It’s not an ideal system. They needed to think about that more before they implemented it. It puts players exactly in your position, unfairly so, I might add.
You keep saying this but it’s just fundamentally not true, every class has a unique playstyle that differs from others based on various abilities.
Covenants give you ONE and a utility, and the soubinds only affect those two spells ( and I’m not talking about the odd damage increase or CD reduction you can put in literally any soulbind) .
Those spells dont change how you fundamentally play your class, they just don’t. They may tweak it a little but it is in no way comparable to me choosing between my druid and a priest or my druid and a mage or my druid and a warrior.
It just isn’t.
I have no idea how you can even compare the two honestly.
You get two Covenant-flavored procs based on your soulbind as well. Nadja’s Euphoria is fun and Dauntless Duelist is a bit boring but tailor your playstyle ever-so-slightly. Pelagos has me going around picking up orbs for mastery as well as getting me to throw out an ability I otherwise might not to keep my 3% spell-damage-reduction refreshed.
I actually agree that Covenants aren’t as big as they could be though. Personally I said prior to the expansion I would love to see Covenant-specific enchants and trinkets, and my belief in that has only been reinforced after consuming the content in SL. I think those kinds of things could be a lot of fun. Like the weapon tokens, you could loot Covenant trinket tokens you could trade for tank/healer/phyiscal/caster trinkets that do different things for different Covenants, like some kind of blood vampire themed trinket for Venthyr tanks or some sort of evasive fairy dust for Night Fae tanks.
I see what your saying but picking up orbs to maintain a buff isn’t really what I would call “class changing”.
Now if attacking enemies spawned orbs and you needed those orbs to preform abilities, that would be different fundamental change.
But as it stands these at glorified talents, heck they don’t even change any of the appearances of my spells, no new forms, and besides various stats boots none of them change how I fundamentally play my druid.
And class balance has been a constant complaint since day 1. Sound like making them cosmetic would be a great solution.
That is why they are lackluster. They should impact stats, talent, leggo and rotation. Then covenants would actually be meaningful.
Or here is a thought. Stop giving us borrowed powers. Covenants should have been a meaningful choice based on one thing. Flavor / Transmog / Mounts you prefer.
Player power should have just been given in the form of a tank / heal / dps talent that you perhaps select in some general window or talent tree somehow. Or a part of your legendary item.
Pretty crazy if everyone had the same general well tuned dps or tank or heal cooldown that no one would really complain about covenant swapping because you’d be working towards the transmog or flavor you like the most rather than sacrificing that for power.
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A lot could have been avoided if…
They had done marketing research to determine what changes the playerbase would accept and which they would not. Actual scientific marketing research, like responsible companies do before sinking hundreds of millions of dollars of investors’ money into a vanity project whose intent seems to be social engineering changes to turn casuals into hardcores.
Then we would get pruning again…
There is no logical connection between the two. There are more abilities, spells, etc. now than ever.
This was so obvious from the beginning. Covenants should have been a purely thematic and cosmetic choice made out of player preference. I remember hearing a lot of players saying this from the very first time I heard about the covenants, and time has only proven them correct.
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#PullTheRipcord !
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Not sure what you find so hard to fathom.
I explained it, right there in the post.
The decision to choose a covenant is one that should be taken like a class.
You explained why they were not literally the same thing 
. I’m sorry for your difficulty understanding my PoV.
A lot could have been avoided if the covenants were only cosmetic. Power should never be tied to cosmetics. People just end up choosing the optimal one instead of the one they want since choosing any other would just needlessly be holding yourself back, which means you’re also holding back everyone else you’re playing with.
You are looking at it from the wrong way down.
Joining a Covenant is a meaningful choice in that it further develops, informs and expresses your character’s identity thru being a part of a new, specific society with a unique position, duties, values, ect in the greater Shadowlands cosmology.
I get it, you want everything. But that would make the Covenants meaningless and add nothing special to your character’s identity.
She have a different opinion then you… doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
I understand that logic, but for me it has kinda…diminishing returns. Like, if I wanna play affliction warlock I understand the pros and cons. Very strong ST. Slightly weaker in AoE situations and not looking great in PvP. Now, on top of this, I need to choose a covenant that could potentially make me even weaker in PvP, or I could potentially take a stronger PvP covenant at the expense of my stronger points. So, for me, its just like…diminishing returns. I’m not certain if my post made sense, please ask for clarification if you want.
Edit: Just to clarify something, none of the covenants make a class actually weaker in PvP, I just meant relative to other classes or covenant choices.
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Why is it that this opinion isnt translated into the game though. By the statistics, people chose their covenant based on the power of the covenant class ability for their spec. Many players dont feel that the covenant expresses anything out of their character, simply because they had to choose between the covenant ability they wanted and the aesthetic. I am sure they would love to be in the aesthetic they want, but they dont want to sacrifice their gameplay to do it.
And I dont want everything. I simply would like to choose the covenant which I want for my character, without sacrificing the performance of my character.
We should have been able to play all 4 at once and unlock all their stuff on a single toon, then pick from two talent rows for each covenant ability.