TERA - Reaper PvE - Glyphs
Skills themselves are only half of the picture when it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of a class and their attacks. Glyphs can make all the difference, turning mediocre skills into powerhouses, or firmly boosting already powerful skills to higher levels.
Reapers have a good selection of glyphs, so while there are many vital options, you do have a measure of customisation based on the context and your own play-style.
Glyph selection will be covered in detail when we come to look at rotations, but for now I will give an overview of each glyphs effectiveness and potential use; a simple evaluation of each. Green signifies glyphs that should almost always be used, yellow signifies glyphs that are optional, but provide decent effects, and red signifies glyphs that you should try to avoid using.
If all you're after is a template to use, then this is my current build for all PvE content.
(7) Glyph of Piercing
- 15% chance to double damage
(4) Glyph of Spirit
- Increases MP replenishment by 20%
(4) Glyph of Swiftness
- 10% chance to increase attack speed by 15% for 10 seconds
(5) Glyph of Carving
- Doubles the chance to crit
None of these glyphs are worth using, given how seldom you will use spiral barrage at all - it's not good for dps and we don't need the MP.
(4) Glyph of Restoration
- Recovers 1.5% of total HP on each hit
This is only really a useful glyph if things go wrong, so ideally you never need it. However, it can be very beneficial if you're soloing something, or with a weaker party where your healer is stretched.
(5) Glyph of Powerlink
- Increases damage of Grim Strike by 20% for a few seconds
You mean we can get more damage on Grim Strike? For free ‘cause we’re gonna be chaining Double Shear into it anyway? Yeah... this glyph is really good.
(4) Glyph of Power
- Increases skill power by 15%
Pure extra damage on one of the hardest hitting skills in your arsenal is not something to turn down without good reason, and there is no good reason to turn this one down.
(4) Glyph of Carving
- Doubles the chance to crit
Any crit rate or crit chance glyph on hard hitting skills is amazing, and this is doubling crit chance, pretty much the strongest effect you can get.
(4) Glyph of Persistence
- 30% chance to eliminate cooldown
A really great glyph for keeping your rotation going, buying time for longer cooldowns and getting in some great extra damage at the same time. It’s not even all that expensive considering how good the effect can be, 30% may not be that reliable, but it's still really good.
(2) Glyph of Powerlink
- Speeds casting of Double Shear by 25% for a few seconds
Given this glyph will almost always benefit your next Double Shear cast, it's going to speed up your rotation noticeably, and for only 2 glyph points it really isn't bad.
(4) Glyph of Carving (Master Glyph)
- Doubles Crit Factor
Grim Strike is one of your two strongest dps skills, so chucking in some extra crit rate on top of already high damage output is an obvious include. This is cheap and effective, always use it.
(4) Glyph of Power
- Increases skill power by 25%
Death Spiral doesn't do enough damage to justify spending 4 glyph points for a 25% increase. Yeah 25% is quite a lot, but that requires a hard hitting skill to begin with.
(2) Glyph of Lingering
- Increases effect duration by 50%
We’re not really interested in the secondary effect of Death Spiral, it’s not useless, but it isn’t exactly useful either, so neither is this glyph.
(3) Glyph of Powerlink
- Increases damage of Double Shear by 20% for a few seconds
Death Spiral is your most effective combo-starting skill, so stacking a Double Shear powerlink on top of that is a good investment. It’s not a massive boost, and it’s a fair few glyph points for it, but still a really good glyph.
(4) Glyph of Powerlink (Master Glyph: (2))
- Increases damage of Grim Strike by 20% for a few seconds
More effectively free damage buffs for Grim Strike? Yes please. This glyph is far cheaper than the similar glyph on Double Shear and can be utilised more often, so has great potential. The two glyphs do stack together as well, so both are worthwhile.
(5) Glyph of Power (Master Glyph: (4))
- Increases skill power by 25%
Through use of this glyph, Whipsaw will usually do most damage per single cast of all your skills, a very cost effective glyph at only 4 glyph points (with the master version).
(3) Glyph of Energy
- Decreases cooldown by 20%
Reducing the cooldown on your most reliable and consistent skill is a great bonus, and it’s a cheap glyph at that. A very effective glyph, always use this.
(5) Glyph of Numbing
- 20% chance to decrease opponents attack speed by 10% for 7 seconds (stacks 5 times)
Often decreasing attack speed ends up being more confusing than helpful for the tank or whoever has to react to it, as it’s not reliable it is more likely to cause trouble than be help. All in all, this glyph is not really worth using in PvE outside of some very niche scenarios.
Some bosses outright resist the effect, others it makes incredibly hard to predict, but some it can work nicely for. If you're with a group struggling with a fight, try it out! Ideally you don't need it, but it can help, make sure to give people a heads up though, else your tank may get screwed.
(5) Glyph of Energy (Master Glyph: (4))
- Decreases cooldown by 25%
Cooldown reduction on stuns can be useful when boss mechanics need them, it’s also not terrible to have your combo-starters available for use more often, and so this glyph does have its uses. Smite, however, is not an amazing PvE skill, so it’s a very limited glyph.
(5) Glyph of Lingering
- Increases effect duration by 25%
Stun duration in PvE is not particularly important, if at all. While it can prove useful, the glyph point cost for this glyph is way too high to even consider it.
