Guide to Inscription Glyphs.

[wtbcookies]

Inscription is a new profession coming out in the next major content patch (actually before Wrath of the Lich King). With Inscription comes the ability to craft glyphs that other players can use. Glyphs are kind of a cross between a trinket and a potion, in that they are equipable but consumable items. Characters will gain access to their glyph slots, in which you can equip glyphs, as they level. Currently level 19 characters will be able to use to 1 major and 1 minor glyph slot.

I wanted to put together a list of the known major glyphs and provide my own analysis on which ones I see being the most useful for each class. Keep in mind that this is focused only on level 19 twinks -- higher levels have additional glyph options. Also notably missing are glyphs for Warriors. I’ll add information for this class as soon as Blizzard releases it.

This information is also subject to change as the content progresses through beta testing. I plan to update these posts as I become aware of any changes or additions to these glyphs.

All information about the specific class glyphs and their descriptions were obtained from this page: http://www.elsprofessions.com/inscri...criptions.html. This site is a good reference for answering other questions you may have about the Inscription profession and glyphs.

The following glyphs are all considered major glyphs so you will only be able to equip one at a time (at level 19). I have tried to list them in the order of what I think are the more important to the less important glyphs per class. I welcome feedback in this thread from other players on what glyphs you see yourself using.

[wtbcookies]

Druid

Glyph of Rejuvenation – While your Rejuvenation targets are below 50% health, you will heal them for an additional 50% health.
- This appears to mean that your rejuvenation spells will heal for 150% if the target has lower than half their health. This is a pretty substantial bonus.

Glyph of Regrowth – Increases the amount of your initial Regrowth heal by 50% if your Regrowth effect is still active on the target.
- This offers a nice healing bonus (an average of 88 healing without considering any healing bonus) if using Regrowth repeatedly on a target. My guess is that this glyph would prove most useful in arena skirmishes or WSG when being responsible for healing only one or two targets.

Glyph of Healing Touch – Decreases the cast time of Healing Touch by 1.5 seconds, the mana cost by 25%, and the amount healed by 50%.
- It’s important not to misread the last part of this statement. This glyph offers a 1 second cast time at 75% of the normal mana cost for a heal that is only 50% of the normal amount. It could be very useful in situations where the druid needs fast heals to avoid interruption, but is less mana efficient than the normal Healing Touch when a longer battle is necessary.

Glyph of Entangling Roots – Increases the damage your Entangling Roots victims can take before the Entangling Roots automatically breaks by 20%
- This glyph should increase the duration of Entangling Roots on targets taking damage. I don’t see it as being quite as useful if Entangling Roots are just being used to escape a target that is not actively being attacked.

Glyph of Moonfire – Increases the periodic damage of your Moonfire ability by 75%, but initial damage is decreased by 90%.
- For Rank 3 Moonfire this means the DOT component does 91 total damage (instead of 52), but the initial damage is only around 3 (excluding any spell bonus damage). If you find yourself using Moonfire often for DPS, and not recasting it before the DOT has expired, this glyph potentially offers a nice damage boost. However, since the initial damage of Moonfire can crit and the DOT component can’t, it is possible that this glyph could result in an overall reduction in your damage output.

Glyph of Wrath – Increases the chance you’ll resist spell interruption when casting your Wrath spell by 50%.
- I have seen few 19 druids spending much time casting Wrath, but this might be useful in situations that require it.

Glyph of Swipe – Your Swipe ability now hits 1 additional target.
- So few druids choose a feral build at 19 that this isn’t likely to be that useful. It appears to be designed for PVE tanking.

Glyph of Growl – Increases the chance for your Growl ability to work successfully by 8%.
- Growl is not really useful for PVP.

[wtbcookies]

Hunter

Glyph of Hunters Mark – Increases the attack power bonus of your Hunter’s Mark by 20%
- Offers a very nice attack power boost for arena play where you are typically focused on a few characters and mark your targets.

Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey – While Aspect of the Monkey is active, each time you dodge you gain 30% increased movement speed for 6 seconds (does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects).
- Very nice way to gain range against a rogue, warrior, or other melee attacker. Might also be useful for flag running if you manage to dodge attacks.

