I'm choosing my covenant based on theme/RP/gear!

[Amerissis]

Yeah, well, it seems they made sure the thematically appropriate covenant is often also the best one for the class. My BM hunter is Night Fae, because it's pretty and fits my hunter best, but it's also the best one for dps. I would've have chosen it when it had the worst dps, too.

[Kaver]

Yeah, well, it seems they made sure the thematically appropriate covenant is often also the best one for the class. My BM hunter is Night Fae, because it's pretty and fits my hunter best, but it's also the best one for dps. I would've have chosen it when it had the worst dps, too.

If you think Night Fae is the most thematically appropriate covenant for Warlocks then you’re absolutely delusional.

[Xaviaton]

I never really understood how this is a controversy. When most players don't even read the quests why would they care that much about the covenant campaign? As is pointed out in the video linked, the highest performing ability is commonly the most well-designed as well so it makes sense that many people will just pick the one they liked. It is not like the covenant choice has a massive impact on your day to day playing beyond the signature abilities. You will visit all the different zones while leveling and keep going to all of them while world questing. While I picked my covenant (Necrolord MM Hunter) for the RP value, most of my friends ended up getting to max level and being unsure about what covenant they picked because they really didn't care - of course they just google the BiS one and run with it, there are zero downsides to do this for them since they have basically just been transmogging the same tier or PvP set for the last 5 years.

I think the player behaviour that was the most underestimated in the covenant discussions is how little most people care about this stuff at all.

[Beuargh]

Cosmetic, transmog and mounts are the true end game. Nothing else matters.

playing 2 years with a shit ability when you know another one feels better and is more effective doesn't matter??

I play enhancement shaman and testing each abilities during leveling made obvious which covenant I'll choose. the venthyr spell feels better and is the best spell (both for damage and healing) I have in my toolbox. every other felt "meh" in use and in effectiveness/utility/everything. if it was for cosmetic I would have chosen necro, but the spell is so bad there is no way I play my toon using that shit for 2 fkn years when I know the venthyr spell make my spec feel so much better.....

cosmetic is important to me, but playing a toon with a gameplay I like is top of my priority.

[Doffen]

You're ignoring the fact that in a lot of cases the strongest choice is also the thematic choice.

Yep, important point this. And I don't think anyone is surprised that competetive players *gasp* go for meta. We have since vanilla and it has not changed one bit. Well I have since I am now casual and pick whatever I want which is themeattically.

Not to mention, warcraftlogs or raider io do not cover the whole player base, maybe even just a little fraction of it.

Just adding my main, Frost DK:

Kyrian: 17%
Venthyr: 25%
Necrolord: 31.5%
Night Fae: 25.5%.

Pretty happy with that kind of balance. I am of course Necrolord, because Frost DK, my boomkin is Night Fae because nature, survival hunter is night fae because, the wilds, and Arcane Mage, Venthyr, because Venthyr is awesome.

[Lei]

Not to mention, warcraftlogs or raider io do not cover the whole player base, maybe even just a little fraction of it.

It was mentioned in the video that the api is there regardless of your in game activity, so even the extreme casuals that never step into any m+-es or raids were sampled.

[potis]

Yeah, went with what i wanted to see/play, necrolord seemed okay etc... "How bad can it be" choice, i knew it wasnt the meta choice, but went yolo since we just run HC raid and +15s for basic gear/chest.

Yeah it was bad, went Kyrian and the OPness of both Spear and Phial does not compare, Necrolord is pure shit gameplay wise, Fleshcraft is clunky and useless most of the time, Banner is even worst at high keys.

[Doffen]

It was mentioned in the video that the api is there regardless of your in game activity, so even the extreme casuals that never step into any m+-es or raids were sampled.

To be counted each individual player has to actually be part of something. It does not just take api out of air. Remember the infamous "half of the player base uses weak auras" and that was counted from api's. It's highly faulty.

[Amerissis]

If you think Night Fae is the most thematically appropriate covenant for Warlocks then you’re absolutely delusional.

“Often”

/10char

[SynDethroc]

I've picked my covenants SOLEY based on aesthetic, RP reasons, and what I think would be most fun for each of my characters. The meta is always changing... just wait a month or two to see your current top-tier choice fall to the bottom, then whine as you have to slog through the Covenant swap and catch-up. It's a game. You don't need to always pick the "right" answer. Have some fun!

[Donald Hellscream]

I still picked Venthyr because the plate set and weapons look awesome, but okay.

[Lei]

To be counted each individual player has to actually be part of something. It does not just take api out of air. Remember the infamous "half of the player base uses weak auras" and that was counted from api's. It's highly faulty.

To say "half the playerbase" you need to know the sub count, which is impossible, of course it's faulty.
But to say "here, we sampled x level 60 characters from scanning the armory api and y% of them did this and that" is not really faulty.
The only fault is that the data doesn't show which is your army of characters. So if you are a "rebel" person that went for the "worst" covenant on 50 characters, the data will not say "here is this one individual being a rebel", all your characters will count as 1 player.

