Picking a convenant is anxiety. I got to 60 on my Ret Paladin, Baelim. Baelim has been my character since Wrath. And while Ret has had it’s ups and downs I will always cherish this character. Baelim has been 3 different races and two genders across the years. Who knew changing sex/species was easier than picking who to commit your expansions lifespan with.
I still have not finished my Covenant choice quest. Make no mistake, just because you can swap to another Covenant doesn’t make this any less frustrating. For a me at least. The abilities barely feel like they were designed with “What really synergizes and fills in the gaps of Ret” and instead feel like “This ability is cool lets force it into the class because players will think they are super cool to”.
They do feel cool. They do not feel cohesive. What is Ret’s biggest issue? Well we have a way of making Jabba the Hutt look like Usain Bolt. So naturally the NON class covenant ability from the Faye looks great. But BoS, while thematic, is lackluster. I could still easily choose Faye but I’m not an agricultural fan (Sorry chef). Same goes for Venthyr. High DPS in the form of a clunky, 4min CD, AOE that buffs HoW while inside it. But if you want to use it you must commit your weekends going to community college to become an amatuer party planner for edge lord trust fund dropouts.
It wouldn’t be so bad if it was finished. But it isn’t. Put a ring on Blizzard tells you, even though it is being buffed and nerfed still. “Balanced” is a term I wouldn’t dare use. Blizzards idea of balance is to nerf something into Oblivion and forget about it for an xpac or two (Sorry Monks). So the idea of trusting that kind of commitment and time spent is not as fun as the mechanic they envisioned.
I actually like SL. Mainly because of the plethora of great QoL improvements; Allied race acquisition, Pathfinder changes, MANY beautiful UI improvements and Gorgeous environments empowered by new optimization and AO settings make this a fun expansion. Ignoring the overwhelming feedback of a playerbase that wasn’t into the Covenant commitment they never wanted makes holds back some of those positive changes.
I’m still going to play. I’ll enjoy the work put into the expansion by the developers that still have passion. I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy the mind of someone like Ion, though. As long as he champions the design philosophy of creating a borrowed powered system and molding two years of gameplay around it; I think I won’t have that long term, immersive engagement that I had back during Vanilla/BC/Wrath days.
Just my own vent, opinion. I sincerely hope most of you DO NOT agree and are enjoying this as much as I wish I was.
Pick the covenant that you like the look of the most. Unless you’re desperate to min-max, you do not need to worry about the conduits or the abilities.
I haven’t really used any of the covenant abilities either while leveling or in a dungeon. Haven’t really seen anyone else using them either, unless I’m just missing the spell effect on them.
But that’s just a crappy thing to say. These TWO abilities really will make a difference in your gameplay - it’s basically them giving us two level 60 talents to pick from, and having to choose between which prepicked duo you want is anxiety inducing because you’re also factoring in the aesthetic/lore part of it. He should be able to get the mobility and soulbind he wants from Night Fae, get the damage he needs from Venthyr while also joining Kyrian so he can look hella Paladiny.
I agree and think its totally dumb we’re being forced not to make a choice on what we like best, but weather we want the aesthetic or to actually have better tools PLAYING the game.
I sincerely hope they change this, but at the moment they seem to just be stubborn as always, and it will only upset players who really hate making these decisions.
You need to pick based on story, not abilities. Because chances are high that more than one of those powerful skills are going to get nerfed/replaced, etc.
I agree 100%. I’m a Preist main and I second that while the class abilites are COOL, none of them really actually fit nicely into my rotation or are used to make other parts of my kit shine - they’re kinda just there.
Again I agree, I’ve gone Kyrian becuase I want the aesthetic (I’m a Holy Priest, I can’t not have that transgmog) but I’m having to sacrifice the mobility I would’ve gotten from Ardenweald, and the sustained healing I would’ve gotten from Maldraxus. On top of that, I hate all three of my soul binds because I just don’t really like their main abilities and how they interact with my class/class ability.
It just sucks I’m being DENIED of choice by having to pick a ‘one fits all’ kind of thing. let us mix and match and build our ideal characters, instead of having to go for ‘well this is the least bad all around’ or ‘I like the convents but hate the abilities’. #pulltheripcord
They are not going to change covenant abilities into talents that you can choose from at will indepenent of your covenant selection. Ion has already made his stance on that very clear. The ripcord is not getting pulled, and likely never will be pulled.
This is something folks are going to seriously have to get used to. Either you pick the one that is best for your class/spec, or you pick the one that you like the look of the most. Those are your options.
IT SHOULD be zone themed imo and leave covenant stuff cosmetic but the abilities based on your zone dungeons follow their theme and raid allow you to pick a covenant to champion once a week
extra reward from your covenant you champion in raid
Well they were going to be meaningful choices, but players complained too much so the abilities were nerfed to the point where they’re more or less able to be ignored unless you desperately want another button to press.
Players say they want choice, but the moment Blizzard gives them one, they riot until Blizzard more or less takes the choice away. Because in reality they don’t want significant choice with penalty, they want to free swap without consequence.
the truth is crappy now? I agree with that poster, unless you are really obsessive about min-max just pick what you want.
I play all my characters for months just my picking my talents based on passive or active depending on whether I have room on my bars for more abilities on that character… when I was playing around with covenants in beta, the only ability I could consistently remember to use was the frenzy type of thing on my feral for night fae.
I don’t want more buttons. I have enough. All of this should have been cosmetic. Power should have been derived from gear. You know the way it worked in past expansions that were actually fun.
None of this is the least bit interesting. It’s just complication for the sake of. I don’t want to be a fox jumping through hoops. I don’t want a meat shield, unless I’m on my Blood DK. I don’t want some insipid owl thing simping at me.
The one covenant I find interesting is the lowest tier on every list. How’s that for choice?
I’m glad they watered it down, because it would have been worse as originally planned.
Yes because this isn’t a game about meaningful choice - it never has been. The ONLY times we’ve done that are when we first make our characters (class/race/faction) then a select few times in story campaigns where you pick a side. Those choices WERE meaningful though because you were purely picking them due to what you/your character thought was best - not because one side simply gave you a better in game advantage.
A lot of people play multiple specs and multiple roles on one class, yet they want us to only pick one convent for our whole character? How is that a meaningful choice? I have to pick a convent that’s good for one role/spec but horrible for the others?
No one is annoyed that they’re giving us meaningful choices, people are annoyed that they’ve made player power practically punish people who either play multiple roles/specs or people who want to perform well but like a specific aesthetict.
Welcome to my life, 100% agreed with you OP. Nearly all of my characters have this issue.
Take my druid:
My druid quests in Balance. My druid does group content in resto. Obviously the Night Fae appeal more to my character from a personality/rp prespective. But leveling in Maldraxus, I really loved adaptive swarm, because it reminded me of when we had insect swarm. But as a healer, I really love the Kyrian’s bonded ally ability (whatever it was called.)
So. Now my character, who is obviously going to pick night fae, gets this constant reminder every time I log in that “Oh hey, you could be having MORE fun playing this spec if you had picked a different covenant.”
It’s a trash system and Blizzard should have just pulled the damn ripcord.