MoP beta: Warrior glyphs.

Something I've been looking forward to reading is the list of glyphs for Protection warriors in PvE, as much of the furore about the loss of certain talents was always going to be sidelined by glyphs. In particular, the loss of our talented critical strike rating for abilities like Devastate, Shield Slam and Heroic Strike was one that puzzled me originally, given the fact that they formed a significant part of our damage output.

Now we have sight of the glyphs, however, and I must say I'm strongly disappointed by the options offered for Protection PvE. In fact, I'm literally shaking my head in disbelief that they're so poor; there's close to nothing for those of the tanking dungeoneer persuasion, and that just makes me sad.

Let's take a look.

First of all, I'll list the glyphs that are cosmetic and are only for fun. Most if not all of these are minor, so nothing is really lost.

- Glyph of Bloodcurdling Shout: Your Battle Shout and Commanding Shout terrify small animals.
- Glyph of Burning Anger: You get so angry when Enraged that you catch on fire.
- Glyph of Gushing Wound: Your Bloodthirst critical strikes are even bloodier than normal.
- Glyph of Murder of Crows: Your Execute critical strikes summon a flock of carrion birds.
- Glyph of Thunder Strike: Your Thunder Clap visual includes a lightning strike.

Ultimately, with the cosmetic glyphs, it's entirely up to you. Whatever you think is the most fun, go ahead and pick it up. Unless you're a tank, of course, and your choice is made for you (Burning Anger, Bloodcurdling Shout and Thunder Strike).

The major glyphs, or "glyphs that do stuff", are obviously more numerous and are very situational in most cases. This is by design intent, so that you don't feel as if you should have a definite list of what's best. Naturally, that's why Prime glyphs bit the dust and I confess they're no loss. I saw nothing compelling in unambiguous damage upgrades.

- Glyph of Blitz: Your Charge stuns an additional 2 nearby targets.

Probably useful in PvP, of no real value in PvE as it won't work on bosses. Useless for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Bloodthirst: Increases the healing of Bloodthirst by 100%.

This will be very handy for Fury PvP, as well as boss encounters that have a lot of unavoidable damage flying around. Useless for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Bloody Healing (NYI): Increases the healing you receive from bandages by 20% while your Deep Wounds is active.

Once more, this will have value if your opponent can be kited or locked down while you bandage up after applying Deep Wounds. Certain boss encounters might see this used, but I highly doubt it. Useless for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Bull Rush: Increases the duration of your Charge stun by 1 sec.

When mixed with the Blitz glyph, there's some interesting options; particularly if you pick up the Double Time talent. Useless for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Cleaving: Increases the number of targets your Cleave hits by 1, or 3 when Enraged.

The AoE potential of this glyph, particularly with the new 'zerker stance, is pretty obvious. Obviously, it's of absolutely no value on single targets (bosses). Either mandatory of superfluous for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Death from Above: Reduces the cooldown on Heroic Leap by (15000/-1000) sec.

In lieu of talents that prop up Heroic Leap, this glyph gives you the opportunity to use it more often. Yay. Limited use for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Enduring Victory: Increases the window of opportunity in which you can use Victory Rush or Impending Victory by 5 sec.

Useless to the point of it making no sense. Impending Victory works off a base cooldown, so what's getting extended by 5 seconds? Who knows? Maybe it should read that Impending Victory has 5 seconds taken off its cooldown, but even then it's dependent on whether or not you took the talent. Baffling. Limited use for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Enraged Speed: While Enraged, you move 20% faster.

This looks to be a great glyph, but obviously depends on how often warriors are enraged. Of course, it merely addresses the fact that warriors are currently the class with no available speed increase, but this strikes me in two ways; it'll either be an apology for gutting our mobility otherwise, or be nerfed into pointlessness because it looks overpowered. Of great utility for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Gag Order: Your Pummel, Heroic Throw and Storm Bolt hits silence the target for 3 sec.

Great in PvP by the look of it, but won't work on bosses. Next. Useless for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Hamstring: Using Hamstring reduces the cost of your next Hamstring by 100%.

I'm assuming this won't be activated by the free Hamstring, so one in two will be free by my reading. You never know, of course, that might be wrong - but somehow, I doubt it. Needless to say, Hamstring doesn't work on bosses and tanks rarely use it. If we need to kite, we use Piercing Howl. Useless for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Heavy Repercussions (NYI): While your Shield Block is active, your Shield Slam hits for an additional 50% damage.

