BiS Covenant for each Class / Spec

[Nyel]

Out of interest, do we already have a BiS list for the Classes regarding Covenants? I'm not asking because I want the "highest parsing" Covenant for my class, just curious. I already made up my mind on which Covenant goes with my characters (I just looked at the skills and deemed them the most likeable etc., never looked up numbers for them), but I am still curious what the "go to" consensus will be.

My decision, purely based on personal thoughts:

Main: Restoration Druid - Necrolords - Adaptive Swarm just fits the playstyle perfectly and while not having seen any numbers this skill looks incredibly powerful and fitting for the class

Alt 1: Restoration Shaman - Necrolords - Primordial Wave sounds like a nice skill with a lot of interactions with other talents (Echo of Elements, Torrent etc.); to be fair, I think all of the Shaman skills are pretty lackluster, but this is imho the best next to Vesper Totem

Alt 2: Mistweaver Monk - Necrolords? - I don't know, I think all four Covenant skills are really bad, this seems somehow acceptable

Alt 3: Shadow Priest - Venthyr? - No idea, I dislike all of the Covenant skills and think they're one of the worst ones available next to Monk

Alt 4: Holy Paladin - Kyrian - Divine Toll seems to be amazing, so no real debate here for me

[Caerrona]

Main: Restoration Druid - Necrolords[/B] - Adaptive Swarm just fits the playstyle perfectly and while not having seen any numbers this skill looks incredibly powerful and fitting for the class

Alt 1: Restoration Shaman - Necrolords - Primordial Wave sounds like a nice skill with a lot of interactions with other talents (Echo of Elements, Torrent etc.); to be fair, I think all of the Shaman skills are pretty lackluster, but this is imho the best next to Vesper Totem

Resto druid is night fae atm with kyrian as a maybe i think (link yourself). Havent tried anything other than night fae as its incredibly strong.

Primordial wave is straight garbage.

[GosuBlanky]

"What's the bis without looking at any of the numbers"

[Arthilian]

Tuning still has to happen ofcourse, so nothing set in stone.

But for DK Death's Due + Soulshape (Night Fae) seem to be a clear winner for all 3 speccs and is the most usable in 99% of scenarios. Venthyr could be a close second but I don't think it's as good as Night Fae.

Necrolords will have that 1 scenario somewhere in 1 specific fight where it'll shine and be super amazing but be a big ''meh'' otherwise. Kyrian is just kinda whatever right now.

Can't really speak for other classes, haven't been keeping up to date with them. I think Warlocks are pretty heavily weighed towards Necrolords iirc?

[Nuciek]

Out of interest, do we already have a BiS list for the Classes regarding Covenants? I'm not asking because I want the "highest parsing" Covenant for my class, just curious. I already made up my mind on which Covenant goes with my characters (I just looked at the skills and deemed them the most likeable etc., never looked up numbers for them), but I am still curious what the "go to" consensus will be.

My decision, purely based on personal thoughts:

Main: Restoration Druid - Necrolords - Adaptive Swarm just fits the playstyle perfectly and while not having seen any numbers this skill looks incredibly powerful and fitting for the class

Alt 1: Restoration Shaman - Necrolords - Primordial Wave sounds like a nice skill with a lot of interactions with other talents (Echo of Elements, Torrent etc.); to be fair, I think all of the Shaman skills are pretty lackluster, but this is imho the best next to Vesper Totem

Alt 2: Mistweaver Monk - Necrolords? - I don't know, I think all four Covenant skills are really bad, this seems somehow acceptable

Alt 3: Shadow Priest - Venthyr? - No idea, I dislike all of the Covenant skills and think they're one of the worst ones available next to Monk

Alt 4: Holy Paladin - Kyrian - Divine Toll seems to be amazing, so no real debate here for me

Problem is that you're looking at skill only and forget that there are also Soulbinds which may be as or even more important than skills.

[VinceVega]

Only one i know is RestoDruid being Nightfay for now. Maldraxxus close second.

Nightfay also looks like more fun and in combination with heart of the wild and the corresponding legendary amazing for Mythic+^^

[Nyel]

Problem is that you're looking at skill only and forget that there are also Soulbinds which may be as or even more important than skills.

