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. The Night Fae signature ability “Ancient Aftershock” is also a really strong tool for AoE which makes it a more than a viable choice for Mythic + as well.
AoE / Mythic +:
Kyrian can be very competitive on AoE with the new Kyrian “Elysian Might” legendary. Kyrian also has potential to be the new go to M+ Covenant due to the Mikanikos soulbind having a new trait (Effusive Anima Accelerator) which will reduce the CD of Spear and cause it to line up with Warbreaker
PvP:
Currently for PvP almost all the Arms warriors covenants are a viable option and you should pick which one you prefer, I will rank them in terms of what we think is strongest in current meta and it should be used as a soft guideline
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 Arms Warrior, as it is the current best single target option and a very competitive AoE option as well.
Single Target/Raid:
Due to the Sanctum of Domination raid being heavily single target based, Venthyr will be the easy choice for Fury Warriors when it comes to raiding.
Venthyr has one of the best single target damage for Fury Warriors in general and is great for progression as it offers high single target burst damage when paired with an early bloodlust, or an amazing execute phase when the boss is below 35% HP.
AoE / Mythic +:
Mythic+ is essentially the opposite of raiding. Night Fae and Kyrian both shine in multitarget situations.
Night Fae currently is the go-to choice when it comes to Mythic + / AoE. But Kyrian paired with the new covenant specific legendary “Elysian Might” is also another great option.
PvP:
Even with the recent PvP talent changes to Fury Warriors, they still don’t see much competitive play in arenas and it is always better to just play Arms when it comes to competitive PvP scenarios.
But in case you’re a fury player and you want to have some fun in PvP Night Fae should be your go to as the burst options with Ancient Aftershock can be insane.
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 if you want to get into Fury Warrior, as it is the current best single target option.
However if you’re planning to do more Mythic + content then we recommend going into Night Fae or Kyrian as follow up option.
Due to the lack of viability of Protection Warriors in the current meta they do not see much use in any raiding or mythic + environment.
Single Target/Raid:
For single target or raid options you would want to opt into the Night Fae covenant as it has the best utility and single target damage for raid encounters.
AoE / Mythic +:
And for Mythic + / AoE Kyrian will be your go to choice, paired with the covenant legendary “Elysian Might” Spear of Bastion is a great tool for tanks, as well as “Phial of Serenity” from the Kyrian steward being one of the strongest utility items makes Kyrian the best option for Protection Warriors.
Conclusion:
To quickly sum this up, sadly Protection Warriors don’t see that much play but for raiding we recommend the Night Fae covenant and for Mythic + you should go with Kyrian.
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!