[Doffen]

To say "half the playerbase" you need to know the sub count, which is impossible, of course it's faulty.
But to say "here, we sampled x level 60 characters from scanning the armory api and y% of them did this and that" is not really faulty.
The only fault is that the data doesn't show which is your army of characters. So if you are a "rebel" person that went for the "worst" covenant on 50 characters, the data will not say "here is this one individual being a rebel", all your characters will count as 1 player.

Fair enough. Though I did check wowranks a bit earlier and they have now 5.9mill characters scanned. Which could be around 0.5-1.5mill actual players if everyone has 4-6 characters each. Since we have no idea how many of those scanned are performance or non-performance focused players(nor how many players exactly) we can't know if those that are scanned are actual casuals that do care about performance, or if they are hardcore players that are really minmaxing.

My point is that having api's counting random numbers of characters can't show us accurate numbers, so they can be very faulty, or on the other end, very accurate or something in between. I think me and you had a discussion not long ago about how many that care about performance, and I think it's pretty clear like we agreed about then, that there are a great portion of the current player base that do care about performance, much more than the infamous 1% which should only be counted for top 100 guilds in the world, but there are probably thousands of guild that are performance focused with that kind of players. So the numbers shown on the video is probably an indicator on how things might be, I acknowledge that.

I can only talk about my guild, casual as we are, but I think it applies for many others. Probably half of our raiders went with the bis Covenant, while other half did not. But some of those who also picked the bis Covenant already decided before we knew how powerful they are. Druids/hunters going Night Fae for instance is a good example of that.

[plukkie070]

I've picked my covenants SOLEY based on aesthetic, RP reasons, and what I think would be most fun for each of my characters. The meta is always changing... just wait a month or two to see your current top-tier choice fall to the bottom, then whine as you have to slog through the Covenant swap and catch-up. It's a game. You don't need to always pick the "right" answer. Have some fun!

Exactly this.




I think attaching a power skill with each covenant was a bad idea, they could just have left it with the situational skills like the NF you can transform into some animal, or Venthyr with the teleport skill.
On the other hand if there has to be a power skill, why couldn't they all be the same and does the same damage so you don't have to choose a best one since they're all the same.

You would choose a covenant not based on what's the best but what mostly suits you aesthetic wise or lore wise or perhaps on those situational skills which can be handy in situations.


I,ll be the unpopular one then and choose it pure for the armor looks and whatnot.

[Jastall]

Blizzard made the most thematic covenants to be the strongest in most cases. Easy way to fix stupid system without actually changing anything major.

In many cases yeah. Hunters and Druids would naturally gravitate towards Night Fae, Paladins towards Kyrian, Death Knights towards Necrolord, for example, and these are popular classes that are often auto-locked to these Covenants.

Myself, my main Warrior is Venthyr not only because it's the best but because I like the faction and mostly because Condemn is hella fun to use. My DK alt is Necrolords thanks to the theme and the amazing transmog that he's likely never taking off. My upcoming Hunter alt I'm torn between Night Fae and Kyrian, we'll see when I level him.

Also, the statistics in the OP are skewed because it only tracks players that participate in higher end activities; believe it or not, tons of people playing this game never enter a raid, an arena or a M+, ever. They're more likely to not have a clue what is meta, if they even carem and choose based on what they prefer.

[Lei]

In many cases yeah. Hunters and Druids would naturally gravitate towards Night Fae, Paladins towards Kyrian, Death Knights towards Necrolord, for example, and these are popular classes that are often auto-locked to these Covenants.

Myself, my main Warrior is Venthyr not only because it's the best but because I like the faction and mostly because Condemn is hella fun to use. My DK alt is Necrolords thanks to the theme and the amazing transmog that he's likely never taking off. My upcoming Hunter alt I'm torn between Night Fae and Kyrian, we'll see when I level him.

Also, the statistics in the OP are skewed because it only tracks players that participate in higher end activities; believe it or not, tons of people playing this game never enter a raid, an arena or a M+, ever. They're more likely to not have a clue what is meta, if they even carem and choose based on what they prefer.

Did you watch the video? Again, it was specifically stated at 1 mins 40 sec that they have "extrapolated data from the entire playerbase" (minus china of course) thanks to the official armory API.

[Darkeon]

I chose the covenant based on theme and rp.

Then I saw I was doing 1.5-2k less than I would be doing as Venthyr and joined the plethora of warriors there and am now doing somewhat competitive DPS.

Cheers, Blizzard!

[gorkos]

Night fae shadow priest/kyrian sv hunter here. I like the night fae look and I wanted my hunter to be an owl boy.

[arkanon]

I'm proud to say I chose mine based on the gear and flavour of the covenant, don't give a shit about what some sweaty joe online says is the covenant that gives 0.0000001% more dps.

Is there a point were you WOULD care? 5%? 10%? 30%?

[Dug]

I was gonna choose based on theme but I too fell for the meta and choice venthyr for my warrior. All good though because I fell in love with the covenant and it's vampire/gothic theme. Maldraxxus is cool but I'm enjoying my choice.