In reference to Preach’s latest video regarding his aversion to covenant abilities being tied to the covenants themselves and not easily interchangeable he gives the example of of a player seeing another covenant ability and wanting to try it, but the game preventing them from doing so. What if a Shaman sees a Mage cast Mirror Images and wants to try it? Why shouldn’t they be able to? Does the same logic not apply? I think if you think of covenants as an extension to our characters, not a temporary stop for a specific ability, it makes more sense. This changes nothing for min-maxers, because they always have and always will play the most viable spec/build/race etc and it hasn’t bothered them. That is the way they want to play the game. Why all the sudden an outcry from the min-maxing community about not being able to play a covenant that was thematically their preference, when they play specs, builds and even races not based on what they find thematically the most pleasing but by what sims the best? I think the system deserves a fair shot when the game goes live.
Covenants are like possums. I don’t like them, but I like the people who like them and I want to understand why they do.
Yes it does, it’s called make a Mage Alt. 
You have that choice, your not restricted to just one character.
I wish I could say the same about covenants.
But that’s exactly what it is, because out of 3? systems we’ve had through WoD, Legion & BFA and now Shadowlands not a single one of them have made it to the next Expansion. There is no carry over, there is no permanent extension of class, there is no sub-class that is purely an excuse to restrict players for who the god knows why? 
They concern me, and I personally wish they were cosmetic based exclusively, because I don’t like the concept of borrowed power that will go away at the end of an expansion, just playing a bit of devils advocate and not trying to damn a system before the player base gets their hands on it.
I like your statement. I hope they will do less with borrowed-power because getting a spell only for it to be removed feels very anti-RPG to me. I would prefer that they just add spells to our spell book and let us continue on our journey.
Oof that is a weak comparison.
In your inane comparison, you would have to delete the shaman to make the mage.
But what if I, Life, the Death Knight wish to go try it out, right now?
Must I get on my DK Irreligion, the Death Knight to go try out that other spell?
That’s dumb. Why would I want to play a separate toon if I’m trying to make Life stronger and also wish to play with a new ability?
Because Blizzard arbitrarily said “lol thems the breaks go level a new toon, kid” is a pretty dumb reason.
I understand that part, I don’t like the concept of temporary borrowed power, but there will be some permanent remnant of our covenants in the form of cosmetics, titles, etc, and maybe they will decide to keep some popular abilities.
Ask Blizzard why they haven’t offered a class change service and I’ll gladly answer you as well.
Also
^ That.
The closest thing we’ve ever had to covenants. Is picking Alliance or Horde in Vanilla. (PvP servers)
That didn’t last long. Why is it coming back in a diluted form?
I actually really like the idea of factions and agency and ‘chose how your story develops’ type mechanics in games.
I don’t like my class growth being tied to it, and still for the 4th expansion having literally zero development on my class. On the contrary in the expansion all about being the ‘best of the best’(legion) where we became the strongest to ever play our individual class, lore wise, we lost every other spell that our class trainers ever taught us.
So why after emptying our cups have they refused to fill them again? It’s like they’re pouring into our empty cups some formless vapor. Soon to leave and be refilled with something new.
Valid point, I am just playing devil’s advocate and want to try the system as was intended. Blizzard has already stated as early as the Alpha that they are not opposed to scrapping the entire idea if it goes poorly which is massive as far as transparency goes.
no, that’s false equivalence
a mage vs a shaman is a class choice, a venthyr mage vs a kyrian mage is not functionally the same.
I started a shaman because I wanted to see how they played in pvp, but the decision between trying venthyr vs kyrian mage would be within the same character. Divided for “fantasy” reasons, when the fantasy of these abilities can be rewritten for another covenant easily.
It’s almost like Blizzard is actively trying to build the game so people will find it harder to min-max and the toxicity it brings to the game will burn out in favor of people playing whatever class/spec/covenant for fun reasons rather than “I can’t get a group for heroic dungeons because all my customizations aren’t set up for absolutely perfect output.” The sooner this dies, the sooner they can put that effort into making the game fun.
I think they started down this road with the GCD change and sticking to it.
The covenant doesn’t need any defense
It is happening, you either accept and move on or keep whining and move on later. 
Playing devil’s advocate here, but what if they ARE functionally the same? What if blizzard wants these to be essentially permanent extensions to our class?
I would not doubt that they’ll incorporate some into our classes in 10.0, but I also argue that specs are our subclasses
I main an Arms Warrior, I’m distinct from a Fury Warrior
Here’s the alleged early covenant movement abilities for anyone wanting to see them: https://i.redd.it/5xdw1nsq2k951.png
All distinct in their function, but in line with eachother for use in say Mythic+
They also solve the issue of needing a rogue for big skips, as everyone would have a means of it, disrupting meta in a good way
I think the unfortunate reality is in a 16 year old game Blizzard is finding it increasingly difficult to revamp classes every few years. It is easier to alter class game play with in-game systems than develop and balance new abilities and rotations.
Cuz they cute and really helpful if you want something to eat ticks
They’re seriously all bark and no bite
That’s ok. They shouldn’t. Vanilla -> Tbc -> wrath -> even cata.
they shuould BUILD on the existing classes and flesh them out. They don’t have to reinvent the wheel every single time.
instead they’re sitting on the same stagnant boring unpopular design for some unknown reason.