Preparing for a Hunter Flex Raid: Glyphs

What is a Hunter Flex Raid?

A Hunter Flex Raid is a specialized form of the "flex raid" which is available in 5.4; The raid will be primarily composed of hunters.  I'd like to say that it would be entirely hunters, but there will most likely be some cleansing to be done for some fights.  The WHU had a few of these raids coordinated during the last months of Cataclysm.   I pet-tanked a few and pet-healed a few.  They are a blast.  Generally, we will want to "over-gear" the instance we are raiding so we will not run these as soon as they are available.

These raids do take a fair amount of preparation for all participating raiders for them to work.  The largest demand is put on the pet-tankers and pet-healers.  But DPSers will also need to heavily prepare.  In each article I will be covering gear needs, helpful macros, critical addons/UIs, pet selection, specializations, talent choices, and glyph selection.

Without further ado...

Glyph Summary and Review

As a normal ranged DPS hunter, I generally use the following Glyphs:
Glyph of Animal Bond - a good +10% boost to our limited healing
Glyph of Liberation - disengage and receive a 5% heal
Glyph of Deterrence - increases the damage reduction of deterrence to 50%

Those are quite good defensive glyphs while in a raid that is filled with normal classes for roles.  If the raid roles are primarily being met by hunters, then we want to look at the other options to better keep us and our pet alive:

Glyph of Chimera Shot - +2% health return from Chimera Shots
If you are playing Marksman, then Chimera Shot can be a reasonable source of self-healing.  This glyph makes it a bit better and makes a hunter with limited healing resources a bit better.  MM is of course currently a large DPS loss compared with BM and SV.  And you may need to be playing BM for the exotic pet.  But if you do find yourself playing MM, this is a solid life-preserving choice.

Glyph of Mending -  +60% healing from Mend Pet
This is a priceless glyph that is required for a pet tanker.  If you are tanking or off-tanking, you must take this glyph.  Further, you must keep a Mend Pet rolling all the time.

Glyph of Misdirection - no cooldown for redirecting to your pet
This is great for a mixed group, but not completely necessary for mainly hunters where we can expect them to drop threat before pulling aggro.  And they can MD to your pet themselves.  But if you are having threat problems this can bail you out.  Also of note: Misdirection has no focus cost.  So if you take this glyph, you can macro it into any ability or abilities that you already have a macro for so that you achieve 100% uptime on threat redirection.

Glyph of Mend Pet - good dispels for your pet, but rarely needed
This glyph should only be used situationally -- aka rarely.  This is primarily a PvP glyph and not for PvE.

Glyph of Endless Wrath - makes it so your pet can't die while it is in effect
This is an incredibly bad glyph to take for a pet-tanker.  While in effect, it causes your pet's threat to be dropped to zero.  Do not take this glyph.  Ever.

Glyph of Distracting Shot - distracts the target to your pet instead of you
This is not useful in PvE boss fights.  Distracting Shot doesn't work on bosses and it wont work to Distract Shot them to your pet either.  If you need threat help, take the Glyph of Misdirection.

Glyph Recommendations

Hunter Pet-Tankers

If you are a pet tanker in an all-hunter Flex Raid, I recommend you use a turtle pet and consider taking these glyphs:

Glyph of Animal Bond - a good +10% boost to our limited healing
Glyph of Mending -  +60% healing from Mend Pet
Glyph of Deterrence - increases the damage reduction of deterrence to 50%

Hunter Pet-Healers

If you are a healer in an all-hunter Flex Raid, I recommend you run as BM with a spirit beast (or up to five spirit beasts) and consider taking these glyphs:

Glyph of Animal Bond - a good +10% boost to our limited healing
Glyph of Liberation - disengage and receive a 5% heal
Glyph of Deterrence - increases the damage reduction of deterrence to 50%

Hunter DPSers

If you are a DPS in an all-hunter Flex Raid, I recommend you consider playing MM for frequent prioritized Chimera Shot heals and consider taking the following glyphs:

Glyph of Animal Bond - a good +10% boost to our limited healing
Glyph of Chimera Shot - +2% health return from Chimera Shots
Glyph of Deterrence - increases the damage reduction of deterrence to 50%

Some DPS will be BM for different BM-only pets.  Some DPS may simply play far better as BM.  And it may work out that we want a lot more passive Spirit Mend spells flying around from Spirit Beasts.  In these cases the Glyph of Liberation should be your choice.

Deterrence Caveat

Clearly if a fight does not have any large unavoidable damage events then the Glyph of Deterrence is not as necessary.  To date, Deterrence has uses in every fight.  Avoiding a large amount of damage is a good idea because we have difficulty healing a large amount of damage.  One must have a cancel macro so after the damaging event is complete you can quickly return to your responsibilities.