselves over time because there's a direct cost. The best part of this? It now works exactly like the Warlock spell and can be used as an additional buff in PvP without worrying about running out of Shiny Fish Scales (e.g., it still consumes a reagent in Arenas).

Glyph of Water Walking
Your Water Walking spell no longer requires a reagent.
Another cool glyph, although it's not as good as for PvP buff stacking since it's removed as soon as the target takes damage. With this glyph, however, you'll never hesitate to use Water Walking even over short distances, like crossing a river that would dismount you.

Glyph of Astral Recall
Cooldown of your Astral Recall spell reduced by 2.5 min.
Not so hot on this one because Astral Recall's 15 minute cooldown is already pretty short. I don't think I've ever had a situation where both my Astral Recall and Hearthstone were on cooldown and I wished to myself, "man, if only Astral Recall was usable again after 12 and a half minutes..."

Glyph of Renewed Life
All stats increased by 5% for 1 min when you Reincarnate.
A decent enough but situational glyph, since the stat increase is only important when rezzing in combat. When Reincarnation is used as wipe recovery, your health doesn't matter. If you find yourself rezzing a lot while in the middle of battle, such as in PvP, the extra 5% is kind of like a mini-Blessing of Kings.

Glyph of Water Shield
Increases the number of charges on your Water Shield spell by 1.
I'm not so sure how great this glyph is considering Water Shield is free, anyway. Since charges are consumed only every few seconds, the extra globe only means you won't have to cast it as soon as before. The only benefit to this glyph is activating the Global Cooldown fewer and farther between (free spells don't break the 5-second rule).

Glyph of the Black Wolf / Arctic Wolf
You appears as a black wolf / arctic wolf when using your Ghost Wolf spell.
Hooray for cosmetic glyphs! I'm all for personalization, and effects like these make the game a little more fun. I kind of like being all translucent, though...

Tags: 8905, Astral-Recall, Beta, Beta-build-8905, Build-8905, Ghost-Wolf, Glyphs, Reincarnation, Shaman-Glyphs, Water-Breathing, Water-Shield, Water-Walking, Wrath-Beta

Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Wrath of the Lich King