Originally Posted by
exochaft
I've been reading all your posts... and I get the distinct feeling almost all your arguments are based upon second-hand information, not actually thoroughly testing the alpha/beta across a variety of classes/specs/roles. Well, lucky for you, I have been thoroughly testing the beta acorss several classes/specs/roles... and almost everything you're worried about is way overblown, taken out of context, or has already been fixed.
Most of the covenant issues seem to default back to the rogue example as well as some more generic comments seeming to fit the perspective a rogue, maybe perhaps your main is a rogue? I'll say out of all the classes, rogue is probably in the worst shape when it comes to choosing a covenant and their covenant ability, but even with that disparity the chasm is mitigated by other factors (such as soulbinds, conduits, etc). Sub rogue is actually looking like a favored PvE spec beyond one niche fight for once, which is a nice change to be certain. I will submit we're still in the numbers pass phase, and we're even toying around with GCD's, some classes still have NYI and broken aspects beyond rogues... basically, there's still a ways to go on the beta.
I think you're confused about what player agency actually means, especially when related to someone wanting to switch specs to do another role. Your definition is as follows: allow the player to do whatever they want, whenever they want. That's not the correct definition, and many people have been falling into this trap. Player agency is allowing the player to make an impactful choice, and that choice affects your gameplay and experience. In today's world this may seem like an odd concept, but choices... have consequences! These can be good consequences, they can be bad consequences, it can be a mixture of both. The problem with the mentality I see with the #PullTheRipcord is that it comes from the former mentality, not the later. If you can just swap freely between talents, covenants, etc., it's actually the opposite of player agency as you have removed the consequence of the choice. Stated another way, your 'choice' is essentially inconsequential and meaningless because you can undo that 'choice' whenever you want. This topic bleeds into aspects of the game from a development and design aspect that I could talk about for pages on end... but I'll keep this as short as possible!
Anyways, back to the more specific choice as it relates to the actual definition of player agency when it comes to someone playing a class who delves into multiple roles: you have to make a meaningful choice when picking your covenant! Do you pick the covenant that gives you an ability that's great for DPS but not your cup of tea for tanking? Do you pick the covenant that's ideal for tanking but very underwhelming for DPS? Or do you pick the covenant that has the all-rounder ability that's not necessarily the best for any role but a solid choice for all of them? These are questions you will have to ask yourself when picking a covenant, which I already have had to grapple with while playing the beta since my guild tends to have me off-spec a ton. In my case, I'll likely pick the all-rounder since that's what I intend to do with my main, and it'll fit my playstyle and will work fine clearing mythic raids. Keep in mind that if you could just click a tome and change covenants in less than a second, all this choice and decision-making disappears and becomes meaningless, and there are no consequences to your covenant choice.
I will caveat everything with what I referenced earlier, and that is we're still in beta, nothing is finalized, there are still some outliers but Blizz has been squashing them, etc. If there is a covenant choice that is 'BiS' in every scenario, that's a problem and should be fixed. Ideally you want nothing to be 'BiS' with things being situationally good and/or having an option that's a good all-rounder, perhaps some options having higher skill cap potential, etc. Again, don't want to keep extending this post (because good Lord, I could), but this ties into the concept of balance... and what actually is good balance for the game versus "everyone's a winner, no one's a loser" balance. Even if one covenant ability sims BiS and top 0.1% world first raider uses this ability, it may not be BiS for you individually. Maybe your reaction time is different, maybe you have a preferred playstyle, maybe you have a different skillset, maybe you group/raid has different needs, and so on. What's the 'right' answer for 0.1% world first raider by no way means it's the 'right' answer for you and your situation. This gets into the topic of meta slavery, and how it's mostly the players enslaving themselves (with game design not always helping in some cases), but the main point is this: there are various solutions to any problem you encounter in WoW, and blindly following what is perceived as the meta will more often than not cause self-imposed issues or hinder your progression in the game. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, but one wheel does not work for all applications.