As I said, this is my personal approach on picking Covenants as I really do not care that much about numbers but about gameplay.

In this thread I'm indeed asking about the "number's game" and what's BiS in the sense of Covenant ability, Soulbinds etc.

[Arthilian]

I think its still too early to discuss BiS covenant however the fact that players are looking for "BiS" of a game mechanic already shows its badly implemented and will cause problems. If it so happens as "BiS per class" then where will the diversity and uniqueness of classes and choice go?

Which is why I'm personally for the removal of power associated with the Covenant, making the choice one purely one of cosmetics/story (In which case you can also make it more permanent).
They want it to be a choice you seriously consider but as is a lot of people will feel their choice is going to be made for them, cause let's be real blizzard isn't going to be able to balance this.

[Arthilian]

Very well said and even worse, many players will "choose" what they were ordered to choose by their guilds or RIO partners or whatnot which is just sad. All under a veil of excuses about "being optimal" and "playing to the maximum of your ability" as if 1-2-3% will make the massive difference at a #10.000 ranked group.

Oh well thats how the wheel has been spinning for years I somehow think they don't want to break the chain of bad decisions because it might shock the players so hard they wouldn't know how to react.

It is a shame, because I truly think the Covenant system would work perfectly fine without the abilities being tied into them, and I myself would also like to make an actual choice instead of whatever I think will benefit my character most.

I felt like they were doing a good job with beta so far, they responded well to feedback on a number of occasions but as per usual there just has to be this one system they insist of being overly stubborn on...

[apelsinjuice]

everyone of OP suggestions is wrong lol

[HumbleDuck]

Tuning still has to happen ofcourse, so nothing set in stone.

But for DK Death's Due + Soulshape (Night Fae) seem to be a clear winner for all 3 speccs and is the most usable in 99% of scenarios. Venthyr could be a close second but I don't think it's as good as Night Fae.

Necrolords will have that 1 scenario somewhere in 1 specific fight where it'll shine and be super amazing but be a big ''meh'' otherwise. Kyrian is just kinda whatever right now.

Can't really speak for other classes, haven't been keeping up to date with them. I think Warlocks are pretty heavily weighed towards Necrolords iirc?

I mean unless they nerf DD to like 5%, I don't see any choice other than fairy knight.

[Rucati]

I felt like they were doing a good job with beta so far, they responded well to feedback on a number of occasions but as per usual there just has to be this one system they insist of being overly stubborn on...

Look at the bright side, if the past is anything to go by they'll fix it in 9.1 and make it easy to swap between covenants. That's what they did with legion legendaries, azerite gear, corruption, etc. They say it won't change because they know best, but then they realize it's awful and eventually fix it so the community is happy again. It is a shame they haven't learned their lesson yet though.

[Arthilian]

I mean unless they nerf DD to like 5%, I don't see any choice other than fairy knight.

Same, as much as I want to go Necrolord, DD and Soulshape are both so insane compared to Abom Limb and Fleshcraft. They're moving into the tuning phase now so time will tell I suppose, but I don't see it happening.

Look at the bright side, if the past is anything to go by they'll fix it in 9.1 and make it easy to swap between covenants. That's what they did with legion legendaries, azerite gear, corruption, etc. They say it won't change because they know best, but then they realize it's awful and eventually fix it so the community is happy again. It is a shame they haven't learned their lesson yet though.

Probably, though knowing Blizz it could be 9.3 aswell, I wish they'd just change it now instead of repeating this same rodeo of bad mechanic > be stubborn about it > change it anyway in patch 6/7/8/9.x but oh well.

[Rucati]

Probably, though knowing Blizz it could be 9.3 aswell, I wish they'd just change it now instead of repeating this same rodeo of bad mechanic > be stubborn about it > change it anyway in patch 6/7/8/9.x but oh well.

Yeah it's really ridiculous. As much as I want to be excited for Shadowlands I just know covenants are going to be a miserable mechanic to deal with so I'm not really looking forward to it.

[Deckzor]

Very well said and even worse, many players will "choose" what they were ordered to choose by their guilds or RIO partners or whatnot which is just sad. All under a veil of excuses about "being optimal" and "playing to the maximum of your ability" as if 1-2-3% will make the massive difference at a #10.000 ranked group.
.

