Shadow Priest Glyphs [Mists]

Prime glyphs are gone.

With Mists less than two months away (and no recent Shadow changes), I think it's high time to start theorycrafting for Shadow in 5.0. One of the big things that'll strike right when 5.0 drops is the new glyph set. We'll probably need to buy mostly all-new glyphs, as a lot of the old item IDs no longer refer to valid glyphs. Unlike before, it's hard or impossible to say what will be the best ahead of time. Very few glyphs, if any, offer any sort of damage increase, and the ones that do are extremely situational and minor. Probably, the "correct" glyphs will vary on a per-fight basis, and we'll need to swap glyphs between every encounter. To that end, you may want to buy and learn more than just what you plan to use immediately.

5.0 (Pre-Expansion Patch) Release Date

Spoiler Alert! Snape kills Dumbledore!
Er, I mean, the Horde kills Jaina.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012.

This is the pre-expansion patch, introducing account-wide pets, mounts, and achievements, and the new talent and glyph system. It may also include the Battle for Theramore event. It won't include pandas, monks, panda-land, or levels beyond 85.

The Future of Dispels

Mass Dispel looked like this in 2007. Cool, huh?

On the Mists beta, all defensive dispels have been given a cooldown. Single-target dispels all gained an 8 second cooldown, and Mass Dispel gained a 15 second cooldown. Since this change has been active since the very early days of the beta and hasn't been adjusted at all since then, I'm pretty sure it will make it to live. Additionally, the defensive component of all of our dispels now removes all harmful effects on the targets that match the category, not simply one or two.

Introductory Raids in Mists

Great news on the PvE front, regarding the launch of Mists of Pandaria! There will be zero raids available at launch. You may be thinking, "How is that great news??" Well, in today's post, I'll tell you why.

"[We might] delay opening Mogu’shan Vaults until a week or so after the expansion’s release, similar to how we’ve always handled the start of the PvP season, just to give players a little time to reach level 90 along with their friends and get acclimated to Pandaria’s new 5-player dungeons, daily quests, and scenarios."