I haven’t talked about glyphs yet! Honestly, it’s because I very rarely think about them. They’re a relatively new way to make subtle fine tuning of our characters. There’s a reasonably small number to choose from and they’re all available from the auction house. We plonk down a bunch of gold and we’re done with it. It’s certainly not as large a struggle as trying to gear up with dungeon drops, rep and crafting grinding, and so on.
All that said, it’s still an opportunity for us to be the bestest tank we can be. Here, then, are my thoughts on the paladin glyphs that seem relevant to tanking.
- [Glyph of Seal of Vengeance]. That’s not 10 expertise rating, that’s 10 expertise. At level 80 that’s 89 expertise rating. Bosses should parry our melee attacks, and get a reactive DPS boost, 2.5% less often. If you squint just right you can see this as a mitigation glyph and that’s what tanks do.
- [Glyph of Righteous Defense]. This can guarantee that, in some fights, our taunt won’t be resisted. It’s situational, sure, but the consequences — say of failing to taunt on a tank switch — can be a morale smooshing wipe. I’d rather not roll those dice.
- [Glyph of Judgement]. This combines well with our various seals and buffs to increase threat from Holy damage. The more threat we have the less DPS has to hold back.
- [Glyph of Spiritual Attunement]. Mana doesn’t seem to be a problem these days. Certainly not a significant enough problem to justify swapping out any of the above three glyphs, anyway.
- [Glyph of Avenger's Shield]. I can appreciate the use of greater single target threat. I find myself enjoying the initial threat on multiple mobs more, though, so this doesn’t make the cut for me.
- [Glyph of Consecration]. I avoid this because it messes up the 96969 rotation by extending the Consecration cooldown up to 10 seconds.
- [Glyph of Sense Undead]. Wrath is hip-deep in Undead mobs so a 1% threat boost is, well, something.
- [Glyph of Lay on Hands]. Giving the recipient of one of our panic buttons 20% more mana, be it us or our healer, could be nice.
- [Glyph of the Wise]. You can’t tell but I’m rolling my eyes as I type in this entry.
Minor glyphs sure are minor! I don’t care about the mana cost or duration of blessings so I didn’t see much choice.
You can read more analysis of paladin glyphs over at Blessing of Kings, ITankStuff, and — as always — Knaughty’s FAQ post on Maintankadin.