As they sit right now Covenant abilities hold too much sway over the decision of which covenant to choose. There is already a basic outline of which ability is the “correct” choice for each class. And nobody wants the defining feature of the expansion to be dictated by a statistical difference between 4 abilities.
This is has now been compounded by the addition of these unique areas for each covenant.
The Ember Court
The Queen’s Conservatory
The Abomination Factory
The Path of Ascension
Each of these are tied directly to their respective covenants and will dictate how you spend your time as we get deeper into the expansion. On the surface these systems aren’t so bad. They sound a bit odd, but at the same time they sound like a nice change of pace as long as you can pick the activity you are most interested in.
What happens though if the best ability for your class/spec is on Ardenweld, but you don’t want to play Farmville for souls?
.
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What happens if the armor you want for your DK is on Revendreth and you totally want to throw some parties, but the best ability for your spec is on Ardenweld?
.
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What happens if you love the armor and abilities of Maldraxxus, but you really like the idea of the Path to Ascension?
You see where I am going with this?
Blizzard has tied WAY too many systems into the Covenant choice. And not just aesthetic choices either. Real game changing choices. How you experience the game, whether or not you will be able to get into high level Mythic keys or raids, or even how you spend your downtime in the expansion are all dictated by this singular choice. A choice which they have already said CAN be changed, but will not necessarily be an easy one to make. Certainly not something you would want to do all the time.
But for the sake of argument let’s say you knuckled down and chose your covenant based on the fact the ability is the very best one available for your spec. And bonus points you even love the look of the armor or enjoy the endgame activity your covenant provides! You invest your time and energy leveling that Covenant.
What happens when they turn around and nerf the ability you chose? Or buffed the abilities in other Covenants? Now your chosen ability is no longer the best ability for your spec.
What do you do? Do you switch to another Covenant? Let’s say you do. Now you are in a new covenant with an aesthetic you don’t enjoy or an endgame activity you don’t enjoy.
That’s not good for the game and that’s certainly not good for the players. I don’t understand how Blizzard doesn’t see these problems when they are staring everyone in the face.
The covenants are not defined by just 4 abilities.
It’s plainly obvious that soulbinds are going to be used to balance out the four abilities.
Now if you want to make a valid concern, you could talk about how underwhelming some of these soulbinds are. Ardenweald and Maldraxxus have some interesting ones, but the rest are just mastery/stat boosts with very mild flavor.
That’s what really needs to be fixed. Bastion’s need attention right now. Nothing very interesting.
Perhaps because a Covenant focused on growth, renewal, and druidic stuff isn’t likely interested in holding lavish, decadent parties. You’re hitting a completely different thematic issue now - it makes no sense to expect Activity A while on Covenant B.
They said the Covenant swap will be based on a quest. I can’t imagine it’ll be that bad. They said it’s returning that will be harder.
Or you could just… get over the fact that the ability was nerfed by a few %'s?
Stop letting 1% extra damage affect what you want to do.
So don’t let it be. Just choose for your own arbitrary reason and to hell with anyone who says you chose wrong. Unless you’re on the bleeding edge it really won’t matter.
It all comes back to the same thing. They are throwing way too many game changing things behind the Covenant choice. That’s what I’m getting at.
Your special ability, your soulbinds, your endgame activities, your armor, and even the story you experience will all be based on the choice you make. And that would be fine if it was purely just a narrative choice. But it’s not. The Covenant abilities will have a very real effect on you outside in the world. Like I said in the OP you already see video outline which ability is “best” for a given class. And that is going to have real consequences for certain specs when it comes to getting into raid groups and Mythic+ further down the line.
I can go on the recruitment forums right now and find like 10+ guilds begging for a warlock or a fire mage. I doubt they’ll say no because the fire mage didn’t go necrolord, but went with the night fae.
Same thing with mythic+. Go on the LFD page and see so many groups needing a tank and then waiting 10+ minutes for a tank. You think they’ll turn down that one tank request because they’re not a certain covenant?
When you have low supply for some roles, you’re going to take what you can get to attempt the content.
Min/max has had a terrible affect on the community and how we play the game these days, but to me the covenant system is only going to further enforce that mindset rather than pushing it aside.
I’m a Heroic raider, which isn’t really that impressive mind you, but I see myself as in the upper echelons of casual because I really don’t care to min-max. Covenants conceptually sound like a fun idea, and I think people need to stop panicking about min-maxing the abilities. I think part of the reason Blizzard plays it so safe with stuff is because the only way people will be happy is if everything is copy/pasted and the only differences are the visuals.
In an RPG, I like the concept of choice mattering. Even if it’s an MMO, we all do make choices throughout our game time. I chose to play a Druid; that limits what I excel at and what I’m not as good at. I chose to be an Herbalist/Alchemist; that limits what I can make. I chose to be Horde; that limits the quests I can do and appearances/cosmetics I can collect.
Covenants feel like they’re meant to be that choice. Personally, the Ardenweald Druid ability I find to be trash tier bad (in its current version). But I’m still going to go Ardenweald because I don’t care how “Bad” the ability is. I care because I like the aesthetics of the Covenant, I like the extra bits that we’re getting from that zone. And I like the choice mattering.
I think the only objectively bad thing regarding the Covenants at this time is how the Conduits work. It felt awful for Relics in Legion, they should not be making Conduits work like how gems work. As Sloot said on his stream yesterday, I do NOT want to be stuck grinding dungeons to get a stack of one Conduit so I can always be prepared to swap things around when necessary. That does not sound fun. Those need to be in a menu like Essences.
Otherwise…I like Blizzard taking chances here. Even if I take the worst Covenant for my Druid, I’m going to enjoy my choice and accept whatever may come of that.
But the covenants being easy to change caters to us casuals already. Even more importantly there is less and less to worry about covenants as we see more stuff added to help with the decision making
But what happens if a lower tier spec like Spriest or Feral Druid pick something that isn’t their best in slot ability? They are already an ostracized group in certain content. That would just make it worse.
I mostly just use stuff like icy veins as guidelines. Then I tinker a bit until I’m having the most fun.
Fun is more important than numbers. I know for some the numbers are the fun. But focusing too much on that will depress the hell out of you. It’s why I refuse to download the dps recount addon again.
According to the forums they’re already not getting an invite because they’re a shadow priest or a feral druid. So covenant choice isn’t going to change that.
That isn’t really possible given how precise the min maxers want everything. Or to just make covenants not an important choice when they damn well should be.
I feel like you’re really overthinking this. There seems to just be a minority of players carrying on like, “These really matter a whole lot!” over and over again. Meanwhile most of us are just saying, “Nah, it’s cool.”
Just be cool. It only becomes this big deal if too many of the playerbase decide it’s a big deal.
An RPG shouldn’t be balanced in a sense that everyone is equal. It should be balanced in a sense that everyone excels and fails at certain things. That’s why you come together as a group to accomplish things.
Let some covenants excel at some things and others at other things.
Heck I don’t complain that my tank doesn’t do as much damage as a DPS. That’s not my role. I don’t complain I can’t heal as much as a healer. Again, not my role.