A core choice at the start of your journey in the Shadowlands will have you decide where your allegiance lies; would you rather support the Kyrian of Bastion, the Necrolords of Maldraxxus, the Night Fae of Ardenweald, or the Venthyr of Revendreth?
Choosing a covenant is the most important decision your character will make in Shadowlands, as the covenant abilities and Soulbinds will significantly impact your spec's gameplay and performance. Through this choice, your rotation changes, certain bonuses appear in dungeons for your entire group, and you are able to follow the story in different paths.
So without any further ado let's get right into it;
Single Target/Raid:
Balance Druid has seen some quite changes going into 9.1 shifting the covenant of choice from Night Fae to Venthyr.
Currently Venthyr is the best and most popular covenant choice for Balance Druids in 9.1 and with the introduction of covenant specific legendries Venthyr has received a significant damage increase and is now the best covenant choice.
Although Night Fae is still a really powerful covenant choice for Single Target and damage in general and is a much simpler to play than Venhyr, Venthyr is just a stronger option.
AoE / Mythic +:
Same goes for Mythic + and AoE, Venthyr is the stronger option and should be picked if you are trying to min max your character. With the new covenant legendary Venthyr Balance Druids have a very strong burst window and can dish out incredible amount of damage on both AoE and Single Target scenarios.
PvP:
Things are a bit different when it comes to Balance Druid PvP and most covenants apart from Venthyr can be viable in PvP scenarios. In most PvP scenarios you want to go with the Necrolord as the pressure damage is very high as well as you get extra tankiness from Fleshcraft.
Kyrian and Night Fae are good options as well offering incredible burst which can catch a lot of players off guard.
To sum this up, for most of the PvE content, Venthyr is the better option but a bit more complex to master, Night Fae is the second option and is completely viable. For PvP Necrolord or Kyrian both work with Necrolord being the more popular covenant amongst higher ranked players.
Single Target/Raid:
For Guardian all the covenants have seen play with Night Fae being the more popular and versatile covenant choice.
Night Fae's versatility comes from their signature ability Convoke the Spirits which can be used in many different ways, from getting extra damage in Moonkin form to extra healing if cast from Human form.
AoE / Mythic +:
Same goes for Mythic + scenarios Night Fae stays as the more popular and versatile option due to Convoke the Spirit being a very strong cooldown and can be used in many different scenarios from doing some extra burst and damage to helping with the healing on your group.
PvP:
For PvP it stays the same Night Fae is the best choice for Guardian Druid, the covenant signature ability Soulshape offers a really good mobility for Guardian Druid making them one of the fastest flag carriers in the game
For every aspect of the game your go to covenant choice is going to be Night Fae as it offers a lot more versatility and depth to Guardian Druid's game play and should be your go to choice for all the aspects of the game
Single Target/Raid:
Night Fae is the go to covenant choice for every Feral Druid as the burst damage provided from Convoke the Spirit is great for Feral Druids as well as having Soulshape is a very handy tool in any raiding environment.
AoE / Mythic +:
Nothing changes when it comes to Mythic + or AoE content, Night Fae is still the go to covenant for Feral Druids
PvP :
For PvP its an even split between Necrolord and Night Fae, both are equally viable and see some play at competitive levels. Although Necrolord can have just a slight edge due to having Fleshcraft in this bursty meta can make a huge difference.
Whilst Necrolord Feral damage is by no mean bad, with the introduction of covenant specific legendries Night Fae Feral Druids get their hands on a 1 minute cooldown Convoke the Spirits giving them an insane burst every 1 minute.
Conclusion:
To quickly sum this up, for most aspect of the game Night Fae will be your go to covenant choice playing Feral Druid with the exception of PvP where you would want to go Necrolord.
Single Target/Raid:
Night Fae is the go to covenant choice for Restoration Druids when it comes to raiding as it offers a versatility with Convoke the Spirits if you want a healing cooldown or a big damage window combining Convoke the Spirits with Heart of the Wild, having access to Soulshape is also very handy in most raid environments.
AoE / Mythic +:
For Mythic + content both Night Fae and Kyrian are both viable option with Night Fae being slightly more popular due to the versatility of Convoke the Spirits which can either be used as a healing cooldown or as damaging cooldown.
PvP :
PvP is a bit different as you want to go with the Necrolord covenant providing you with the Fleshcraft shield which is a huge defensive ability making you a lot less vulnerable to swaps, Although Night Fae is not a bad option either, we recommend Necrlord if you want to climb the PvP ladder.
Conclusion:
To quickly sum this up, for most aspect of the game Night Fae will be your go to covenant choice playing Restoration Druid with the exception of PvP where you would want to go Necrolord.
Reminder:
Covenants have a major impact on the game, your playstyle, rotation and even character aesthetics. You should consider all your options before committing to one covenant.
But also remember you can switch between covenants so if you would like to change between them you can!
As of current there is a time gate on how you can switch covenants but with the release of patch 9.1.5 it will be much easier
Remember! You will lose access to all your previous Covenant’s abilities, transmogs, and soulbinds
It is a bit tricker to rejoin a covenant you have already left and it will require a bit more work. In this case, you will need to complete two consecutive weekly quests before you will be allowed to rejoin.
The leader will then give you a weekly quest to start the process of rejoining the Covenant by completing quests in the covenant zone or dungeons and you will see the progress bar fill up as you finish various tasks.
Once you finished the quest and the Weekly Reset has happened you will be given yet another quest, the objective of the quest is pretty much the same then you will be able to rejoin the covenant.
In total it takes about one weekly reset to rejoin a covenant you previously left, so make wise choices!