Glyph of Arcane Shot – Your Arcane Shot refunds 20% of its mana cost if the target has one of your Stings active on it.
- Decent mana saving when attacking or kiting, generally more useful in the arena where mana drinks and potions aren’t available

Glyph of Multi-Shot – Decreases the cooldown of Multi-Shot by 1 sec.
- Not a tremendous time savings off the Multi-Shot cooldown, but ok. Probably most useful in WSG where you are regularly attacking grouped targets.

Glyph of Immolation Trap – Decreases the duration of the effect from your Immolation Trap by 6 seconds, but damage while active is increased by 100%.
- At level 19 this means your immolation trap will cause 14 damage every second for 9 seconds. While this is only a total increase of 11 damage compared to a normal trap, it is delivered quicker, which could be useful if using your trap to help burst a target down. This glyph may not be as useful if you are using your trap as a dot to prevent bandaging.

Glyph of Improved Aspect of the Hawk – Increases the haste bonus of the Improved Aspect of the Hawk effect by an additional 6%.
- I rarely see 19 twink hunters put points into Improved Aspect of the Hawk, so this isn’t likely to benefit many players.

[wtbcookies]

Mage

Glyph of Frost Nova – Your Frost Nova targets can take an additional 20% damage before the Frost Nova effect automatically breaks.
- This glyph should increase the duration of Frost Nova on targets taking damage. I don’t see it as being quite as useful if Frost Nova is just being used to escape a target that is not actively being attacked.

Glyph of Fireball – Increase the initial damage dealt by Fireball by 5%, but removes the damage over time effect.
- A 5% increase in Fireball damage makes this glyph pretty useful if you aren’t counting on the DOT component to keep an opponent from bandaging.

Glyph of Fire Blast – Increases the critical strike chance of Fire Blast by 50% when the target is stunned or incapacitated.
- This is a very powerful glyph, especially for a fire mage, if the attack is timed correctly. It would require the target to be affected by Gouge, Bash, Hammer of Justice, Blackout, Charge, a stun from an engineering bomb or the effects of the Impact talent.

Glyph of Arcane Missiles – Increases the range of Arcane Missiles by 5 yards.
- Arcane Missiles also aren’t typically the main attack of a twink mage, but extending their range could be helpful in some situations.

Glyph of Polymorph – Your polymorph spell also removes all damage over time effects from the target.
- This could be a pretty useful feature to have in an arena or battleground setting where you may need to polymorph a target with an existing DOT on it and keep it from breaking.

Glyph of Arcane Explosion – Reduces the mana cost of Arcane Explosion by 10%.
- Arcane Explosion won’t be the main attack of any good twink mage, but this glyph could be useful in extending your supply of mana when you do need to use the AOE.

Glyph of Frostbolt – Increases the damage dealt by Frostbolt by 5%, but removes the slowing effect.
- Since the slowing effect of Frostbolt is one of its most valuable features in PVP I don’t think many twink mages would opt for this glyph.

Glyph of Ice Armor – Your Ice Armor and Frost Armor spells grant an additional 20% armor and resistance.
- This provides only 22 more armor to Frost Armor and probably isn’t worth using unless alternative glyphs are unavailable.

[wtbcookies]

Paladin

Glyph of Hammer of Justice – Increases your Hammer of Justice duration by 1 second.
- A stun of 4 seconds instead of 3 is pretty useful for focusing down a target or getting another bandage tick in.

Glyph of Holy Light – Your Holy Light grants 10% of its heal amount to up to 5 friendly targets within 5 yards of the initial target.
- This is a really interesting glyph since it gives what is essentially a 20-30 health (depending on healing bonuses) AOE heal ability to paladins. Teammates may not always be fighting within a 5 yard radius, but in those situations this can be a very powerful glyph to have equipped.

Glyph of Judgement – Your Judgements deal 10% more damage.
- For paladins actively engaged in combat this glyph is a useful bonus to the damage dealt through Judgements.

Glyph of Blessing of Wisdom – Your Blessing of Wisdom causes your target to also regenerate health at the same rate as mana.
- This appears to give players buffed with Blessing of Wisdom health regeneration of an additional 10 HP every 5 seconds. The extra health regeneration isn’t amazing, but could provide an edge in some fights.

Glyph of Blessing of Might – Your Blessing of Might also grants offensive spell power equal to 10% of the attack power it grants.
- At level 19 this means casting classes would gain around 3 or 4 spell damage if buffed with Blessing of Might. Even if a paladin puts talent points in Improved Blessing of Might, the buff only grants 4 spell damage. So it is probably isn’t going to be preferred over Blessing of Wisdom unless the buffed player is trying to maximize their spell damage.

