World of Warcraftis announcing its next expansion tomorrow, the ninth in a long line of content packs that have greatly expanded upon the game since it first opened the doors to Azeroth for millions of eagerWarcraftfansand MMO players alike. Its community grew over the years and attracted artists and theorycrafters alike, and one of them decided to put effort into presenting the best possible use for glyphs since their initial conception.
Glyphs inWorld of Warcraftare in a bit of an awkward spot right now. Introduced inWrath of the Lich Kingto supplement the new Inscription profession, they represented an alternate (yet equally important) way for players to raise their power. On paper, it allowed for more specialized builds than the talent system could provide on its own, but in practice – glyphs ended up becoming another cog in a machine of optimization and number crunching. In Blizzard’s view, glyphs became a redundancy that overstayed its welcome. They were shown the door, with the sole remaining glyphs that survived the purge being cosmetic ones.
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A user on Reddit named Fishbones06 took the concept of cosmetic glyphs, and pushed them past their currently neglected state by introducing Avenging Glyph variants for eachpaladin race inWorld of Warcraft. The results speak for themselves and truly serve to showcase the potential role glyphs could have in addressing another important desire inWorld of Warcraft’scommunity: identity and flavor.
After all, a paladin from Zandalar hardly worships the same deities, conforms to the same rites, or draws from the same wellspring of power as a paladin of the Dark Iron Dwarves. AllowingWorld of Warcraftplayersto express themselves through their abilities in a cosmetic way would only serve to engage them further with their class in a way that doesn’t interfere with player power, thus circumventing the issue old glyphs ran into back in the day.
With rumors of a new class and a new race potentially being unveiled with thenextWorld of Warcraftexpansiontomorrow, no one is yet certain of the direction that Blizzard will take. The fans wanting more options when it comes to cosmetic glyphs that change the appearance of a player’s spells and abilities is something the company is probably aware of. It wouldn’t necessarily be uncharted territory either, for a similar system exists inDiablo 3with runes.
Ultimately, it all depends on whether Blizzard Entertainment deems cosmetic glyphs a viable investment of developer resources.
