This is a guest post by Gildor.
That’s exactly what I thought when glyphs were introduced. So, when I was tasked with this assignment, I decided it was about time I figure this out. Join me, won’t you?
Glyphs are merely enhancements to your current abilities. They do all kinds of fun little things like reduce cooldowns and increase spell damage or duration. And to be perfectly honest, glyphs mystify me. I think most people are a little sketchy on glyph details…I know this because I’ve seen practitioners of the inscription profession called “glyphers,” when we all know they’re called “inscriptors.” I’m kidding of course! Scribes everywhere just cursed my name… I digress, back to the task at hand.
Proper glyphs can really add to your overall effectiveness, but which glyphs are best? Not an easy answer, little hunter. There are glyphs that a survival hunter may covet and that a beastmaster wouldn’t dare touch. To further muddy the water, certain glyphs lend themselves to PvE and others are perfect for PvP. Currently there are 21 major glyphs and six minor glyphs to choose from. At level 80 one can only have three major and three minor glyphs equipped at any one time.
I have beaten around the bush long enough, time to break this down. First, there are a few glyphs that are suited for certain specs, I’ll point those out. Secondly, I’ll just go down the list and tag the PvE and PvP glyphs. Keep in mind that the argument can (and should…and undoubtedly, will) be made that any of these glyphs could be used by any hunter for any situation.
Survivalish:
Glyph of Freezing Trap
Glyph of Frost Trap
Glyph of Immolation Trap
Glyph of Snake Trap
Marksmanesque:
Glyph of Rapid Fire
Glyph of Trueshot Aura
Glyph of Aimed Shot
Beastmaster-y:
Glyph of Bestial Wrath
Glyph of Aspect of the Beast
PvE/PvP at a glance:
Glyph of Aimed Shot (PvE)
Glyph of Arcane Shot(PvE)
Glyph of Aspect of the Beast(PvP)
Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey(PvP)
Glyph of Aspect of the Viper(PvE)
Glyph of Bestial Wrath(PvE)
Glyph of Deterrence(PvP)
Glyph of Disengage(PvP)
Glyph of Freezing Trap(PvE)
Glyph of Frost Trap(PvE)
Glyph of Hunter’s Mark(PvE)
Glyph of Immolation Trap(PvE)
Glyph of Improved Aspect of the Hawk(PvE)
Glyph of Multi-Shot(PvP)
Glyph of Rapid Fire(PvE)
Glyph of Serpent Sting(PvE)
Glyph of Snake Trap(PvE)
Glyph of Steady Shot(PvE)
Glyph of Trueshot(PvE)
Glyph of Volley(PvP)
Glyph of Wyvern Sting(PvP)
As you can see, there’s a lot of room for interpretation. Some of the above glyphs can work for both PvE and PvP; it all depends on play style…much like every other aspect of Azerothian life. Currently I have equipped Serpent Sting, Hunter’s Mark and Steady Shot. The Hunter’s Mark provides a nice ap bonus and the extra six seconds of Serpent Sting allow my Steady Shot to pump out a bit more damage. But, right now I’m a casual raiding survival hunter. Steady Shot really isn’t very viable in a battleground situation. Sure, I’d love to pew pew from afar in AV…We all know that doesn’t happen for long. With so many glyphs to choose from, it is going to take some experimenting to find a nice PvP glyph mix.
This article wouldn’t be complete if we left the minor glyphs out. It is no secret that the minor glyphs are a bit lackluster. I tend to agree, of the six available, only three are worth mentioning. But, since I’ve already gone this far…what’s a few more inches amongst friends?
