Honestly, this is purely because I’m bored out of my mind right now, and I can’t stand looking at Bastion anymore. I figure that if I swap, it might reinvigorate me somehow. I kinda want to pick Necrolord because it’s easily our least-picked covenant, and I’m not pushing any kind of content that calls for absolute min-maxing. I play all three specs, but prot and ret see much more playtime than holy. Has anyone made the swap from your initial covenant over to Necroville? I’d love to hear your experiences - good or bad. Thanks!
I’ll give you my experience as holy. I swapped from Kyrian to Venthyr to Necrolord back to Kyrian then to Night Fae (for the same reason as you) back to Kyrian then back Venthyr currently for raid progression.
I actually like Necrolord a lot as it gives a bit more uptime on wings. The new legendary in 9.1 that gives Vanquisher’s Hammer another charge and an additional empowerment to your WoG is tempting me to come back to Necrolord for 9.1 tbh. As for throughput, for now, it is still not as good as Kyrian simply because Divine Toll synergizes so well with Glimmer of Light and Shock Barrier. That could very well change with this new 9.1 legendary if it pulls through as is. The only thing that I wish they would fix is that the conduit power for Vanquisher’s Hammer (which heals you for the damage dealt) should also heal the beacon of light targets. I would love to do a Beacon of Faith build if they were to fix that. Despite that one flaw, I think it’s something worth prepping max renown on so that in case the 9.1 legendary does come through as powerful, you’re not worrying about leveling your covenant.
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Been here since day 1. 
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Right on! How do you like it? My SV hunter is necro, and I really enjoy it. I also made that toon just for goofing around, but I’ve pushed up to +10’s with him without putting a ton of effort in.
I am Necro Ret and LOVE it. I can offer you some pvp perspectives, b/c i am not doing almost any pve this xpac.
Like you, i avoided Kyrian like the plague. Besides that creepy cultish lore about wiping memories and everyone being this carbon copy angel, the aesthetics were boring, the title was lame and i just hate the zone tbh.
I started with Venthyr, which is very decent in PvE… but bad in PvP. The class ability does give some incredible objective control on a long cd, but this does not work on a lot of maps. Door of shadows cast time and range just felt bad to use in pvp.
I then swapped to Night Fae… and actually enjoyed it quite a bit. The soulshape is very useful in pvp, and gives you a super mobile version of Ret that is a lot of fun to play. Blessing of Seasons though… kind of meh. One of the 4 blessings gives you the dps boost, but its unreliable and you can’t count on it for kill windows. The transmog was actually very cool looking, but the mount and title were more lame than Kyrian.
Finally swapped to Necro. Necro bakes in a ton of defensive strength, especially if you take the ultimate form soulbind. Fleshcraft had a remake and honestly its much stronger after the fact. I have it up for most fights, and with only a 3 sec channel you can prime it before you engage in most pvp objectives. Not only that, but Vanq Hammer is very underrated. Granted you won’t match the crazy high dps potential of ringing clarity, but the burst dmg of hammer is real. Both TV and DS can crit… and because you are so tanky, you can take the FV legendary without issue making it even stronger.
Not to mention the title, xmog and mounts are imo WAY better than the other covenants. I am at almost 1800 rating without much issue…i literally had a baby and had to stop playing as much, but i feel like i could get to 2k without much issue.
So all in all for Ret PVP i would say necrolord is great.
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Man, this is great, well-thought-out feedback. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for sharing!
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100% recommend necro
My two other hpals are necro and mainly what i play. Vanquishers hammer is amazing and fleshcraft is also a beast for surviving openers and preventing a cc
Can’t speak for ret or prot, but for holy it feels a lot better than venthyr and night fae do for me
I run double hammer of wrath lego so i’m excited to replace it with double vanquishers
Ive been testing Necrolord on the PTR. the leggo doesnt work for ret currently. Looking for some insight on live necrolord paladin. Currently on the PTR as holy and prot is you have a divine purpose proc and use vanquishers hammer and WoG, it will not consume divine purpose, basically giving you 5 wog/shield(light of dawns) with 1 divine purpose. Is this how it works on live, is it a bug or intended?
