How to find the PERFECT glyph combination

All other guides on glyphing tell you how to get APPROXIMATELY eg 650 hit or 900 pen. In this guide I will show you how to get EXACTLY the right numbers or at most +/- 1 or 2 points off from perfect values.

Intro

I write this guide from a DPS perspective, but the same principles and methods will work for Healing and Tanking. You just need to know your starting point and what you want to end up at. Eg, I start with 120 hit from the Kingdom signet and want to end at 700 hit, 900 pen, and the rest in crit power.

PLEASE NOTE! This guide will demonstrate how to take combinations of combinations and perform a depth first search of yet more combinations. Or in other words, a lot of work. I'll include my end result so you can just skip to that if you are a DPS who uses a Kingdom signet, the Woodcutter's Wrath, and want an end result of 700 hit, 899 pen, 780 crit power and 336 crit rating. If any of that is different for you than it is for me, you have to do the work yourself to find YOUR perfect stats.

I have no doubt this process could be automated into a computer program, but it has been too many years since my programming days to remember how. If you want to take my method and write a program from it by all means feel free to do so.

Step 1 - The Head set, Majors set and Minors set

First we state the problem.
We have 1 head glyph, 2 major glyphs (assuming the neck is the Woodcutter's Wrath), and 3 minor glyphs. You can have 0 or 1 head glyph filled for a given stat, 0 1 or 2 major glyphs, and 0 1 2 or 3 minor glyphs. We find all the possible values for a head glyph for a given stat at a given glyph QL eg 10.5 (for pen/hit it is 363,272,182,91) then do the same for major glyphs (328,246,164,82) and finally with the minor glyphs (211,158,105,53) notice how there is no overlap in values?

With that done we have the sets for “pick 0 or pick 1” completed but we need the sets for “pick 2” and for “pick 3.” So next we run the numbers through a combination calculator to fill the remaining sets. I like this combination calculator:
https://www.mathsisfun.com/combinatorics/combinations-permutations-calculator.html

With n = 4, r = 1 or 2 or 3, order = no, repetition = yes – we get the following results:

Head:

{363} {272} {182} {91}

Majors:

{328} {246} {164} {82}
{328,328} {328,246} {328,164} {328,82} {246,246} {246,164} {246,82} {164,164} {164,82} {82,82}

Minors:

{211} {158} {105} {53}
{211,211} {211,158} {211,105} {211,53} {158,158} {158,105} {158,53} {105,105} {105,53} {53,53}
{211,211,211} {211,211,158} {211,211,105} {211,211,53} {211,158,158} {211,158,105} {211,158,53} {211,105,105} {211,105,53} {211,53,53} {158,158,158} {158,158,105} {158,158,53} {158,105,105} {158,105,53} {158,53,53} {105,105,105} {105,105,53} {105,53,53} {53,53,53}

These are all the possible ways you could have individual glyphs, but we want to see all the possible combinations of glyphs used together. Having it set up this way simplifies things a great deal from how I used to do it because to find any given combination of glyphs used together one need only pick one item from the Head set, one from the Majors set, and one from the Minors set. The combinations calculator linked above is able to do this with some added rules.

Step 2 - Combinations of Combinations

First run a text editor like:
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
So you can ctrl-f and replace all instances of ',' with '+' replace all instances of ' ' with ',' and remove all '{' and '}' so your sets now look like the following:

363,272,182,91

328,246,164,82
328+328,328+246,328+164,328+82,246+246,246+164,246+82,164+164,164+82,82+82

211,158,105,53
211+211,211+158,211+105,211+53,158+158,158+105,158+53,105+105,105+53,53+53
211+211+211,211+211+158,211+211+105,211+211+53,211+158+158,211+158+105,211+158+53,211+105+105,211+105+53,211+53+53,158+158+158,158+158+105,158+158+53,158+105+105,158+105+53,158+53+53,105+105+105,105+105+53,105+53+53,53+53+53

Crush that down to one line by adding commas at the end of lines and deleting the <enter> between them so you end up with:

