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Unsatisfying Glyph Situation
Vaqual
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This topic has been bothering me for years now and it doesn't even seem that there is any change in sight. Weapon glyphs are the most optimal source for status procs, due to their massive base chance, reliable proc mechanism and short cooldown. They can not only help to easily maintain additional damage over time in the form of burning or poison, but also supply crucial debuffs that can exceed the value of the primary glyph effect, if those can not be otherwise sourced, e.g. minor vulnerability. This is admittedly something that is more impactful in solo or small scale play, but there it is so dramatically important that it should not be brushed over.
With that in mind I want to look at what this means for the different weapon types. While I would not consider the weapon passives between the different weapon types perfectly balanced - with dual wield clearly being a top choice anyway- I will not fully dive into that here for the sake of clarity. Now glyphs on dual wield weapons had their efficiency halved multiple years ago, to account for the fact that you get to slot twice as many glyphs on a dual wield set compared to any other weapon (with one-hand and shield being the exception, as it gets an extra armor glyph). This means that on dual wield you can not get a maximized secondary effect on damage glyphs and you can not get a maximized effect on stat glyphs, which can be a drawback in many PvE scenarios and often a hurdle for users of Weapon Damage Glyphs. But the net damage that can be achieved from damage glyphs is still the same, as the damage is just exactly halved on each glyph. Considering now the base 20 % proc chance, that means that Dual Wield has in any scenario at least a 0.2 x status proc damage advantage, as all status procs deal at least 1 tick of damage. In all scenarios where status debuffs are not fully covered this is further exacerbated by adding the full utility of the respective debuff, e.g. a 5 % damage taken bonus from concussed. The slower tick rate of the blade cloak for back-bar procs is not an issue here either, as even infused glyphs have a 2 second cooldown, making blade cloak rather ideal for this purpose due to the effects mobility.
So dual wield has a clear advantage over any other weapon types when it comes to status effects, but surely the passives are weaker to account for that, right? It has a marginally lower base WD than two-handed melee weapons (but more than bows and staves due to passives), but overall it is rather the opposite. Dual wield is offering the highest percentage based modifiers of all weapons, with a 15 % modifier against disabled targets and a 20 % execute modifier. The point here is, that the dual wield design comes from a time where most status effects did not have an inherent direct damage tick (which can be basically turned into 1 or 2 mobile DoT effects) and where status procs themselves were less important than the primary glyph effects, as the power budget it not really balanced around this extra status proc. The changes to status effects throughout the last years have massively favoured this weapon type over others, simply due to its access to the second glyph, whereas the situation with stat glyphs on dual wield is needlessly unsatisfying.
The idea here has been proposed before and I really think it is necessary to consider this now: Give all weapon sets access to a second weapon glyph slot (except one-hand and shield of course, as this set has an armor glyph). Slotting identical glyphs twice/on both weapons should unlock the "full" enchantment strength, whereas slotting two different glyphs would behave as it does on dual wield weapons currently.
If this is something the devs insist on having (not factoring the effort required for a rework) and if they truly consider this fair for some reason I would like to hear their opinion on this and I would be really happy if you could bring up this topic for discussion @ZOS_Kevin.
Edit: The visual glow could still reflect only the first/primary enchantment, so a VFX rework would not be strictly necessary for two-handed weapons. Considering the current look of glyph glow effects that would however be a nice thing to rework anyway.
Edited by Vaqual on April 6, 2025 2:42PM With that in mind I want to look at what this means for the different weapon types. While I would not consider the weapon passives between the different weapon types perfectly balanced - with dual wield clearly being a top choice anyway- I will not fully dive into that here for the sake of clarity. Now glyphs on dual wield weapons had their efficiency halved multiple years ago, to account for the fact that you get to slot twice as many glyphs on a dual wield set compared to any other weapon (with one-hand and shield being the exception, as it gets an extra armor glyph). This means that on dual wield you can not get a maximized secondary effect on damage glyphs and you can not get a maximized effect on stat glyphs, which can be a drawback in many PvE scenarios and often a hurdle for users of Weapon Damage Glyphs. But the net damage that can be achieved from damage glyphs is still the same, as the damage is just exactly halved on each glyph. Considering now the base 20 % proc chance, that means that Dual Wield has in any scenario at least a 0.2 x status proc damage advantage, as all status procs deal at least 1 tick of damage. In all scenarios where status debuffs are not fully covered this is further exacerbated by adding the full utility of the respective debuff, e.g. a 5 % damage taken bonus from concussed. The slower tick rate of the blade cloak for back-bar procs is not an issue here either, as even infused glyphs have a 2 second cooldown, making blade cloak rather ideal for this purpose due to the effects mobility.
So dual wield has a clear advantage over any other weapon types when it comes to status effects, but surely the passives are weaker to account for that, right? It has a marginally lower base WD than two-handed melee weapons (but more than bows and staves due to passives), but overall it is rather the opposite. Dual wield is offering the highest percentage based modifiers of all weapons, with a 15 % modifier against disabled targets and a 20 % execute modifier. The point here is, that the dual wield design comes from a time where most status effects did not have an inherent direct damage tick (which can be basically turned into 1 or 2 mobile DoT effects) and where status procs themselves were less important than the primary glyph effects, as the power budget it not really balanced around this extra status proc. The changes to status effects throughout the last years have massively favoured this weapon type over others, simply due to its access to the second glyph, whereas the situation with stat glyphs on dual wield is needlessly unsatisfying.
The idea here has been proposed before and I really think it is necessary to consider this now: Give all weapon sets access to a second weapon glyph slot (except one-hand and shield of course, as this set has an armor glyph). Slotting identical glyphs twice/on both weapons should unlock the "full" enchantment strength, whereas slotting two different glyphs would behave as it does on dual wield weapons currently.
If this is something the devs insist on having (not factoring the effort required for a rework) and if they truly consider this fair for some reason I would like to hear their opinion on this and I would be really happy if you could bring up this topic for discussion @ZOS_Kevin.
Edit: The visual glow could still reflect only the first/primary enchantment, so a VFX rework would not be strictly necessary for two-handed weapons. Considering the current look of glyph glow effects that would however be a nice thing to rework anyway.
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