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Cataclysm beta: New glyphs for rogues and shaman

Blizzard's been hard at work adjusting a lot of WoW's game systems for Cataclysm, and one of the biggest changes in the pipeline is the overhaul of the inscription profession. You may remember the Path of the Titans alternate advancement system was axed in favor of making inscription, well, better. On top of other changes and a new UI, part of this task is adding a new tier of glyphs -- called prime glyphs -- on top of the already-existing tiers of major and minor.

Ghostcrawler recently had this to say about the new glyph system:

Ghostcrawler
Prime glyphs aren't going to be exciting in a "change up your rotation" style. We want primes to be unambiguous dps (etc.) increases so we figured they might as well be easy to understand rather than something so convoluted that everyone would just go to a fansite to see which 3 to pick.

The majors are more interesting, because they are either not dps increases at all, or dps increases in ways that are tricky to math out. We think players will debate and geek out more about which majors to use, and with the new glyph design, swapping them out once in awhile isn't very painful.

Minors are basically convenience or fun.


Several classes have had their glyphs worked on and updated as of this beta patch, but only rogues and shaman glyph passes appear to be "done," so we've listed glyphs for those two after the break.


Rogue

Prime

  • Adrenaline Rush - Increases duration by 5s

  • Backstab - Crits grant 5 energy

  • Eviscerate - +10% crit chance

  • Hemorrhage - Hemo hits cause the target to bleed for 40% of the damage over 24s

  • Killing Spree - Increases damage bonus by 10%

  • Mutilate - Reduces energy cost by 5

  • Revealing Strike - Increases bonus to finishers by 10%

  • Rupture - Increases duration by 4s

  • Shadow Dance - Increases duration by 2s

  • Sinister Strike - 20% chance for an additional combo point

  • Slice and Dice - Increases duration by 3s

  • Vendetta - Increases duration by 20%



Major

  • Ambush - Increases range by 5 yards

  • Blade Flurry - Reduces the energy regen penalty by 50%

  • Cloak of Shadows - 40% reduced physical damage while active

  • Crippling Poison - Increases apply chance by 20%

  • Deadly Throw - Increases slowing effect by 20%

  • Evasion - Increases duration by 5s

  • Expose Armor - Increases duration by 12s

  • Fan of Knives - Increases radius by 50%

  • Feint - Reduces energy cost by 20

  • Garrote - Increases duration of Silence effect by 2s

  • Gouge - No longer requires target be facing you

  • Preparation - Also resets cooldown on Kick, Dismantle, and Smoke Bomb

  • Sap - Increases NPC duration by 80s

  • Sprint - Increases movement speed bonus by 30%

  • Tricks of the Trade - Removes energy cost

  • Vanish - Increases duration by 2s


Minor

  • Blurred Speed - Sprint lets you run on water

  • Distract - Range increased by 5 yards

  • Pick Lock - Cast time reduced 100%

  • Pick Pocket - Range increased by 5 yards

  • Poisoning - You apply poisons 50% faster

  • Safe Fall - Increases the distance you can fall without damage



Shaman Glyphs

Prime

  • Earth Shield - Increases amount healed by 20%

  • Earthliving Weapon - Increases periodic heal effect by 20%

  • Feral Spirit - Gains an additional 30% of attack power

  • Fire Elemental - Reduces cooldown by 5m

  • Flame Shock - Increases duration by 50%

  • Flametongue Weapon - Increases spell crit chance by 2%

  • Lava Burst - 10% more damage

  • Lava Lash - 20% more damage

  • Lightning Bolt - 4% more damage

  • Riptide - Increases duration by 40%

  • Stormstrike - Increases bonus Nature damage by 8%

  • Water Shield - Increases passive mana regen by 50%

  • Windfury Weapon - Increases proc chance per swing by 2%


Major

  • Chain Heal - Increases healing on secondary targets by 15%, reduces healing on main target by 10%

  • Chain Lightning - Strikes 2 additional targets, deals 10% less initial damage

  • Elemental Mastery - While active, take 20% less damage

  • Fire Nova - Increases radius by 5 yards

  • Frost Shock - Increases duration by 2s

  • Ghost Wolf - Additional 10% movement speed

  • Grounding Totem - Reflects instead of absorbs spells, but cooldown increased by 45s

  • Healing Stream Totem - Increases Fire, Frost, Nature resistance

  • Healing Wave - When healing someone else, you also receive 20% of the healing done

  • Hex - Reduces cooldown by 15s

  • Lightning Shield - Can no longer lose charges to attackers when at 3 or less

  • Shamanistic Rage - Activating cleanses you of all Magic debuffs

  • Shocking - GCD of Shock spells reduced to 1s

  • Stoneclaw Totem - Grants an absorb shield equal to 4x the totem shield

  • Thunder - Reduces Thunderstorm cooldown by 10s

  • Totemic Recall - Refunds an additional 50% of the mana cost of recalled totems (Totemic Recall baseline refunds 25% of the cost)


Minor

  • Arctic Wolf - Your Ghost Wolf form looks like an arctic wolf

  • Astral Recall - Reduces cooldown by 7.5m

  • Renewed Life - Reincarnation no longer needs a reagent

  • Thunderstorm - Additional 2% mana gained, no knockback

  • Water Breathing - No longer requires a reagent

  • Water Walking - No longer requires a reagent


Special thanks to Nibble for the full list of changes and new glyphs!


World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.