The Covenant Switching System SUCKS...

[Mafic]

Covenants should be a player choice with a greater degree of freedom. Anyone trying to equate covenant choice with the character select screen is being dishonest IMVHO.

[cuafpr]

agree with those saying it should be locked for the expac... at the end, there should be a final quest where you get all access to all mounts/t-mogs from all covenants as a thank you for saving the Shadowlands, like a turn in after the finale raid boss.

[arkanon]

Why do multiple tiers matter? At the end of the day, we all know they are going to relax the restrictions eventually in a later patch and are making you waste your own time until then.

It was hardly a 'meaningless drought' when there was significantly more to do in game during a 'drought' than there actually is now.

Significantly more to do? Such as?

[Vampyrr]

It is far too easy IMO to swap covenants ... the idea of a covenant is you pick one and stick to it.

Very generous of them to allow free and quick switch to another covenant in case you made a mistake.

Not sure why you are flip flopping ?

No its made obnoxious by design. Should be easy to swap if you are exalted with faction. No reason for it to be this way other than blizz digging in their heels. What benefit to the game is there for having players be stuck especially since some covenants excel for some areas but not others. It would actually make people play more if they could progress multiple covenants on each char.

[schwarzkopf]

No its made obnoxious by design.

That is obviously incorrect, you can freely switch covenant any time you want - even though there is no need to do so.

[arkanon]

No its made obnoxious by design. Should be easy to swap if you are exalted with faction. No reason for it to be this way other than blizz digging in their heels. What benefit to the game is there for having players be stuck especially since some covenants excel for some areas but not others. It would actually make people play more if they could progress multiple covenants on each char.

What if I said requiring people to be exalted would be obnoxious and Grindy game design?

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That is obviously incorrect, you can freely switch covenant any time you want - even though there is no need to do so.

But but but, the latest sim says I have to, and some lfr player on the forum told me I can't get groups unless I'm the meta spec and covenant? /S. I don't like the covenant system really, it just doesn't appeal to me. It's not TERRIBLE, but I don't enjoy anything to do with it, other than a few of the abilities which are pretty cool.

[Dakara]

That is obviously incorrect, you can freely switch covenant any time you want - even though there is no need to do so.

Not really.
If you want to join a new Covenant then sure, you can do that anytime. If you want to swap back however, it takes 2 weekly quests. Yes, you can do it over the reset so it doesn't take a whole week, but that's not "anytime you want".

I've levelled up all 4 Covenants on my Holy Paladin. If I could, I'd swap between Venthyr and Kyrian depending on the content and my group comp... but at best, I could swap once per week.

It has nothing to do with wanting to "mix/max", but changing things up for some variety... I enjoy both Covenant abilities for different reasons.

I've never been one who enjoys re-speccing my character before every single boss. Half the time I even forget to change talents for Torghast or between Raid and M+, but Blizzard gave every Class 4 unique abilities, being locked out of 3/4 of them makes the game worse (IMO) not better.

[schwarzkopf]

Not really.
If you want to join a new Covenant then sure, you can do that anytime.

Exactly, and if you want to join ANOTHER new covenant, you can do it at any time.

If you want to swap back however, it takes 2 weekly quests.

Why would you want to swap back, surely you can make up your mind before you leave ?

[Mendzia]

Of course it sucks and most of the people already stated it during beta.
WoW dev team sadly still thinks that this artificial content is good for the game.

[Lolites]

Covenants should be a player choice with a greater degree of freedom.

they already are... you pick covenant and if you want to you can change it (and first time its realy easy), however there have to be some barier, otherwise why make it a choice? just make it part of "loadout", you click once and get all best covenants, conduits, talents for M+ or raid or whatever, no thinking necessary...

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Of course it sucks and most of the people already stated it during beta.

seems only few LOUDEST said that and keep saying that, not sure where you take the "most", but if you have some actual numbers on that (which you think blizz doesnt) i would love to see that...

[Wuusah]

just wait until you wanna go from exalted aldor to exalted scryers then come back to me

There is no reason to change between those factions, though. The difference between those is what Blizzard likes to talk about when talking about ideal covenant situation: 0.5% power difference. Just pick what you like.

