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2008-10-03 22:26:57
GC - What is being done for shaman glyphs?
Just a few examples I can post, but overall shaman glyphs seem to fall into 2 distinct categories.

A) Major Glyphs that will never be used

B) Major Glyphs that are lackluster but better then those that fall into category A.


Few examples of category A glyphs would be the 2 elemental totems. Maybe if you guys had cut the timers in half and allowed them to be used in arenas it would be something. We have a few radius/duration glyphs that can fall in here.

Look at some of the glyphs that change the core functionality of some spells like swiftmend, icy veins, evocation, crusader strike, healing tough, flash heal, power word shield, sinister strike etc. These are all very POWERFUL alterations to their spells.

What do shamans really get? 2% spell crit from flametongue, which really does nothing for resto or enhance and would be better served to increase the spell power or spell damage instead of giving them some increased crit. Chain heal and Chain Lightning seem good until you consider that the last heal/damage target will only add up to 200-400 damage even if it hits a 4th target.

Argueably the only truly powerful shaman glyph is the 40% increased AP to windfury weapon, but when you compare the majority of our glyphs to other classes there isn't a single glyph that can compare to some of the major functionality changes that druids/mages/paladins/priests get.

Is there a possibility of reviewing and modifying shaman glyphs to match the power level of some of the other classes major glyphs? If not, can you explain some of the intent behind why shaman glyphs have been set up the way they are currently?

Check this post I had made earlier for a more complete list of what I consider insane glyphs.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=10532602349&sid=2000

edit: Maeven posted feedback on Page 2 reposted from PTR users. Good feedback overall.

[ Post edited by Tangible ]
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Tangible
2008-10-03 22:30:49
Re: GC - What is being done for shaman glyphs
Glyph feedback, like the post you mentioned, is useful.

The glyphs weren't finalized until late, and we had already done a lot of testing and balancing then. They are also a little tricky to adjust because the intent is that they do change what you do slightly, instead of just buffing the buttons you'd already push.

But we plan on doing a pass on them soon.
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Ghostcrawler
2008-10-08 13:00:28
Re: GC - What is being done for shaman glyphs
From Sproutshame c/o PTR Forums:

Enh- I will divide the Enhancement glyphs by their usefulness.

Very useful
SoE- amazing glyph for 25 man raids. Best one we have by a decent margin. For lower level raids not so much. Which is perfect IMHO. No change
Stormstrike- Also amazing, especially with spell dmg making up a greater % of Enh DPS. No change
ES- Very nice for PVP, also pretty nice for PVE. Only suggestion would be to have it apply to windshock.

Limited use

Lightning shield- Even With Static Shock you only get 20% of ~35%of your dmg. Interesting idea, but not really useful. Instead, how about giving a 50% chance to proc 2 orbs. You get more DPS but obviously you would have to reapply the shield more often. This would put this glyph right at the same level as SoE and SS

FT Weapon- Not bad, a little low on overall dmg, but then again if it were higher Elemental would be all over it. Suggested change, simply hav it bump Lava lash damage when FT weapon is on the offhand. and additional 25% sounds right but I have not done the math

No Use
WF- This is by far the worst Enhnacement glyph we have. My calculations put it at about 0.06% increased dmg when going with a WF/FT combo. I have no real suggestion here, except remove it. If you keep it have it give 2-4% melee crit similar to FT weapon.


Resto

Chain heal- very nice, 12% extra healing effects IF you hit that 4th target. It is situational on a per fight basis, but it will brobably be standard in 3.0 for BT and sunwell raids.

Water mastery- Very nice as well. 30% makes the WS passive buff that much more critical to keep up. Obviously much better at level 80 than 70. (15mp5 @ 70)

Mana Tide- On the surface this is not as good as water mastery. When you lok at the numbers, it is meh. @ level 70 it is our best mana regen glyph. With 12.5k mana thats 8 mp5 for each user in the group in a 5 minute fight. At level 80 with ~16.5k you get ~12 mp5 pr person. Overall this gives a caster group more mana that water mastery. For 5 mans I would stick with water mastery. For 10/25 mans, go with Mana Tide. Also, this scales with Int.

I would like to point out that these two glyphs are very well balanced and both situational, which is exactly how glyphs should be. Great job on these.

Healing Wave- I am trying to decide how useful this would be. In theory it is awesome. In practice I can really only see it as useful in PVE 5 mans and maybe 10 mans where raid dmg occurs

Lesser HW- This is a wonderful PVP glyph. LHW is still too inefficient to use on a regular basis in PVE, but for PVP its simply amazing.

Earth Living Weapon- Nice, but 5% more on ELW equates to about 13 HPS. (assumign 1.8 coefficient). suggestion, change to buff Blessing of eternals to have the extra 80% from <50% health instead of <35%. I still probably would not get it, but at least then I would look at it.

Healing stream totem- This is deceptively good in 25 man riads. My HS ticks for about 175. This would bump it to 210. If all players are being damaged (think Felmyst) you can end up with close to 2500 HPS from this. Thats HoT (pun intended). Seriously, thats a max of about 435 HPS from the glyph. This is a must for whomever is dropping healing stream in your raid.

General
Renewed Life- Kind of useless now. Suggestion bumping the % of health and mana when you ankh 10% (30% total with imp reincarnation)

Frost Shock- PVP, someone else comment

Lightning/CL/totem of wrath- These are all elemental I am just dont have the experience to comment on them.
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Maaven