Glyph Selection Part 1 – Discipline

There are just too many glyphs to break down in all 3 specs so I’m going to have to break it down by spec. Part 2 will be for Holy and part 3 will be for Shadow. Each post will cover both PvE & PvP glyphs per spec where it applies (this excludes Holy), as well as healing & DPS glyphs (this excludes Shadow).

The list of Priest glyphs available can be found via doing a search on Wowhead.com:

• Major Glyphs
• Minor Glyphs

We’ll address Discipline and Shadow glyphs for both PvE and PvP because the functions are so vastly different that it’s integral for one aspect but completely useless for the other (e.g. Glyph of Fear Ward for PvE… cuz you know… those bosses really fear you around multiple times during a fight…).

I’ll also dedicate a post to minors by themselves, as there are only ~5 so no matter what spec you are, you will be slotting the same 1 or 2 throughout.

Player vs. Environment

Let’s talk Discipline healing for raids/dungeons. We should all know by now how it’s meant to work – bubble, bubble, bubble. Yeah, warriors and druids hate it. You know what guys? Your threat generation has been buffed so get over it. I’ll make sure I don’t bubble you when you only have 15 rage but if I see you’re at 95, you will get bubbled. Prot pallies? Don’t complain about not getting mana back from heals. You’re going to be getting beat on enough times to be spammed with heals during boss fights anyway. DK’s… you guys just creep me out.

Major Glyphs for Healing

1. Glyph of Power Word: Shield
   For a Discipline healer, if you understand how your spec heals, you will know this glyph is beyond delicious (May I have some moar?).  Base healing from the glyph heals your target for 0.2*2230 = 446. Since absorption also scales with spell power, you will be seeing heals bigger than that. The heals can also crit but it will not proc Divine Aegis.In practice, I see heals of ~1k from the glyph. With this glyph, you are getting an instant heal, a bubble, and mana gains from Rapture (have I linked this spell enough times for you to remember what it does yet?).  How can you not want it?!
2. Glyph of Flash Heal
   This is my next recommendation. It reduces the mana cost of Flash Heal by 10%. As Disc, Flash Heal procs your talents, in addition to Greater Heal and Penance. Reducing mana cost is always a good thing and will also prolong your utility in long fights. This increases the efficiency of Flash Heal, which has been long bemoaned for its expensive relative cost of amount healed per mana spent, compared to its more practical older sibling, so now you don’t have to feel so bad for secretly wanting to be able to spam like a holy pally sometimes. But you still shouldn’t do it.
3. Glyph of Dispel Magic or Glyph of Prayer of Healing
   As for the third major glyph, Glyph of Prayer of Healing really is the better choice. I use Glyph of Dispel Magic because I had PvP in mind in trying to create a character who was mostly geared towards PvE but viable in PvP without a huge respec and reglyphing cost. It’s also nice for those fights where magic debuffs are dealt out that usually tend to be DoTs. However, Glyph of Prayer of Healing really is more PvE-focused and more useful in a raid or dungeon healing setting. If you go this deep into the Disc tree, you will really miss CoH and your only choice for AoE healing is PoH. Make the most of what you have and slot this one in because it adds a HoT effect. If any fights require YOU to help out with AoE healing, there’s an 80% chance your party is going to take more AoE damage.

Major Glyphs for DPS as Disc/Holy (lolsmite? not anymore…)

Well, to me lolsmite is still lolsmite. I personally don’t use a Disc or Holy spec for DPS/leveling/grinding. I find the Shadow tree to be much more rewarding and versatile in this capacity (besides, a Smite build doesn’t offer Replenishment). There’s really only 1 glyph that stands out here:

1. Glyph of Smite
   It’s a nice glyph for grinding and the mobs are just beating on you. Decrease pushback by 50% so you can keep spamming and kill things faster.
2. Glyph of Inner Fire
   Now, if you’re going to be grinding, you’re going to want to up the charges on your Inner Fire. It sits at 32 un-glyphed and those charges die down pretty quick – well before the 10-minute duration is up unless you keep yourself constantly bubbled (at 23% of base mana? no thanks).

Selection here is definitely limited so pop in one of the healing glyphs to increase your utility while you’re grinding or leveling. It’ll make healing dungeons easier.

Player vs. Player

I will only address PvP glyphs for a Disc healer in Arenas/BGs. Let’s not talk about a PvP DPS Disc priest. It kills puppies. I’m not numbering the PvP glyphs because what you choose is highly dependent on your playstyle (BGs vs. Arenas) and your team composition (2v2, 3v3, or 5v5).

• Glyph of Psychic Scream
  There’s no Mana Burn glyph. We’ll have to settle. What are Disc priests good for besides l33t heals and Mana Burn? You offer emergency CC with your AoE fear. The other team pounding on you? Fear. Your team’s target is about to go down but that holy pally is about to heal him up to full? Run up to him and fear. Now keep them running for an extra second.
• Glyph of Dispel Magic
  For those nasty fights against warlock DoTs and shaman shocks. By the time you can actually dispel your teammate(s), they probably would have taken damage from the initial ticks.
• Glyph of Fear Ward
  Not really an all-around utility glyph because it will only apply when you have someone capable of fearing on the opposite team. But we also know that Fear Ward never stays on for the entire 3-minute duration. The extra 30s you gain from lowering the cooldown can make the difference.
• Glyph of Shadow Word: Death
  To be a well-rounded Arena player, you need to know when to do things and how you should do things.  There will be times you will need to be able to kill someone who’s low but someone managed to peel off your teammate who’s DPSing them. Kill him before his teammate lands a heal.
• Glyph of Mass Dispel
  I probably wouldn’t use this. From my experience in Season 4, fights didn’t last long enough for you to have to worry about mana. And if you went OOM during a fight, it was most likely because that stupid huntard landed a Viper Sting or you were idly standing in LOS of the other priest (i.e. you weren’t  pillar humping). And Mass Dispel only becomes important in a fight against mages or pallies.

  From how Season 5 looks to be shaping up so far, it’s going to be a DPS race against the other team so once again, fights shouldn’t last long enough for you to actually need this glyph.

Holy glyph selection for PvE coming up next week, probably Wednesday.