No. That’s not what the OP said.
Because they want to see if it’s possible. Let them try. Maybe they’ll surprise us. If things don’t look good, we’ll go nuts prior to launch.
It’s not about min/max. It’s about some abilities being tailored to PvP, raiding, and M+. For players that enjoy doing all 3, why should they be at a disadvantage in one simply because they wanted to be better in the other?
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Nah I’m done with failed experiments that flop in the face of feedback
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Yeah I am too. But this is an easily fixable experiment. Unlike Azerite. I’ve already explained it.
You can literally shove these abilities on a Vendor, just like Azerite. Soulbinds too.
You couldn’t do that for Azerite.
You drinking too much koolaid if you think ion and those pinheads are capable of such a feat
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The simple answer is that you EARN them through the Covenants but can then USE them as a Talent. These abilities are literally just talents.
They’ve already said that SL will be a semi-linear experience where you go through each Covenant as part of the story. You’ll see each Covenant and all its flavour on your way through SL. Lore, quests, gear, mogs, mounts, faction rewards, ad infinitum can all reside inside the factions, you can have pre-end game rewards which everyone will get all of as they progress then Covenant specific rewards for end game when you lock in a choice.
However, as part of going through the story you learn each new power and it gets unlocked in a new talent row, it could be level linked or not, maybe it’s just linked to SL story progress, who cares, but once you’ve fully completed the SL campaign you’ve unlocked all SL talents and can then swap in ZZZ zones just like normal talents.
Everyone is happy (except people who hate fun, they’ll be unhappy).
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You literally don’t listen to anything I say. I just said I don’t have faith they’ll be able to pull it off. I’ll let them experiment, but they just said if it doesn’t work they’ll throw it out and make it accessible to everyone.
Doubtful they’d scrap it. Ion has some fascination with seeing terrible ideas through and severely damaging the game to do so.
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If you really think Ion makes all the decisions then you probably might want to learn more about how game development actually works. Anyways, Ion did say that they would throw it out. It came from his own mouth. On stream. In front of 90,000 people.
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Blizzard trying to stick to their guns with covenants is another example of them being unable to understand that, no matter what they do, they will never get rid of the meta mindset. That mindset is far too widespread already, and there are far too many influencers for it to ever go away.
They’ve said in the past that players with the meta mindset need to adapt to a non-meta mindset, but with how many players that will stick to the meta compared to how many WoW devs want to get rid of it, it ultimately has to be the devs that adapt to the fact that they will never be able to get rid of this mindset.
All they’re doing by trying to stick to systems like the covenant system is indirectly harming the portion of the playerbase that doesn’t care about the meta… those are the players that get punished by the rest of the playerbase for not adhering. It’s a shame, because realistically things are so close in number that the meta only really applies to top-end raiders and high M+ pushers, but the mindset is spread around by too many influencers and adhered to and worshipped by so many players it’s impossible to get rid of it now.
Why not say the zandalari approach, and say, let your first one be unlocked, but perhaps as a compromise, soft locked until you say, get to revered with it, then you can start working on one other at a time. That way, the ‘choice’ if they wanted as a compromise could play how they wanted for maybe say the first month or two, then it’d open up to other covenants. When picking your abilities it could be still made to have relevant choices by letting you take things as a bulk bin i guess, or just offering all choices and closely balancing damage but putting fun things on mobility, self healing, utility, and offspec roles like affinities, etc.
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Let’s ignore the countless other times he has said ridiculous things that he framed as promises and never followed through on. You are naive if you think he doesn’t have a very large say with how development of covenants goes.
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I’m not optimistic. If history is any indicator, by the time they’ve iterated a system this far, they’re sticking with it. Regardless of feedback. They’ll die on this hill.
And yes, if we can’t easily switch between covenant abilities, it’s going to be a huge problem.
Look at azerite armor & corruptions as recent examples of almost universally disliked systems that they kept anyway.
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Of course he has a say. He’s the freaking Game Director. But he cannot decide everything. He isn’t a king on a throne.
Oh. Like the Mythic+ changes? Oh they happened. Removal of WF/TF? Oh that happened. What about no AP? Oh yeah that’s not happening. Endlessly replayable Torghast? Yep that’s happening.
He’s made plenty of promises that they followed through on. BFA was a blunder because there were mistakes made in development. He went on stream and said that.
Don’t scrap it Blizzard! This is one feature I want to see added. If the covenants are just cosmetic shops they lose meaning. God forbid we actually have to make a choice in a rpg. Skill + soulbinds will shape who your character is.
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Don’t lock gameplay behind covenants. Unique questlines and aesthetics are wonderful, but locking certain legendaries and abilities behind certain covenants is going to make any choices people make feel bad (community perception as well), unless the aesthetic they enjoy and the gameplay they enjoy just happen to coincide.
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You forgot the time he explained the development reason for removing PvP vendors was because nobody could find them 
. That dude is a clown and nothing he sums us should be taken at face value.
I see you already pre ordered though so when Shadowlands is doodoo we can partially blame your filth
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Lock the cosmetics behind the system and make the powers an unlock or akin to a talent choice sort of system.
Keep the cosmetics unique to who you are sworn to, not the mechanical aspects. Probably the best fix.
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Yeah PVP Vendors were added back bud.
Elaborate? Because you just seem salty for literally zero reason. And hate me because I disagree with you. It’s even funnier knowing you couldn’t actually give me an example of a false promise he made in recent times. So instead you went after PVP vendors, obviously not knowing they’re back.
This is more than an RPG at this point. This game has become an esport in almost every endgame there is - Arena world championships, MDI, race to world first, this game is not just an RPG where the only thing that matters is hard choices.
There’s always been a portion of the community that’s actively endorsed meta builds and the meta mindset in general, and there are so many influencers and players that adhere to and spread it at this point, that if anyone strays from the meta, a huge chunk of the playerbase will actively punish them for it no matter how small a difference it actually is.
Blizzard locking people down to a single covenant when there’s almost guaranteed to be an ideal best covenant for each type of endgame ultimately is just indirectly punishing the players that stray from the meta, or players that want to go into one type of content when their covenant isn’t the meta for that type of content.
It’s dumb, because it’s such a small difference that it really shouldn’t matter, but the mindset is so prevalent and continues spreading, to a degree that it can’t be gotten rid of and needs to be actively taken into account by the devs.
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