by Flyingfish
Lets start by going 1 and half month back, this is what I wrote as the conclusion in version 1 of this part of my guide "Choosing glyphs for a paladin tank is boring, because there is only a few variations. Lets hope Blizzard will give us some new glyphs in the future." It seems Blizzard saw it and decided to follow my advice, hehe, thx Blizz. All kidding aside, patch 3.1 has brought some new and very interesting glyphs. I will use the same coloring system as I used with talents (see part 2 of my guide), so a glyph name in purple indicates that I think it is very good for tanking, not that the glyph itself is an epic quality item, as all glyphs have common (white) item quality. Remember again, the score is based on my personal experience and opinion only, and only glyphs relavant to tanking are listed below.
Lets start by going 1 and half month back, this is what I wrote as the conclusion in version 1 of this part of my guide "Choosing glyphs for a paladin tank is boring, because there is only a few variations. Lets hope Blizzard will give us some new glyphs in the future." It seems Blizzard saw it and decided to follow my advice, hehe, thx Blizz. All kidding aside, patch 3.1 has brought some new and very interesting glyphs. I will use the same coloring system as I used with talents (see part 2 of my guide), so a glyph name in purple indicates that I think it is very good for tanking, not that the glyph itself is an epic quality item, as all glyphs have common (white) item quality. Remember again, the score is based on my personal experience and opinion only, and only glyphs relavant to tanking are listed below.
Major glyphs
Glyph of Divine Plea
New glyph! With the Guarded by the Light talent, a protection paladin can keep Divine Plea up all the time, so this glyph actually means permanently 3% reduced damage taken. A very good damage mitigation glyph if you ask me.
Glyph of Salvation
New glyph! Another interesting glyph for damage mitigation. 20% reduced damage could be a life saver in many situations. I still remember the first time our guild went to Naxx, we wiped countless times at Maexxna, because I was undergeared and we had 3 paladin healers, thus no HOT to get me through the Web Sprays, we actually had to work out a Hand of Sacrifice rotation to down the disgusting spider. If only I had Glyph of Salvation at that time. Be careful though, only use Hand of Salvation when you are comfortable in front on the threat meter.
Additionally this is a a very good PvP glyph.
Glyph of Shield of Righteousness
New glyph! Reduces the mana cost of Shield of Righteousness, which is pretty useless in my opinion, since a rank 2 Shield of Righteousness costs 6% of base mana (it's only 200 or something). It may be a good choice for PvP protection paladins...
Glyph of Shield of Righteousness
New glyph! Reduces the mana cost of Shield of Righteousness, which is pretty useless in my opinion, since a rank 2 Shield of Righteousness costs 6% of base mana (it's only 200 or something). It may be a good choice for PvP protection paladins...
Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous
New glyph! Since the protection paladin already possess the abilities needed to be the best AOE tank, this glyph is not really that great.
Glyph of Seal of Vengeance
As Seal of Vengeance/Corruption is considered the main tanking seal, this glyph is very good to use when tanking. Note it grants 10 expertise skill, not rating!
Glyph of Righteous Defense
A missed Righteous Defense can have very serious consequences, even though it doesn't occur often. This glyph greatly increases the hit chance of RD, thus almost eliminites wipes caused by a missed taunt. But with the introduction of Hand of Reckoning, we now have two taunt spells, making this glyph less useful.
Glyph of Judgement
10% increase to Judgement damage is not much, but then again we should be using our Judgements whenever they have cooled down.
Glyph of Spiritual Attunement
If you constantly find youself OOM, this glyph can help you. But there are so many other ways to solve mana problems, such as Seal/Judgement of Wisdom, Blessing of Sancturay/Wisdom, Divine Plea and so on, I will not recommand this glyph.
Glyph of Avenger's Shield
I will not recommand this glyph either. It is good if you are only tanking one mob at a time, but that is not our niche. Most of the time, a protection paladin should find him/herself shinning in front of a group of monsters.
Glyph of Seal of Righteousness
The cost of Judgement spells are very cheap, it's simply just not worth a major glyph spot.
Glyph of Consecration
I have seen some tanks with this glyph, I guess they don't use the 96969 rotation, because increasing the cooldown of Consecration to 10 seconds will totally mess up the rotation.
Minor glyphs
The three minor glyphs of blessings are still pretty much useless. That leave Glyph of Sense Undead, Glyph of Lay on Hands and Glyph of the Wise, so no changes to minor glyphs in patch 3.1.
Conclusion
Pre-3.1, a paladin tank didn't have many choices when it comes to glyphs, but now we can actually choose glyphs according to the situation.
For damage mitigation: Glyph of Divine Plea and Glyph of Salvation.
For mana preservation: Glyph of Shield of Righteousness and Glyph of Spiritual Attunement.
For threat generation: Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous, Glyph of Seal of Vengeance, Glyph of Judgement and Glyph of Avenger's Shield.
Pindi it depends on if you want to play PvE or PvP. In PvE, go for hit, strength and crit. In PvP you obviously need some resilience and stamina besides strength and crit. When soloing and PvPing, use Seal of Command. In parties/raids, use Seal of Blood.
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