Minor madness:
Glyph of Feign Death
Glyph of Mend Pet
Glyph of Revive Pet
Glyph of Possessed Strength
Glyph of Scare Beast
Glyph of the Pack
The first three glyphs on this list are all you should ever need. I would think that just about every hunter would agree. Reduced Feign Death cooldown is a no-brainer. Increased happiness from mend pet, aw…happy pets are good pets. Revive pet is probably the weakest glyph of the three, but being able to bring your pet back whilst taking a beating does have PvP advantages. The other three minors are a bit silly. Maybe there’s a better use for Eyes of the Beast, but I can count on one hand the amount of times I used this ability on my way to 80. Having the Glyph of Possessed Strength wouldn’t really help my game. Perhaps I’m missing out, but I have never used Scare Beast, so the supporting glyph wouldn’t help either. Ooh, ooh…more range to make everyone run faster! I refuse to cast Aspect of the Pack in a raid because I don’t want to be the guy who forgets to turn it off. All this glyph would do is increase my chances of being called a “huntard.”
Well boys and girls, there you have it. This article doesn’t contain the absolute correct answers to which glyphs are best. What it contains are a few steps in the right direction. In my search for the answers I consulted Wowhead and those kids over at EJ. But, there isn’t a whole lot of glyph information out there…at least I wasn’t able to find a treasure trove of it. I encourage you to leave a comment if you have good information or if you have pertinent questions for me. Or, hop on over to The Hunter’s Mark Official Forums and join in the discussion.
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That’s a very nice general overview…I’m reglyphing atm and I have this page up
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I’m just now getting into glyphs, and this is really handy. I did wonder if there is any kind of equipping needed to use the glyphs, or if you just drop them onto the slots and they ‘become active.’
Any thoughts?
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kinda nice because I use the same major glyphs as stated in the guide. (hunters mark, steady shot and serpent sting).
Thought I might mention my lesser glyphs as well though.
mend pet – because you never need to feed your pet again.
pack – for scooting lowbies about faster and running people back through instances if they die (fd ftw)
and I think
feign death – because I don’t want the others (don’t need revive cause I have mend, don’t want p.strength cause its for messing about with other hunters and druids and don’t want scare beast as I don’t pvp much so I don’t need to scare druids and other hunter pets away).
hope my use of glyphs is helpful for some people
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In my haste to proof read my article in the wee small hours of the morning, I must’ve nodded off. I made the mistake of putting the mend pet tool tip onto the revive pet link.
Bad author. Bad.
The revive pet glyph reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Revive Pet by 100%.
@Stefan: Yes, once you drop the glyph into its slot, it becomes active. However, you need to be near a lexicon of power, found near inscription trainers. This is important if you try to equip a glyph in the far flung corners of Azeroth.
@Aliasa: That third minor glyph spot is funny. Most everyone agrees that feign death and mend pet are the way to go. But, I chose revive because sometimes my little gorilla just can’t stay alive. We’ll see what those silly developers at Blizz can come up with in the future for major and minor glyphs. As it stands right now, there aren’t really any clear cut “gotta have it” glyph combos. Which is why, I feel, glyphs are a forgotten aspect of the game.
@Imjorman: Thank you! It’s nice to have all the info on one page. Which is why I enjoyed your scope article, lots of good info!
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…and yes, I’ve decided to post with my characters name. I shall henceforth be known as Gildor, gadzooks and yea verily.
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I really should rock out a page like this for resto druids on my blog. What a great idea…it’s nice to see a mini guide like this, so concise and informative =) Also, reading your blog makes me want to level my hunter alt…. >.>
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mend pet and revive pet still have the same tooltip, also aimed shot and arcane shot.
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Alright, no more writing at 2am…haha.
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While I agree that the Scare Beast Glyph is still near useless, I’d like to point out that it might serve some utility in Pvp against other hunter pets and (here’s the dinger) Druids.
I remember the first time I entered a battleground with the ability and thought “gee….why not give this a try?” when fighting a druid in bear form. I’m still surprised as I was then at how many Druids forget that they can shapeshift out of the fear and would rather just take the duration running around. Moreso in world PvP on my realm.
Give it a shot once in a while. Pun fully intended.
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