363,272,182,91,328,246,164,82,328+328,328+246,328+164,328+82,246+246,246+164,246+82,164+164,164+82,82+82,211,158,105,53,211+211,211+158,211+105,211+53,158+158,158+105,158+53,105+105,105+53,53+53,211+211+211,211+211+158,211+211+105,211+211+53,211+158+158,211+158+105,211+158+53,211+105+105,211+105+53,211+53+53,158+158+158,158+158+105,158+158+53,158+105+105,158+105+53,158+53+53,105+105+105,105+105+53,105+53+53,53+53+53

Now when we plug it into the combinations calculator, we need to add rules that state you can only pick one item from the Head set, one from the Majors set, and one from the Minors set. The syntax is as follows, and this is what we plug into the combinations calculator:

363,272,182,91,328,246,164,82,328+328,328+246,328+164,328+82,246+246,246+164,246+82,164+164,164+82,82+82,211,158,105,53,211+211,211+158,211+105,211+53,158+158,158+105,158+53,105+105,105+53,53+53,211+211+211,211+211+158,211+211+105,211+211+53,211+158+158,211+158+105,211+158+53,211+105+105,211+105+53,211+53+53,158+158+158,158+158+105,158+158+53,158+105+105,158+105+53,158+53+53,105+105+105,105+105+53,105+53+53,53+53+53
no 2,363,272,182,91
no 2,328,246,164,82,328+328,328+246,328+164,328+82,246+246,246+164,246+82,164+164,164+82,82+82
no 2,211,158,105,53,211+211,211+158,211+105,211+53,158+158,158+105,158+53,105+105,105+53,53+53,211+211+211,211+211+158,211+211+105,211+211+53,211+158+158,211+158+105,211+158+53,211+105+105,211+105+53,211+53+53,158+158+158,158+158+105,158+158+53,158+105+105,158+105+53,158+53+53,105+105+105,105+105+53,105+53+53,53+53+53

With n = 52, r = 1 or 2 or 3, order = no, repetition = no – we end up with three results and they are too long to post here but you end up with:
r = 1 "List has 52 entries."
r = 2 "List has 668 entries."
r = 3 "List has 1904 entries."
Add them together and that is 2624 possible combinations of glyphs used together.

Step 3 - Plugging the numbers in

Using the text editor again, replace all instances of '{' with '=' replace all instances of ',' with '+' replace all instances of '} ' with '/n' (note the space in there) and finally remove the last three '}' (those which had no space behind them)

Paste the resulting column of numbers into an Excel sheet, sort that column, and you can now see the combination of glyphs needed to get EXACTLY eg 900 pen rating. After that you just have to match up your ideal first value with your ideal 2nd value in such a way that the two glyph sets are compatible with one another.

You can eyeball the list, or you can repeat step 2 and remove all incompatible glyph combinations to produce a list of only compatible glyph combinations with the given entry in the column. I'll include my spreadsheet so you can see it for yourself. I only ran this last step for values of hit that interested me; namely 570, 580, 605 +/- 1. And the only results for penetration rating I cared about ran between 700 and 900.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ahlvc4d6dtsbvx/2624%20glyph%20combinations.ods?dl=0

Plug it into tswcalc and you get my perfect glyph combination of:
http://joakibj.com/tswcalc/#weapon=9,7,5,1,0,4,0,3,6&weapon2=9,8,5,2,0,4,0,3,3&head=9,3,5,3,2,3,1,3,53&ring=9,3,5,3,2,3,1,3,62&neck=9,3,5,2,0,4,0,heroic,92&wrist=9,3,5,3,0,4,0,3,68&luck=4,3,5,4,3,3,1,3,86&waist=9,3,5,4,0,4,0,3,59&occult=9,3,5,4,0,4,0,3,65

Conclusion

I hope this was relatively clear, like I said it is a complicated process. If you run into problems I can try and help troubleshoot them. Otherwise thank you for taking a look at my guide, and remember to rate, like, and favorite this guide if you found it helpful

If you enjoyed this guide for TSW you may also like my other guides:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=640689609
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=704586959

