I won’t since we are not able to change on the fly thankfully.
You wouldn’t have to switch covenants to get a group/raid if the powers weren’t tied to covenants. You will have to switch (or choose based on) in the current iteration. The same is true of classes and specs; ask ferals and spriests for the first half of BfA.
Choice would be more meaninful here if it was limited to aesthetics and story and not tied to player power. It could be more limited than currently, they could actually stop you from changing, and much more of the players of the game would choose the covenant they feel attachment to rather than one they feel compelled to choose based on performance.
“Let choice mean something” is not synonymous with “punish people for choosing what they like instead of what performs well”. With the current iteration, choice isn’t meaningful, it’s essentially nonexistent for large swathes of the player-base, because balance doesn’t (and won’t) exist. Players who care about performance will pick based on performance, the same as they pick class and spec now. Players who don’t care, don’t care. There is no cross section of players that care about performance and players who will pick covenant based on things other than performance; the two things are mutually exclusive by definition.
Anyone who is invested in covenants locking abilities is either incapable of logic or aiming to punish people they consider elitist and catching a large chunk of players in the cross-fire. People who care about performance don’t have a choice - they are compelled to pick the right talent due to balance. People who don’t care about performance can already choose what they want and do so without it being meaningful. There is no meaningful choice currently.
I think the system is fine, none of it actually matters for most people since lower end content doesn’t take much to complete.
You can’t separate abilities from covenants because ultimately you will still be locked into your covenant by the way of soulbinds.
I’ve seen soulbinds affect that covenant’s specific class ability.
It’s a much more deep rooted, no-thought, flawed system problem than separate covenant abilities from covenants.
Blizzbucks designed it this way deliberately.
Titanforging was an objectively bad system, man.
Then don’t swap?
No one is stopping you from swapping either way. You’re not locked into your covenant despite the popularity of that phrase.
Well at this point I kind of hope things go horribly wrong either way. Some will complain either way and since I am fine either way, I can use some entertainment.
Even if you could change on the fly, there’s nothing forcing you to do so.
Did you mean politicize? Just trying to understand the first thing.
I agree its not perfect and could use some tweaks but I think a lot of this is due to the fact that no not everyone does want SL to be good…I think a lot of people just cant be happy no matter the product its just not in their nature. you could have the most amazing expansion with one tiny flaw and the community being the toxic waste dump that it is will crap all over it and complain the entire time and not even allow themselves to enjoy it.
your right covenants aren’t perfect but it never will be. Im just gonna enjoy the game for what it is and if you have a decent group of friends to play with most of this nonsense wont really effect you much. cheers.
I wish Blizzard could understand this.
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Pretty sure they do, its been this way with talents and classes all throughout the Activision Era of WoW.
Even before during humble Blizzard days, picking well performing talents and picking what you like weren’t the same.
Literally the only thing making Covenants closer to “classes” than “talents” is the asinine system they’re tied to.
If they weren’t so insanely restrictive they’d just be talents.
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We’ve never had to choose power or aesthetics. Now we do and I hate it.
I have to spend over a week doing a series of mundane tasks to rejoin a covenant I leave.
I shouldn’t be utterly gimped in M+ because I want to optimize for raiding. That literally doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
I don’t understand this perspective. The covenant restrictions affect everyone, not just the 1%. I’m a casual, that sometimes likes to try different builds, just for fun or to change things up. I don’t care about fully optimizing everything, I probably won’t do anything harder than heroic / +17 (maybe).
Yet, I’m still affected by this change, because I want be able to change builds for fun and for the sake of switching things up. I’d say I’m even more affected, because as a casual, I don’t have the time nor motivation to switch covenants as much as a 1%er might.
Anyone that supports covenants to spite the 1% must realize that a lot of other people, possibly even themself, is getting hit in the crossfire.
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I get the feeling you like to teleport. Good name.
Just a thought before you turn this into a full blown “Us vs Them” hit job and divisive topic : You can be pro covenant and dislike how they’re being implemented.
I for one think having to choose a faction is great from an RPG perspective. I do dislike that unbalanced player power is tied to it and I have 0 confidence that Blizzard can make it work properly.
You always had to choose power or aesthetic even at the micro levels like gear appearance. Pretend that you weren’t basically destroyed if you attempted to be any other but a majority support healer or buffer pally or druid back in the day until BC.
Blizzard also thought of this and created a divide between what type of drops you get from the 3 main spheres of content. PvP, M+, and PvP.
If you are hopping back and forth between all three spheres constantly you will never be the best at them for months anyway, and this is separate from covenant choice because certain conduits, soulbinds, etc are designed to suit the content they drop from.
Not since cata and transmog became a thing. You know one of the most popular features in the game. Funny how people like choices if they’re not tied to power…
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