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:
Due to the Sanctum of Domination raid being heavily single target based, Night Fae will be the best option for the raid when it comes to single target.
Having Soulshape blink is also an amazing tool and its very helpful on boss fights like Painsmith. And not to mention the later bosses when you add the AoE, making Korayn first strike and Fae Transfusion a really powerful tool
AoE / Mythic +:
In AoE it is also no different, Night Fae pulls far ahead. The utility and heals you get from Fae Transfusion is very strong on higher keys, and the AoE damage boost you get from the Soulbind Korayn makes shamans really shine on AoE situations
PvP:
Night Fae is an okay option for Elemental Shaman PvP however you'd want to opt into Necrolord when it comes to PvP. The amount of burst you can do with Primordial Wave, and the tankiness provided by the Necrolord Soulbinds and Fleshcraft makes Necrolord by far the best PvP covenant for Elemental Shaman
To sum this up, due to the nature of the Sanctum of Domination raid being heavily on the single target side as well as some of the end bosses require a good amount of cleave will make Night Fae your go to covenant choice for this tier when you play Elemental Shaman.
Single Target/Raid:
Due to the Sanctum of Domination raid being heavily single target based, and once again Night Fae will be our go to covenant when playing Enhancement Shaman
Due to how strong the Soulbinds are, combined with Fae Transfusion being a powerful single target tool that also works on the later cleave fights.
Having Soulshape is also very helpful for a lot of fights that require a lot of movement.
AoE / Mythic +:
Even on AoE scenarios due to the Night Fae Soulbind Korayn's influence on AoE fights, Night Fae will be our go to covenant choice for Mythic + and AoE Fights
PvP:
With Enhancement Shaman PvP its a bit different, again Night Fae is by no means a bad choice for PvP, but Venthyr here pulls quite a head.
With the amount of instant burst you can do with Chain Harvest and it being an instant cast spell for Enhancement Shamans, puts Enhancement shamans as one of the scariest burst classes in the game right now
To sum this up, due to the nature of the Sanctum of Domination raid being heavily on the single target side Night Fae will be your best choice if you want to get into Enhancement Shaman, as it is the current best single target option and AoE option out there.
And in terms of PvP, Venthyr will be your best covenant, although Night Fae and Necrolord are not a bad second choice.
Single Target/Raid:
When it comes to Restoration Shamans it almost seems like all covenants are somewhat viable.
With most people leaning towards Necrolord for pure healing output for raids and progression.
Venthyr, Night Fae and Kyrian are all viable options as well.
AoE / Mythic +:
And for Mythic + / AoE and with the new covenant legendries most Resto Shamans are opting in for Kyrian, for the shear amount of Dps Vesper Totem can dish out makes it one of the best covenants for AoE and Mythic +.
Again it seems like all covenants are somewhat viable but the popularity contest is easily won by the Kyrians.
To quickly sum this up, Kyrian is the best covenant for Restoration Shamans when it comes to Mythic +
With the Vesper Totem legendary the amount of damage a restoration shaman can do is very appealing making it the go to covenant for Mythic + content
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!
