More Mage changes were up on MMO-Champion.com, this time some changes to existing Glyphs, as well as some new ones. Once again you can look at them here at MMO-Champion.com.

Glyph Changes:

• Glyph of Ice Lance: Your Ice Lance now causes 4 times damage against frozen targets higher level than you instead of triple damage. (Old: Increases the range of your Ice Lance by 5 yards)
• Glyph of Ice Armor: Your Ice Armor and Frost Armor spells grant an additional 50% armor and resistance. (Old: 20%)

The new change to the Ice Lance Glyph is a welcomed change, and it’s nice to see that Blizzard is trying to get the “Shatter Combo” to work in PvE. By having it only apply to targets that are higher level than you, it will only work for raid bosses, or high level twinks.

Still, with the difference in Spell Power Coefficient between Frostbolt and Ice Lance are too great, and may still not be worth the Global Cooldown to cast depending on your gear. For me with the Glyph on, my Frostbolts crit for around 7.9k and Ice Lance crits for 4.3k* with 2018 Spell Power.

*Seems like I was getting the same crit number on the level 80 target dummy also, so it isn’t correctly doing 4x damage on targets over level 80. It SHOULD be critting for around 5.2k damage*

*edit* krizzlybear beat me too it, and he has MATH to prove it!!!

For Frost Raiding Mages, you will have to make a choice between Glyph of Ice Lance or Glyph of Molten Armor, depending on if you want to do “Shatter Combos” or spam Frostbolt.

The new change to the Ice Armor Glyph is a decent buff to any Frost PvP Mages using the glyph. At 4066 Armor with Ice Armor up before, it went up to 4531 Armor with the glyph. Not a huge difference, but a buff is a buff.

As for glyph choices as a PvP Frost Mage, I would use this along with Glyph of Evocation and Glyph of Icy Veins. But I woul drop this glyph for one which we will be talking about in a few minutes.

New Glyphs:

• Glyph of Deep Freeze: Increases the range of Deep Freeze by 10 yards.
• Glyph of Living Bomb: The periodic damage from your Living Bomb can now be critical strikes.
• Glyph of Arcane Barrage: Reduces the mana cost of Arcane Barrage by 20%.
• Glyph of Mirror Image: Your Mirror Images gain the Winter’s Chill talent, granting their Frostbolt spell a 100% chance to apply the Winter’s Chill effect, which increases the chance spells will critically hit the target by 1% for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Glyph of Ice Barrier: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your Ice Barrier by 30%.

The new Deep Freeze Glyph doesn’t do anything to implement the spell into PvE like the Ice Lance Glyph, but it is a decent buff for PvP. The extra 10 yards puts the Spell at a 40 yard range. This is out of the reach of the rest of your Frost Spells so it won’t help much, but it might come in handy for catching runners.

The new Living Bomb Glyph is a nice DPS increase for any Fireball or Frostfire Bolt spec Mage. The big question is, “Do the dot crits effect Hot Streak?”. The glyph current haven’t been learned yet on PTR, so no tests are out there yet, but if it does, that is a huge buff. But is it worth the extra Mana burned from Burn Out?

The new Arcane Barrage Glyph will help out with an Arcane Mage, but with recent nerfs to Arcane Barrage, the Spell has seen a decrease in usage in PvE, and this Glyph won’t help much.

The new Mirror Image Glyph is interesting. It gives each image a 100% chance to apply Winter’s Chill on its target. It is a good way to quickly put up 5 stacks of Winter’s Chill on a target at the beginning of a fight, but not worth a Glyph spot. It also gives us a look at an incoming Winter’s Chill (and Improved Scorch) debuff nerf.

The new Ice Barrier Glyph is a good glyph to use for any Frost PvP Mage. An extra 30% on Ice Barrier can save your behind in PvP. At ~1200 Spell Power, it absorbs 3900 damage without the Glyph, 5070 damage with the Glyph. A 1170 damage absorption increase! I would take this over the Ice Armor Glyph for PvP in a heartbeat.

*edit* WTFs Euripedes beat me to it also! Well mine has a screenshot and I explain things nicer! So HA!

Related Posts:

• PTR Patch 3.1.0 – Newest Build Give Mages Buffs
• PTR Patch 3.1.0 – Set Bonuses and Crit Nerfs
• PTR Patch 3.3 – Permanent Water Elemental
• Patch 3.0.9 – Arcane Changes Again
• PTR Patch 3.2 – Frost Mages Get Mortal Strike and More Haste