Choosing a Covenant?

[Zeusgodofsky-thrall (Zeusgodofsky)]

Not really people by now will choose whatever they like best not what sims better.

[Annfrost-uther (Annfrost)]

I actually plan on having at least one toon in each Covenant. But, which toon/class is going to which Covenant that is the true question for me.

[Faerilea-wyrmrest-accord (Faerilea)]

I think it’s obvious what I will pick

[Ansleigh-kirin-tor]

Not sure there is a ‘beach vacation with giant pauldrons’ covenant, so no.

[Warpstone-norgannon (Warpstone)]

I will level 1 character thru all 4 covenants. Then after the first 4 I will level the rest thru the one I liked the most.

[Faerilea-wyrmrest-accord (Faerilea)]

That really made me laugh!
but , it’s in my name

[Cangremon-dalaran (Cangremon)]

My life. FOR THE COVENANT

[Shivallah-thrall (Shivallah)]

I heard we might see Kael’thas in Venthyr, correct? If so, that’s my answer.

[Oakenshroot-durotan]

I HOPE I can actually pick my favorite covenant without gimping my dps or the expac is going to be super sad times for a min/maxer who really would still appreciate the aesthetic and optional mogs and things. But at the end of the day I’ll not trade 2%+ dps for my favorite covenant… and yea; I’ll be salty about being pigeonholed. Very worried about this one tbh

It’s gonna be worse once people figure out that one covenant is best for tanking, one for DPS, one for PvP etc.

Can’t wait for Josh Allen to come out and threaten to increase swapping costs again like he did with Azerite gear.

[Zeusgodofsky-thrall (Zeusgodofsky)]

Meh most people will still pick what they want not every guild is a try hard guild anyways.

[Thalanás-stormrage]

That’s a good idea

[Vararei-argent-dawn (Vararei)]

It’s gonna be worse once people figure out that one covenant is best for tanking, one for DPS, one for PvP etc.

Is this something you read, and if so, what’s the covenant/utility breakdown?

[Oakenshroot-durotan]

Meh most people will still pick what they want not every guild is a try hard guild anyways.

Most people are going to pick what they want, yeah. And then they’ll realize they’re a little better at a certain role and content style with that covenant they picked and a little worse at other roles and in other content types, and get annoyed.

“LOL not everyone is a min/maxer” you say. True, but that’s exactly what happened with Azerite armor. Folks either lost interest or got angry when they realized they couldn’t reliably switch traits on their Azerite gear.

“Meh that’s just the tryhards” you also say. Well, maybe. But apparently there were enough people who hated the system that Ion had to essentially abandon it in favor of essences instead in 8.2.

Now think about covenant abilities. Throughput-increasing powers that are basically locked in for the expansion (Blizzard says there’s a steep cost to switch, because of course there is). Guaranteed to have a best covenant and worst covenant for every gameplay type, unless Blizzard has suddenly become able to balance things without making them mechanically identical.

Given how people react to things like this, we all know what the end result is going to be. We might not like it… but we know it’s going to happen.

[Zeusgodofsky-thrall (Zeusgodofsky)]

Not my problem.

[Oakenshroot-durotan]

It will be everyone’s problem when Blizzard has to scrap content so they can work on fixing the system, just like they always do.

[Zeusgodofsky-thrall (Zeusgodofsky)]

Yeah im sure there going to scrap content of a major feature of the expansion and the only feature as well goodluck with that.

[Oakenshroot-durotan]

When I say “scrap content” I mean scrapping whatever they have planned later in the expansion because they have to put that time into redoing systems instead. Not “get rid of covenants.”

They don’t have to scrap covenants, nor can they feasibly do so at this point. Just put the throughput abilities on something else that can swap.

Covenants as a concept are really cool and people will like the cosmetic aspects. It’ll be fun to be able to see who supports whichever faction by the way their characters look.

It’s being locked in to one set of abilities that will cause a problem.

[Zeusgodofsky-thrall (Zeusgodofsky)]

The fact you can change it means most likely each Covenant will have a niche dd dam aoe dam ext and there ok with it one of the new interviews confirms it so not sure why you keep saying it’s locked it’s not at all.Players forceing them selfs or from others to be controlled is a player problem not a game one.

[Oakenshroot-durotan]

I mean that they are locked in to one covenant choice without paying a significant cost if they want to switch. I don’t mean that people are locked in to abilities within the covenant they choose.

Whether that’s good, bad, player problem or Blizzard’s problem is probably going to depend who you ask on any given day, but if past experience is any indicator it will definitely cause an uproar that will result in wasted time from Blizzard.

Covenants as a concept are just fine, and the cosmetic side will be very cool. It’s the abilities which will cause problems as soon as people start noticing that a certain covenant is better for a certain spec or game mode.

[Lorsaire-earthen-ring (Lorsaire)]

Ill have characters in all 4 i am sure across my alts.

My main, this primarily Unholy DK, will almost certainly go Necrolord. Those bone wings are aewsome and a different covenant would have to be absurdly unbalanced and powerful for me not to choose it.

However im probably most drawn to the gothic look of the Venthyr. I can see a bunch of my alts going with them.

My Druid will probably be Night Fae. My Night Elf Warrior and Zandalari Paladin will probably be Kyrian. And only this DK will probably be Necrolord.

But i can see a lot of my alts going Venthyr.