I honestly think this is how it should be. Players want to have one character be all things. I have seen clothies think they should be able to tank and people saying we should be able to have all the professions on one toon. But these same people cry about the community.
Back in the day, we actually NEEDED other players. And probably we can’t ever get that back completely, nor should we lose content that can be soloed, but it is good to make an MMORPG have choices that have both positives and negatives. It allows each of us a space to be useful.
And maybe the vast majority of players will stop demanding the best of the best to do content that simply doesn’t require that level of perfection. Maybe players will rediscover the fine art of making do with good enough once they can’t be so picky. Because, sure, super difficult content requires min-maxing but, come on, most of you don’t even approach that.
my only problem with Covenants is that I am going to want a lot of alts. So many.
I mean it is like watching a slow motion train wreck every single xpac. They have their “vision” that people end up hating and then have to do some major changes to make it closer to how people were telling them it should be in the first place.
Agreed. And I play multiple specs. Especially between heals and dps for some of my classes.
They never wanted choices that matter. They like the sound of it, but they hate it in practice. They always have. Most current example? Cleansing corruption. People are whining they want to be able to put the corruption back on, unable to live with the fact that once you choose to cleanse, that’s permanent.
Choosing a talent and then swapping a talent has always existed in this game. Being unable to do that, finding out that you picked a fun Covenant for one spec and the most unfun one for your other spec… that’s crappy.
Which players? The ones who do not like our xpac power system tied to our cosmetic choice or those cheering this on because they think they are sticking it to the elite?
These won’t be choices that matter for:
Story progression
World state
Character status
Player agency
These will be choices that matter for:
Will I get accepted into a group with this covenant/class spec?
Will I get vote kicked from a random scenario group for this covenant/class spec?
Will I get a guild invite with this covenant/class spec?
I mean, they did admit early on that Azerite gear was busted and all they did was try and “fix” things. Which amounted to “what really changed? the traits are still either awesome and spec defining, or simply meh buffs”
Regardless of what the powers are I am going to pick the covenant that I think RPG wise fits my characters. I don’t do end game content. I don’t do group content. I never want to do challenging content again in a game I play to relax and have fun.
These choices don’t mater to me for anything other then tmogs, but I am not angry or bitter enough to not see how tying power choices and locking them in will very negatively impact many of the people who do the stuff that I don’t.
Same here. However, I still want to know that I’m not playing at 80% power. I want to feel like I’m playing at 100% power regardless of the Covenant I choose to play.
I don’t have to be equally powerful across the board, just that my average power is as “close” to 100% as possible.
Pretty much. Aesthetically, I favor the night fae over any other covenant. But the NF warrior combat ability is butts compared to anything else for basically any scenario you encounter in the game. So barring some really effective balancing the likes of which we’ve never seen, or some truly busted soulbinds, that choice is likely off the table for me.
Wow is the only RPG I know of that implements systems like this. What ever happened to your choices being tied to a talent tree, spec, and the stats on your gear?
That’s been the real problem, isn’t it? That they can never leave some things well enough alone.
Also to be honest with some of their ‘design visions’, like what they did to Shadow Priest and the seemingly vengeance driven rip down of Warlocks post Xelnath; I’d recommend Lassic Eye Surgery if it was me continually pissing off my base. …Or at least a few shots of Clear Eyes. Ben Stein liked it after all.
Right but Blizzard has essentially just said that you will NEED to only have one spec if one Covenant isn’t good for all of your specs. That means Paladins, Warriors, Monks, Death Knights Druids and Priests are punished for picking those classes this expansion if they want to play all of their specs. They’re punishing more than just your Covenant choice, they’re punishing players who want to play multiple roles.
Kyrian’s ability is insane for Protection and Holy.
Though, I do foresee Night Fae and Venthyr being basically the only options for any Blood DK’s who are even remotely serious about M+.
Still, its early and they need to tweak a lot of things. For most of my alts I was just gonna choose a Covenant based on aesthetic. Like, my Shadow Priest(assuming they fix Shadow) was going to be Kyrian but currently the Kyrian ability is actually a hindrance. Really hope they can make things work.
As far as the OP, didn’t Ion or someone compare Covenant swapping to be akin to swapping from Aldor to Scryers or vice versa?