Originally Posted by
Rageonit
You never play the game how you like to play it, every game has a set of rules that are forced upon you. Just because you enjoyed some of the rules as they were up till now, doesn't mean you could choose the way you play the game.
Why do raids have a week long lockout? Because that's a rule the designers force upon you.
Why does pet battle rez have a cooldown? Because that's a rule forced upon you.
Why can't I have 7 talent points and pick any talents I enjoy, and instead I have to pick one talent out of each row? Because that's a rule forced upon you.
Why can't I freely swap covenant abilities? Because that's a rule forced upon you. Just like any other rule in the game.
So I want to be able to pick any talents I want, without the restriction of picking only one talent out of each row. Just give me a fixed pool of talent points and allow me to do anything I want with them. Should the designers change the rules just because that's how I choose to play? It would allow people to min-max even more, so it has to be good for the game, right? Blizzard, give us more flexibility with talent choices! Pull the ripcord already, everyone knows you can't balance shit!
Yet, people learnt to live with the fact that you can choose only one talent out of each row.
As far as Covenants go, the game already has different set of abilities that follow different rules. Class abilities follow different rules than talent abilities, which follow different rules than racial abilities, which follow different rules than, for example, essence abilities in BfA. Not much as changed in terms of existing rules, and Covenant abilities are a new set of abilities that follow new set of rules. That's all.
EDIT: BTW, I find the recent Preach video - where he complains the designers tell him how to play the game - quite amusing. A big boy like him should know that it's true in terms of any facet of the game. You raid how the designers tell you to, you do pet battles how the designers tell you to, you PvP how the designers tell you to. The only difference is that this time around, he doesn't enjoy the rules. The fact that you can min-max as much as you can in WoW, is also because the designers allow you to. It was theirs choice, not Preach's. Preach can only do as much as play within the set of rules forced upon him by the game, and make use of those rules to his advantage.