Ignoring the fact this should be baseline because neither Arms nor Fury can use it, the loss of all our critical strike rating makes this glyph an obvious choice for tanks. Mandatory for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Hoarse Voice: Reduces the cooldown and rage generation of your Battle and Commanding Shout by 50%.

The value of this glyph will almost completely depend on whether or not Blizzard go ahead with the despicable plan to put gaps into warrior rotations. If that happens, this glyph shifts from "abject pointlessness" to "mandatory". Useless or mandatory for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Hold the Line: Improves the damage of your next Revenge by 50% following a successful parry.

Yet again, I can't think of a reason for this to be a glyph rather than a baseline ability for tanks. Sure, it might be of use in PvP but warriors tend not to go sword and board for much more than Spell Reflect these days and, with stance requirements removed, not even that will happen in the next expansion. Dull and lifeless, but a necessity for tanks. Mandatory for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Long Shout: Increases the duration by 2 min of Battle Shout and Commanding Shout.

As these are likely to be used to plug gaps, there's no real value to these glyphs. A complete waste. Useless for Protection in PvE.


- Glyph of Mortal Strike (NYI): When your Mortal Strike is affecting a target, healing effects on you are increased by 10%.

VERY powerful in PvP, and will likely go a long way to helping Arms warriors survive longer; particularly if this also affects self-healing, which I'm assuming it will. But guess what? Useless for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Overpower: Cleave hits increases the damage of your next Overpower by 10%.

Another Arms only option, and could end up mandatory depending on the delta between Heroic Strike and Cleave on a single target. Put simply, will Heroic Strike plus Overpower do more damage than Cleave plus Overpower hitting 10% harder? But again: useless for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Raging Wind: Your Raging Blow hits increase the damage of your next Whirlwind by 0%.

Ignoring the number, we have to assume that Raging Blow will increase the damage of your next Whirlwind. Situational Fury glyph. Useless for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Recklessness: Recklessness no longer increases damage taken.

One of the game's weakest damage cooldowns retains its pointlessly long cooldown, its potential to do absolutely nothing, and needs a glyph to stop it being a liability. Utterly awful. In a bizarre quirk, however, its viability for Protection shouldn't be ignored as it makes Recklessness risk-free. Situational for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Resonating Power: Reduces the damage by 20% and increases the duration by 20% of your Thunder Clap.

Tanks will be using Thunderclap practically on cooldown to plug gaps, while Arms and Fury won't be interested in Thunderclap beyond its Deep Wounds potential; which remains unaffected. Crap. Useless for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Rude Interruption: Succesfully interrupting a spell with Pummel increases your damage by 5% for 30 sec.

More a five-man glyph when you're likely to be the one doing the interrupting, but best left to a DPS class when doing the harder content as they'll get the benefit from it. Situational for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Shield Slam: Your Shield Slam now dispels 1 magical effect.

So our baseline Shield Slam gets nerfed, and has a glyph to prop it up. Pretty much standard practice for "Mists of Warrior Reroll" at this point. Situational for Protection in PvE.

- Glyph of Spell Reflection: Reduces the cooldown on Spell Reflection and Mass Spell Reflection by (5000/-1000) sec.

This one is close to mandatory in PvP, and will likely remain so - it's just not compelling enough for PvE when there are vastly superior options. Hugely situational for Protection in PvE.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand there we have it. The first look at our new glyphs and, frankly, they're about as bad as our talents are. They might even be worse. Nerfing baseline abilities, or refusing to fix outdated ones, isn't development ladies and gentlemen; it's negligence. If you're a tank, you're probably taking Heavy Repercussions, Hold the Line and Enraged Speed before closing your glpyh book and forgetting about them for an expansion.

Obviously, this is just beta, but I'm absolutely appalled at the lack of imagination that has gone into warrior development. There's literally NOTHING interesting or compelling in there, just a couple of obvious picks and a few others that will depend on what you're doing. The vast majority can be written off and forgotten about for tanks, and truthfully DPS players will probably do likewise. That's how weak these are.

I sincerely hope the warrior development team gets a strong member VERY soon, and preferably one who actually plays a fucking warrior in the game.

If anything even close to this goes live, warrior players will simply reroll to something else.

PLEASE sort this out. It's a disgrace.