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Priest

Glyph of Renew – Reduces the duration of your Renew by 3 seconds but increases the amount healed each tick by 40%.
- Before figuring in any healing bonuses this glyph should increase the amount healed by a normal Renew by about 12 health, not to mention that it takes only 12 seconds. Speedier heals are definitely useful.

Glyph of Psychic Scream – Increases the duration of Psychic Scream by 1 second.
- Since the duration of Psychic Scream was only 8 seconds (below the normal PVP cap for crowd control), this does benefit priests by giving another potential second of freedom from attack.

Glyph of Power Word: Shield – Your Power Word: Shield also heals the target for 20% of the absorption amount.
- At level 19 destruction of a full shield would heal the protected player for around 32 health. I assume this doesn’t benefit from any healing bonuses of the caster, but it will have to be tested. Not a bad bonus if you’re going to be shielded anyway.

Glyph of Dispel Magic - Your Dispel Magic spell also heals your target for 6% of maximum health.
- This glyph gives a very nice side benefit of dispelling magic on a friendly target. The greater the health of the target, the more health a successful dispel heals.

Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain - Reduces the mana cost of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 20%.
- A decent bonus that saves you around 15 mana per cast.

Glyph of Smite - Increases the chance you'll resist spell interruption when casting your Smite spell by 50%.
- I don’t see a lot of priests regularly casting Smite, but this glyph could cut down on the chances of it being interrupted.

Glyph of Inner Fire – Increases the duration of Inner Fire by 100%.
- Since you are likely to need to renew the Inner Fire buff before the normal 10 minute duration in PVP anyway, I don’t think this glyph will be terribly useful to twinks.

[wtbcookies]

Rogue

Glyph of Sinister Strike – Your Sinister Strike critical strikes have a 101% chance to add an additional combo point.
- Given the high critical strike chance of most twink rogues this could be a very useful glyph for quickly building up combo points against a target.

Glyph of Eviscerate – Increases the critical strike chance of Eviscerate by 10%.
- This is a good glyph for increasing damage output that isn’t dependent on the class you are fighting.

Glyph of Evasion – Increases the duration of Evasion by 5 seconds.
- This is a pretty substantial boost (an additional 25%) to the duration of Evasion, which should provide a decent advantage in fight against another rogue (or melee class) without this glyph.

Glyph of Backstab - Increases the damage dealt by Backstab to stunned and incapacitated targets by 20%.
- This can provide a very nice damage boost if execute a Gouge to Backstab combo with a dagger equipped in your main hand. Otherwise you have to rely on the stun effect (Bash, Hammer of Justice, Blackout, Charge, or Impact) of another player.

Glyph of Gouge – Reduces the energy cost of Gouge by 10
- Useful in situations where you need to work in a Gouge without having to wait as long for energy to regenerate.

Glyph of Garrote – Increases periodic damage dealt by Garrote by 45%, but decreases the duration by 3 seconds.
- A 45% boost to Garrote damage is a very nice bonus if you prefer that opener to a Backstab or Ambush.

Glyph of Sprint – Decreases the cooldown of Sprint by 60 seconds.
- Probably not as useful in arena, but reducing the Sprint cooldown to 4 minutes would be valuable in WSG for catching flag carriers or getting away from opponents.

Glyph of Ambush – Increases the range on Ambush by 5 yards.
- Definitely helps you to get off your opener (assuming a dagger in the main hand) more often since positioning won’t be such a pain. However, it is probably not as useful as other glyphs since it only helps with the opener.

Glyph of Slice and Dice – increases the duration of Slice and Dice by 3 seconds.
- Not a bad glyph, but hard to choose it over the better alternatives.

Glyph of Expose Armor – Increases the duration of Expose Armor by 10 seconds.
- Given the alternatives, this glyph doesn’t provide much benefit for PVP.

Glyph of Feint – Reduces the energy cost of Feint by 10.
- Not useful in PVP.

Glyph of Sap – Increases the duration of Sap by 10 seconds.
- Worthless in PVP since Sap duration is already capped at 10 seconds.