That would be true if we speak about 1-2-3% but it is more like 20% and then even the super duper casual player wont miss on the 20% for cooler looks.

[goldlock]

If the disparity is 20% between covenants we re discussing about a broken system then. I surely hope this is not the case. Ofc the numbers I put down were just an example, I mean in my mind the acceptable difference between covenants is like the difference in facials. More than that can be game breaking.

It isn't going to be close as the difference between racials unless your counting mop ones. Your covenant usually decides what end game your going to be locked into be it raiding, mythic plus past 20 or rated pvp.

Choose your talent accept your fate. Pick randomly and learn to love the bench.

[Nyel]

everyone of OP suggestions is wrong lol

I don't know what you people don't get. Neither am I making any suggestions nor have I said that my picks are BiS. I mentioned it twice now that I don't care about the BiS combinations for myself as I base my pick not on numbers but on gameplay / fun / style or what fits my vision of my characters best.

Nevertheless I am interested to see what the general consensus on BiS Covenants is (not to base my decision on that, just out of curiosity).

- - - Updated - - -

And on another note: I think discussing how unflexible the Covenant system is doesn't help. They are sold on the system and we're getting as it is now. I'd prefer that they remove every class skill from the Covenant and make them the level 60 talent row. Something like we do a questline for each Covenant and earn the class skill at the end. And then we decide which Covenant we pick, get the additional Covenant skill, the styles etc. So choosing a Covenant is not based around power but personal preferences. This is not going to happen so I think debating this right now makes no sense. When they were unwilling to change this in alpha and even in beta, we're stuck with this system at least until 9.1 or 9.2.

[Bearded Sith]

Well, the good news is that if you're a Rogue, you don't really have a choice outside of Necrolords. The other abilities not only suck, but break gameplay (all of this is IMO by playing through all the zones on beta). It's a damn shame, too. I REALLY wanted to be a VampGlam Void Elf.

[Aggrophobic]

Out of interest, do we already have a BiS list for the Classes regarding Covenants? I'm not asking because I want the "highest parsing" Covenant for my class, just curious. I already made up my mind on which Covenant goes with my characters (I just looked at the skills and deemed them the most likeable etc., never looked up numbers for them), but I am still curious what the "go to" consensus will be.

My decision, purely based on personal thoughts:

Main: Restoration Druid - Necrolords - Adaptive Swarm just fits the playstyle perfectly and while not having seen any numbers this skill looks incredibly powerful and fitting for the class

Alt 1: Restoration Shaman - Necrolords - Primordial Wave sounds like a nice skill with a lot of interactions with other talents (Echo of Elements, Torrent etc.); to be fair, I think all of the Shaman skills are pretty lackluster, but this is imho the best next to Vesper Totem

Alt 2: Mistweaver Monk - Necrolords? - I don't know, I think all four Covenant skills are really bad, this seems somehow acceptable

Alt 3: Shadow Priest - Venthyr? - No idea, I dislike all of the Covenant skills and think they're one of the worst ones available next to Monk

Alt 4: Holy Paladin - Kyrian - Divine Toll seems to be amazing, so no real debate here for me

How are this "BiS" though? Not only do they ignore numbers but I get the feeling you didn't actually try them out either.
If this is a list of what ones you think sound cool than thats fine but it's not a list of whats best.

[Jamais]

WoW doesn’t have the luxury to separate players so hard. We would end up having not enough players for any roster. Plus it’s a stupid thing to give players even more say on how other players play.

To me it’s always a problem if I can have a say on others and others have a say on me because as you can imagine by how most people reply to other posters even, granting any sort of power over others to a player never has a good result.

The OP you quoted has words ''get benched'' or ''love the bench'' in his every second post. He obviously gets thrill from ''threatening'' people on MMO champ that they will get benched if they pick wrong.

You are correct. Raid leaders won't have the luxury to seperate people that hard - mythic rosters are already a pain to keep. Our raid leader (we are a CE guild, but not in the upper echeleon) already said - pick what you prefer - happier raiders=better progression.