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:
For Brewmaster Monks, all covenants seem to be a viable option and it is hard to decide which one you should go for.
But most people are opting in for playing Kyrian as it gives some of the best defensive Soulbinds and Conduits, and "Phial of Serenity" being an extra excellent defensive cooldown
AoE / Mythic +:
For mythic + it is also no different, all covenants are close in power, we still highly recommend going Kyrian as the Soulbinds and Conduits are pretty strong as well as "Phial of Serenity" being a handy option especially on affixes like Necrotic.
To sum this up, for most of the PvE content, when it comes to raiding or doing mythic + runs you want to choose the Kyrian covenant.
Single Target/Raid:
Mistweavers have surely risen in popularity with the release of the patch 9.1.
And with the introduction of the new covenant specific legendries, Venthyr became the go to choice for Mistweaver Monks. Using the new covenant legendary "Sinister Teachings" made Venthyr Mistweaver Monks a very strong option when it comes to healing throughput
AoE / Mythic +:
There is not that much difference when it comes to mythic + Venthyr will still be your go to covenant due to the Soublinds and the covenant legendary being very strong.
Kyrian and Necrolord are also both viable option but we recommend sticking with Venthyr
PvP:
Mistweavers have received several changes to their PvP kit this patch which shined a bit more light on them to see some play.
You'll often end up going Necrolord for PvP as the Soulbinds and conduits grant you some extremely powerful defensive kit
For most PvE scenarios your go to covenant choice is going to be Venthyr, the covenant legendary is a bit too good for your healing output.
For PvP you want to opt in for Necrolords as its one of the currently strongest PvP covenants due to some of the Soublinds and Conduits being strong and the Fleshcraft shield being an extremely powerful defensive ability.
Single Target/Raid:
Windwalker Monks have received a several buffs to their kit with the release of patch 9.1 and they have seen some covenant changes as well, currently as it stands Necrolord is your best choice to play.
As Bonedust Brew the signature ability gives you an insane burst window makes it very strong on single target in raids, and an even more powerful tool on bosses that has add managements or cleaves.
AoE / Mythic +:
And for Mythic + / AoE Necrolords are by far the best option. The amount of AoE damage Windwalkers Monks can dish out with Dance of Chi-Ji proccs and Bonedust brew makes it the best option for mythic + and AoE content.
PvP :
For PvP its no different, Necrlords reign supreme as the best overall covenant for Windwalker Monks. From one of the best Soublind and Conduits defensively and offensively, to the amount of burst a Windwalker Monk can do in their Bonedust Brew window, makes Necrolord pretty much your best option for a covenant when it comes to PvP
Conclusion:
To quickly sum this up, for most aspect of the game for Windwalker Monks you're going to want to play Necrolord as it the strongest option at the moment for single target, AoE and PvP
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!