I’ll be Necro next week most likely.
Rotating through the Covenants, doing their campaigns, unlocking the mogs then moving to the next ahead of 9.1
As a Holy Main, Necro doesn’t really appeal to me.
As Kyrian I have an awesome Burst Heal that synergizes well with the spec.
As Venth I have to work twice as hard in keys but get to Yolo DPS every 4 minutes or so.
Night Fae felt like I added an extra ffix just to nerf myself.
Necro will be similar to NF I expect, due to the free LoD’s being worth very little in Keys… but will still be better than NF.
For Raids I can see Necro doing quite well in terms of HPS because you can Spot heal players who are low while still getting a LoD onto the Melee. But I do wonder how much will end up as overhealing.
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I started SL as a Necro pally, and moved very quickly to Venthyr.
I moved a few weeks ago to Kyrian and, whilst I miss my big ashen hollow buff, Kyrian has been much better for survival.
The sound binds are much better for Prot, and divine toll synergizes so much better with our talents. Upcoming Kyrian soulbinds look great, while Venthyr looked like meh.
I lost about 4-500 dps from a run, but can’t tank if you’re dead
Necro is a good pick for Ret, its a bit lackluster for Prot and Holy, as giving a double up mechanic would benefit those better than when you cast WoG X happens.
Honestly I think being Necro ret kept me playing shadowlands for longer because I liked the characters and felt the ability was more suited for a normal flow in your rotation.
Blizz is dumb , why do they make legendarys that cater to a specific covenant ?
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I just went necro from kyrian for the same reasons, dmg is lower by about 500 dps. Holy I havent tried any 15 keys or raiding yet ,but i get the impression dawnbreaker legendary will see more use.
I play as Necro, and I think it’s great. I like having another defensive cool down: Fleshcraft reduces all damage taken by 20% while channeling, gives me a 21.5k absorb shield, and heals me for 12% of my max hp.
Also, I like having another absorb shield that is equal to 15% of my max health whenever I drop below 50% hp (once every 30 seconds).
The covenant ability heals me with the conduit, generates one holy power, and casts Shield of Righteousness on my next use of Word of Glory, negating the need to choose between the two every 30 seconds.
Necrolord’s just seem to add some really good elements to my toolkit. I might invest getting the specific covenant legendary as well.
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Another day 1 necrodin here. Hallow looks cool, but I can’t imagine switching.
VH is really, really nice.
For ret, it smooths out your HP generation- normally without an AoW proc you blow all your generators and have enough for 1 verdict and then 2 orphaned waiting for something to come off CD. Add extra burst and the funnel cleave aspect and it’s just across the board a really nice addition.
For holy, the story is much the same. HP is at even more of a premium here, so adding some extra generation is really nice. It also gives you a bit of relief in a situation where you want to top off the group with LoD without giving up your WoG on the tank.
Prot is probably the least impacted given how much HP generation it already has. It’s nice to be able to WoG yourself without giving up the damage of a shield, but nothing life changing. That said, Fleshcraft more than makes up for that as an extra tank cooldown, and there are several really strong options for conduits.
Also, they’re way cooler than people faeries, poncey vampires, or Mormon Smurfs. 
Another thing to keep in mind is that fleshcraft is going to scale through the end of the xpac. The more hp you get the bigger that shield is going to be.
Another interaction to think about: Gladiator’s Emblem gives a big chunk of HP once used. Using Fleshcraft after you cast the emblem gives you an even more massive shield on top of that.
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I find Divine Toll to be really useful when tanking. Having Avengers shield hit 5 target at once and interupting their cast and giving you tons of aggro is pretty awesome. I try Venthyr I like the damage but is not as flexiable as Divine Toll.