I'm sad about the Covenants

Community General Discussion
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The overall idea of covenants being a part of a players’ identity was great in theory. The execution of each covenant sanctum and their abilities was done (for the most part) amazingly well even.

But sadly, the restrictions, ended up souring the goals and potential benefits of the entire system for many players - imo, too many players.

I’ve seen and talked to so many players now that made their choice, not for identity, but for performance and/or because a website told them what to pick.

I love role-playing, but I just can’t see how the restrictions support the goals of player identity and/or meaningful choice.

Blizz - please reconsider and make swapping the abilities and associated soul binds easy, and feel free to leave the restrictions with the covenant/sanctum.

This way players can make meaningful choices and have a sense of player identity with the new expansion.

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Eh, I plan to just use whichever one best meets the aesthetics of the character. Which might mean a whole lot of night fae but I’m not that impressed with the others anyway.

Someone needs to say it. This is the new class hall. Only instead of class they made 4 to choose from. What could possibly go wrong with that.

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Some things personally wrong with them: first time mogs and cosmetics are permanently tied to a faction (most other times we could take them with us as permanent stuff after we move on, here we have to stay in the same covenant) limiting mog choice, titles are largely lack luster (and we see several NPC titles/quest names which would make good ones, rather than “envoy of winter” how about The horned hunter for hunter and Droman or Arch Druid for druids for instance?), legendary equipping restrictions etc… if they tore down some of these and made covenants feel more rewarding then it would feel MUCH better to be in one, because we all know in a patch or two “covenant choice” is gonna turn into covenant cooperation…

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Apparently the thing that could go wrong is tying player power to that choice.

That negated the goals of identity and meaningful choice.

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Luckily they let you easily change your covenant if don’t like the one you picked.

I personally have been really happy with the unique offerings of the different covenants and think they did a great job with thier development.

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It is sad that Blizz doesn’t understand that aesthetics and player power shouldn’t be tied together when at all possible.

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Remove Covenants insert “Garrison” same BS time sink MUST DO gated questlines limiting the players…

Only difference was my Garrison had cool stuff to do!

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No matter how closely they balance them there will always be a “best” and people will choose it because mah deeps.

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I’m only doing it for the transmog, lol

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But players could choose their aesthetics for identity, and then choose their ability/soulbind for a meaningful choice - in your example for performance that best fits the players’ groups strategy for whatever content they’re doing.

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That’s not going to happen. Why would soulbinds from other covenants bind with you? Why should someone in one covenant get the ability from another?

I understand why people want it but blizzard will never allow it. It would completely undermine the structure of the entire expansion.

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Because they’re all allies - that’s why the send you out to help one another.

And they could recolor the abilities to match your selected covenants aesthetics - so it would be more like a shadowlands pool of abilities that they’ve put together to give to the Maw Walker that’s here to SAVE THEM, because that makes PERFECT role-playing sense.

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The issue is people are incapable of making choices for themselves or way too anxious to make the slightest mistake. You see this everyday, people asking others which class they should play…

In practice the system is forgiving, it’s not the end of the world changing covenants…

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I’d feel less anxious and more capable of trying things out on my own if the restrictions weren’t in place.

There’s no reason for the restrictions, and they only add the negative aspects you mention.

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I kind of get your point here, but Archdruid is already a title.

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Because the entirety of the covenants are working together, with the mawwalker as the tip of the spear, to combat a common enemy?

Something like that maybe?

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The entire choice of a covenant is forced and poorly written. We spend the entire storyline going from one covenant to the next helping them out in order to solve a problem that is affecting all of them, being a focus of unity against a common threat.

Then we randomly have to pick one ??? the choice makes literally zero sense from a lore perspective, it’s terrible from a player mechanics perspective, and while I like the sanctums there’s no reason to tie them to player power.

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OK but each cov is their own thing that carries their own values and moral. They are not “one” and are more like work companions forced into this position with each other.

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Not really.

Bastion carries souls to the Shadowlands so that they may be distributed to the covenants. Maldraxxus keeps the Shadowlands protected, so things like the Drust and the Void don’t wreck things. Ardenweald fosters the souls of the wild gods of planets, so they can be reborn and help protect the world souls (and thus keep the flow of souls going). Revendreth redeems souls so that they can earn penance and then go to an appropriate covenant.

They all need each other, and they all work together to some degree, even if they don’t directly communicate all the time. They are all directly effected by the drought, and they are all trying to stop the Jailer.

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But when some “hero” comes to save them all from a common enemy - they’re like “You gotta align with only one of us, otherwise you have to go through time-gated chores to earn our “trust” back and regain powers that will help you save our entire realm; you know, instead of just letting you learn and make flexible meaningful choices that will allow you to kill the Jailer.”

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