my very short two cents: i want choice and consequence of choice. obviously i don’t want to make the game unplayable if i choose the wrong covenant, but that’s not what this is
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They are significant, they’re supposed to be that. The sticking point for me is on the bottom end, not so much the top. If any Covenant is unviable for any class/spec, that’s unacceptable, and Blizzard has failed.
That’s totally fair, honestly. I’d hope that you don’t need the dungeon interactions to time the key. This is something I hadn’t considered, though. Very legitimate point.
“Don’t care” is the wrong wording, you’re right. I’m not invested in my talents in the least. They’re not part of my playstyle, they’re plug-and-play options to tailor to a fight, at best.
I’ve never looked at my talents and said “How do I play better to utilize the tools I’ve selected more fully?” The right answer is, honestly, pop a tome and switch 'em out. There’s no player investment.
Cautious optimism, if that. I’m expecting the ugly dragon of Blizzard’s balancing to rear its head, they fall back on Plan B a couple months into Shadowlands, and this winds up as just another black mark for them.
This isn’t a spite thing, but I am very curious if all the “sky is falling” concerns turn out to be true to the extent many people make them out to be. Even if the system totally sucks I’d be very interested in seeing how the community actually responds to a semi-rigid system like this, and if people do wind up getting denied en masse due to Covenant choices.
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I’m pretty vocally pro-Covenant, and I despise the one week Soulbind lockout idea. Soulbinds are supposed to be the Covenant talent trees. There’s no reason to time gate that so harshly. I don’t even like it conceptually.
I’m in the beta, the covenant abilities really aren’t that big of a deal.
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“If your opinion is different than mine, here’s why you’re wrong and I’m right.”
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I have my own opinions about how often players should be expected to “re-spec” each of their soulbinds and conduits. I think “infinity times” is too much. Once per week? Much better.
The 1 week conduit lock actually seem great to me. You still have the ability to channel anima through different paths on each soulbind. It comes out to a total of 20 different loadouts per soulbind… That’s 60 total loadouts per week.
I think that having 60 different Soulbind loadouts to swap between each week is enough.
And I think that people who believe they need more than that are crazy, and they should leave normal players out of their insanity.
I already know how I’m going to interact with this SoulBind and Conduit System…
I’m going to put in a few conduits for each SoulBind just based on which ones are simplest to use, lock them in, and never change the anima flow for an entire week. If I get a new conduit, I’ll slot that one into a blank spot and adjust my anima flow to try it out. That’s all.
What is a hardcore player going to do? Obviously a lot more. Way, way more. Because there’s plenty to think about, strategize, optimize, and problem-solve. It’s a game , now, where you have to think about where to put each conduit, so that, by changing your anima flow, you activate different conduits and therefore change your character’s strengths and weaknesses.
There are rules and limitations! It’s a game, and it needs to be played.
When you take those rules and limitations out, it ceases to be a game. There is a correct answer, and you must check, uncheck, and recheck a series of boxes to get that answer. You MUST get that correct answer. It becomes a requirement. It’s no longer a game.
The 1 week conduit lockout is vitally important.
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So because you don’t care about it then it should remain in an obnoxious state?
I think it’s in a GOOD state.
Allowing players to use their problem-solving skills to make deliberate, careful, optimized, strategic decisions about which conduit to put into which slot, so that changing your anima flow creates purposefully crafted differences in your player power is GOOD DESIGN.
Allowing players to infinitely and repeatedly alter their conduits to attain the exact result they want at the press of a button, isn’t just bad design, it’s NO DESIGN.
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Joining a Covenant is about being a part of a new, specific society with a unique position, duties, values, ect in the greater Shadowlands cosmology and the whole concept is built upon it being a singular choice, just like race and class, that will inform your character’s identity the entire time they are in the Shadowlands.
Please stop trying to ruin the first in-game choice that significantly and lastingly affects game play Blizzard has come up with in ages because you can’t deal with not having your cake and eating it too.
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It’s horrible design and we know it’s not good design because blizzard have moved away from that design and done everything to accomodate player freedom through out the history of WoW
I don’t know what content you do but it sounds like you lean into stuff like world quests and you’re unaware of how annoying this is going to be for anyone who uses different builds for different situations
I’m not even talking about swapping a talent for a boss fight; I’m talking about how you swap a whole spec over to go and do something like pvp
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Yeah look no one cares
At the end of the day you’re just picking some quest givers with a few unique rewards
This doesn’t get ruined if they unlock the abilities
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Joining a covenant is about locking you into a few spells that may or may not be good for you. Meanwhile you do the exact same quests as people from every other covenant and so there’s no difference in society/duties/values/cosmology.
And you get a different gimmicky weekly quest to do.
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That’s a nice sentiment and all, but all the Covenants are allies, you do WQ for all of them regardless of what you pick, their specific storylines cross over.
Oh and there’s no story for picking a covenant, and it actually makes no sense to the context of the leveling experience.
It’s a tacked on gameplay feature atm on the beta.
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I think people are over stating that the choice isn’t really anything more than an ability choice
You’re right. It’s an ability choice along with some transmogs and some mounts and a gimmicky weekly quest.
I’m looking forwards to the people that want to go to nightfae end up doing their questing then working out they really like the nercrolord ability having a melt down because they can’t decide between the really nice ability or getting fairy wings
Sounds like me wanting to go kyrian (because paladin aesthetics) but I’ll actually have to go night fae because it’s the only covenant with halfway decent spells.
And it’s the one I’m least interested in aesthetically.
Man people would universally love covenants if they were just aesthetics and not tied to player power.
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But meaningful choice bro
Sorry, man. RPG players know that it’s the little things that add up. I’m 100% convinced that this whole #pulltheripcord thing is a bad idea, and will ruin my enjoyment of the covenant system.
#MakeChoiceMatter
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How does it impact your interaction with the covenants at all