(3) Glyph of Power
- Increases skill power by 25%
Damage seems appealing, but Pendulum Strike barely hurts. Even boosting it by 25% is not doing much. It’s better than some other glyphs out there, but it provides no utility and minimal effect.
(2) Glyph of Energy
- Decreases cooldown by 20%
Pendulum Strike is a large factor of Whipsaw’s consistency, and being able to pair the two as often as possible is vital. As you're also using the glyph of energy on Whipsaw, this is required to keep the two skills in synch.
(4) Glyph of Powerlink
- Increases the crit rate of Whipsaw by 30% for a few seconds
I know it says a 30% crit rate increase, but I can't help but think it is actually a 30% crit chance increase, having tested and played with it for so long. This is an important difference, as it means this glyph is far stronger than most other crit glyphs in the game, adding a flat 30% crit chance no matter your own crit factor, which unless you have top end gear is better than doubling crit chance.
(5) Glyph of Energy
- Decreases cooldown by 25%
Shadow Lash is very versatile, and does enough damage for this glyph to be worth considering if it didn't cost as much as it did. The effect isn't bad, so don't write this glyph off as useless, but there are better options out there.
(3) Glyph of Spirit
- Increases MP replenishment by 20%
There are better ways to handle a lack of MP than 3 glyph points here, if you're struggling, carry around some potions or invest in a Glistening Dyad.
(3) Glyph of Energy
- Decreases cooldown by 20%
The more you can use Shadow Burst the better, and 20% is a nice reduction. Cable Step already has a much shorter cooldown than this skill, so thee's no risk of not being able to pair them together.
(2) Glyph of Haste
- Increases casting speed by 25%
25% casting speed is pretty big for a very slow skill such as Shadow Burst. It also stacks on top of the Cable Step glyph of haste bonus really nicely, making the final effect of this glyph much stronger. Certainly if you need to Shadow Step after Cable, you don't want to be casting this skill at base speed, it's slow.
(2) Glyph of Brilliance (Master Glyph)
- Decreases MP consumption by 150
As far as MP reduction glyphs go, this is a good one, but you shouldn't need it, and if you do, an MP potion is going to do the job better without wasting glyph points.
(3) Glyph of Brilliance
- Reduces MP cost of casting and switching positions by 150
This is also a good MP reduction glyph, but given how seldom you use the skill in a PvE environment, it's pretty much totally useless in every fight.
(4) Glyph of Energy
- Decreases cooldown by 25%
As above, you're using this so seldom that the cooldown is never an issue. No bosses nowadays need stunning more than once every few minutes, so that's not a thing either.
(3) Glyph of Power
- Increases skill power by 20%
(4) Glyph of Energy
- Decreases cooldown by 20%
Ideally you never use Retaliate at all, so these glyphs are a no-go area. They just aren’t worth the cost even if they end up being ‘useful’.
(4) Glyph of Energy
- Decreases cooldown by 20%
This glyph is perhaps better than it looks, because it opens up possibilities of Retribution being used more offensively. However, you will most likely find yourself barely using two Retributions close enough together for the glyph to have helped, so the investment is often not worth it. If you're needing to use Retribution defensively, you should learn to position better rather than using this glyph.
(2) Glyph of Brilliance
- Reduces MP cost by 150
This is a very small effect, especially on a skill that's normally used only once per fight, simply not worth it, even for 2 glyph points.
(3) Glyph of Lingering
- Increases effect duration by 30%
This glyph provides a really nice bonus to the effectiveness of Shadow Reaping, sometimes allowing for two extra Sundering Strike uses. Even though the majority of the time it will not be in effect, you are gaining a really nice overall DPS increase.
(3) Glyph of Energy (Master Glyph)
- Decreases cooldown by 20%
(3) Glyph of Lingering
- Increases effect duration by 50%
You basically never use this skill. They might be okay glyphs if the skill had a shorter cooldown and did something more PvE relevant, but it doesn't, so the glyphs are bad.
(2) Glyph of Energy
- Decreases cooldown by 20%
A cheap glyph that's pretty useful. The effect is minimal but oftentimes can save you from DPS down-time if Grim Strike doesn’t reset at all.
(2) Glyph of Haste
- Increases Attack Speed for next skill by 50% on hit
It might look like a gimmick, but a boost of 50% attack speed is actually very, very good, best paired with Shadow Burst for a quick-fire, high-damaging skill that would normally take a long time to cast. The glyph is incredibly cheap as well, so can fit into almost any template.
(3) Glyph of Powerlink
- Increases damage of Shadow Burst by 20% for a few seconds
Adding 20% damage to a very high hitting skill is great, no doubt, and you should always be casting Cable Step before Shadow Burst, so it is more or less a free boost. The downside is that this glyph will only come in to play once every Shadow Burst cooldown, but it's still very good.
(4) Glyph of Energy
- RDecreases cooldown by 15%
Shadow Step has a tiny cooldown already, and often will never go on cooldown anyway. If you’re finding you could do with using this glyph, you’re better off learning to track your evasive cooldowns better, because it’s never worth paying 4 glyph points for this effect. (unless you're trying to solo something like Darkan, it's really good there!)
(6) Glyph of Fleetfoot
- Increases combat Movement Speed by 50 for 2 seconds
Reapers can move really well already, so this wouldn’t be good even if it cost 2 points, and it costs 6 so err... don't use it.