Shadowlands - Covenant Class and Signature Abilities Preview

[RelaZ]

That game already existed. It was called WoD.

Imagine thinking WoD was designed around top end PvPers.

Ashran lul
WoD class design lul

[Gurg]

Im usually not the one that is doom sayer. Quite the opposite, im optimist thinking that eventually things will fall in place and Blizz knows what its doing.
But ouf. These Covenant abilities feel soo.. limiting, literally pushing you to pick a Covenant based on a SPEC, not class.

Take DKs as prime example:
Kyrian - Shackle the Unworthy - Its single target CC. Looks more like its PvP oriented. Decent for M+ if you need to single out specific mob from the pack.
Venthyr - Swarming Mist - All specs. Dodge, AoE and Runic power regen. Looks like best pick of the bunch.
Necrolord - Abomination Limb - All specs, but huh. AoE with extra Death Grip. Why would you pick this over Swarming Mist?
Night Fae - Death’s Due - (Replaces Death and Decay). UH and Blood specific. Gives STR buff and AoE cleave. But again, Why would you pick this over Swarming Mist?

Hunters:
looks like they forgot that they have melee hunter spec.

Warrior:
DPS's looks like they will choose between Venthyr's Condemn (Execute on steroids) or, far better choice if you ask me - Necrolord’s Banner due to sheer utility that it gives.
Tanks are Necrolord's bannerslaves for sure.

[Relapses]

Imagine thinking WoD was designed around top end PvPers.

Ashran lul
WoD class design lul

Imagine thinking players haven't been boosted by gear since the dawn of time.

[Edlarel]

Hunters:
looks like they forgot that they have melee hunter spec.

Death chakram is in keeping with melee hunter, but versatile enough to still be okay at range.

[MrLachyG]

They're 100% going to delay the release of this expansion, because they'll have the convenient excuse of COVID-19 to blame for the delay, even though this expansion has clearly been behind the curve since it was announced at Blizzcon.

This expansion is shoring up to be one of the least interesting expansions to date, and the last two already weren't great.

yeah it's not like the virus has actually affected their work. oh, wait, yes it has.

[Wheeler]

Your feelings aren't my problem can't wait for shadowlands ftw!

You'll be singing a different tune when you roll up to groups in the "Wrong" covenant and get removed. Or when you can't clear much of Torghast because Blizzard decided to nerf your covenant into the dirt.

Getting these right is good for ALL of us. Not just good for the people that do WQ's and pet battles and call it a week.

We as a community need to REALLY test these things out and do everything we can to help them succeed with these, because if we don't - They'll screw it up and SL will be another monumental failure. If it goes well - Everyone's happy.

[Lucavian]

The druid Kyrian ability reads an awful lot like Symbiosis from MoP.

Though cool, I don't want to pick Kyrian just to have symbi.

Keep in mind it says based on role, not class. So a bit more limited version I'd say.

[Restors]

Its early alpha. They have plenty of time to figure it out.

I dont buy this at all. Things MIGHT change, but relying on alpha / beta has historical shown dissappointment. Also, this is a grand feature of this expansion. They worked on this for two years or more, and they seem to be extremly incomplete.

[Baleful]

Make Covenant reroll easy or scrap this ASAP Blizzard. It looks like mandatory shit everywhere and a real PITA to do different activities/roles on the same character.

[BetrayedOf52]

Keep in mind it says based on role, not class. So a bit more limited version I'd say.

It's really not that hard to find a group of people who don't top end raid and require specific covenants.

[pewpmeiser]

Sounds cool so far! Looking forward to Shadowlands.

[sientoo]

Make Covenant reroll easy or scrap this ASAP Blizzard. It looks like mandatory shit everywhere and a real PITA to do different activities/roles on the same character.

couldnt agree more..they could take the good traits and make them talents instead.

[Redroniksre]

I mean of course there will be a BiS Covenant ability, there will always be one unless they are all 100% utility. It seems some people rather this whole system be scrapped, or for all the abilities to be incredibly boring, rather than have even the slightest imbalance. The real question is more of how big the imbalance will be. If one ability is 5% better than another, then i really don't see a problem with it. You can't be 100% balanced all the time and expect the game to still be fun.

