Hmm itâs seems mages still are viable and Ret pally got short end of the stick again.
Do read that sheet with a bit of caution:
https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/ioes4z/i_made_a_spreadsheet_with_covenant_rankings_for/g4hpotw/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
There may be good intention behind it, but it seems the research on which the ranking is based is rather haphazard.
This is made even worse when you add PVP, because the choice of the PVP covenant nearly always contradicts the âmaximum DPSâ mantra from PVE.
In general, I think they will try to adjust the numbers and they will perhaps have some success with it, the differences will decrease somewhat. But very shortly they will add some new items / make some benign changes to the spells and the differences will increase again and will quite possibly become greater than they are now. I am absolutely sure they will not be able to win here. There are just too many moving parts and they cannot react fast enough.
The only real solution is to decouple player abilities from covenants. But we will likely have to wait until 9.3 for thatâŚ
I am not sure the comment you linked is all that valuable - it says that the data is bad, but contains no details as to why. I am not saying the data is good, it might be bad, but the comment you linked doesnât shed any light onto how. (I am going to read the reddit thread now, I did see it before but it got a lot of new comments since that time, maybe thereâs something valuable there.)
Itâs not that bad for a ranking.
However for ret, he is quite biased. Necrolord is not as bas as this spreadsheet is showing, but itâs not super good neither.
This is again a Blizzardy fails. They try to implement stuff that was never in the game and they end up making a system that canât work.
I mean they already are. They gave Venthyr, considered the PvP covenant, some damage, and theyâre giving Night Fae, considered the M+ build, some nice round damage with one of the soulbinds where you get +10% to pretty much everything but no more to any of them - and although it lacks CC, it has a really good escape ability, which is critical for a good mage in PvP.
Necrolord seems to be getting the short end of the stick here. Personally OK with that but I know some people like Necrolord.
A questionâŚ
Would you mind someone in the same gear as you, as the same class doing 20% more damage than you just because of rng borrowed power?
Hey at least you donât main BM⌠nothing is great for us - same with Demo Lock.
Poor Mistweaver Monk⌠this system is trash. Make it a cosmetic choice only.
The best is they promised us big monk changes a few weeks ago and weâve gotten nothing but nerfs (granted, the BM nerfs were ok) since then. Meanwhile WW is still majorly bugged and no change in sight.
I think the only people still maining monk are those of us who love the gameplay so much we weather through all the bugs and nerfs and bottom of the list moments.
Itâs weird to make such a statement when most specs donât even have their damage modifier aura yet on beta.
People like to freelycraft but in reality we have no clue whatsoever which spec will be good and which one not in SL.
I think they can pull covenant abilities out of covenants choice and bring them as second legendary powerâŚbut no idea about conduits.
The vid I linked goes into it⌠starts around 10.22 mark.
Iâm not clicking that
Itâs pretty sad to see that we will have to suffer again just because of Blizzardâs ego. Itâs pretty mind numbing that they canât balance anything to save their lives yet they believed they can balance the most complex system theyâve ever introduced to WoW.
Well, whatever, canât wait for the next expansion after Shadowlands to be able to do my favourite covenant campaign without losing 30% dps in current content.
Welcome to the later half of the second decadeâs AAA game development. Where almost every AAA dev team is far too much of an âeccentric artistâ to admit their wrongs after the âuncultured massesâ call their âmasterpieceâ a wall where paint was randomly splashed at.
I really thought they would have watched and listened to players⌠from BFA and Legion.
I had high hopes for good changes, but it feels like there are more systems than ever before.
I think legendary items on top of all the other systems will only make it worse, maybe they hope someone getting a good one will offset the negative in other areas of gear/borrowed power?
Covenants should be about aesthetics, and if power has to come into it give all players the same set of choices.
Iâm guessing the expac after Shadowlands will be the one where they finally wake up.
One can hope.
It is the players that need start to waking up cause a significant number of people just accept getting shafted as a normal thing so they do not even perceive it. Some even defend it. (stockholm syndrome?)
I was going to blow ÂŁ500 on a new card and my copies of Shadowlands, but itâs not enough for it to just look pretty for me. I can still enjoy previous content such as collections and so on.
I will go back to waiting for it to be in the sale. Or even grind the gold and buy that way.
I think with all the nerfing, patching and rebalancing - plus the catchup systems they always put in place, I am better off just playing the expansion nearer to the end of itâs time.
The SL beta runs fine on my 1050 ti here.
And yes, welcome to the second half of the lifetime of the expansion club. The first year is an extended open beta.