Hello fellow warriors. I decided to level this warrior to tank, I used to play Prot Warrior in PvP in WotLK, it was very fun, but I never really tanked instances with it, but decided to give it a try now.
However, I am torn between 2 covenants, Necrolords and Kyrian. I’m planning on tanking mostly mythics, and might give it a go at some BGs once in a while.
In Necro I like both Fleshcraft and Conqueror’s Banner, seems like both abilities are good either for PvE and PvP if I feel like doing some BGs, specially in capture the flag BGs, the only downside I see to Banner is that it increases Mastery and if I am not mistaken that’s our 3rd stat in priority, so not really the most optimal stat choice.
As for Kyrian, I’m not a fan of Steward but I also do like Spear of Bastion, seems good also for both scenarios (PvE and PvP).
So, all things considered, which Covenant would you guys recommend? I am more inclined to Necro, but Kyrian seems like a better choice, at least according to my friend.
Banner is not so much for you as it is for youre group. They can benefit alot from it. As prot i really like Kyrian, the Spears generate rage, alot of damage and root mobs in place. The Steward giver you a Great potion that dispells bleeds etc and works Great at necrotic weeks
Thank you for your input. I’ll think about it better once I get to 48, I’d prefer to go Necro, but if Kyrian is better then I guess that will have to do.
Necro is only good in pre-made groups, both pvp and pve otherwise it will often be wasted. It offers the least personal DPS increase of the 3 so you may have issues holding aggro.
Kyrian on the other hand is good for both pugs and pre-mades. Middle of the pack in terms of dps and best utility. Also Kyrian isn’t very popular but it’s very useful in SoA and NW.
NF is another alternative offering most DPS but behind Kyrian in utility. NF is the most popular covenant so you won’t get bonus points just for being NF. However NF is a best for Fury in m+ in case you want to try dpsing albeit Kyrian is very close.
Overall if all you want is KSM, pick whichever you want. If you want to push +20’s, the Kyrian is the obvious choice.
I played Kyrian 'til 9.0.5 came out and swapped to necro and came back to Kyrian 5 days ago. I can tell you this :
Before talking about what Necro and Kyrian bring to the table ask you this :
If you’re a mythic + player. What convenant do you need the most when you look for a key and are they more Kyrian than Necro or is it the opposite ?
Are you gonna play keys alone using LFG system or are you gonna play keys with a premade that you know already ?
After you answered those questions here’s what you can do :
If you think as a group :
Necrolord deal more dmg than Kyrian overall through an entire dunjeon that you played with a pre-made group that you know very well which includes at the very least a Boomkin and/or unholy DK / Affliction lock / any class that rely on high mastery.
If you think as a solo player :
Necrolord deal less dmg than Kyrian overall because your personal overall dmg will be around 0.5k under a Kyrian prot warrior.
As a conclusion :
Kyrian deals more dmg, IF and only IF you don’t take into account the dps gain that you gave to your 2 allies.
In raid :
Necrolord is better than kyrian 100% no doubt if you use your banner well for your DK, and dont waste it on your rogue. (little bonus if you use your fleshcraft during last stand so you can get more HP on that bubble)
In mythic + :
Kyrian is better than Necrolord every single time you end up playing in a key where you don’t have your premade with you.
Now if you wanna be a support player and stick to necro I’d tell you this :
Ask your premade bud who need the necrolord banner to track it via exorcus raid tool and tell him to call out banner whenever he wants it (which is when he’ll be using CD on a specific pack or a boss)
The only reason I went back to Kyrian is because there are no Kyrian at all except for tanks, dps monk and the only range dps you’ll find on Kyrian role is hunter.
The reason why I’m not mentionning healer as Kyrian is because they usually fit the Venthyr role (R Sham and H pal) which is super rare already.
Thank you very much for the whole breakdown. Well, actually the original idea of making this tank was to mostly play with my friends, to be the partie’s tank, one of my best buddies is a healer, and the other is a main Hunter (like me) and this one really prefers playing DPS over anything else, so I decided to be the tank.
With that said, Necro seems like the best choice then.
To play by myself I will play with my Hunter anyway, I don’t really like much o tanking in pugs, kinda stressing tbh, with DPS’s pulling before I aggro, or messing up the aggro somehow, idk…
Necrolord, just use banner when your group is using CD’s you can track it with
Exorsus
OmniCD
You dont need a premade to make good use of banner!
Just use your brain, pull big when your group has CD’s, and pop banner.
The shield and the other covenant soulbinds are also amazing.
I’m still gearing my warrior and it feels AWESOME popping banner for the group!
I’m Night Fae - former Prot main who still dabbles with it but converted to DPS. The soulbinds, conduits and ability (aftershock) are useful across the board regardless of spec (including arms, which is what I’m mostly playing these days despite everyone’s lower opinion of it).
As an actual healer main, I have a Prot War friend who went Necrolord for versatility stacking purposes. Tanks 18-19’s perfectly fine, though the majority will either go NF (popular + damage), or Kyrian (stability) most of the time.
I went Venthyr on my Prot Paladin for PvP purposes but I don’t see a huge reason to do so for a Prot Warrior specifically.