[Accendor]

Here we go again, boys.

Its just beta matey chill. They will surely fix it before release. The game just launched lol what do you expect, let them collect data and fix it. Of course they will patch it before 9.1. I mean there was no way they would do this beforr 9.2 what did you expect? Well, they wanted to do it for 9.3 but that got scrapped, but they promised to fix it in 10.0!

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I mean of course there will be a BiS Covenant ability, there will always be one unless they are all 100% utility. It seems some people rather this whole system be scrapped, or for all the abilities to be incredibly boring, rather than have even the slightest imbalance. The real question is more of how big the imbalance will be. If one ability is 5% better than another, then i really don't see a problem with it. You can't be 100% balanced all the time and expect the game to still be fun.

That is true, I would like to have the system scrapped right now and instead have a new talent row.

[Redroniksre]

Its just beta matey chill. They will surely fix it before release. The game just launched lol what do you expect, let them collect data and fix it. Of course they will patch it before 9.1. I mean there was no way they would do this beforr 9.2 what did you expect? Well, they wanted to do it for 9.3 but that got scrapped, but they promised to fix it in 10.0!

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That is true, I would like to have the system scrapped right now and instead have a new talent row.

The only difference there is it is easy to change, of course we still don't know how hard/easy it will be with covenants either. Honestly, i feel the amount of people willing to reroll because of an imbalance is significantly lower than the amount of people who would just enjoy the system as is. A sacrifice i would be more than willing to make.

[Walkerbo]

As a lock I feel that thematically the Necrolords or the Venthyr are the most likely choices however the fact that the Night Fae have cosmetic rewards I think that that is the most desirable covenant to join.

Is there any word on if there will be a choice to switch between covenants and how that switch would work?

[Gloriandus]

Its early alpha. They have plenty of time to figure it out.

I appreciate your optimism, but there is too much precedent to give Blizzard any benefit of the doubt.

Covenant powers and soulbinds, are 100% locked-in, and they won't be able to balance them, either number-wise or in the minds of players. Pick the "wrong" Covenant? LOL good luck.

[Boricha]

A lot of my favorite abilities in here are from Necrolords, which kinda sucks since I'm least interested in them, but maybe that will change in alpha/beta. Serrated bone spike and Deathborne could be really cool.

[Erolian]

This is looking like the (fairly) predicted disaster that people assumed it would be. The abilities are honestly cool and I don't mind the mechanics as a whole with maybe a few concerns here and there and none of that is the real problem. They're just going to have such an impact that unless respeccing is easy the system will just be painful for anyone doing difficult content due to the power, and necessity, of rerolling for some of those abilities when you're in their niche

[Echeyakee]

This just feels like it will fuck over people who play several specs. For example priest: as a holy, your biggest weakness is heavy single target healing. Trying to do grievous weeks is absolute pain. So Boon of the Ascended sounds like a perfect way to deal with it, and it might even be half decent in raids, although Unholy Nova sounds like it could be a lot like monk's revive, or at least halo, fitting right in to holy's role. And Mindgames seems pointless for a healer, unless it allows you to negate large raid damage spikes, but if that's true, all priests will be required to use that.

But at the same time, as shadow, you will have other priorities. Let's say they will leave shadow as it is now, with void form and ramp damage (I hope not, but they already did it once...). Boon of the Ascended sounds like a horrible choice, as I assume you won't be able to cast your other skills while it is active, meaning you have to use it outside of void form, when your stats are at the lowest and you deal the least damage. Or you can still cast your other spells (not sure how they will handle adding 2 spells for you to use without it being a pain to bind), but then you can barely use the ability, as you need to keep casting your insanity generators, and even missing one GCD can be a huge impact on void form duration, and your overall damage. So as shadow you might be looking to Mindgames, given it does good damage, and it fits better into hectic pace of void form. Or even unholy nova, if the range is good (probably will be go to spell for m+).

So people are either forced to choose their "main" spec and accept that others will kinda suck (and I'm getting a feeling they are going big on the covenant abilities, at least several of them feel like major power increases) and will not be able to take advantage of major QoL improvements, or people will feel obliged to level new chars for the other spec, like we had in early legion.

Which is ironic, considering they keep talking about class identity over spec.