By that I mean, do you have to choose one? And if not, what would you be missing out on by not choosing one?
It will be quite a while before I get to that point (probably years) but I was just curious as to how deeply they tie into the expansion.
Thanks for any info.
It’s pretty much required. You could never finish the quest to choose a covenant, but you’d be out your covenant ability, you’d be out sources of memories to get legendaries, and you’d be out your soulbinds, and sources of anima and maw quests. You could technically still play the game but you’d be pretty much unable to progress.
If you don’t choose one in SL you’re pretty much left spinning your wheels I think.
Years… what are you, dial up?
I’m not concerned so much with the gearing stuff… but does it affect questing and story? Does each covenant have a differing story arc through quests?
Thanks for the reply BTW.
Yes, though sometimes they overlap a bit with another covenant’s storyline.
Just join a damn covenant. Hell join all 4 and see all the stories.
Nothing is mandatory in wow. You can stay in the starter zone and just pick flowers all day. (Some people do this actually as a leveling challenge.) But if you want to experience the full game and power of your character, you will definitely want to do covenants.
Ok, I gotta point out that it says you are level 47 and you say it’ll be years before you can get to the point to pick a covenant. I believe you can technically start shadowlands quests at level 48. You just need to buy the expansion.
Sorry, I didn’t explain that well… or at all. By “years” I meant that it will be quite a while before I see the SL expansion because I am currently going through Legion with this character and a pile of alts (I have been gone from the game for a while).
I just noticed a lot of complaints about covenants, so I was thinking about the future. I suppose it could be radically different by the time I get there anyway… apparently the weapons in Legion were a completely different animal when the game was current.
Each Covenant has a story to tell that is completely different and yes its required. It’s not permanent though! if you just wanna chug along and swap covenants and experience every story line you can if you switch after you’re done one campaign.
In shadowlands you’ll start by doing each covenants starter quest chain, it takes you through the story of each covenant, and you learn about them. Then there is a central story that involves the story of the Jailer/Sylvanas/Anduin/Bolvar etc.
It’s only after you’ve gone through each covenants story and some main story stuff that you choose a covenant. Since you feel Shadowlands will be over by the time you get there, it wont be as important to you. You’ll likely move on into the next expansion.
People are mostly complaining about the covenants because of how tied they are to character power and progression, and how hard it is to change them. This may not apply to you by the time you get to Shadowlands. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
Yeah so the complaints about them are mostly because each offers a pair of abilities to your character, and in many cases that causes character power issues.
So lets say your a Hunter… Night Fae is the best ability, and Necrolord and Venthyr are the worst. BUT what if you really like the Venthyr? No reason you cant go Venthyr, just be prepared for being sub-optimal. This might cost you a raid slot if your super duper hardcore progression… but otherwise probably not so much. It might cost you M+ slots though.
Another issue is that sometimes a covenant is your best option for PVP but not for PVE, and vice versa. Or best for one of your specs but terrible for another one.
While you can change covenants without too much trouble, you will have to refarm your renown, you will also lose access to any of the sanctum things you spent your anima on.
So covenants are an ok idea, but linking power to them was a very very terrible idea and the forum and streamers mostly dislike them for this.
If your mass leveling alts you could probably do each of them and see the full story.
Don’t bother. Game is poo. You always behind now. Unbalance garbage.
Go play another game.
it’s 9.0 so we rly don’t know, they might scratch it like azerite traits if ppl dislike it
but the idea is to have them as relevant points up to 9.2, then 9.3 adds something completely different and it becomes bogus
You can be any covenant, your performance will change but what matters most is your class, not covenant. If you’re a Necro DK or Kyrian or Venthyr, you work the same. Unless you’re trying to get the hardest content the easiest way, it doesn’t matter much
objectively speaking, Night Fae has it easier: their sanctum is small and you can walk around in your soulshape form, you get the soulbind powers much faster than other covenants and get Niya that is super strong. But with renown catchup, that won’t be an issue now (it was at the start tho)
There are a few classes that live for their covenant like MM hunter, Kyrian VDH, venthyr warrior, but you can pick others, they can get buffed as shown by 9.0.5
Yes if you want to power up and not be one shot by other players in PVP, do good DPS in raids, M+, ect.
Correct, each covenant has a storyline and you must do ONE in order to obtain flying in 9.1 alongside farm reown 40, ect. Each covenant has their own respective mounts/toys/pets via reown farming and questing as well.
Nope my alts lvl 60 now and doesnt have one and wont ever pick one
They make up a huge chunk of the expansion’s contents. I would just not play the expansion if I had no interest in joining a covenant.
if you dont join 1 you get all 4 powers. when you enter X dungeon for X Cov you get to use there power. When you enter X cov in X zone you get there power.
Yes. They are the heart off all the systems for your toon.
You could probably skip it if you like, really wanted to. But I’m not sure why you’d want to.
You’d miss out on important and fun abilities, and probably you couldn’t make legendaries (since I think you have to complete part of the covenant campaign to get to that point).