Delicious new glyphs and some rework of old ones in this massive content Patch 3.1. In the midst of all the excitement, let's try to look at the Paladin glyphs and what they mean for the class.

Glyph of Exorcism - Increases damage done by Exorcism by 20%. (Old: Your Exorcism also interrupts spellcasting for 2 sec.)
You really didn't think they'd let us keep the interrupt now that it can be cast on any target, did you? Of course not. However, this glyph is a solid choice for the third glyph slot for every Retribution Paladin, who will have Exorcism firmly in their rotations. While we pine for the loss of a possible spell interrupt, the DPS increase is pretty solid.

Glyph of Divinity - Your Lay on Hands grants twice as much mana as normal and also grants you as much mana as it grants your target. (Old: Your Lay on Hands also grants you as much mana as it grants your target.)
The mana returns are great, but there are better glyph choices out there, specially the new ones introduced in Patch 3.1, particularly the next one...

Glyph of Lay on Hands -- Reduces the cooldown of your Lay on Hands spell by 5 min.(Old: Increases the mana restored by your Lay on Hands spell by 20%)
Now this is an awesome glyph. Without talents, this allows the use of one of the best emergency buttons ever every 15 minutes. With Improved Lay on Hands, that gets cut down to 11 minutes. It still won't be usable in Arenas, of course, but the change makes it excellent for raiding. We'll probably need to use it a lot in Ulduar, anyway. Also, expect Blizzard to change the 4-piece set bonus of the Tier 3 Redemption set, designed during a time when Lay on Hands was on a one-hour cooldown.

More glyphs of pure win after the jump...

Glyph of Beacon of Light *new* - Increases the duration of Beacon of Light by 30 sec.
Okay, so not all the new glyphs are pure win. This isn't so bad, though, it's a mana conservation glyph that effectively shaves off about a third of the cost of the Beacon and also eases micromanagement.

Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous *new* - Your Hammer of the Righteous hits 1 additional target.
This is a solid DPS increase with no downside. It's excellent threat generation for multiple targets -- not that Paladin tanks really needed help in that regard -- but if you see the other glyphs available you probably wouldn't give this one a second look.

Glyph of Divine Storm *new* - Your Divine Storm now heals for an additional 15% of the damage it causes.
Raiding Retribution Paladins, who currently struggle to find the optimal third glyph, now have another option in addition to the redesigned Glyph of Exorcism. While not contributing to raw DPS, this is decent raid utility which might help during progression where raids generally take a beating. It's also an option for Arena PvP for more team healing.

Glyph of Shield of Righteousness *new* - Reduces the mana cost of Shield of Righteousness by 1 to 6%.
What does 'by 1 to 6%' mean, exactly? Aside from being vague, a mana cost reduction to an already cheap spell (it costs 6% of base mana) that's used mostly by a spec that should have very few mana problems (thanks to the reworked Guarded by the Light) is just rubbish. Alright, so much for pure win.

Glyph of Divine Plea *new* - While Divine Plea is active, you take 3% reduced damage from all sources.
Try to wrap your head around this one for a moment... the change to Guarded by the Light allows Divine Plea to be up virtually all the time. With this glyph, that translates to a near permanent 3% damage reduction. That makes this glyph arguably the best tanking glyph ever. See? There are some pure win glyphs.

Glyph of Holy Shock *new* - Reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 sec.
If you're a Holy Paladin these days and you're not using Holy Shock, you're doing it wrong. With this glyph, Holy Shock becomes even more of a staple spell. Everywhere around the world, we just heard the sound of all Shockadins soil their pants. Thank you very much.

Glyph of Hand of Salvation *new* - When you cast Hand of Salvation on yourself, it also reduces damage taken by 20%.
The PvE implications are pretty simple... if you accumulate threat, you can buy yourself some time while those mobs beat on you. On the other hand, the new feature means Paladins get a 20% damage reduction every two minutes on a Hand spell. It doesn't activate Forbearance, doesn't prevent the use of Avenging Wrath or anything like that. It turns Hand of Salvation into a straight up survivability spell on a relatively short cooldown. PvP glyph, anyone? I only wish it could be used on tanks.

There you have it. The new batch of glyphs in Patch 3.1. If our glyph choices were limited to a few, they've certainly expanded them. It should be a really fun time for Paladins when the patch finally makes it live.

Tags: 3.1, Glyph, Glyph-of-Beacon-of-Light, Glyph-of-Divine-Plea, Glyph-of-Divine-Storm, Glyph-of-Divinity, Glyph-of-Exorcism, Glyph-of-Hammer-of-the-Righteous, Glyph-of-Hand-of-Salvation, Glyph-of-Holy-Shock, Glyph-of-Lay-on-Hands, Glyph-of-Shield-of-Righteousness, Glyphs, Patch-3.1, PTR-patch-3.1, Public-Test-Realm, wow-patch-3.1, wow-ptr

Filed under: Paladin, Patches, Analysis / Opinion