Comments

Comment by Dryn

This will be a must-have glyph for elemental shaman, i think.

Comment by Abomb

34.3 % of total damage? if u hit a 4000 in the first hit (which i can easaly get on a semigeared 71 balance druid) the final bolt would hit for how much? i think its a bit of a waste

Comment by naushan

I wouldn't consider this glyph for PVE/raid purpose. More or less standard and proven glyphs for raiding elemental are: Flameshock, Lava, and Flametongue. In 3.08, there will be changes in Lightning glyph to add 4% more damage to your bolts, and probably this will replace Flametongue glyph (trading 2% crit for 4% more dmg to bolts).

Comment by 146819

I'd really like to see a Glyph for Shamans that made it so that Chain Lightning wouldn't lose strength after each jump (maybe one for Chain Heal as well); every mob in the game has at least that, and some have CL spells that actually get stronger with each jump.
Maybe something like this:
"Glyph of Empowered Chains"
Major Glyph
Classes: Shaman
Requires Level 32
Use: Your Chain Lightning and Chain Heal spells no longer have reduced strength after jumping to another target.

Comment by Arslaan

This Glyph shines in Wintergrasp when you have 20 stacks of tenacity and surrounded by Horde on your graveyard. Go go Shammy turret.

Comment by 493499

This is only good if you chain heal hits 4+ targets. As of 4.0 glyphed vs. non-glyped crosses over occurs at 3 bounces or 4 targets getting hit. To do better than the un-glyphed your chain lightning needs to hit 4 or more targets see numbers below:

No bounce 0.1
One Bounce 0.1
Two Bounce 0.1
Three Bounce -0.040958904
Four Bounce -0.139630137

Since chain lightning normally only hits 3 targets in a raid or random this glyph seems less than ideal. I didn't add in the numbers when you included overloads but they should be in the same ball park. The only real advantage i see to using this glyph is your hitting 4+ targets with every chain lightning and you want to build up your lightning shields charges as fast as possible.

Thanks Blizzard for another glyph that looks awesome but in actuality not that great.

Comment by 12980

Chain Lightning at 80 strikes for about 3000 damage on the initial target, and jumps up to 2 times, striking a maximum of 3 targets.
Glyph of Chain Lightning gives lowers the first target damage by 10%, but it can hit up to 2 more targets for a max of 5.
The damage dealt to additional targets is reduced by 30% of the previous target's damage, so it never hits zero. Math below:

Standard Chain lightning @ 80:
1st target: 3000dmg = 3000dmg
2nd target: 3000 - (3000 * 30%) = 2100dmg
3rd target: 2100 - (2100 * 30%) = 1470dmg

With glyph:
1st target: 3000 - (3000 * 10%) = 2700dmg
2nd target: 2700 - (2700 * 30%) = 1890dmg
3rd target: 1890 - (1890 * 30%) = 1323dmg
4th target: 1323 - (1323 * 30%) = 926dmg
5th target: 926 - ( 926 * 30%) = 648dmg

Standard Chain Lightning gets a 6570dmg max combined damage on 3 targets.
With the glyph:
On 5 targets, you can get 7487dmg max ( almost 14% gain vs. unglyphed 3 targets)
On 4 targets, you can get 6839dmg (4% gain vs. unglyphed 3 targets).
On 3 targets, you can get 5913dmg (10% total loss vs. unglyphed 3 targets)

Before the talent changes I turned my nose up at this glyph, but now it has nice synergy with Rolling Thunder. That is, if it works as stated...

Comment by Ordayc

Since this glyph is sort of a two-edged sword, I think it deserves a few things mentioned:

First of all, if you seldom face more than three targets, this glyph can be disadvantageous. Not only can it reduce your overall damage done, but it also occupies a glyph slot. Speaking of battlegrounds, you should keep in mind that having four or more targets tightly packed is not too common (unless you're fighting a zerg), and the constant movement makes appropriate targeting difficult. Chain Lightning more often than not will only hit three or fewer targets.

If you actually manage to hit four or five targets with CL, the glyph basically gives you additional damage and additional spell procs (especially with Elemental Overload and possibly ), which in turn will synergize with a few effects. Most notable are:

I've tested this glyph quite extensively in battlegrounds and in solo PvE, and I'd say that it is actually a waste in many situations due to a lack of targets. However, for those circumstances where sufficient targets are available, the additional hits can mean a lot of fun (many numbers and procs).

* In an official post (Blue-Tracker link), Ghostcrawler confirmed that Elemental Overload has a chance to trigger per target, not per cast. According to him, the chance to trigger an overload for a spell is 1 − (1 − c/m)^k, where m is the maximum number of targets hit by a spell (without any glyphs), k is the actual number of targets hit and c is the base chance to trigger. Thus, for a 30% base chance the actual chance to trigger an overload is as follows (given that the maximum number of targets are hit):
Lightning Bolt: 1 − (1 − 30%/1)^1 = 30%
Chain Lightning (without glyph): 1 − (1 − 30%/3)^3 = 27.1%
Chain Lightning (with glyph): 1 − (1 − 30%/3)^5 = 41.0% (which gives you ~51% more procs than for three targets)

Comment by Superchief

Please overhaul this glyph for MoP Blizzard.

Comment by aislingual

5 targets instead of 3 = 66% gain in per-target effects proccing.

Simply put, this increases your mana returns from this spell via Rolling Thunder by 66%, increases the rate at which you gain Fulmination by 66%, increases the uptime of Elemental Focus/Oath by 66%, and increases the probability of an Elemental Overload by 66% (!).

The damage that the 4th and 5th hits do is individually low, but also nearly irrelevant; the added synergy with the proc-system of elemental means that in an AoE scenario vs 4+ targets this glyph will give you more group damage, more single-target damage, more mana regen, and more visual awesomeness.

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Glyph of Chain Lightning

Item Level 28

Requires Level 28
Use:
Your Chain Lightning spell now strikes 2 additional targets, but deals 10% less initial damage.

Max Stack: 20

Sell Price: 1

Glyph of Chain Lightning

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