New Shaman Glyphs in 3.1.0

Thanks to the good folks at WoW Insider, we have the details of some of the new glyphs making their way into patch 3.1 Here’s what they have listed thus far:

• Glyph of Thunderstorm (new) - Reduces the cooldown on Thunderstorm by 7 sec.
• Glyph of Feral Spirit (new) - Your spirit wolves gain an additional 30% of your attack power.
• Glyph of Riptide (new) - Increases the duration of Riptide by 3 sec.
• Glyph of Earth Shield (new) - Increases the amount healed by your Earth Shield by 20%.
• Glyph of Totem of Wrath (new) - When you cast Totem of Wrath, you gain 30% of the totem’s bonus spell power for 5 min.
• Glyph of Hex (new) - Increases the damage your Hex target can take before the Hex effect is removed by 20%.
• Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem (new) - Your Stoneclaw Totem also places a damage absorb shield on you, equal to 4 times the strength of the shield it places on your totems.

There is nothing earth-shatteringly awesome in this list, but there is nothing very weak either. I don’t see anything that would *really* topple the cookie cutter glyphing for resto or elemental raiding specs, but I DO see some interesting PVP alternatives. The Glyph of Stoneclaw, though not a major buff in anyway, has got to help provide another layer of protection against those nasty stun-locking rogues, and 20% extra healing from Earth is a useful 20% increase in passive protection. The two combined might mean that our sneaky friends may have to work a bit harder for their kills! Glyph of Hex, whilst not solving the spells main problems, certainly adds a nice bonus to it. I mean, who wouldn’t want an extra 20% of free face smashin’ time! Any period when you can wail on an opponent without fear of them wailing back on you is a a period that is made of win! The Glyph of Thunderstorm looks ok, and would certainly be useful, but I really cant see myself using it. As a Minor glyph, sure, but not as a major glyph.

Is this what Blizzard meant when they said they were looking at ways to improve Shaman in PVP? If so, here’s hoping it is only part of the picture.

All in all I am not overly excited by these new glyphs, but I’m pretty sure I will experiment with a few of them in a PVP scenario.