When glyphs first arrived in World of Warcraft, players had the best of both worlds. They would stock up on "Major" glyphs picked straight from an Elitist Jerks must-have list while enhancing their favorite skills—those they liked to use without care for raid or PvP performance—with "Minor" glyphs.

But in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion, toons will have to make room for "Medium" glyphs which Blizzard said will provide "fun alterations" to abilities. That’s a bit broad given the many definitions of fun in Azeroth, from raiding to role-playing.

So let’s take a trip down memory lane and the latest Blizzard press conference to see how this middle-child glyph can bring the right amount of pizzazz to character enhancement.

Glyphs: A History

Glyphs were first introduced in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion along with the inscription profession, which can create glyphs exclusively and sell them at the auction house. Inscribers use the innate skill called milling to transform herbs to base materials for crafting glyphs.

Throughout that expansion, glyphs became an essential part of character customization. Raid leaders and arena captains would look up their teammates’ armory data to check whether glyphs have been optimized. Casual players and role-playing fans, meanwhile, broke away from the mold by equipping glyphs that best suited their style of play, Recount be damned.

But when Blizzard announced the Path of the Titans, a character advancement system that would see characters worshipping a titan and receiving their blessing via character bonuses, the glyph system suddenly felt flat. Why depend on glyphs when you can a titan and bask in his

The Path of the Titans seemed set to push glyphs to the wayside—until Blizzard pulled scrapped the new system and promised instead Medium glyphs as some sort of compensation.

Cosmetic and Non-combat perks?

While Blizzard has finalized the exact focus of Medium glyphs, my guess is it will probably offer a mix of cosmetic and non-combat perks. This prediction is based on a simple analysis of how Major and Minor glyphs currently work in game.

Major glyphs are focused on giving combat boosts such as increased healing or damage. Whole specs are defined by their use of Major glyphs so Blizzard will most likely keep them battle and role-oriented.

Minor glyphs, on the other hand, provide convenient improvements like a small reduction in a spell's activation costs. Characters who forget to equip minor glyphs can still perform as well as their glyphed counterparts in most raids or battlegrounds. But customized specs with carefully tuned minor glyphs have been known to lessen trips to the reagent store and make adventuring easier all around.

Given the current set-up, Medium glyphs could specialize in altering appearances and providing game world perks. This can range from extending the Moonkin form of druids (which will be no longer be made permanent in Cataclysm) to tweaking the glow of shaman totems. Some Major glyphs could also be transferred to Medium glyphs, freeing up valuable glyph space following the talent tree revamp in the next expansion.

And with all glyphs becoming permanent in Cataclysm (yes, no more re-purchasing after changing specs!), Medium glyphs will surely spice up the character customization options while exploring the revamped Azeroth. It’s not as mind-blowing as the originally planned Path of the Titans, but hey, it could fill us up quite nicely—just like a medium-sized, fully garnished burger.