Maybe, still a good idea though.
True. But as a casual guild leader who only manages M10-M15s, I like to be able to tank and heal on the same toon so I can easily swap roles as we fill for quick runs.
It seems to me that this is frowned upon by Bliz and that I should be required to manage two different mains. It was hard enough to get 3xAzerites for multiple specs (looong grind!) and also then farm for weapons and trinkets spec-specific (that one I understand).
But all in all, I think Method is 100% right here and SL is looking to be a multi-main xpac, not multi-spec. If you don’t have time to do multiple mains, then you will have 1 role and that’s that.
Note: there is NO technical reason this has to be - when switching specs all they have to do is have individual choices per spec. This was true of the neck, it can be done, Bliz is choosing not to do it.
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Right? The forums will be crying throughout shadowlands and blizzard will do it right in 2 years at the end of shadowlands.
exactly how it should be. I have tried all the essences to find the ones I like. I would want to do the same with covenants. sick of gating.
FTFY
That’s subjective. Maybe it’s not for you, but it will be for others.
Yeah there’s a bunch of overreacting drama queens in this game for sure.
Really all of this.
Delete Method and their methods.
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This brings up something that Preach I think mentioned which I 100% agree with and shows a fundamental flaw in Blizzard’s encounter design: You can’t design around certain things (e.g. defensives or utility) because you know not everyone will take them. But by not doing that, you make utility or offensive better because you can’t design around them, so they just give an advantage.
It shows why this entire design concept is wrong at its very core and has been ever since they’ve started it. By not designing with these abilities in mind (which you can’t do) you make picking certain ones that much better.
The whole encounter design process is majorly flawed.
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Yup. Players who enjoy multiple roles get hit the hardest, especially if you tank in PvE and also enjoy PvP.
That’s why Dratnos’ words echo the sentiments of many other players.
Right. I’m terrible at WoW but I can absolutely see that deliberately destabilizing high end raid balance for the people pushing bleeding edge content and writing the guides that most average players use is going to cause havoc on the subscription numbers. It’s only an Alpha, but if Bliz keeps doubling down on “hard choices” they’re going to end up walking back on all of it at some point, making nobody happy. The system goes directly into the dumpster by the next expansion too, which is the insane part.
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I’m the filthiest of casuals, but I do occasionally want the option to do a low M+, and with a non FOTM main any deviation from the “perceived” meta means I can’t pug at all. I would love to be able to just pick a covenant for the asthetics, but will just settle for whatever Icy Veins or Wowhead tells me is “best” for my class. 
I think you should see a therapist if your enjoyment of life is based on someone else’s discomfort.
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The biggest issue here is that Blizzard should know by now that anything which has even a tiny percentile of advantage will be, for lack of a better word, abused by the players looking to be as competitive as possible. So either they don’t know or they don’t care.
The fact they still build systems that have choices where some are better/more useful than others and act like they don’t know it will devolve into “X good, everything else bad” (doubly so if it’s varying per content) is the most shocking.
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I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’ll destabilize raiding. People will adapt as usual, like they did to Legiondaries, Corruptions, or Essences or Azerite gear.
But that doesn’t mean it’s a good system.
One of the issues that’s going to come up, is that not everyone focuses purely on raiding, even in raid guilds. Likewise, not every PvPer solely PvP’s or every M+ pusher solely pushes M+.
If you’re one of those people, Covenants are going to feel awful as sure, you’ll pick what’s best for PvP or whatever, but whenever you try and do any other content, you’re definitely going to notice the power gap with how strong these abilities are.
And that’s not even taking into account the fact that some will be far stronger for certain specs than others.
Plus, though not nearly pressing as gameplay issues, not all people who push high end content are unfeeling monsters whose actions are dictated purely by SimCraft, despite what some people on these forums may think.
I like the idea of picking a Covenant based on aesthetic and story, and it’s not going to feel great when I have to suck it up and pick a Covenant I find far less interesting simply because of the content I do. Quite frankly, I have zero interest in either the Kyrian or Night Fae, so I’m going to be very disappointed if I’m pigeonholed into picking them.
I have zero faith in Blizzard stacking additional systems on top of Covenants to try and balance them, especially when they’re unlikely to fix the glaring issues in utility, which for high end will matter far more than just raw throughput.
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I mean a lot of the reason we are having to respec every fight is because of the importance of borrowed power and overly pruned classes that can’t swap to doing AoE damage because the abilities just aren’t there.
Big claim. Azerite traits + Essences + Corruption makes up of AT LEAST a quarter of our damage, if you think Covenant’s rented power will only be 1 or 2% then you’re not really playing the game.
I really don’t care about the people who sim, I’m more concerned with having friends to play the game with. Every time the playerbase adapts to some lousy new system that acts as your second real life job, the servers get more and more deserted. Player burn out is at an all time high. Classic acted as magic blue pills for the numbers, but that’s about it. I just want to chill out with some buddies and pretend to be a little online Gnome or whatever.
It’ll be funny watching so and so streamer jackass say “this Covenant is the best ever for this class. you will be cool and smart and handsome to others if you pick this. you’ll be a true asset at any level of play.” and then the average players do so. It’ll invariably get nerfed and then suddenly…
I think it’s more like:
Blizzard: Here’s a bunch of options, you should pick the one that fits you.
Players: madly figures out which is ‘best’ and only picks that
Blizzard: nerfs ‘best’ one because it’s not being used as they intended
Players: shocked pikachu face
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yeah, pretty much.
I love WoW but the dev’s spiritual design philosophy of implementing some half baked idea and then scrambling to balance it after the fact is maddening.
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