Maybe after the intro raid we can unlock another (of our choice) for the main raid, and when the 2nd raid tier goes live we get to pick the third, and when the final raid tier goes live we get the last. After we unlock more than one we can somehow (rather easily) swap between championing one of the covenants. The decision to unlock other covenants should be optional, but it can include additional story understanding by seeing stuff happen through those covenant’s eyes. The questline to unlock the others could be rather lengthy and involved to feel meaningful and something that not everyone may care to bother with if that’s not their cup of tea.
It seems to be the best of both worlds for giving anyone the ability to play with different setups while creating some player agency against the reality that a portion of the playerbase is going to do crazy things even if you try to stymie them (seriously, it’s just not effective) and that even the non-crazy people will feel bad if they can’t swap easily if they decide they made some bad choices.
Progressively unlocking the covenants over the expansion also does it in a more meaningful/organic way instead of Blizzard throwing in the towel and saying “Fine, you can switch whenever you want and apparently the covenants are totally just peachy with that”. It also does it in a way that allows the upper end players to do their min/max thing, but also have eventual reprieve from it. Sure, you can be crazy and go hog wild on 4 characters or swap covenants constantly, but that’s your decision.
And for the non-min/maxers who will pick the covenant they like the most regardless of performance this also means that eventually they will get some flexibility/enjoyment out of being able to swap further down the line, and whether they want to or not is their decision.
I don’t want that? I don’t want to feel like I need to rebuild each one. I want to make my choice and be loyal to it, and want to feel like we all get punished for betraying the power and trust they put into us.
If we get everything…the devalues the choice we made.
I think you should commit to the one you like most, but earn the power of the others
It is in the best interest of every covenant that they help us defeat the forces of the maw, if they want to get a fair share of anima they’ll engage in maximum kissassery
That was part of the suggestion. Don’t do it if you don’t want to.
This is kind of my thought process of the idea. The covenants may not get along, especially at the start of the expansion, but that doesn’t mean the players can’t work with them all as the expansion goes on. It’s in the best interest of everyone for us to push back against the Jailer.
I want the gameplay to force me to do it and everyone else. Watching others switching out all the time. It would be forced on the community for pugs. You want to join this group? Well switch to that faction. Bump that.
The whole complaint about covenants is that players will
A) Will require players to be of a specific covenant to join their group and therefore
B) Players will do crazy things to switch covenants as needed or they will get excluded
Whether we can swap covenants or not will not matter for what you are arguing about. If you’re not able (or willing) to swap on the drop of a hat you run the risk of getting excluded to the pug you apply for because you can’t do the Venthyr skip.
My suggestion isn’t unique in that a lot of people have already suggested to just let us swap around as needed, but I am looking to do it in a more organic/storyline driven way rather than just making a gameplay decision that seems to conflict with what you’d expect from all these covenants who aren’t on friendly terms.
… thats like wanting blizzard to let you play horde and alliance faction at the same time on one character because you didn’t want to make an alliance character
The abilities that covenants provide should not be treated like changing your spec/talent tree on the fly. It needs to be an all or nothing deal. IMO though we should be able to “unlock” all of them, and change to another, but some type of CD needs to exist between the change. By this I mean when you join one, you cannot change to another for at an absolute minimum of one day.
Realistically it should be more like Scryers & Aldor back in TBC. You did not have to be either, but if you were one, the other was less then friendly with you. If you decided to change then you basically left and started from scratch. Think of Bloodsail Buccaneers vs Steemnedle Cartel to make it simpler. Of course this will never work given the complaints that already exist.
I don’t understand these points. To be clear you’re not able to use all their abilities and perks at the same time, but that unlocking them allows you to swap.
I think it would fit in lore wise if we earned each Covenant ability, and the class specific one, from completing the appropriate zone. We helped out the Kryian, Night Fae, etc., the least they could do is bestow upon us the ability to use their magic when fighting the bad guys.
This would give us all the abilities and they would all be in our spell book. However, we can only have 1 main covenant ability and 1 class specific ability on our bars at a time.
Then when we hit 60 is when we choose to bind our soul with a covenant, thus unlocking that Covenant’s soulbinds. Still has all the lore and most of the meaningful choice of the system we have now, but allows people to use the abilities that they like.
I feel half-way through or in it’s end-phase content, it should have a really hard long tedious questline to commence an exalted legendary theme where you’re able to choose +1 additional Covenant, and so forth from there til you’ve unlocked all of them (Each Covenant having its unique requirements, to spice things up).
But if Blizzard don’t, I suppose I wouldn’t be all too fussed about it; the expansion hasn’t even come out yet so I’m not going to judge til I’ve played it.
I went back to read my OP and I’m pretty confident they didn’t read past the title because the second sentence states that after we unlock other covenants we can swap between them which is what a portion of the playerbase has been asking for, and the point of my suggestion was to try to do it in a way that fits with the expansion’s story rather than just letting us as a gameplay choice.
Terrible idea, that would be like me deciding to go work for all my companies competitors in real life simultaneously. Doesn’t work in RL and Blizzard is right in their decision not to allow it here as well.
Lucky though I have a solution for you OP you can join every covenant by simply playing alts.
In 9.2 when we unite the Covenants to form the Armies of Jailerfall, we’ll have Covenant Ambassadors who will teach our characters their Covenants’ ways, along with allowing us to adventure alongside their soulbinds.
It’s a simple the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I haven’t seen all the lore regarding covenants and how they view each other, my assumption is they generally don’t see eye to eye, but I’m not even sure how much they hate each other (and they very well may), but…
Honestly I know that this post is in jest and/or just an assumption that Blizzard will cave eventually, but I do believe the lore can be written that some level of banding together over the course of the expansion is advantageous for the covenants and that while they themselves won’t work together that we, the people from outside of Shadowlands, can be able to work between them to get stuff done.
