The Glyph System receives a massive overhaul in Cataclysm, aiming to further empower players and expand its impact on gameplay customization! This article offers a complete overview of the new Glyph System and each specific change that occurred when compared to the previous expansion.
General Changes
- User Interface Completely Revamped
- Glyph Tiers Revamp: Prime Glyphs, Major Glyphs, Minor Glyphs.
- Additional Glyphs Slots: The Glyph System now encompasses 9 Glyphs Slots.
- Glyph Levels: You can add 1 glyph of each tier at level 25, 50, and 75.
- New Glyphs Learning System: Glyphs can now be permanently learned.
- New Glyph Removal System: Glyphs will now be removed with a special item.
You can observe the User Interface differences between the previous version of the Glyph System in WotLK compared to the new and improved Glyph System in Cataclysm in the images below.
Glyph Tiers
The Glyph System has been completely overhauled to include an additional Glyph Tier, the Prime Glyphs. This resulted in 3 additional slots, with Prime Glyphs functioning similarly to the way Major Glyphs worked in WotLK. Prime Glyphs grant the highest possible bonuses, usually impacting several of your main abilities.
Major Glyph’s impact has been considerably reduced by comparison, mainly offering bonuses to utility abilities or passive effects. Lastly, Minor Glyphs function similarly as they did in the previous expansion, offering small gimmick effects or aesthetic flavor.
Glyph Tiers Examples
- Prime Glyphs: Glyph of Eviscerate (Increases the Critical Strike Chance of Eviscerate by 10%)
- Major Glyphs: Glyph of Blade Flurry (Decreases the penalty to Energy regeneration while Blade Flurry is active by 50%)
- Minor Glyphs: Glyph of Blurred Speed (Enables you to walk on water while Sprint is active)
Glyph Levels
You’ll be able to add one glyph of each tier (Prime, Major, and Minor) to your character every 25 levels, maxing out at 9 total glyphs at level 75:
- Level 25: 1 Prime, 1 Major, 1 Minor
- Level 50: 2 Prime, 2 Major, 2 Minor
- Level 75: 3 Prime, 3 Major, 3 Minor
Learning Glyphs
The most impactful change besides the additional Glyph Tier is the way players can learn and use their Glyphs in Cataclysm. The new system allows players to buy a glyph and learn it permanently as opposed to the previous system that required a new glyph to be bought whenever players desired to learn new glyphs.
Once learned, a Glyph remains permanently in your Glyph Library which can be observed on the right side of the new Glyphs User Interface.
Clearing Glyphs
With the new Glyph Library, players can easily swap glyphs any time they want, however, doing so requires a specific item. While in the previous expansion clearing a glyph simply required you to manually replace one glyph with another freshly bought one, you will now simply require Dust of Disappearance to remove any Glyph. This condition applies to all types of glyphs, including Prime Glyphs, Major Glyphs, and Minor Glyphs.
Dust of Disappearance can be easily acquired from the majority of Inscription Vendors or directly bought from players with the Inscription profession.
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