Reading through the Covenant abilities and the intended challenge to switch between them;
It certainly feels like the choices will be pretty punishing outside a specific type of content, or if you feel a particular thematic affinity towards a Covenant that doesn’t have a strong benefit in the content you participate in.
Venthyr
Great synergy with Kill Shot for good all-round single target DPS use
Kyrian
Sounds like a strong LoS counter in the arena with 10 secs of additional crit burst
Necrolords
A versatile DPS button you can use for single target or aoe
Night Fae
A bit sceptical about this one. Have to see how effective considering melee mobility and gap closers today
Honestly I think it’s to early to tell. There’s still a lot of details that just aren’t known yet as far as the further abilities in the trees. On face value for example, ya the Venthyr look best for single target dps, but maybe their further abilities are very lackluster and another covenant, such as Necrolords who look like best for cleave at face value, actually have an ability further down that is great for single target.
I personally like the RP aspect they’re going for here and hope every covenant has a place to shine in all types of content. As a heroic raider I’m not especially worried about the min/max aspect though. It’s not gonna prevent me from completing any of my goals either way.
Covenants are going to be weird in PvP. 90% of the time you would want flayed shot, then versus cleaves bristle weed trap would be the go to. I hope they allow free switching in arena/bgs.
Aside of my own bias of being very much so disappointed at the lack of any animal/beast covenant ability to fit the hunter theme. I’m also rather disappointed that Venthyr seems to be the clear winner for all hunter specs from a generalist perspective.
Bristleweed Trap is debatably a good choice for pvp since you also get the whole fox form with it that can be used for kiting, but I’m not really sure if it’ll be good enough to trump the raw damage potential you’d get from Flayed Shot.
Im liking the Kyrian covenant ability the more I look into without alpha access.
The potential in pvp is just too great to ignore. Think of those times when flag runners try to use obstacles to block your shot or in arenas? The side benefit is your maneuvering would be more strategic.
And boss fights like the Stormwind horrific vision would be easier without LOS concerns.
You’ll still have to obey LoS to put the kyrian AoE down, which likely means you won’t be able to cover the entire area behind the pillar or object someone is behind. If instead it gave targets that stand in the AoE a debuff that lasted 10 seconds with the same effects it would be much more useful. In more open PvP situations like outdoor BGs and WPvP kyrian as it is now seems pretty bad.
Summon a sentinel at the target location that applies Sentinel’s Mark to all enemy targets below it for 15 sec.
While the sentinel is active, each ability you use against a target affected by the Sentinel’s Mark calls forth a spirit beast to strike your target for (25% of Attack power) Arcane damage
copied from wowhead seems intresting but idk if its going to beat flayed shot
the only covenant ability i don’t like is the night fae even after the change. that said, balance will never be achievable for blizz. they have issues with even balancing classes. they will never be able to balance all of these abilities and keep people happy with the current locking system.