We will be covering some of the the most important covenant changes which lets you tell which ones are legit and which may just be some off meta flukes in patch 9.0.5!
THE SPECS AND THEIR SUGGESTED COVENANTS
A. ROGUES (Suggested covenant: Venthir)
They are probably the class that saw the biggest shift overall in their covenants. The days of Kirian are long behind and now both sub and assassination rogues have much stronger covenant options. The new covenant for sub rogues is Venthir which saw a huge buff in Flagellation in this current patch. With the removal of its energy cost and buff to overall damage, this ability works well into the damage kit of rogues. As its damage scales based on combo points spent, it synergizes shadow blades and marked for death both of which increase combo point generation.
Most rogues play RMP so having the additional burst from Venthir adds to you kill options. It is pretty clear now that after that patch, Venthir is the best covenant for sub rogues edging its spot over Night Fae. Both of these covenants are better than Necrolord and Kirian for the subtlety spec.
When it comes to assassination, the Necrolord covenant is now the choice for you with Fleshcraft and Serrated Bone Strike receiving buffs, it’s time for you to join the Maldraxxan clan in Shadowlands. The Fleshcraft buff affects all classes in the Necrolord covenant but it is a huge buff to rogue due to their vulnerability in arena. Overall, Necrolord seems to be a big deal to pass up on assassination rogues due to the needing efficient combo point builders to spread damage.
B. WARRIORS (Suggested covenant: Necrolord)
Arms Warriors used to bounce between covenants like Venthir and Kirian both of which offered fairly unique flavors and benefits. Venthir is considered the more aggressive and generally more flexible option where you sacrifice the utility of Kirian spear in order to get more uptime and consistent damage which is something that benefits warriors no matter what match ups they are playing.
In the patch 9.0.5, there was a major buff to Conqueror’s Banner Necrolord utility. Instead of providing crit, it now gives team wide mastery which is generally a more valuable stat for most classes. On top of that, its cooldown was reduced from 3 minutes to 2 minutes allowing it to line up better with other cooldowns. If that was not enough, it now prevents reducing of movement speed below 100% while it is active which allows that party member to 100% uptime on enemy targets.
C. HUNTERS (Suggested covenant: Venthir)
If you often switch covenant option especially when it comes to LFG, Venthir may be the best pick for you when it comes to hunters. BM Hunters are one of the strongest DPS specs in the game right now. Although slept on in the earlier days, they have crept on their way to the highest levels of plays. Their abilities despite being often do not actually hit that hard which means their pressure is relatively predictable and their kills can usually be mitigated by proper defensive cooldown rotation.
Venthir’s Flayed Shot comes in handy because this ability gives BM Hunters a ranged bleed that gives random kill shot proximity that gives them a hard hitting ability that they can weave into their high damage throughput. Killshot can crit well over 10K so it makes the BM hunter’s damage significantly more threatening.
OFF-META PICKS
Time to look at off-meta covenant option that would be really cool but not consisted enough to be raided play. First would be the Restoration Shaman who had a Fae covenant ability get buffed called Fae Transfusion. This is one of the unique spells in the game functioning as a channeled area of effect that splits its damage among all targets. This damage is then stored and can be used as an AOE heal.
On top of that, having Soul Shape as a Restoration Shaman is actually quite useful because it gives you additional mobility against all of the melee you encounter in 2v2. But if you are planning to play in 3’s, then you should probably stay in the Necrolord for the time being.
When it comes to Priests, Night Fae gives them Fae’s Guardian ability which summons different fairies depending on what spells are used. When used with Power World Shield on a friendly target, the target will get a 20% damage reduction and when used with Flash Heal or Shadow Mend, the target will get a 100% increase to their cooldown recovery rate.
WHAT ARE THE PREDICTIONS IN FUTURE COVENANT CHANGING?
For one thing, the covenant system is one of the most complicated parts of WoW PVP because not only do the covenant abilities change, but the way the game is played changes too. There were some of the fastest paced arena games ever at the start of the expansion but with the season well under way, we are seeing the game slow down on the pacing a bit.
In some classes, Necrolord is a important part of their defensive toolkit making Fleshcraft due to its absorb is strong but the proximity from Ooz’s Frictionless Coating might be even more valuable. The ability to shut down the kill attempts with an auto proximity shield prevents a lot of unnecessary losses. As the meta transitions to a slower paced defensive game, don’t be surprised if there are a lot of people switching to Necrolord.
It is also likely that we will see some additional tuning to covenant spells. Even in the near future!
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VIDEO CHAPTERS:
0:00 – Intro 1:16 – Rogues 4:20 – Warriors 6:47 – Hunters 9:32 – Off Meta Picks 12:42 – Predictions