Covenants are very far away from that ideal situation

[Dracullus]

Covenant swap is very easy, only thing that sucks is you won't access all side/cosmetic progress you earned throgh enormous grind. SL don't have big power grinds, but Anima is like AP without artifact power (this slowly change with recent and 9.1 buffs).

Another thing is that choices don't belong to power systems like that. Work on balancing every system where people just pick bis and forget about it is wasted. Legion artifact didn't have choices.

For sure devs shouldn't try it on every front - for example they could focus on legendaries, make 3-4 for class and try to balance that.

[Mendzia]

seems only few LOUDEST said that and keep saying that, not sure where you take the "most", but if you have some actual numbers on that (which you think blizz doesnt) i would love to see that...

I see so many threads about it everywhere.
Now please show me how many 'i am so happy that i cannot change my covenant so often!' ones we've got at the same time.
It is just stupid, artificial content that has totally no value for the game.

[Echocho]

You're not supposed to swap back and forth. You're supposed to choose. That's why the system has friction when you try to game it.

[Kumorii]

I see so many threads about it everywhere.
Now please show me how many 'i am so happy that i cannot change my covenant so often!' ones we've got at the same time.
It is just stupid, artificial content that has totally no value for the game.

Just want to point out that threads praising a game is minuscule compared to threads whining. That's true across all games. It's not exactly a good gauge to go by. If people enjoy it they play it, might give it a good score on a review. If someone makes a thread that praises something it quickly dies because people tend to not post in those.

Forums are mostly used for complaints or guides,which are neutral.

[Zka]

The whole covenant system is stupid, it should have been 1-2 talent points.

[Xalvia]

Main reason why I quit SL for good in February.

[erifwodahs]

It is far too easy IMO to swap covenants ... the idea of a covenant is you pick one and stick to it.

Very generous of them to allow free and quick switch to another covenant in case you made a mistake.

Not sure why you are flip flopping ?

Because it's bullshit. It's not a meaningful choice. It was supposed to be lvl 60 talent.
Can you tell me, how does developer who had to create venthyr druid ability and now has to create venthyr druid legendary feels? There are probably 10 people who play that and they only do that for shit and giggles on their farm alt.

Imagine wasting resources on developing 3 spells for a class and only 5% of class players use those.

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they already are... you pick covenant and if you want to you can change it (and first time its realy easy), however there have to be some barier, otherwise why make it a choice? just make it part of "loadout", you click once and get all best covenants, conduits, talents for M+ or raid or whatever, no thinking necessary...

It's not a choice for most of the player base. Have you seen the stats? It backfired heavily and you could tell when Preach asked the question, they will certainly steer off this in the future. Imagine developing covenant abilities and having to do tuning for when you don't even have enough players using that to test it. Almost as if they could have developed some more interesting content for the game i.e. make Maw not to suck instead "lets create an ability for each spec and watch players only use 10 of them"

[schwarzkopf]

Because it's bullshit.

So - in summary it isn't because it isn't.

Well - in response it is - because it is.

Imagine wasting resources on developing 3 spells for a class and only 5% of class players use those.

That's better than 100% of people using the same spells, covenants give you the option of being a bit less homogenous. That's ALWAYS a good thing.

I'd prefer it if you couldn't chop and change covenants at all, but the current system is a reasonable compromise away from that ideal.

[Kumorii]

Because it's bullshit. It's not a meaningful choice. It was supposed to be lvl 60 talent.
Can you tell me, how does developer who had to create venthyr druid ability and now has to create venthyr druid legendary feels? There are probably 10 people who play that and they only do that for shit and giggles on their farm alt.

Imagine wasting resources on developing 3 spells for a class and only 5% of class players use those.

They would probably feel the same way if it was just a talent because it would still be "3 spells" only a few % use since players tend to take the good talents, just like people supposedly chose the best covenant.

If we talk about developer feels, I think developing a covenant with matching spells is probably more fun than an extra talent or two.