mage armor glyphs

[Malagan]

You'd think the PTR would be down and disabled since today is patch day...

It's only patch day for some. Europe still hasn't got the patch.

[DirewolfX]

Glyphs were an after thought and inscription should never have been added to the game. They should take all the Prime and Major glyphs and make them free bonuses with the associated specialization instead of that stupid +25% X type of damage, then buff all our spells by 25% across the board. It's not like there's going to be any real choice in glyphs. Fireball/Pyro/LB or FFB/Pyro/LB depending on which has been simulated to higher damage. For Arcane, the same with ABlast/Amissiles and either Mage armor or ABarr. Etc.

[Simca]

I disagree.

I think that the Orime choices are obvious, but I think that Majors offer interesting choices for the classes.

Edit: I see how you could argue that Primes should have been removed and made into specialization bonuses though, but I really like Majors and Minors.

[Swizzle]

I guess it goes like

Primes: Major DPS Increases
Majors: Situational DPS increases, Situational Utility increases, Minor DPS increases, and Tradeoff Glyphs
Minor: Quality of Life glyphs

The issue is that Glyph of Frostfire is both a Tradeoff Glyph (trading damage for slow) and a Major DPS Increase Glyph. I can see the argument for both categories.

Molten Armor and Mage Armor are clearly Major DPS increases though.

Glyph of Deep Freeze isn't a major DPS increase, but it's still more interesting than 2% extra crit.

---------- Post added 2010-10-12 at 03:16 PM ----------

I disagree.

I think that the prime choices are obvious, but I think that Majors offer interesting choices for the classes.

Our majors are actually slightly set in stone since a vast majority of them are PvP oriented. Every spec is going to pick up Glyph of Evocation and Glyph of Blink. Frost will get Ice Barrier, Arcane will pick up Arcane Power, and Fire will pick up either Polymorph or Dragon's Breath. Minors are kind of the same: Slow Fall and Conjuring are required for all specs, Fire/Arcane pick up Mirror Image and Frost has their pick of Armors or Brilliance.

[Pasture]

Our majors are actually slightly set in stone since a vast majority of them are PvP oriented. Every spec is going to pick up Glyph of Evocation and Glyph of Blink.

I don't see much point in picking up evocation as Arcane. We can't afford to use Evocation as an 'oh shit I need a heal' button. I suppose we could hope needing to be healed coincides with when our Evocation comes off cooldown, but since Evocation is a dps talent for Arcane I don't think it's mandatory to Glyph.

[zephid]

I don't see much point in picking up evocation as Arcane. We can't afford to use Evocation as an 'oh shit I need a heal' button. I suppose we could hope needing to be healed coincides with when our Evocation comes off cooldown, but since Evocation is a dps talent for Arcane I don't think it's mandatory to Glyph.

You are not doing any damage if you are dead.

You can still use Evocation as an "oh shit" button, you have to slow your dps but you would still be alive.

[Swizzle]

I don't see much point in picking up evocation as Arcane. We can't afford to use Evocation as an 'oh shit I need a heal' button. I suppose we could hope needing to be healed coincides with when our Evocation comes off cooldown, but since Evocation is a dps talent for Arcane I don't think it's mandatory to Glyph.

It allows healers to ease healing on the mage every 2 minutes, allowing for less mana usage and more tank stability.

[Raxxius]

slightly off topic mage question, for arcane, does Glyph of Slow effect the Nether Vortex talent?

[Pasture]

It allows healers to ease healing on the mage every 2 minutes, allowing for less mana usage and more tank stability.

That depends on whether you actually require healing on those 2 minute cooldowns. I mean I can see how you can luck into it being useful, I'm just not sure if I'll be picking it up or not.

For Zephid, aside from mana concerns Evocation isn't in itself a great 'oh shit' button given you need to plant yourself to the spot for six seconds to heal. I guess that depends on the 'oh shit' moment though. Some will allow you to stand, others will require you to move.

[Swizzle]

That depends on whether you actually require healing on those 2 minute cooldowns. I mean I can see how you can luck into it being useful, I'm just not sure if I'll be picking it up or not.

For Zephid, aside from mana concerns Evocation isn't in itself a great 'oh shit' button given you need to plant yourself to the spot for six seconds to heal. I guess that depends on the 'oh shit' moment though. Some will allow you to stand, others will require you to move.

The cataclysm model will almost guarantee you'll be taking varying amounts of damage through out the fight with varying amounts of healing needed. You're using evocation to restore mana anyway, the healing keeps you alive while doing it and allows healers to look elsewhere while you're doing it. The glyph literally has no down side and there aren't any other glyphs worthwhile in PvE.

[DirewolfX]

The cataclysm model will almost guarantee you'll be taking varying amounts of damage through out the fight with varying amounts of healing needed. You're using evocation to restore mana anyway, the healing keeps you alive while doing it and allows healers to look elsewhere while you're doing it. The glyph literally has no down side and there aren't any other glyphs worthwhile in PvE.

Lies, it totally screws you over during Anub'arak P3. =P

[Skarrd]

Lies, it totally screws you over during Anub'arak P3. =P

Clearly we just need to use it when we have PC and only when we have PC!

Anyway, Primes are rather useless and I tend to agree with dire's statement of integration without glyphs being essentially the same idea with less complication. WotLK glyphs all followed this essentially pointless model, but the majors in cata seem a bit different. For now, most classes don't seem to have enough variety of glyphs for it to make big differences. I'm hoping that changes and we actually get to make decisions of what we want for our majors.

As of now, the 4 classes I play mostly have 3 or 4 major glyphs that can be useful per spec. If that number were upped to something like 5 6 or 7, then we would have some really interesting choices to make. Maybe that's a lot to consider and implement, but I think there's potential for major glyphs to be very interesting. Primes are hand picked for you by theorycraft, minors are fun and make almost no difference, and majors can vary use depending on preference. I think that's a pretty decent glyph model. [edit] Though, I do think they should look back upon some of their original plans for glyphs. I believe in their preview they mentioned things like a stun effect on fireball. Little things like this could be very fun for a major slot, though they may take some extra effort for balancing.