They just gave the covenant abilities as a talent row. And allowed covenant swapping without penalty.
Seriously, Just scrapped the covenant ability conduits and Made the Covenant abilities, unlock through completing the campaign, or going to threads of fate.
Then let us switch between covenants at will. Keep the renown grind attached to individual covenants, to unlock the soulbinds, and soulbind trees/cosmetics. Keep the same anima sink in the individual covenants.
And the meaningful choice argument is not a valid one at this point. Statistics have shown that the vast majority of players chose the covenant with the best ability for their preferred spec.
Although for those who want to push the âmeaningful choiceâ argument, I am willing to listen. Explain to me how our current covenant restrictions has ANY meaningful impact on our character outside the covenant ability.
Nah I donât want covenant to be a another talent bro. Covenant should be a covenant and something you make a decision and commit to. I donât consider it meaningful, just rather a decision. Maybe you will go for DPS, be my guest, maybe youâll choose one that matches your RP.
There might be some that want to switch classes at a whim and Iâm sure many would draw the line at that (some might be into it, FFXIV style). I like what they have done giving you the choice to swap with the current restrictions that are in place.
I dont mind the grind if you swap covenant. I did it twice already so Iâm familiar with it. The most annoying thing about covenant is the resources required so swap conduits. Same with soulbinds, we should be able to swap like we do talents.
Thatâs your viewpoint but you offer nothing more than your opinion. Itâs great you agree with OP but repeating what he has said doesnât change/invalidate what I have.
The best way to design Shadowlands would have been for us to belong to all 4 covenants, but have total freedom on which covenants we âspendâ our renown on, as we get it. And make unlocking powers require renown.
This way:
Everyone is in all 4 covenants, and sees all 4 stories.
Everyone has access to the powers they want, in whatever order they unlock them in.
No power disparities between covenants, since you can go where you wanna go, do what you wanna wanna do, etc.
Assuming everyone still needed 40 renown per covenant to unlock stuff, it extends the life cycle of the expansion fourfold.
People donât lose access to transmogs, etc., when switching, since youâd never be switching covenants.
Having the covenants be separate is dumb anyway, because they ask us to help the other covenants EVERY DAY.
That fact that the majority choose the best covenant for their spec shows it is their meaningful choice, not the other way around. I donât think letting people switch between covenant abilities makes sense in the story because you gain the ability by being a member of said covenant.
In terms of points required to change conduits, that i think can go away.
And last night I was reminded once again how terrible this system is when I got the login tip telling me that all pets are account wide and I can use them on any character. I laughed bitterly.
I didnt say the covenant, just the ability. The soulbinds, Activities, Armor all would be tied to covenants, and still gated behind renown and anima/soul progression.
With the current system, locking the abilities, if anything, takes away the actual meaning and importance of being committed to a covenant. It instead ties a performance aspect choice to the covenant. I think covenants would have been recieved better, if players got to choose them purely based on their emotions. It would have given players the complete freedom to explore and invest in a covenant that they like, without worrying about their character performing poorly.
It would also have made it easier on multi-spec play.
It should be all or nothing at all. I would swap to Night Fae for PvP, then use Kyrian for dungeons where I need to tank or need more sustain. That isnât something Iâm choosing to make a decision between.
I donât see it being received better/worse with your suggestion. It would make covenants feel kinda useless IMO if that were the case. Just another thing Iâll swap between content.
Look at the statistics of classes per covenant. There is NO balance between them. All classes are HEAVILY weighted into their best performing covenants. I think that objectively makes them unsuccessful, because players just pick the best performing one, regardless of lore, story or personal preference.
If they were an actual success, I think players would be spread out among all of them among classes. Instead of being completely weighted into one specific covenant for performance reasons. Allowing players to play on their emotional attachment to a covenant.
It is also my opinion, that if covenants were purely an emotional/feeling choice, and not tied to the abilities, there would be better player retention.
Additionally. Story Wise. What does covenant choice have ANYTHING to do with the story narrative we are progressing in the shadowlands? What do you gain/miss from being one covenant over the other story/lore wise?
Ya thatâs true but they could make it punishing to switch. A huge amount of anima every time you swap, like 10000, and everytime you switch it increases 5%. Keep your transmog, pay the price for the ability.
You wouldnt be swapping the covenant. You would still be playing one covenant. You would just change a talent. Your covenant would still remain largely locked behind renown. Unless you worked on all covenants and maxed all renown.
I agree wholeheartedly, and it really is sad that Blizzard has been so stubborn on this subject and refused to do what wouldve made many players infinitely happier and their jobs infinitely easier.
Like for example. Let us pick a convent for the first campaign, our cosmetics, our renown and the base convent ability. Then, you pick the convents CLASS ability you wish to use at the hall in Oribos (so its not a talent tree line, but its still easy to change if you need too like from raid to PvP.) Now you can do everything normally, and you still have the âmeaningful choiceâ of siding with a Covent but now with the benefit of being able to pick any soulbinds/convent class abilities you wish and later on picking another campaign to go on.Done.
It also is really sad how much effort theyâve put into these amazing class abilities (some of which are literally already core class/spec abilities) and theyâre just going to be gone at the end of the expansion. I really hope we get to keep some of them and theyâre integrated into our kits.
Would they? Why would you assume thereâs a 25/25/25/25 split between say, Paladins, in terms of what aesthetic they prefer? I imagine many Paladins like the âHolyâ look and by nature want to go Kyrian. Similarly, I imagine many Death Knights want to go Necrolord.
The only Covenant that seems to be across-the-board underpresented is Necorlord, and Blizzard is taking steps to remedy that in 9.0.5.