Wizard Glyphs and Catalyst - Make them Innates.

Denken

As the title suggests, I'd like to see the glyphs, or at LEAST the catalyst become innate abilities for a wizard and not spellbook additions we have to fight over other spells for gem space. This will give wizards a unique powerful niche I think without making them too crazy and they will be able to make meaningful use of the glyphs instead of just blowing them off for being able to cast spells instantly.

For instance, the first glyph we get can cast sorcerous mind and minor arcane bolts. We have to use 2 spell slots for 1 useful spell and one that is better cast manually instead of having to spend 2 seconds loading it up.

If we cannot get the glyphs and/or catalyst as innates, I think there needs to be some benefit to using glyphs to cast spells other than we don't need to mem them. Whether they're less expensive or more powerful. Something.

Thanks!

Taron

Hmm, I disagree with making glyphs innate, and definitely not with making glyph-cast spells better somehow. Being able to cast spells without memorizing them is a great benefit and it makes sense to me that there's a trade-off for doing so and nothing more is needed beyond that. Other classes right now like Shaman and Enchanter are begging for the ability to not need to re-mem spells to cast them. I don't want to feel forced to use glyphs if I don't want to because they are straight-up superior somehow so I'm gimping myself/group if I don't use them. I like that it is a choice to have more versatility vs simpler system for casting and one isn't outright better than the other.

Plus between skills, clickies, item swapping, macros, racials, trait abilities, etc my hot bar is full enough as it is. I don't have the room for 5 more things on there!

I would maybe be okay with Catalyst being an innate, or having some other way to actually cast the spell once you've dialed in your glyphs that doesn't need Catalyst (like if all glyph combos are 3 long then just make ANY glyph act as catalyst when attempt to use a 4th glyph), but that's as far as I'd want to take it.

Instead, I feel like several issues with the glyph system need to be resolved that others have brought up so they work more reliably. They are still pretty clunky and limited in a lot of ways, like not being able to cast lower-level versions of spells (even if you don't have the higher-level one yet) and not working well with cooldowns and other weird quirks. A polish and usability pass is definitely needed more than some incentive to try to persuade people to use the unpolished system more.

The biggest issue for me is that I think all glyphs should be available very quickly in terms of character level. It's pointless to really bother with them until you have at least 3 of them, if not all 4, and by then you've gotten used to not having them. Even if most glyph combinations don't do anything at lower levels because you don't have access to those spells yet, you should still have the glyph itself the moment you can cast at least 1 spell that uses that glyph. I feel the spells should be arranged such that by level 4 you should already have 2 glyphs and a spell that uses both, at minimum, with the other 2 coming soon after (again as soon as any spell that uses one of them is available). This will allow getting used to the dial-a-spell game mechanic as you level up.

The other big issue for me for glyphs is needing to have your spell book on you and equipped to use them. No other class needs to actually keep their book equipped. Removing THAT necessity would really hammer home the main point of "you can use a wide variety of spells without needing to mess with a book" appeal of the whole system. I get they wanted to prevent Wizards from skipping the money sink involved in purchasing spells, but I think a different solution needs to be considered than forcing a book to be equipped. A Wizard that cantrip'd their glyphs being able to cast while naked during CR would definitely give other classes something to be envious of.

NalfeinTheTank

I definitely agree with having the glyphs earlier. Having to wait until level 32 to make full use of the system seems like a long time. I'd like to have all 4 by level 8 or 10 at the latest. Like you said, why force me into casting the traditional way for 32 levels, then completely change it up to use glyphs?

The spell book one is interesting too. Maybe the spells need to be in your book, but you don't necessarily have to have it on you? That might work.

Onelove

Denken agree that there should be a damage boost or mana reduction benefit of taking extra time to cast a spell via the tune system.

Denken

Taron

Onelove

Good feedback. I don't want to be overly critical about the glyph system. I think it's awesome and creative. Also I haven't really gotten to see what Wizard does past 10 so my feedback is grain of salt level.

I just found that having the glyphs in my gems and also needing catalyst which effectively does nothing is cumbersome early on. And also that using the glyphs is a slower and roundabout way to cast spells as opposed to just having the spell memmed.

One option I thought of would be to remove that global cooldown on each glyph touch. It really drags out the amount of time it takes to cast anything. .25 per glyph is fine but the global cooldown makes it drag.

Definitely fine with keeping the glyphs in the spellbook if you guys think it would be too much to have them as innates. But yeah being able to use glyphs without the spellbook as cantrips would be awesome. And also making Catalyst an innate or like you said above, have it just be the 4th glyph cast or something.