So I am seeing a bit of a debate online as to the nest covenent to use if you are a Protection Paaladin.
Icy Veins says for raiding/mythic+ content to go Kyrian with a Pelegos soulbind for AoE use, but WoWhead states flat out that a Tankadin should go Venthyr so you have access to the Ashen Hallow ability for increased damage.
But at the end of the day, there isn’t a clear answer as to the best covenant aside from “choose which one you like”…which is maddeningly unhelpful.
What are some of y’alls opinions from actual gameplay so far?
I have a paladin in both, and both are good choices.
The Kyrian Bell Toll ability is sweet because it’s on a short timer so you’ll be using in in a regular rotation. There’s also a forge bond ability that gives it the chance to hit your primary target 5 times which is nice for our overall bad dps. The owl buddy is also nice to empty full bags and whatnot.
Ashen Hallow is on a longer timer and I find I’m always saving it for a boss rather than just using it when it’s up - but the ability itself is pretty sweet for tough encounters, after all you’re doing aoe damage and aoe healing at the same time. The Venthyr teleport ability is super handy since we’ve got poor overall mobility, and it’s a real gem getting tricky places world questing.
Either way you can’t go wrong.
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I can’t see myself doing m+ without divine toll. With all the casters in the SL dungeons it acts as a group interrupt/silence, huge dps spike, and fat shield with the first avenger talent. The vial is also great for tanks of course.
For raiding kyrian seems less good on single target obviously, though the vial will be useful in every encounter, where door of shadows is more situational. Though I still manage decent single target dps just by being a prot pally.
As someone who made the switch from V to K, my main things are that i found the 4 min timer made me unwilling to use it except on bosses. But i do miss the extra avenging wrath. I guess its like having a mini form of lust/hero if you want to think of it that way. Use it on a boss and hope its reset by the next boss.
But! I enjoy the extra attack of the Bell Toll. And the conduits are better than V’s
Also the story is more interesting and the aesthetics are more appealing to me. I mean come on! Angel Wings!!
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There is no best one for all situations. That’s a good thing. Play what you like
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What? Where? The article I’m looking at provides the positives/negatives of each in good detail. (https://www.wowhead.com/guides/protection-paladin-best-covenant-shadowlands)
If your focus is raid then sure go venthyr. But raid isn’t really where most tanks get tested, so rolling the unequivocally worse raiding covenant isn’t a big deal; you’re not gonna be wiping raids because you do a bit less dps. And if you are wiping to dps checks that’s not really the tank’s fault. So I see no issue with raid tanks taking a covenant more for m+/pvp/fun
In m+ I’m conflicted.
At entry level, divine toll is super fun, very useful for the FA absorb, bulwark stacks, holy power, snap threat, aoe silence, dispel and on demand mastery buff. It’s simple to use, reliable, consistent, and flashy.
Venthyr is just pure output. Ashen Hallow does a tonne of dps and hps that you can use to just blast a dangerous pull, and m+ is timed content so both the targeted and overall dps will help make keys easier to time. In my opinion at least, I also find it more fun. As DT you just press whenever it’s up, whereas with AH you want to make a pull out of it so that it can blast a big pull, a deadly pull, or support the healer or yourself in surviving rough group damage. So it requires some thought and preplanning to maximise it’s usefulness. I just find that more rewarding, also I like how I look on the meters.
As someone who did play kyrian early in the xpac before going venthyr once m+/raid dropped I don’t miss the FA absorbs from DT; it’s gone in a gcd anyway, whereas AH is healing you for a full 30sec. In that instant while the FA absorb holds it’s nice, but over the course of a pull AH is much nicer. Perhaps it’s because I run with a pretty consistent group who knows how I pull, and frequently have a rogue and/or hunter available, but I don’t miss the snap threat at all; it only becomes an issue when picking back up aggro after dying or slowly losing it over a long kite without AH, cases which are pretty rare. I do miss combat meditation, as that is much better in an m+ setting than thrill seeker or soothing shade. I wish I could just have a big mastery buff to use as a cooldown on demand rather than the stupid umbrella that I can’t stand in half the time and doesn’t proc when you need it. The silence is good, but if you can do a pull consistently without an aoe silence then it wasn’t necessary, it might even be a crutch preventing you from being better at organising interrupts as a group because “the pally can do it”. I don’t miss the phial, but that’s probably because I quit kyrian too early to learn how valuable it really is. The holy power I’ve made up with haste. Hence, at mid level I value venthyr over kyrian.
At high level, I believe that aoe silence and the phial dispel will become much more important. Because you’ll actually set up pulls that can’t be done without them, making use of the fact that you have a paladin, and I definitely underestimate how good phial is. I’d just find it quite stressful to constantly be thinking about how to get enough value out of them to beat the output of venthyr.
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