[wtbcookies]

Shaman

Glyph of Flametongue Weapon – Increases spell critical strike chance by 2% while Flametongue Weapon is active.
- This is a very nice bonus for elemental shaman and is probably the ideal glyph choice for most situations.

Glyph of Strength of Earth Totem – Your Strength of Earth Totem also grants 1% melee and ranged critical strike chance.
- In group situations (like WSG) this is a very nice bonus to any non-caster players within range of the totem. Shamans with this glyph might be the new best friend of hunters, rogues, and warriors.

Glyph of Flame Shock – Increases the range on your Flame Shock ability by 10 yards.
- This is a nice boost to the range of Flame Shock that can help you get it on an opponent either earlier in a fight or as they run away.

Glyph of Healing Wave – Your Healing Wave also heals you for 20% of the healing effect when you heal someone else.
- This is definitely a nice bonus for resto shaman who can continue to heal their target and regain some health themselves.

Glyph of Lightning Shield – Increases the damage from Lightning Shield by 20%.
- This adds about 5 damage per Lightning Shield orb. Not a tremendous boost, but might be helpful in some fights if Lightning Shield is repeatedly reapplied.

Glyph of Lightning Bolt – Reduces the cost of your Lightning Bolt ability by 10%.
- A decent mana savings, but Lightning Bolt isn’t the main attack generally used by a shaman at this level.

Glyph of Fire Nova Totem – Increases the radius of Fire Nova Totem’s effect by 2 yards.
- While Fire Nova Totem isn’t used a ton by twinks, this range boost can help it affect more targets when it is used.

Glyph of Earth Shock – Reduces the global cooldown triggered by your Earth Shock ability by 1 second.
- If this glyph reduced the cooldown on Earth Shock it would be pretty nice, but I’m not sure it has as much value by just reducing the global cooldown to half a second. Probably not as useful as alternative glyphs.

[wtbcookies]

Warlock

Glyph of Searing Pain – Increases the critical strike bonus of your Searing Pain by 20%.
- Offers a nice damage bonus when Searing Pain crits.

Glyph of Curse of Agony – Increases the duration of your Curse of Agony by 4 seconds.
- In addition to delivering more damage, this glyph makes Curse of Agony an even more effective DOT if it is being used to prevent an opponent from bandaging.

Glyph of Corruption – Your Corruption spell has a 4% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance state after damaging an opponent. The Shadow Trance state reduces the casting time of your next Shadow Bolt spell by 100%.
- An instant Shadow Bolt is a pretty nice benefit for when this glyph procs.

Glyph of Fear – Increases the damage your Fear target can take before the Fear effect is removed by 20%.
- This glyph should increase the duration of Fear on targets taking damage. I don’t see it as being quite as useful if Fear is just being used to escape a target that is not actively being attacked.

Glyph of Immolate – Increases the periodic damage of your Immolate by 20% but decreases the initial damage by 10%.
- This glyph increases the overall damage of Immolate by 9 (before taking into account any spell damage bonuses). However, since the initial damage of Immolate can crit and the DOT component can’t, it is possible that this glyph could result in an overall reduction in your damage output.

Glyph of Shadow Bolt – Reduces the mana cost of your Shadow Bolt by 10%.
- This provides a decent mana savings when using Shadow Bolts.

Glyph of Healthstone – You receive 30% more healing from using a healthstone.
- Healthstones for 19 twinks are already kind of weak given the minimal percentage of your health they can heal, so a 30% boost isn’t bad.

Glyph of Voidwalker – Increases your Voidwalker’s health by 20%.
- Voidwalkers are already pretty tough to take down, so another 20% to their health makes this even tougher. If a warlock depends on their Voidwalker staying alive to keep an opponent in combat or from bandaging, this glyph might be worth using.

Glyph of Imp – Increases your Imp’s spell damage by 20%.
- It seems that Voidwalker is the pet of choice for most warlocks since Imps are so easy to kill. But if you decide to use an Imp this boost to his damage is decent.

Glyph of Soulstone – Increases the amount of health a player gains from resurrecting via your Soulstone by 100%.
- I rarely see players using Soulstones in level 19 PVP so I don’t think this glyph is very useful.

Glyph of Health Funnel – Increases the chance you’ll resist spell interruption when channeling your Health Funnel spell by 100%.
- I don’t see many warlocks bothering to use Health Funnel, so this glyph probably doesn’t provide much

[wtbcookies]

Warrior

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