Thanks for leaving out the part where I said I didn’t like the restrictions lol.
Also, I don’t agree with that. Shadowlands as an expansion is built around Covenants, whereas Essences were introduced in 8.2, and were not what the game was built on. Comparing Azerite gear would be more logically sound.
Except in your hypothetical you are comparing why apples are red but oranges are not.
literally nothing you said was worthwhile. want to try again and offer up a real argument?
oh here, let me spell it out like Barney for you. You said “Ion said…” I countered with… Ion says lots of stuff. You see how that works? Ion can say w/e he wants, but we can see exactly what it means. The intent means nothing.
We have something called borrowed power. It’s been common place the last few expansions. This. is. no. different. They’re just more random abilities that are tied to ‘covenants’ instead of an essence or a piece of gear.
Uh, absolutely irrelevant to what I quoted and what I responded to what I did quote?
Ok well it’s literally a change of name, everything OP describes applies to Azeirte gear too.
the lengths you people have to go is just astounding.
have you read anything about the covenant abilities? some of them are practically a copy and paste of the existing essences.
you can’t make this stuff up…
Wow, it’s almost like I don’t like the current system they have in place either but I disagree with the premise of this post. Calm down, your mouth is foaming at the wrong guy Karen. 
We can speculate obviously based off precedent. In those scenarios it is better to find things that are similar and hypothesize based off actual things that happened. You know, not situations where actual events and variables have to be changed to force the comparison to work.
Sometimes I think posters would do themselves a favor by cutting all the chaff from their posts and at times I comment to those ends.
If the goal is to persuade the reader, and I am that reader, don’t weigh me down with fluff and nonsense. Get to the point and try to stick with the things we know and what we can reasonably deduce from.
hey sparky, i’m glad you disagree with the post, but the concept of borrowed power isn’t new and covenants are just another form of that. you can slap a new name on it all day, but the two systems still boil down to one thing. a button on your bar that you use for damage, healing, mitigation, or utility.
it’s really that simple.
Yes and one way to speculate is to draw a hypothetical scenario… I don’t understand why you’re arguing over this.
That is what OP did. They took what happened with essences and applying the restrictions of what is the proposed Covenant system.
THAT’S A HYPOTHESIS. Like what are you even going on about?
Okay , so it is not difficult to change your covenant and soulbinds , nor is it difficult to change soulbinds within your covenants , infact it is a short quest and the natural grind to switch covenants ,that’s it! Now ! Depending on what reason you swapped “weaker choice” or the “wrong feel” or whatever doesn’t matter , it will be difficult to go back to the “weaker choice”… Why is that a problem tho if you are a hardcore simmer? You also have access to 3 soulbinds that can be swapped between… You have flexibility . I want a system that makes mythic raiders and heroic raiders and even ppl who don’t raid happy , and I will admit the conduits thing is dumb , we should focus on that more tho .soulbinds and covenant doesn’t seem so bad
“Psst, buddy. Want to see my Great Worm from Beyond?”
-Blizzard
I don’t understand why you’re struggling with this.
The hypothetical comparison is unnecessary. You admitted it yourself.
So why bother?
Just talk about covenants. No mention of essences is even needed.
That is my point. That was all my point ever was.
You keep looking for a place to be right and for me to be wrong.
You’re approaching the conversation the wrong way.
Nothing between the lines, no hidden agenda. Just a guy who is weird about how posters sometimes go about making arguments the hard way when they don’t have to.
Imagine trying to compare 4 choices to 40.
Isn’t that how they said conduits would work?
I said it was unnecessary but effective.
It is unnecessary because the issues of a Covenant is apparent without it. That doesn’t mean the hypothesis is in anyway incorrect.
We already have dozens of threads just talking about covenants. A hypothesis thread doesn’t hurt any.
I will not stress over covenants… Its really not an issue. Ill do all the content I want and ill do it however I want. Good covenant or the worst.
It took me ages to get the lash of the void corruption and I still only have one. Doesnt stop me from doing keys or raiding. Same thing. It didnt before and it didnt after.
least the covenants weren’t thought of the last min to make up, with the lost of artifact powers and ect. yes i remember az armor items only gave 3 rings then 4 and finally we moved up to 5, everything was added to late… maybe not late but just way to slow or unoriginal at first ;/
There is no functional difference between essence abilities and covenant abilities.
Yeah. Exactly.
Did I say it was incorrect? Pretty sure I just said it was unnecessary.
I think the way this thread is presented hurts its argument. It asks the reader to imagine an alternate reality that didn’t happen and then to make conclusions on player reactions that also never happened.
I just think it is a weak way to make a persuasive argument.
What if I don’t ever swap out?