Glyph Round Up: The Current State of Magic in the Game

[Sidestepper]

WONAFYT: I used to hate this glyph and kept suggesting that it just be removed entirely. Between the new and improved slow effect, the new Clog-O-Matic spawning algorithm, and the the glyph's new tendency to appear near the entrance, I now actually use this thing. If there is a good open space to use as a monster dump, you can reliably capture all ten 1st level monsters and a nice chunk of the 2nd level ones before increasing mana opportunity costs force you to scuttle the glyph. That's like 15 extra xp right there. In practice, it's more, because many of those monsters would have been blocking key hallways, forcing inefficient out-of-sequence kills.

The glyph now works, but the original intent (summon monsters for you to fight) is still worthless. It also has the problem that WEYTWUT can do most of the same functions, but with more precision. If WONAFYT weren't guaranteed to be near the entrance, it would be nearly useless, but it is, so it isn't.

WEYTWUT: My favorite glyph. Costly but versatile, it can be useful at any stage in the game. It "seasons" your popcorn and unblocks hallways in the beginning, and it can be used as a clutch 1st strike near the end. Please ignore Lujo's grousings about this glyph, it's lovely just as it is

BURNDRAYZ: The new burning mechanic really turned this around and made magic damage something to care about again. The original burning mechanic was ahahahahbrokenahaha but I think that the current incarnation is just about perfect.

IMAWAL: This used to be a favorite of mine, but now it gets converted more often than not. Catapults give less xp now, and popcorn typically gives more, so this glyph got screwed on both ends of the deal. While intelligent use of the glyph will always give you a net gain of xp, this can be a bit deceptive. Popcorn xp is more valuable than its flat sum, because it can be harvested at will for a level up at no cost in resources. Gaining 5 xp now in exchange for 2 'soft' xp later could potentially cost you the game.

ENDISWAL: The primary effect is terrific now that the dungeons are so clogged up. The 20% resistance ends up being just enough to gain the odd upset victory. I'd say this one is just right.

PISORF: Terrific if you specifically prepare for it, marginal if you just happen to find it. The problem is that you can't prepare PISORF, which means you can't really build around it. As a utility gyph, WEYTWUT and ENDISWAL are much better and have more useful secondary effects.

GETINDERE: I was all for this glyph to be removed entirely, due to its redunance with WEYTWUT. The new dodge mechanic really turned this one around. Even Rogues use it now. Especially Rogues, because of the dodge prediction.

BYSEPS: A decent glyph for regen fighters. The resist-down effect was critical to keeping this thing relevant, but I sometimes wonder if it shouldn't have been 4% instead of 3%.

HALPMEH: Used to be the king after the CYDSTEP nerfs, but now leaves me a bit underwhelmed. Increasing the cost from 3-for-3 to 4-for-3 hurts just enough to knock it down a peg. I think that I would have prefered it to be made 4-for-4, which retains the old efficiency, but subtly increases the real cost by parceling the effect into larger, less manageable chunks.

CYDSTEP: How the mighty have fallen. I agree with the other vets that the problem with CYDSTEP was its interaction with high damage multipliers (aka Rogues) rather than an innate issue with the glyph itself.

APHEELSIK: Hasn't been changed in a while and still works just fine.

BLUDTOPOWA: Still haven't gotten used to the new mechanic, so I don't have strong opinions on this yet.

[Blovski]

WONAFYT: Yes, I now am very happy to see this one.
WEYTWUT: Too expensive for me to be a huge fan but not bad.
BURNDRAYZ: Don't use it loads except when I use it loads. Think it's probably about alright now.
IMAWAL: Not a fan. Mostly because DD currently mazy so hard to leverage it without blocking yourself off.
ENDISWAL: Is great. Res-stacking is usually good for a level or two + kill, breaking walls is awesome.
PISORF: Exactly,
GETINDERE: Great now. Formerly meh. Rogues need to be *able* to use it though.
BYSEPS: Is fine.
HALPMEH: Not great except with Lemmisi and big subdungeon + waters + poison boss. A bit sit-specific.
CYDSTEP: Ehm. A great thing to get and use once. If you're a rogue, a great thing to get and use many times. Good for a few extra boss hits so usually a keeper.
APHEELSIK: Yeah
BLUDTOPOWA: Likewise a bit.

[Darvin]

More or less agree with you.

With regards to BLUDTUPOWA, my experience with it is that it just doesn't offer enough resource-efficiency. If you've got nothing to spend your health-based resources on, it works well to fuel WEYTWUT or ENDISWAL (or piety farming with Mystera or Binlor). Beyond that, it's mostly for niche applications. For most classes, the 1:1 ratio was already challenging to work with and anything worse is a sick joke. I convert this thing from the ground more often than not.

Similar to my opinion with CYDSTEPP and Rogues, I believe that the problem with BLUDTUPOWA was burning and piety farming with deities. Nerfing it to account for these things has left it brutally underpowered in other situations, not to mention annoying because you keep needing to toggle it to keep a steady effect.

[The Avatar]

Nerfing CYDSTEPP made it awful for normal people, okay for rogues, and the same for warlords. It has the same problem before, except it sucks instead.

Between the new burning caps and BLUDTUPOWA's lower hp effect, it has fallen far from it's perch of "screw the boss at level 1." I think removing its effect, but instead making it reduce piety gain to 0 while active and make it cost 5 piety to activate

[Sidestepper]

Forgot about LEMISI!

The primary effect (scouting ahead) is counter-productive. LEMISI is something that you save on congested maps to access walled in dark space. It can actually be pretty good, it's just a little bland. If LEMISI targeted the highest level monsters first, the primary effect would be great.

[The Avatar]

Or rather it revealed monsters one level higher. Finding a level 6 at level one isn't going to do you much good.

[Sidestepper]

I was thinking more along the lines of identifying the bosses and the level-9s. Those are both crucial pieces of information when deciding how to develop your character.

[Darvin]

[Nandrew]

We've actually been thinking about buffing LEMMISI's "intelligence". Other priority targets could include stairways, altars and powerups.

CYDSTEPP and bloodpower suffer slightly from nichedom, and they are not as cool as they used to be. But at the same time -- in a game where I'm happy to pick up WONAFYT for just a level or two because it's an "early" glyph -- I appreciate that at the very least I will ALWAYS find a use for them. If I find CYDSTEPP in a scenario and don't have a build to complement it, I'm still really happy to load up with a single protection and abuse the hell out of the glyph until I'm forced to make room for something else.

I think players are just disappointed that it's not as sensible anymore to carry it all the way to the boss. For some characters -- rogue, warlord -- it IS a viable endgame glyph, whereas for many others it needs to be more about leveraging advantage in midgame, particularly in rougher scenarios where an extra hit against that slightly higher-level enemy makes the difference between death and a level-up. Same goes for bloodpower: unless your character is built for it, it needs to click that you'll be using it in temporary scenarios where it would be REALLY useful to be a slightly more mana-intensive character.

These glyphs may have reduced mileage, but I hardly ever insta-convert. IMAWAL is much more of a concern to me at the moment.

[Lujo]

I still think WHEYTWUT is too multiractical with +1 XP on the monsters. I know players like their exploity stuff, but it does almost everything you'll ever need short of outright damaging stuff. Not a big deal, execpt that it encroaches on other XP boosting Glyphs, one of which became playable due to the XP bonus and RNG cheating, and the other only boosts XP but has opposite of utility.

I feel like I have to restate this as it's one of those things that get looked over in favour of more pressing stuff, while at the same time being omnipresent.