Covenants in the Shadowlands Expansion
This page will contain all information that you require for the covenants in Shadowlands, with links to guides for each specific covenant and related systems. This page will be updated as more information becomes available throughout Shadowlands Beta and beyond.
Covenants in the Shadowlands
Each zone of the Shadowlands has a covenant that rules over it, with each having a different goal and presence in their land. While they are usually united in the defense of the Shadowlands, players will find that the Jailer and his allies have sown seeds of distrust and outright war between the Covenants, a recurring theme which will be present during the whole Shadowlands leveling experience.
The covenants of each zone are as follows:
The Kyrians of Bastion
The Kyrians are a noble, angelic people that ensure the peace and order of their lands in Bastion are not disturbed. They build constructs to both protect and enforce their laws, as well as being the source of the Spirit Healers on Azeroth.
You can read more about them on our dedicated Kyrian guide.
You can also explore the Kyrian Soulbinds and Conduits options for your class with our calculator:
The Necrolords of Maldraxxus
The Necrolords are made up of races and beings that many would consider evil on Azeroth, such as liches and warlords. They pride themselves on their strength and any who prove to be weak are experimented on relentlessly.
You can read more about them on our dedicated Necrolord guide.
You can also explore the Necrolord Soulbinds and Conduits options for your class with our calculator:
The Night Fae of Ardenweald
The Night Fae fulfill the same role as many of the nature spirits on Azeroth, acting as guardians of nature and ensuring the cycle of life and death goes on uninterrupted.
You can read more about them on our dedicated Night Fae guide.
You can also explore the Night Fae Soulbinds and Conduits options for your class with our calculator:
The Venthyr of Revendreth
The Venthyr act as punishers of the proud and arrogant souls that stand before them, these thralls forced to suffer their punishment, lest they wish to be sent to the Maw instead.
You can read more about them on our dedicated Venthyr guide.
You can also explore the Venthyr Soulbinds and Conduits options for your class with our calculator:
Rewards from Covenants
Players that join a covenant will receive a number of rewards for their loyalty: unique cosmetics, abilities and dungeon-specific buffs that can be unlocked by being a member of the covenant associated with the zone the dungeon is located in.
Renown
By doing your covenant campaign questline and two weekly quests, you can advance your renown with that particular covenant up to level 40. Each renown level unlocks unique mounts, battle pets, Soulbinds and other benefits. Find out the details on our specialized guide below.
Cosmetics
Players will receive a mount, pet, transmog set, all of which are in the style of their chosen covenant, as well as special cloak appearances that look like back attachments.
Below are the plate sets that players will receive from their chosen covenant.
In addition, as of Patch 9.1 players have access to four variants of a unique, Covenant-exclusive flying mount based on their choice.
You can learn more about these mounts as well as the others added in Patch 9.1 in our mount guides below.
New Abilities
Each covenant will provide players with one signature and one class-specific ability. Signature abilities are shared between members of the same covenant, while the class-specific abilities are different for each class.
You can read more about the abilities on our Covenant Abilities hub page.
Anima Conductor
The Anima Conductor is unlocked and upgraded through your Anima Reservoir and allows you to unlock extra daily activities in your Covenant's home zone, which reward Grateful Offering, a necessary currency to buy many of the rewards listed above.
While each zone has its own activities, the design logic behind each is very similar between Covenants, and as such we created a general guide to help you decide where to focus your daily efforts:
Covenant Dungeon Buffs
By becoming part of a covenant, you become able to grant your party unique buffs in Shadowlands dungeons. Learn more about these buffs on our detailed guide below!
Covenant Adventures
Adventures are the new mission table system in Shadowlands. Missions will no longer have up to 200% success, depending on how well your followers counter its hazards, but instead they play out like an auto-battler and follower positioning is almost as important as the choice of followers to use.
Because the core mechanics of this system work similarly for all Covenants, we have created a common guide for Adventures, which you can access in the link below.
Changing Covenants
Blizzard have stated that players will be able to change covenants, but at a heavy price when going back to a covenant the player has been part of before. What is required in order to change is not known yet, but it was compared to the cost of changing between Aldor and Scryer reputations in Burning Crusade, and will likely take a good amount of time and effort to accomplish. Check out detailed guide on covenant change below for updates as things are implemented in the beta.
Soulbinds
Soulbinds allow players to bind themselves to a soul of one of their covenant, granting benefits that are normally not available to the player.
These soulbinds can be upgraded through an ability tree which will be progressively unlocked as you gather renown with your Covenant. You will also be able to socket Conduits into certain slots of the ability tree.
These Conduits are not consumed on use and drop like any other items from Raids, PvP, Mythic+ and other end game pursuits, in addition to the normal loot tables. Their power is tied to their item level, which is in turn tied to the difficulty of the content where they dropped.
How to Choose the Best Covenant for Each Spec?
Choosing a Covenant for your spec might be difficult, given that many specs favor different Covenants for different types of content. To guide you through that process, we wrote Covenant guides for each spec, which you can find below.
Changelog
- 06 Dec. 2020: Added links to the Covenant Adventure and Anima Conductor guides.
- 21 Nov. 2020: Added multiple links to the Soulbind calculator.
- 19 Nov. 2020: Added a link to the Renown guide.
- 18 Aug. 2020: Updated with the most recent beta info on covenants.
- 16 May 2020: Updated to include the Covenant Abilities hub.
- 03 Nov. 2019: Page added.
This guide has been written by Seksi, member of Arctic Avengers and healing aficionado. You can find him answering questions and discussing Restoration Shaman gameplay on the Ancestral Guidance and Earthshrine Discords.
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