[Non Weeb]

WARNING! Carry on reading! Or you will die, even if you only looked at the word warning! Once there was a little boy called Joey, he was ten-years-old and he lived in a mental hospital because he posted a shitty copypasta onto a People Playground mod's comment section. He got so bad he went to kill all the staff in the hospital so the Feds decided that best idea was to get rid of him so they set up a special room to kill him, as inhumane as possible. And he sat there in agony for hours until he died. Now every week on the day of his death he returns to the person that reads this letter, on a monday night at 12:00 a.m. He creeps into your room and kills you slowly, by pegging you and watching you bleed to death. Now send this to ten other profiles on this one site, and he will haunt someone else who doesn't. This isn't fake. apparently if u copy and paste this to ten comments in the next ten minutes nothing will happen

[Deadbeat Saint]

Thank you again so much! Its really helped me re-map out my character to design it like I want. Hope you're enjoying Starbound (love that game! used to run a server... but I think after about 1000 hours it was time to give other games a chance :)

[Drake Ravenwolf]

(had to split up my respone to fit in the 1000 character limit)

BB is not really a limiting factor once you get far enough in the game; you can farm it indefinitely. It is MoPs that you only get a limited number of each week.

While gearing up you generally want to get the hit cap 1st, then dump the excess into pen, so your instincts are correct there. But just keep in mind that atm 10.6+ is only from nightmare raids which only a handful of cabals even try doing. So for most players 10.5 is the highest they will reach. It is helpful to have this in mind when looking at online glyph calculators when looking up values to plug into my process

[Drake Ravenwolf]

In TSW things like hit/miss and block/pen are not defined by the player's stats alone; it is the relationship between the mobs stats and the players stats. A mob's defense is basically a -hit rating debuff for the player and likewise block is like a -pen debuff.

Since raiding is considered end game and players love to look at dps numbers they saw that 650 hit gave less than 1% misses and 700 gave 0% so players just picked a value in that range that they liked and stuck with it then saw that those values gave 0% misses basically everywhere else as well. Most people believe the "True" hard cap is something like 675 or 680. Some feel that extra little bit from 650 is too small of a benefit to bother with; aka a dim return. Others prefer 700 since it gives you the 900 hit for those other dungeons with a simple +200 potion. Where you draw the line is up to you; since 50 points is so small anyway I just stuck with 700.

[Deadbeat Saint]

How do we know that though? (I'm genuiunely curious I've only been playing for a few weeks, so I hardly understand how most everything works). I'm guessing that people have run scripts and see that once the Hit Rating was at 700 that there were never any misses?

Thank you for the explanation by the way (thankfully I only have to destroy a few Epic 10.1 glyphs it appears, so I've probably only thrown away about 1000 BB)

[Drake Ravenwolf]

It is ALL about those diminishing returns, for pen it is a "soft" cap in that you can keep piling on more and more and while you get less and less from each additional point you still get *something* But for Hit, the cap is a "hard" cap in that once you have enough to never miss or evade, you get zero benefit from adding any more. 700 is the hard cap for most things, there are only 2-3 dungeons that require more and those are easily solved by drinking a hit rating potion or swaping in a hit rating passive. You get more DPS from investing the overflow into crit rating and/or crit power; or in other words you are gimping yourself by eating all that diminishing return.

It is possible that they will add new content with mobs that have higher defense rating, and the meta game will adjust to those new soft and hard caps; but they release new content very slowly so you'd be gimping yourself for the hope that new content changes the meta game which it might or might not do.

[Deadbeat Saint]

What I want to know, is why is 650/700 Hit Rating considered the ideal amount. Why is it so terrible to have a 1000 hit/ 1000 pen and just ignore the defensive garbage and the crit. I understand that there are dminishing returns. However, surely if we're expecting expansion QL11+ for Talismans/Weapons and QL10.6+ for glyphs, then we can expect areas that will require much higher Hit / Pen ratings.

Arent'y we just gimping ourselves here?

[kaanomeg]

you are one sick dude <3