[Guide] How to not hurt yourself with your Covenant choice from Day 1

[Big Thanks]

If you have a guide yourself, share
Only people who share the opinion there WONT be "just" a 2-4% difference between Covenants in terms of performance will be taken seriously. (by me at least)
Is literally impossible.

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opening thoughts:
From someone (me) who is heartbroken constantly by patch changes to the point of wanting to either quit the game or start a hate group against Blizzard (jk) we absolutely need a guide on how we should approach the situation since day 1...to not hurt ourselves.

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You will be one of this 4 types of players:

A) Fotm player
B) BiS chaser
C) Roleplayer
D) Gameplay enthusiast

A) and B)
Are inevitably and unavoidably F'ed.
There are no superheroes in this story, there wont be an happy ending for you.
Reason: NERFS by Blizzard and balance changes
Is inevitable and unavoidable.
There is no "Guide" for this people. If you are one of this players, a world of suffering awaits you.
Good luck (newsflash: you WONT have any luck in Shadowlands)

C)
Will always be happy because his choice was made for roleplaying reasons.
If you dont care about numbers? Good for you.

D)
So you are a gameplay enthusiast? Here is how to not hurt yourself with your covenant choice:

1) Decide what you like to do the most (tanking, DPS, Healing, Mythic+, raiding, PvP)
2) Pick the gameplay option that is best for that activity, NOT in terms of performance BUT in terms of either utility or fun-factor
3) Avoid at all cost making a decision by "performance"
4) Never make a decision driven by "performance"
5) Pick what you think fits best your Gameplay Enthusiast taste (a passive ability, more eye beams as DH, pvp ability, more utility, fancy maneuver etc)

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Thoughts and Opinions?

[Justpassing]

Thoughts and Opinions?

This ain't a guide, just asinine whining. That's my thought.

[Big Thanks]

This ain't a guide, just asinine whining. That's my thought.

Its just the reality of the situation.
You are not thinking straight if you think otherwise...in my opinion

Im open to new opinions though.

[CerealLord]

Its just the reality of the situation.
You are not thinking straight if you think otherwise...in my opinion

Im open to new opinions though.

You missed a subset of people who do raid, but not at a cutting edge level. Some people do have mythic guilds that will get CE before the end of a patch, or guilds like mine that will kill all heroics with a quarter to half of mythics killed.

I wouldn't say I am a gameplay enthusiast. I just play the game to play with people I've known for years.

I'm going Night Fae on one of my vulperas because a fox, turning into a fox, is great.

[Justpassing]

Its just the reality of the situation.
You are not thinking straight if you think otherwise...in my opinion

Im open to new opinions though.

Yeah I know it's not a new opinion for you, you get that in all your threads. Here's a guide: WoW is a rollercoaster, not a balanced game or a game that's getting remotely close to be balanced. And the "swap" is probably something you can do from one major patch to another with little consequence, so I don't see a problem here. It's how it's always been.

[Enter Name Here]

thank you, captain obvious!


you can fly away now

[Hitei]

"If you aren't concerned with optimal performance, here's how to pick a covenant you like!"
"Ignore optimal performance and pick the covenant you like."

No shit, sherlock.

[Big Thanks]

"If you aren't concerned with optimal performance, here's how to pick a covenant you like!"
"Ignore optimal performance and pick the covenant you like."

No shit, sherlock.

You dont think is worth WARNING the FotM and BiS chasers now?
This is a trap some people may have not yet realized.

[Danvash]

If Blizzard does covenants correctly, it'll be like choosing between playing a warlock or a mage. Both of them are very good, and talking about which is better depends on the situation.

But what they have done so far in the Alpha is give each class one extremely useful ability in one of the covenants while shafting them with the others. And then there's the matter of the Venthyr (sp?) mirror that is like a superpowered Ripple in Space available to everyone who chooses that covenant that outshines every other base ability by far. Who would choose a large absorb shield over being able to teleport across the map to escape danger?

[Big Thanks]

If Blizzard does covenants correctly, it'll be like choosing between playing a warlock or a mage. Both of them are very good, and talking about which is better depends on the situation.

But what they have done so far in the Alpha is give each class one extremely useful ability in one of the covenants while shafting them with the others. And then there's the matter of the Venthyr (sp?) mirror that is like a superpowered Ripple in Space available to everyone who chooses that covenant that outshines every other base ability by far. Who would choose a large absorb shield over being able to teleport across the map to escape danger?

I dont know how reliable Preachgaming is in terms of the pure facts.
But he said just now "his tester people" find the difference between Bis covenants to be about 30-40%.
He also noted how everything multiplicative.
Normal ability gets better with soulbinds, which gets better with conduits, which gets better with legendaries.
And a simple "class change" (not even a covenant one) can change the entire meta completely.

