Shaman picking Necrolord is weird. Warlocks going Kyrian and Night Fae is weird.
I never said it was a complete coincidence and I donât disagree, but I also didnât pick my covenants based on a spreadsheet. And Iâd encourage most to do the same.
I did, but the fact that thereâs quite possibly a lot of players who picked based on power means we should never have seen it hit live the way it is.
I picked necrolord on my rogue because all the other abilities are cooldowns and I didnât want an eighth CD I had to make a weakaura to track on outlaw, a spec thatâs already a nightmare to manage. How does that figure into the statistics
Also arenât most sub rogues supposed to pick kyrian so they can global people in PVP? Doesnât that negatively effect the whole âpeople are just picking for powersâ argument
Pretty much every classes most popular Covenant lines up with what is the best regardless of itâs thematics.
There are virtually no NF Shamans, or Venthyr Warlocks by comparison, because stronger thematics do not outweigh character power for the vast majority of players.
https://www.strawpoll.me/20539850/r
Iâm sure itâs completely coincidental that Covenants worked out so similarly to this poll.
2 Likes
How is Necrolord so unpopular!? Youâre all heretics I say. HERETICS!
Holy jebus, only ~6% of Arcane Mages are Necrolords?!
This is like people who would argue until they were blue in the face that human and blood elf were the most played races because of racials and not because human and âpretty human with pointy earsâ are always the most played races in every fantasy game in the history of fantasy games. Vastly overthinking stuff here.
Except the scale of racials isnât even close to the scale of covenants.
The difference between the best Warlock race and the worst is less than 100 DPS.
The difference between the best Warlock Covenant and the worst, is almost 600 DPS.
If you think the person who makes a human character says to themselves âthis is great, my dps will only be 100 different from the Optimal Raceâ and not âhey it looks like me!!â thereâs no way anyone could explain to you why people who play holy warrior guys overwhelmingly join the angel faction that youâd get a grasp on.
Itâs mathematically weak for most specs.
It tells me approximately 17 out of 18 hunters think theyâre better than they are.
Jk, It really doesnât say too much. I bet out of that 86,000 there is a significant portion that:
a.) Thought the Nightfae fit their classâ aesthetic the best
b.) Enjoyed the Nightfae storyline the most.
c.) Didnât like the other covenant aesthetics
d.) Are trying to min-max.
e-oo.) One of many other variables that exist.
Obviously d.) will be the motivation of a significant portion of the sample because people are simple. However, there is a very, very, very good probability that 80+% of those who fit this line of reasoning, will see no significant impact, because in reality, theyâre just not at the level where they can actually capitalize on the numerical advantage the covenant may provide.
My main point is that you canât really definitively say, why theyâre choosing a covenant over another. For the hunter example, well
Nightfae happen to be the only nature themed covenant. Idk if Nightfae is the best for all druid specs, but they are also overrepresented by the druid community. Again, it could be because a huge majority of people that picked a nature themed class, like a nature themed covenant.
By that logic, youâd think that Demon Hunters would overwhelmingly join the edgy factions, or if they liked WC3, maybe the Nelf faction.
But they donât.
They pick Kyrians, because Kyrians are the best.
3 Likes
I mean, this is just assuming people pick classes based solely on looks and not playstyle. I prefer the aesthetic of a ret paladin (my first main), however, I now play rogue. Why? Because I think rogues are more fun from a mechanics and gameplay perspective.
Youâre oversimplifying.
My two cents. (Luckily I seem to have a lot of pennies.)
I took them for a combo of aesthetics and power.
My BM Hunt is Night Fae. Heâs Tauren and married to a moonkin, despite being an engineer. Makes enough sense, whatâs the covenant for the engineer type? Kyrian? Canât draw any inspiration when you wipe all of someoneâs memories. Necrolord? I donât build things out of bone. Venthyr? Too snooty. And yes, I love the fae nuke ability, flows well with the way I built this hunt.
My BrM Monk is also Night Fae. Why? 'Cause Faeline Stomp just makes sense to me. I wouldâve gone Venthyr with him but the covenant abilityâs thematics didnât go well with him.
My Blood DK is Venthyr. Blood DK, Venthyr⌠I dunno how that doesnât make sense thematically. It goes awesome appearance-wise. But I tested Necro and Abomination Limb and Swarming Mist gave me more dmg (calc-ing dmg of 2x Swarming Mist [3.3k @ lv 50] vs 1x Abom Limb [4.5k]) on top of giving me a more useful secondary benefit (Runic Power vs Bone Shield charges, which I have plenty of those.) My wife has an UH DK and Abomination Limb gave more damage [6.5k @ lv50].
My Destro Lock is Necro. Thematics. I gathered everything to make it all fel green, so why would I ruin that? Plus Decimating Bolt isnât that bad.
There, reasons for choosing covenants.
1 Like
Youâre assuming that those two things lead people to different choices.
People âpreferâ the playstyle of whatever is best because itâs the best. Like a good example of that was last patch, virtually every Hunter was BM because BM was head and shoulders above both MM and SV.
Unless thereâs a minor difference between the two, the decision people make based on spec, talents or any other decision point will almost always come down to what is the most powerful.
Me making a statement, isnât making an assumption. I was only rebutting the fact that not everyone chooses based on aesthetic.
Well, I completely go against that because Iâm a venthyr assassination rogue, and my DK is a necrolord.
Youâre oversimplifying and overgeneralizing.
Pfft. I played BM 'cause I donât like the feel of the others, not because someone was saying it was âbestâ. Iâve considered MM a few times but itâs playstyle grates on my nerves. I like the feel of Outlaw over Assassination or Sub, so my rogue is Outlaw.
TL;DR - not everyone chooses like you say.
1 Like
There are a lot of meta-candy babies, thatâs true, but there are also a lot of people who genuinely donât subscribe to fotw mentality.
1 Like
Im just waiting for the Kyrian ability to get nerfed so Venthyr can be on top again for DH. But yea Necrolord was by far the worst ability.