The situation or even just personal player preference having favor is what gives that choice meaning.
I get what you’re trying to say - but you keep using the term “meaningful” and I don’t think that’s the word that makes the most sense.
I think “punishing” makes the most sense imo.
See - that makes a lot more sense and seems to jive with your angle.
What?
Covenants are being set up as sub classes. A Venthyr Druid (for example) will play differently than a Kyrian Druid. They might even have different optimal builds, different stat weights, etc.
If you’re the kind of person who plays the same warlock in raids as you play in m+, you’ll be the kind of person who plays their Nexrolord Warlock in both content. If you’re the kind of person who plays a warlock in raids and a hunter in m+, you’ll probably still do that.
Anyone who tries to play the game at the bleeding edge already multiclasses. Covenants don’t change that. And people who stick to one character already don’t play the forum-approved meta in “every kind of content”. Again, nothing is changing.
Covenants change nothing because we are already class locked.
Incorrect. This is why:
Adding one additional layer of restrictions beyond class and race is a HUGE change.
Players that play and push content on a single character, across different content, get punished the hardest with this change.
What is the balance knob that can be twisted to give my prot pally a ranged 5 target silence and massive snap threat? Or the tuning knob that increases every healers healing in raid by a large chunk when it’s needed? These abilities are not comparable in any way unless I can get access to the other one at the same time with another system.
I’d care about the covenants more if they werent just borrowed power we will have for 1 expansion then never speak of again.
Like the Tier bonuses we got, starting back in vanilla?
And what about the person who plays their druid in raid and m+? I like pushing content in both. I’m just tough outbof luck? Go add another druid level and gear it? I need my m+ gear for raiding and I nerd my raiding gear for m+. Now what?
Obviously I don’t have stats and neither do you but I find it hard to believe that the person using a main for everything isn’t the most common type of player. That’s just common sense
Not yet…
Thats hardly the same thing as new skills we will only have for 1 expansion find me a tier set that gives you new abilities.
You’re either out of luck - or you pad the time played and character count metrics for Blizzard.
It’s still “borrowed power”.
“Borrowed power” isn’t new and it isn’t a bad thing.
So you can’t find an example got it.
I took option c. Neither of the above and unsubscribed writing about covenants in my leavers servey. Haha
They should just do easy switching so people stop whining.
Won’t change anything for me, all my characters will be in just one covenant and never switch because I’ll just be picking the ability I enjoy the most, and it’s not like I’m pushing WF mythic or M+ 29s.
By ability - you mean a button that you click and that does something?
Didn’t on-use trinkets exist in Vanilla?
But that’s just one EXAMPLE of borrowed power. You’re using the term as though it’s something new or bad, when it’s been here the whole time and isn’t necessarily bad just because you don’t like it.
You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means. There are compromises you make with your character. I want to be faster; I take feral affinity. I want to be tankier, I take guardian affinity. There are exactly zero fights where one or the other is the difference between “can” and “can’t”. It’s a personal choice. Do I want to move out of the thing or just soak it?
When I’m playing my shaman, I gotta move. It’s a choice I made at the character select screen. I can’t change it.
The “convents as a talent row” people want to boil the entire, complex system down to a single ability or a 1-2% throughout difference.
First, let’s not straw man the throughout thing. That’ll change. Gear, trinkets, balance adjustments, new paths, seasonal affixes, etc. will all move that around too much to matter.
Like this guy
Yeah, that’s probably true, if you compare them in a vacuum. But what about the soulbinds and conduits systems? What about a legendary that lets you heal while moving? I’d give up a teleport for that. What about a soul band that gives you a self Rez? I’d give up a teleport for that, even if I had to have an owl bring me a potion.
The systems are complex. You can’t boil them down to a single ability. To use an analogy, what if I said today that mages can’t do something because sheep is worse than fear. It breaks on damage AND heals the target, and fear has the added benefit of moving someone out of position. Does that mean mages are garbage at anything? No, because the kits are more than just the one ability.
Trinkets are not borrowed power, if I recall trinkets will still work at the end of the expansion.
Exactly - it changes nothing for me as an RP/Casual.
But to be fair, it would have a huge impact on people far below the world first and +29 level.
I thought you were allowed to change your covenant can’t go back until you’ve change it again.
I can see Covenant signature abilities being disabled in dungeon, raids, pvp, etc, but not class abilities. I’ll agree with one but disagree on the other. Class abilities are there to help us in bosses or raids or PvP. We should keep them, if they’re disabled then we shouldn’t be getting them in the first place.
I don’t agree with this at all. I think it should be balanced.
Covenants are to feel like an RPG. People shouldn’t worry about what they chose and feel happy about it. Whether you care about the class ability, the mounts, or the armor set that will be given. I plan on playing all four covenants with four different classes and plan on choosing the best class ability for my classes. Am I 100% sure I’ll be the top DPS for all four? Nope. Do I care? Not at all. I just want to have fun with what I choose and feel like it’s an RPG again.
The crux of your argument is that it will be a 1-2% difference.
The problem is, it’s not a throughput question. 1-2%. even 5%, are inconsequential in the big scheme. but utility spell, like an immunity, a teleport, cannot be balanced against throughput. and really cannot be balanced against other utility spells unless prettymuch copied.