Originally Posted by
Vakir
...the Horde and Alliance have a constant, tenuous cycle of aggression and hatred. It's literally the main theme of the game. The Covenants are buddies. But again, even if they weren't - lore trumps gameplay. It just also doesn't work in lore, is the point.
My very big problem is that you're making these insinuations about other players on top of spouting things you're actively wrong about. Yes, you can manage a lot of content without going for the absolute most optimal spec and optimal build. But the reality is that people who play something on the lower end that enjoy playing at their best can still do so. They can still try to pick the best possible combination of talents and gear selection to pull as high as they can, and can still feel accomplished with taking a "lower tier" spec to a good place.
Covenants don't just have some abilities better than others - you're applying an ability to 2-4 specs when all of them will have different preferences. A good example is Deathborne is just not the same for Fireball or Frostbolt, filler/activating abilities, as it is for Arcane Blast, a core damage spell during burst periods. The chasm of its use is massive, +10% damage or not. It directly contradicts the entire direction of SL being about restoring class over spec. It is just 1 of 52 spells that work in this way.
Let me put it in fighting game terms. Tier lists do exist - but pros choose to play low tier characters all the time. People win major tournaments with them. Competitive players don't just pick the best character ALL the time, and sometimes it can completely change the dynamic to bring in a dark horse. But people still want to play their best WITH that character. Playing a cookie cutter spec is like playing a high tier character, but Covenant abilities are like forcing you to only use one specific combo on that character and omit 3 others. That's just not going to work the same way against every opponent. Or in this case, every type of content/spec.
Making this about "well clearly the person just wasn't good enough!" is missing the entire point and, more importantly, ignores the single most important piece of the puzzle: The only people that get harmed by this decision are those individuals. OP's position is outright ridiculous. Fixed covenants won't discourage gatekeeping, it will, if anything, do the opposite.
So yeah, that's why I'm pretty god damn pissed at the notion. You're in no position to judge others about this if you don't understand the fundamentals of how and why people min-max. It's not just about tryharding. For some, that is what makes it fun.