"Only the top 1% will pick covenants based on performance" :S

[Kaver]

Well that's clearly not true. We can already see from the numbers, that most players clearly are picking covenants based on what performs best in raids and dungeons.

As an example, the vast majority of Rogue players are either Night Fae or Kyrian. And if you for some reason think that Rogues like to be fairies or ascended angle-creatures then you're absolutely delusional.

People are in general abusing the 99% vs 1% "argument" to create pictures of WoW which are clearly not true. WoW consists of many many different groups of players and most of them care about performance to some degree. The statistics clearly show this.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Oh boy, do you have an uphill battle ahead of you on this forum.
We also kinda have that topic already here: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...will-get-worse

[Malkiah]

WoW consists of many many different groups of players and most of them think that what is written on icy-veins is a replacement for the need for independent thought. The statistics clearly show this.

fixed that for you.

[Malania]

This is confirmation bias. I chose my covenant purely on aesthetics and lore compatibility and it happened to be the top performing Covenant at launch. In beta it was simming like 3rd a week before it launched. If it gets nerfed i'll still keep the Covenant.

[Amaterasu65]

My casual as f brother chose his covenant based on performance too.

I will be mythic raiding so I did the same but jt happens the 2 competent covenants to be my favorite too (NF&Venthyr).

[Aradur]

This is confirmation bias. I chose my covenant purely on aesthetics and lore compatibility and it happened to be the top performing Covenant. If it gets nerfed i'll still keep the Covenant.

Same for me...would have picked Venthyr for my Fury Warrior either way....even if it was the worst covenant of all.

[Queendom]

fixed that for you.

That's exactly how I chose mine and don't see any problem with that. I'm not interested in doing rocket science over minmaxing hundreds of covenant abilities/talents/conduits when I can just look it up in 1 min.

I'm not the top 1% obviously.

[ONCHEhap]

it's not "Only the top 1% will pick covenants based on performance" but "Only the top 1% should pick covenants based on performance"

however a huge amount of sub par players think that the issue with their performance is balance,and not their own skill at the game

[Ryzeth]

My entire guild is going to be doing m+ and mythic as we've always done. They were all perfectly fine with people picking what they liked, as opposed to needing to minmax every little thing.

It is, as always, only the "top 1%" who are diehard minmaxing everything they do. And, as with every previous tier, there's gonna be people in LFD as well who won't take people unless they have the covenant they read as being the best on icy-veins. Doesn't mean they're (the people) are good, though. Just blindly follow guides.

[Nuciek]

Well that's clearly not true. We can already see from the numbers, that most players clearly are picking covenants based on what performs best in raids and dungeons.

As an example, the vast majority of Rogue players are either Night Fae or Kyrian. And if you for some reason think that Rogues like to be fairies or ascended angle-creatures then you're absolutely delusional.

People are in general abusing the 99% vs 1% "argument" to create pictures of WoW which are clearly not true. WoW consists of many many different groups of players and most of them care about performance to some degree. The statistics clearly show this.

People do that, yes. But at the same time they shouldn't because the covenants don't matter for 99% of the playerbase as much as they think they do. Casuals loose more dps because of their terrible skills, rather than covenant choice. Pair that up with the fact that everything is simmed for players that know how to properly dps, so for random pve dude different covenants might be better. It's problem with community and all those simulations, charts, tier lists and other stupid things that people read without any thought and just copy whatever is on the top.

I'm mostly playing PvP and I'm picking up covenants based on PvP performance and aestethics. In PvE I'm playing with friends and guild on a casual level (M+15 and heroic raids) and I tell everyone that asks me to pick the covenant based on their likes and aesthetics if they're not competing with anyone seriously, because they will be able to do all this no matter which covenant they will pick.

[schwarzkopf]

Makes sense, most of us play this game for fun - be silly to pick something you didn't enjoy. So picking your covenant on enjoyment is the sensible choice for most.

Of course - most players aren't sensible when it comes to entertainment

[Avrantia]

however a huge amount of sub par players think that the issue with their performance is balance,and not their own skill at the game

It's really as simple as this. As long as people keep sticking to the idea that getting an extra 2% theoretical damage output from a covenant ability will fix the vastly higher damage penalty that comes from having an incompetent rotation and not using skills properly, this will always be a problem.

[Fistfighter]

well it's deffinitely not just the 1%

It's probably all the way down to world 10K guilds who would do this, and I'd say it's the majority of people who que in group finder who choose the optimal covenant.

Compared to all the casual players, tho? yeah that's a minority, but if raiding/dungs is all you do, you'd be the minority if you picked covenant based on looks and not min maxing

[Qnubi]

I actually naturally picked the covenant that is best for my spec (fire mage, night fae) because it felt the best and made most sense. I can't even remember Kyrian and Ventyr, but the abilities sucked ass when using them. I liked Necrolord with the skeletal mage and duo fireball casts, but night fae was so much fun and burst with all the CDs fire mage has. So I picked the best without knowing it's the best.

[Loxxie]

I (Prot Paladin) chose my covenant when they anounced them (Bastion). Who doesn't want to throw shields everywhere?

Now apparently its the most commonly picked and arguable the best choice and I'm now part of the biased statistics when all I wanted was to throw more shields.

[Nalam the Venom]

I rather unsub than pick any thing other than Necrolords on my DK, But thankfully the necro DK ability is very nice, So it all worked out in the end

[Zyky]

fixed that for you.

Icy Veins is garbage, but the reality is sims prove everything that happened to be accurate. The overwhelming majority of players are picking what's meta and best.

[Dakara]

People love to blame sims but for some specs it’s more than that.
Look at Holy Paladins... nearly 90% are Kyrian. Why? Because their on demand AOE healing is terrible yet Kyrian give them a 1 minute CD to plug that gap which also synergises with talents and legendaries.

Simming has become more and more required in WOW du the number of variables widening the gap between “right” and “wrong” choices. But for Covenants, it’s more than just a “1% Sim difference”.

Some Covenant abilities are nothing more than “press this and get damage/healing” while others (like Divine Toll) actually synergise with the spec for an overall greater impact than simply Ability X vs Y.

Mechanically, many Covenant abilities are severely flawed even if they’re currently simming higher because they lack synergies and will fall behind as stats increase.

[Chickat]

Same for me...would have picked Venthyr for my Fury Warrior either way....even if it was the worst covenant of all.

I chose Kyrian for my Ret Paladin. Turns out it's decent for all specs. Maybe not the best for raiding, but it's a solid choice. I didn't pick whatever was best. I picked what I liked the most. Divine Toll is fun to press on every spec. It's impactful. Even if it's nerfed, I won't be switching Kyrian is also very thematic for a paladin, so it's a win/win.

Guess which covenant is the worst for my lock? Venthyr. Guess which covenant I'm picking for my lock? Venthyr.

[VinceVega]

Meh i take the best performing covenant. I am not 1% and most people i know ingame are the same.

People should get away from the thinking, that just because you like to play with a covenant you like story wise EVERYONE should do it.
I like min/maxing. I don't care that much about the covenant story. It is an hour max story per week and probably will be done in a few weeks.

I can and i am allowed to min/max the shit out of the game no matter how good i play. And i am also allowed to not take you with me in a Mythic+ run if you are not optimized. Never looked it up for M0s for now.
You are also allowed to not care about it. I don't mind. But people should stop telling me how i am "supposed" to play the game.
I don#t give a flying f** about the story. I take what comes my way but if i watn good story i don't play wow. Never was its strong suite. Not even in classic. I go play a bioware/CDPR game or something.