All of this. The system is completely un-fun in concept and I am actually DREADING finally getting my hands on it. It needs to be completely revamped or replaced asap.
Can’t we just earn reps and perks with them like all past factions? Why this locked in nonsense?
They shouldnt have to be. We ought to be able to stand up and say “WE. DONT.
WANT. THIS.” At least not LIKE this. They need to be plain ole factions and the connected abilities need to find a new home within the expansion, perhaps connected to the soulbinds?
In your opinion. If it was just a simple talent row I probably would have zero interests in Shadowlands. I’ve already played WoD - I have no interest in an expansion without compelling core systems.
This toon will go for Venthyr. But, I have enough toons to go with all Covenant [4 cloth wearers, 4 leather wearers, 4 mail wearers, and 4 plate wearers]. I’m doing this just in case somewhere down the road transmog will open to all my toons. I’m collecting transmog…just can’t help myself. 
I play as a casual with an RP mindset and I even thing it’s bad game design.
The current setup needlessly punishes players that like to play a certain way - for no benefit to RP players like myself. And even if we did get something out of it - I wouldn’t want the “try-hards” to have obstacles put in the way of them having fun and playing the game the way they enjoy it.
But the GAME is WORLD OF WARCRAFT. It shouldn’t BE a brand new ui and other gameplay system every new expansion. The game clearly needs more story and customization and quality of life improvements. Overhauling gameplay every expansion just seems a total waste of time- yes, in my opinion.
This game is not a spreadsheet simulator nor should the mindset of those who make it that drive the direction of it.
Gating instead of progression is bad. Rigidity instead of fluidity is bad.
It’s a game with varying levels of difficulty across various types of content.
Nothing is taken away from my friends/guildees as RP players if others can and do switch freely.
Indeed something is.
As such it’s been designed in the opposite direction.
Agree- it wouldn’t HURT ANYONE if everyone could switch back and forth. This is hurting people who haven’t even been subjected to it yet.
I disagree. Core rotations shouldn’t be changing (ideally the only thing that changes each expansion is what kind of borrowed power you have) but new systems should definitely be added each expansion. If I wanted to play BFA, I would play BFA. I don’t want to play BFA. I want to play something different - I want to play Shadowlands. Shaking things up keeps the game fresh. Freshness is important to wanting to play the game. Bellular and Preach and all those content creators who say “you can just add 4 new raid tiers in an expansion and that’s good enough” are wrong. You will play Shadowlands regardless if you only care about raids, but I won’t unless it does something new - therefore it is monetarily correct for Blizzard to add Covenants.
Honestly, while I understand the frustration some players have about not being able to be 100% optimal in various forms of content, as someone who just raids Heroic and dabbles in some M+(purely with guildies, I don’t pug), it won’t really affect me. So while I understand the complaints, I’m not invested in the high end enough to care. Do I want to do well? Certainly. But there is a big difference in being viable and being optimal, which outside of the extreme top end, I think a lot of people forget.
That said, while I am personally fine having to choose one. I genuinely think the safest thing to do in this situation is to just make the actual class specific abilities a new talent row, with 4 options opposed to 3. Just leave the quests, mogs, Soulbinds/Conduits and Covenant ability itself tied to the Covenants. But have the visual appearance of the class abilities change depending on which Covenant you chose(Greenish Undeath colors for Necrolords, Crimson Reds for Venthyr, Gold and light colors for Kyrian, Blueish for Night Fae, or something). You know? It’ll likely save you Blizzard folks a lot of headache later.
That said.
This girl? I’ll most likely choose Venthyr because I like the aesthetic. Despite Sinful Brand(or whatever the ability is) being a “win more” one since it provides defensive benefits when I need it least(during Meta). Of course, they could nerf the damage a bit and make it work with Demonic, which could be nifty. Though I know “technically” Kyrian is going to likely be the best for any form of PvE due to the souls generated.
My Priest? She’s going Kyrian 100%. I need that halo for her. My hunter? She basically always uses Spirit Beasts and per aesthetics, Night Fae will most likely be her choice. My DK will be either Necrolord or Venthyr because those are what scream to me as a DK, though I love how the Night Fae ability that replaces Death and Decay looks. My Warlock will most likely go…Venthyr I think it is? Just because their ability looks amazing. My Monk will be either Night Fae or Venthyr, both of those abilities are nifty. My Paladin will be Kyrian because Divine Toll as Protection is just way too awesome. My Druid will be Night Fae since thats the only one that screams “Druid” to me.
And, completely unrelated. But bring back Ranged Survival as a fourth spec and I’ll love you regardless of whatever shenanigans you pull.
If you think “min maxing” is the devil and only people who go out of their way to play badly are playing the game right, I suppose.
It’s almost as though there’s a special type of forum casual who is trying to convince all other casuals that they should rp 100% of the time to save devs the trouble of balancing classes and making gameplay fun. Because people who don’t actually play the game don’t expect content.
I’m aiming for Necro, but I’ll see how the starter quests go.
That poster doesn’t get it. I told him many times it reinforces that particular mindset. He keeps spamming the same line again and again .
I don’t care about raids. I care about the story. I care about transmog. I care about quest quality and the quality of repeat content. I care about character customization. I care about quality of life things like making the guild and community finder more advanced. I care about things we don’t have yet like player housing. I care about old content bugs being fixed and ALL zones brought up to date EVERY expansion the way they only were in Cata.
The new systems make things exasperating and tedious for me having to relearn to play a game that’s more than a decade old when so much else about it is STALE and in desperate need of freshening.
I am so torn between Fae or vampire. I like nature and sparkly things but also my teenage angst loved vampires lol
They are literally flushing all leveling zones down the metaphorical toilet and reducing the leveling experience to Exile’s Reach, BFA, and Shadowlands, so they know they need to freshen up.
I’m sad to see them abandoned. That’s not an “expansion”. I sure hope we’re not about to see “universe of Warcraft” instead of World of warcraft.
I DO hope the old versions of the content are being set aside for new versions post-SL.