Best Glyphs for Level 80 Shamans

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Last Updated on Friday, 13 August 2010 19:49 Written by Savoire Friday, 13 August 2010 16:35

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I am often asked for advice about various shaman necessities. Glyphs are one of those things which other shamans frequently question me about in-game. I’ll cover some recommendations for each of the shaman specs: restoration, elemental, and enhancement.

 When a shaman hits L80, she is frequently asked to become restoration (aka resto) as her main spec if she hasn’t already. This may require a change in gear and glyphs. Which glyphs are best to choose?

Glyph of Chain Heal will help more in 25 player content than in 10 player or 5 player. However, most of the time a chain heal that hits even one other player will heal more than Healing Wave, so in most situations, glyph for it and use it. When you get to raid heal for a 25 player raid, the chain heal will be bouncing along, healing like a mad thing.

Glyph of Earth Shield is an amazing, yet often over-looked glyph. Earth Shield doesn’t seem to do much, but it has been as much as 30% of my healing in a raid and I don’t have to do anything except keep it on the tank. Remember to ALWAYS keep Earth Shield up! If there are multiple shamans, coordinate your Earth Shields so the tanks are covered.

The last major glyph can either be Glyph of Riptide or Glyph of Earthliving Weapon. Glyph of Riptide is best when you have 2 pieces of T9 gear. Glyph of Earthliving Weapon is better when you’ve moved on to 4 pieces of T10 gear. Glyph of Earthliving Weapon will increase your overhealing numbers.

Consider keeping extra glyphs if you are asked to do some unusual situational healing and need an extra boost, such as tank healing or healing Valithria. In these types of cases, you may want to switch to Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave or Glyph of Healing Wave. Remember to switch back to your standard glyphs afterward.

The minor glyph of choice should be Glyph of Water Shield. Again, always keep your water shield up to get the most possible benefit from this glyph.

The other two glyphs won’t make much difference in your raid healing. I love the Glyph of Astral Recall because I can teleport back to my inn in Dalaran every 7.5 minutes AND use my hearthstone. It’s almost as good as mage portals because I can use the Dalaran portals to get to the major cities.

The last minor glyph spot can go for Glyph of Renewed Life, which essentially gives you another bag space because you don’t have to buy ankhs. The Glyph of Water Walking keeps you from having to carry Fish Oil. The Glyph of Water Breathing keeps you from having to buy Fish Scales. Personally, I prefer the Glyph of the Ghost Wolf because I like dabbling in a bit of PVP from time to time and, at this time, I don’t respec for it.

If you are a L80 Elemental Shaman, you’ll be focusing on damage dealing so your glyphs will show that. The minor glyphs will be similar in that one will be useful for raiding and the other two can be chosen based on what you most like to do outside of raiding.

Glyph of Lightning Bolt increases the damage done by your Lightning Bolt spell by 4%. This is an obvious glyph to get, so don’t pass it by.

Glyph of Totem of Wrath is the Elemental Shaman’s standard fire totem and adds to your own spellpower even more while helping out the raid.

The third major glyph should be Glyph of Flame Shock, especially if you have 4 pc of Tier10 gear. Consider Glyph of Lava until you are ready for Glyph of Flame Shock. I’m really tempted by the Glyph of the Flame Elemental, mostly because I adore my Flame Ele. He is such great fun whether I’m questing by myself or with a friend, or doing mount runs in Zul’Gurub or Karazhan. Having the Flame Ele on a 5 minute cooldown (considering he lasts 2 minutes – which makes the total wait time 3 minutes!) would be a treat. I don’t think it would be the best choice for a raiding spec however.

The primary minor glyph for Ele shammies is Glyph of Thunderstorm. This is a nice raiding glyph to have, providing more mana without risking knocking mobs into another batch of trash.

For L80 Enhancement Shamans, the first major glyph to invest in is Glyph of Feral Spirit. The spirit wolves ALL gain 30% of YOUR attack power. Depending on your stamina, hit rating, armor and attack power – all of which scale with your wolves – you should expect your wolves to do a minimum of an additional 500 dps.

Glyph of Stormstrike increases the nature damage bonus from the Stormstrike ability by an extra 8%.

The Glyph of Windfury Weapon is a possibility for the third major glyph choice because it gives a chance of triggering Windfury Weapon by 2% per swing. Many enhancement shamans prefer to use the Glyph of Flame Shock because it increases sustained dps in raiding and other PVE situations. Glyph of Fire Nova is another possibility for enhancement shamans because it reduces the cooldown of the Fire Nova spell by 3 seconds. The Fire Nova talent has a 10 second cooldown normally, so the glyph places this instant cast spell at being usable once every 7 seconds, during which time you can melee or cast spells.  

How do you choose among these several possible options for the third major glyph? I recommend getting each of the ones you’d like to try and testing them. See which you like better. If you don’t have an inscriptor alt or a friend or guild member who can make them for you, watch for sales in the Auction House. These major glyphs shouldn’t be prohibitively expensive at this time. You could do a couple of dailies while testing and earn the money for replacement glyphs very quickly.

The enhancement shaman will also want Glyph of Water Shield for the minor glyph. The other two minor glyph spots are the same as for the resto and ele shaman specs.

If your second spec if PVP, you may want a different set of glyphs, depending on which spec you pvp in. Consider adding Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem if you PVP as an elemental or enhancement shaman – it places a nice protective shield on you. If you PVP as a restoration shaman, consider glyphing as you would for a tank healer: focusing on lots of quick heals that you can place on yourself or your teammates, such as Glyph of Earth Shield, Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave and either Glyph of Chain Heal or Glyph of Healing Wave. Glyph of Ghost Wolf and Glyph of Water Breathing combined with Glyph of Water shield are great minor glyphs for all specs.

I hope this overview of best glyphs for the level 80 shaman has provided some insight into which glyphs to invest in and try on your shaman. I have found that I don’t need to change my main spec glyphs very often but my offspec glyphs I feel less confident about. Experimenting with glyphs is significantly less costly and less worrisome if you have a friend, guildie or alt who can supply you with glyphs, but don’t let the cost of changing glyphs out stop you from experimenting.

I've been your host Savoire and this has been another episode from the Totem & Ankh, feel free to leave comments or to get in touch using the Totem & Ankh Shaman Blog contact page