personally id of liked to pick based on looks and feel of the zone and for me that wouldve been Necrolords, also fit DK perfectly theme wise. i only do M+ however and the Night Fae D&D replacement thing looks like its going to be amazingly OP especially at the start of the expac when we have very limited stats. with that said i dislike everything aesthetically about them and their entire covenant goes directly against the theme of the DK class. i also dont want to pick the ones thats best for M+ at launch then to find out its drastically better than the others so Blizzard nerfs it and now its no longer any good and im in a covenant i dont like and have to join a new covenant and start all over again leveling a new covenant. this whole system just feels like theres too many moving parts to ever work right.
I wish it was aesthetics vs a minor dps increase. But really some of the covenants are so bad they wont even feel good to be in. Iāll be picking on whats going to feel the best to have. Sadly its not the one I want to join for looks.
Divine Toll is a nuke button, just saying, itās amazing and when combined with Anima Powers from Torghast, it just drops everything dead in front of you.
Just throwing that out thereā¦(like that pun? 
)
/hugs
I am going necrolord on my lock, rogue and dk. Idc if suck or not, Maldraxxus 4 lyfe
I pick what I like. If I want something from raids or M+, I can save up some gold and buy a carry. 
Aesthetic. Iām not a hardcore player. I pay for this game and want to have fun with it. Iāve never been super competitive. Iāll be choosing them based on what seems like itāll be the most fun aesthetically for me.
I havenāt even picked my class yet 
Iām still (probably futile-ly) hoping for guardian changes.
but when it comes to covenant, ill pick whatās best for raid. and hope to heck tiās also good for m+.
being forced to choose between the two activities I love in this game, leaving me less capable at one, is a really crappy choice.
edit to add:
unless best is the dumb angel people. I prob wonāt be able to make myself choose them.
Both, fortunately.
If I am joining a raid team/ or doing anything that takes a group effort then I have to pick what is best.
the one i picked for aesthetic is the best in meta terms :^)
I always pick what works best for me. And thatās not always what sims the best.
iād love the luxery of choosing bases on looks but as a shadow priest i feel like iām forced into specific options because most of the abilities donāt synergize with our class at all.
I mean ideally Iād go Maldraxxus simply because I love the armor and the unique back aesthetic. Soul crystal on my back, yes plz.
Aesthetic only. I donāt care for another skill in my rotation.
If I have to choose between a rock and a hard place, Iāll find a game that doesnāt force that kind of choice on me.
Iāll go with what my characters would naturally align with.
I plan to go for lore/character narrative reasons first, then aesthetic reasons, then power.
I have very strict and perhaps quirky rules when I play Fairlight, examples of which are: I donāt use any Healthstones (mythic raiding or mythic plus, same rule applies, I even loathe being summoned via warlock closetā¦) and I donāt loot humanoids unless thereās a quest item I need - seems what a thief would do). I generally hate having to do quests that donāt fit my own character backstory (my dk and rogue donāt care generally speaking).
Thus I plan to review the ethos of each covenant and pick my new friends based on that, though I hope they have pretty mogs.
Iām OCD andā¦unfortunately vain as hellā¦
A bit of both honestly. Iām leaning more heavily towards Night Fae and Bastion as I want to pick what is pleasing to the eye but I also want them to be useful on the character I am playing on.
Depends how powerful the ability is. Iāve been spending the last few weeks learning how to love vampires because if the beta is going to reflect retail, Venthyr is going to have everything for a PVE MM.