He said he wont be picking any covenant on day 1.
Instead...his team has a "multiboxing" setup to level several characters?

Ahah, i think is funny how BiS chasers are going completely mental over this...but no hate towards them.

[CalamityHeart]

Just play what you want.

If you want to be the strongest version of your character possible, then you want the covenant that will make that happen. Play that.

If one of the covenants has a good aesthetic that you like, or you think would fit your character, that's the covenant you want. Play that.

If you want to have fun with a certain ability that you really like or that looks really good, you want the covenant that gives you that ability. Play that.

If you don't want to hurt yourself, then get that bullshit out of your mind that you have no choice but to hurt yourself. Covenants may turn out to be a really neat feature, or they may very well turn out to be awful. In either case, make the best of it. Do what upsets you the least and falls the most in line with how you want to play. Share constructive thoughts/enjoyments with Blizzard and the community. Share constructive criticism with Blizzard and the community. And shut the fuck up if you can't find it in yourself to do either, because if you can't do either, then you're doing nothing.

Air your grievances constructively, and have as much fun as you can in the meanwhile, because at the end of Shadowlands, if you decided to be a cookie-cutter shitter and hardlock into Venthyr because Icy Veins told you to, frowning your way through the expansion when you really thought that Night Fae would've been a more comfortable/fun pick for you, that's your fault. It may or may not be Blizzard's fault as well, but you certainly didn't help.

Make alts. With the changes to leveling, Shadowlands might become more alt friendly. Use multiple characters to fully experience what you can't on one.

TLDR: Play the game and form your own opinion. Don't listen to "guides" like this.

[MrLachyG]

on my Horde toons, the ones I play the most, I am allocating them based on their class. so Druids, Hunters will go Ardenweald while Priest, Pally etc go Bastion. then for Alliance side of things and any excess Horde toons I am going to spread them out so I have at least one of each armor type per covenant.

[Big Thanks]

If you want to be the strongest version of your character possible, then you want the covenant that will make that happen. Play that.

No! Man of Jesus!

Thats the entire guide! To avoid that completely!

If you chase the BiS from day 1 you are only setting yourself for disappointment...because it will get nerfed 100%
Blizzard was NEVER able to balance things on day 1.

[Omedon]

An actual suggestion I would make along these lines would be to "lead with an alt," and play one character that is... maybe second string until it's clear that the entirety of the commitment of a covenant is on the table. It won't solve the inevitable nerfs and buffs, but one of the larger factors that I don't see discussed often are all the things to be added to the covenant exclusivity paradigm AFTER launch. If there's another Q+A I intend to submit a question about how late into the expansion that moment of "all cards on the table" will be. Maybe it will be launch day... maybe it won't. Me personally I have many cares to give on the cosmetic axis here. I accept that skills are going to change, what I don't want is a new and better-fitting mount given exclusively to one other than the covenant I've committed a character to that fits said character's concept better than what their existing covenant offers!

Me, I will be leading with my druid, who unquestionably is born for night fae. My actual main, my warlock, is potentially going to wait to see what happens with the other 3's cosmetics before he chooses, and hopefully for an answer of "it's all there at launch."

[munkeyinorbit]

Its just the reality of the situation.
You are not thinking straight if you think otherwise...in my opinion

Im open to new opinions though.

Translation: "I woke up this morning and I wanted to have another bitch about blizzard and anyone who disagrees with me is stupid"

You said this was a guide and then proceeded to not do a guide. All you did was bitch about the game. There is no content to actually have an opinion on.

[lollerlaban]

Why do you guys even feed that troll moron

[Big Thanks]

Translation: "I woke up this morning and I wanted to have another bitch about blizzard and anyone who disagrees with me is stupid"

You said this was a guide and then proceeded to not do a guide. All you did was bitch about the game. There is no content to actually have an opinion on.

Can we plz stop putting labels on every MMO-C poster?

Hater, whiteknight...whatever man...this is my true opinion.

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Why do you guys even feed that troll moron

What the hell is your problem man?

[Henako]

No! Man of Jesus!

Thats the entire guide! To avoid that completely!

If you chase the BiS from day 1 you are only setting yourself for disappointment...because it will get nerfed 100%
Blizzard was NEVER able to balance things on day 1.

Then... you switch when it gets nerfed? Duh?

[Big Thanks]

Then... you switch when it gets nerfed? Duh?

This is what i meant by "not hurting yourself"

The only way this will be a viable choice is if you can level up your NEW (after switching) covenant without any kind of "timegate" AND with a "catchup" system.
If this happens...sure...it will be a viable option

[OFiveNine]

No-one needs warning. We've had years upon years of illusion of choice. This is just a rant thread about the covenant system disguised.