What covenant did you pick and the reason.

[Xenogeist]

I'm really struggling to make a decision for my enhancement shaman.
Maldraxxus has maybe the worst primary ability but the best secondary ability with bone shield and good story.
Night Fae has best looking gear, worst story, average primary ability, useless secondary.
Venthyr has best combat ability, ugly gear, secondary is useless but could be fun, haven't finished the story yet.

Deciding is hard.

[Rekoms]

I went Necrolord for my resto shaman. I really like the interaction between primordial wave and the legendary tidal core. I think it fills that non-stacked aoe healing void that shamans struggle with, and it feels great. Venthyr was a close second for me, it's extremely straight forward and easy to get used to pressing. If I was a more serious player in regard to mythic+, I probably would have gone with Venthyr, but as I am just a casual raider, Necrolord seemed great for me. Aesthetically Venthyr is amazing, so it was hard to pass it up

[7empest]

Venthyr

Main ability: Harvest is fun, sounds/looks cool, every time it gets off cooldown I get excited to press it because it does something meaningful (2020 Spell graphic which offsets the lightning bolt texture which is an embarrassment in comparison / dated chain lightning).

General ability: Some have said it's not that great, really? With Nadja soulbind just port into a pack of casting uninterruptable mobs and disorient them. Feels good again, only venthyr mains can do this sort of cheese with their support skill.

Armor: Again I read some dislike it. I play a Zandalari Troll male so everything looks better by default. The bat/gargoyle armor is lit. Not everyones cup of tea, but strikes me just right. All covs are blessed with great looking mail armor though (incl. Torghast and Nathria sets).

Story/vibe: Feels like the true endgame covenant, the guys you meet last, with the most dire situation at hand (you literally end the campaign with them, and they ready you for the raid to come). Feels cohesive from a narrative standpoint. Plus they have a great hall with little running from A to B as opposed to Necrolord for example.


Edit: Though I have to admit that passing up on Primordial and Transfusion was a tough call. They're fun in their own right. And the Fae set is gorgeous.

[Shaldy]

I play ele and resto offspec and I mostly Raid (and weekly M+ on top), I chose Necrolord.

The shield is somewhat lackluster (I don't foresee too many chances to use it in raid encounters) but Primordial Wave is awesome. It's also the one ability that will scale really well with legendaries like Skybreaker's Fiery Demise and Primal Tide Core, which are alrealy really powerful on their own, but Wave makes setup much easier and less painful (#removeflameshockCD).

Also lavabursting into 4 targets makes us even more powerful in funnel/spread AOE type of encounters and just feels fun.
For Resto, having another riptide lets you set up the Big Brazilian Necrowave, which is going to be especially useful in M+ and, again, just feels really good.

I've tested the other Covenants, Kyrian totem felt frustrating to use if the tank kites, Chain Harvest - really cool in dungeons, but lacklaster for single target, Night Fae goes the other way around (but the Soulshape is OP, just for that NF would be my second choice).

Really happy with my choice, even though I don't care much about Maldraxxus lore.

[DeWumpus]

So I play Enh main swapping to Resto for group content.

From all the beta theorycrafting and sites like wowhead/icy-veins, recommended wa to go Necrolord/Venthyr depending on which spec I wanted to optimize. Thing is neither of the two covenants really appealed to me aesthetic wise (I was done with the whole plaguelands aesthetic and the edgy vampire look wasn't my thing).

So my options were either Bastion or Night Fae. Playing through the questline and the Bastion Lore made me nope out of that covenant pretty fast. Only option left now is Night Fae. But don't regret it one bit. Amazing aesthetics and Soulshape is awesome though not a big fan of cast time on Fae Transfusion as Enh.

[Tziva]

I went Venthyr, mainspec resto. I do a lot of M+ and the ability seemed better than Necro for contributing not just healing but also DPS when I need to. Neither are very shamany but I like the aesthetic of Venthyr much more than Necro. I also won't complain that it's a pretty brainless ability to use and seems okay for my offspec (enh) too.

Kyrian and Night Fae didn't seem as appealing in terms of abilities, and I'm already those covenants on alts anyway.

[Nivena]

I chose Night Fae for my elemental as the theme fits the best. I absolutely love the aesthetics of Ardenweald and Soulshape is great. I haven't done much raiding yet but the blink could be really helpful in boss fights.

[Sagnar]

Arms warrior - Venthyr. Didn't feel I even had a choice.

