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:
After sustaining quite a few nerfs going into 9.1 Fire Mage popularity dropped quite a bit.
And due to the Sanctum of Domination raid being heavily single target based, Venthyr Fire Mage has started shining, paired with the "Sun King's Blessing" legendary Venthyr fire mage quite excels on Single Target fights.
Whilst Night Fae is still a competitive option and it will always pull ahead on cleave and AoE fights it is still a very good covenant choice for a Fire Mage.
AoE / Mythic +:
Night Fae Fire Mage is still the best option wen it comes to mythic + and AoE fights. The Night Fae signature ability "Shifting Power" can dish a solid amount of AoE damage and the cooldown reduction on Combustion makes Night Fae the best option for Mythic + and AoE when it comes to playing Fire Mage.
PvP:
When it comes to PvP, Night Fae will be your best covenant option as the cooldown reduction on Combustion is your bread and butter for PvP scenarios.
To sum this up, due to the nature of the Sanctum of Domination raid being heavily on the single target side Venthyr will be your best choice for Single Target, as it is the current best single target option, but if your goal is to do more Mythic + or progress AoE based fights, we recommend going Night Fae.
And for PvP Night Fae is your best option as well.
Single Target/Raid:
As a Frost Mage most of your damage relies heavily on proccs and since Venthyr is the only covenant that helps with that it will be your go to covenant as well, it is the best covenant for Single Target damage and does well on AoE as well, Venthyr will be your go to covenant for most aspects of the game unless you want to go for a pure AoE build, then you should opt for Night Fae instead.
AoE / Mythic +:
Venthyr is still your best covenant overall when it comes to doing Mythic + and AoE content, although Night Fae can pull ahead on huge AoE fights that is rarely the case when you're doing mythic +
PvP:
When it comes to PvP, Venthyr will be your go to covenant of choice as their signature ability "Mirrors of Torment" provides with you some instant damage and some defensive uses
Venthyr will be your go to covenant of choice if you are planning to play Frost Mage, as Sanctum of Domination is heavily on the Single Target side.
Venthyr is still very good in mythic + situations and PvP scenarios as well and it should be your go to pick.
Single Target/Raid:
For single target or raid options you would want to go with the Kyrian covenant as it provides you with a very solid Single Target damage and is currently the most popular covenant choice for Arcane Mages
AoE / Mythic +:
And for Mythic + / AoE most Arcane Mages still opt in for the Kyrian covenant as its currently the most popular covenant choice option.
PvP :
Your covenant choice doesn't really change much when it comes to PvP you still want to go with Kyrian as the covenant ability "Radian Spark" provides you with a huge damage modifier which is Arcane Mage all about.
Conclusion:
To quickly sum this up, for most aspect of the game for Arcane Mage you're going to want to play Kyrian as it stands its currently the most popular choice for all Arcane Mages.
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!
