Same as pretty much everyone else. Whatever one icy-veins says is the best.
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This ^.
I have watched many hours of streams and YouTube videos covering them from a range of content creators ranging from world first to heroic Raider to key pushers and a few in between. I have not played it myself but I am far far from uneducated on it. And from what I have seen so far I have cancelled my subscription and my gold to buy tokens will run out well before SL launches.
It is a repeat of BFA alpha/beta!
I was invited into BFA alpha shortly before it converted to beta. BFA alpha had sparse amount of players and that trend stayed the same throughout most of BFA beta.
The time where I saw increased player activity in BFA beta was when they put up vendors to test out the azerite armor but that was very late in the beta process.
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While I’m here. This whole system is a mistake. Classes are already bland and tasteless. Shackling everyone to some generic loned power will only make that worse.
Undead, druid, holy and what, vampire? Why did the afterlife need these uninspired factionlettes?
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I get beta invs but I realized it was hard to be motivated when only alpha feedback.can actually change anything and beta is just to make sure things technically work.
Have to say though that this doesn’t even look like it TECHNICALLY WORKS.
I always thought of the Shadowlands as a place souls waited and/or got lost on their way to the Light or the Void. This second world and second life interpretation is really disappointing lore development.
I’ve never felt like an expansion just needed to end before it even started, but I’m pretty much there, right now. The plot needs redoing and the entire gameplay gimmick just…wow expansion gameplay gimmicks need to go away in general.
So I see on the SL alpha board that Venthyr also get positive feedback for their story. There is something Blizz can do to stop the inevitable slewed Venthyr population (I’m expecting 4 way PvP at some later stage, right)…
Make the teleport/Door of Shadows baseline for all covenants and give Venthyr something else.
It’s not a big stretch. We are in an otherworldly realm after all. Why should it not be a global feature? 
Because then ardenweald with ITS mobility feature becomes the automatic favorite.
THIS. THIS is ALL we need. The abilities and the fluidity need to somehow be changed, but the plot point of a covenant is cool. (I dont know WHY we arent just earning rep with them as factions which would from gameplay standpoint solve everything, but from a plot standpoint it’s cool)
Wouldn’t know til I play the zones because it would be subject to changes before release.
Exactly our point. Why would they EVER link a major plot point choice to a major gameplay choice?
THIS isn’t the kind of choice we’re asking for. We’re asking for FREE CHOICE to PLAY a GAME the way WE WANT at any given time.
The rainbow bright talent trees I experienced in BC and early wrath were the best version of talents and choice I’ve ever seen. So long as optimal players are free to make optimal choices WHEN THEY WANT/NEED TO and casual players can do whatever the heck they want to make their gameplay feel good, you have a great system, and they should never have screwed with it in the first place.
My unholy dk tank is gone forever and it’s still the most discouraging feeling any time I need to log on a tank and I seldom do it at level cap anymore because my choice of EXACTLY how I wanted to play WoW and most enjoyed doing it was taken away.
We need “free player agency” not “player agency in having a hand in the company doing us wrong and spoiling our own fun.”
Covenants are a great PLOT commitment and bring a lot of interest to experiencing the story a given way, but the moment you link any aspect of gameplay to them they become bad news.
(That said I’d happily see them as factions with rep grinds if it let the “but my character would help all of them!” crowd experience better plot immersion.)
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Not enough information to decide yet. Haven’t read up on this yet.
“I can’t vote based on the criteria you gave because you’re forcing me to put other criteria first and making this system anything but fun” is an awesome answer. Again for those in the back!
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This biggest downfall that I think will be is that you are tying abilities to these choices. So regardless of aesthetics people will only choose based on the abilities you are applying to each. Not good in my opinion.
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You are 100% correct.
The game is designed as a fantasy RPG perspective and thats the audience they are catering to. Min/Maxing is important for a minority of players who are treating this game like an E-sport but WoW is not competitive in E-sports anymore and should return to its roots of being a roleplaying game.
The truth is that most of the covenant abilities are really good and none of them are a burden like some of these players are inferring.
IMO covenants are exciting and most people just have problems being indecisive.
If being the most powerful version is whats your top priority then it shouldn’t bother you that you have to make some sacrafices in other areas such as cosmetics. THERES NO WAY THEY COULD MAKE THOSE THINGS LINE UP FOR EVERYONE. Think about it for two seconds. The only way would be to just give everyone access to all of it and then wheres the roleplaying element where players are different from eachother? We are all just one homoginous group. That litterally takes out players choice. Which brings me back to my earlier point that players don’t want choices because they are bad at picking one priority over the other.
They can’t cater to both RP and Min/Max at teh same time perfectly because choice makes the game fun for RP and access to everything makes it better for Min/Max
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The role playing players like myself would just stick to the first covenant we picked.
We’re happy - and with the covenants being able to be switched, the min/maxers would also be happy.
It’s quite simple. I still have the choice to RP and play how I want, and they have the choice to optimize and play how they want. That would literally cater to both RP and Min/Max at the same time.
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right.
what i mean is there are a lot of min/maxers who want their min/maxing rolled up in the same covenant as they want to RP in which couldn’t be the same for everyone.
Ex. I play hunter and want to be in necrolords for RP. But say i thought that the night fae has the coolest armor. Thats what people are complaining about they just want all of it because making a choice and sacraficing one cool set of armor or ability for a another just doesn’t work for them they have to have it all or they feel slighted.
Some people feel that way, sure.
But a lot of people don’t even care about the aesthetics and just want to be able to play their role in a raid with one covenant, and when they switch to M+, Arena, etc. - they can switch to another covenant for the new content/role/group comp.
Having a freely swappable system would allow them to do that, and wouldn’t take anything away from me as an RP player.
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I am also more of an RP player and think that it does take away something from me.
I want to feel strongly associated with a covenant. If at anypoint I can swap for content while sitting in a rested zone why would I not? (and i would be expected to) That takes away the strength of association with the covenant.
I also want to be strongly associated with a covenant.
Why wouldn’t I switch? Because I value RPing.
Think of relationships and marriage - it means more to stay with someone when you actually have the option to leave, than to stay with someone because you don’t have a choice.
If you don’t value RPing strongly enough to stick with your choice, then cool - you have the option to change your mind.
Objectively - I lose nothing as an RP player with a flexible covenant system.
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