[Ludvig]

first picked venthyr for playing enhancement but then I realized this expansion is extremely unfriendly for melee coupled with enhancement's insane amount of RNG and switched to elemental. then i changed to necrolord because it's better for the spec

[Ahandii89]

Necrolord, since i mainly play resto, with ele offspec. Thought about going venthyr tho, since i feel like it works well for all 3 specs.

[ma3xDFSblizz]

It was tough choice!

Finished main story as Venthyr and continued as Elemental there. People from my guild pushed me for higher DPS as Necrolord so I switched. Didn't like the play style of appying that many Flame Shocks , constantly, to gain not that much damage (personal opinion) on bursts. Ended of completely reswitching to my only loved build - Restoration. Now I am spamming Primordial Waves here and there, literally everywhere. The only problem I see is that I strugle to keep players alive in case someone is making mistakes (M+ is very punishing these days). If the group starts dying of missed interupts or stepping on no-foot-spots, my playstyle can't save them all (ended playing in early Cataclysm, and returned for this expansion).

I voted Venthyrs, because of the bad ass armor look, like in Vampyre Hunter animation, because of the Chain Harvest that I see what it does a few weeks after the expansion hits the markets. And yes, I am reswitching back to them as Restoration Shaman with off-spec Enhancement. Just didn't like Necrolords lands while I was leveling, neither find real application of the flesh crafting abilities or the stiching table (clothers mind love to have some one tanking or healing them, I have my Earth Elemental).

The soulbinds might not be that good compared to the Necrolords' stats but there's still more to come out of the 9/9 Chapter completion. After all it does not hurt to switch over after one more week of sleepless tea parties and harvesting

[ro9ue]

Went Necrolord but I don't feel totally happy about it.

I really, really like the Venthyr ability for Enhance, but I hate the lore and aesthetic for my shaman. Necrolord's ability is decent for Ele and resto, and since my shaman is an Orc, he felt at home more in Maldraxxus.

Honestly, I think they needed more Bwonsamdi/troll stuff in Ardenweald or something... Shaman doesn't have a solid fit with any covenant thematically for me. There's really no other class I can think of that doesn't have at least one covenant that fits thematically well.

[Annedrooo]

I picked Venthyr for my warlock mostly for cool vampire aesthetics. I kinda figured the abilities might not be the best but impending catastrophe means I don't have to keep my curses on my bars.

[Kalisandra]

For my Shaman, I went Venthyr. An Ele/Resto Orc. Sure Maldraxxus is all orcy, and the Nercolord abilities are supposed to be better, but I found it annoying to set up as Elemental (it'd be good in a raid where there's time to multi-dot, etc., but raiding is not my primary focus these days). Also, I hate the Maldraxxus aesthetic and think that they're a bunch of tryhards. The Kyrian actually feel like they have a better handle on what fighting a war is about, while the Maldraxxi just like running round killing stuff.

The Kyrian totem was too fiddly in play, and the Night Fae one required too much time to use. Also, the Venthyr zone has a nice atmosphere, even though it's not shamanic.

In play I find I like the Venthyr spell a lot. A nice way of throwing out some damage while healing or some decent group healing. The teleport is no substitute for Gust of Wind (but nor is the Fae blink either, really), but it's got its own uses.

I'd happily discard them all for Gust of Wind, though.

For my Pally, I went Kyrian because Divine Toll works well for all specs and is low-maintenance. That it's one of the best for non-raid content is a happy bonus.

[throcha]

I mainly play as Ele, but like to play as Resto sometimes so I picked Necro because I really enjoy seeing all those meatballs flying all over the place when you manage to set it up lol

[Management]

I was debating whether I should go Venthyr or Night Fae. Venthyr seems like the obvious choice as an enhancement shaman. But I went with Night Fae because I really like the armor set. Fae Transfusion is also quite fun, but I would prefer if either A: the healing portion of the ability didn't trigger gcd or B: it did damage instead of healing. I don't like wasting gcd's on group healing when I'm trying to do damage and I would much prefer doing damage instead of healing. It would also be nice if I could move while channeling since I'm a melee spec and don't very much enjoy having to stand still. Soulshape is also very nice. Having a blink to get out of sticky situations is always a good thing.

[Hellfury]

Kyrian at first, becuase I liked the idea of having more totems and AOE was always a niche for Elemental in M+

With us being surprisingly "decent" at Single target, switched to Necrolord wich has superior spell and still good for cleaving.

Lore wise hate all factions, there are no factions that represent Shamans well, Kyrians are too goody-shoes, Necrolords are too edgy, Fae are too purple/fairy, Venthyr are too emo.
Thats my view, I would had liked a 5th faction that represented the earth and its elements but I guess it didn't had a place in shadow-lands