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Shadowlands - Covenant Class and Signature Abilities Preview
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
Four ruling powers control the Shadowlands, each of which is in desperate need of aid from the heroes of Azeroth. In exchange for your help, the Covenants are willing to share a piece of their power and access to the rewards and other blessings, boons, or temptations they have to offer.
As you level up on your initial journey through each of their domains, you’ll get to experience the abilities they have to offer firsthand—before you ultimately choose the Covenant you wish to dedicate yourself to.
When the time comes to ally with one of these four, you’ll want to carefully consider the abilities the Covenant will provide you. Each provides two abilities tailored to the theme of the Covenant. The first of these is the Covenant’s signature ability, which is available to all Covenant members regardless of class, race, or specialization. This ability helps you explore and engage with the world in new ways, and gives you a unique tool to help solve the problems you encounter in the Shadowlands. The second of these abilities is specific to your class, and gives you a new spell or power to use in combat.
To give you an idea of what to expect, we’ve put together a list with the Covenant signature abilities and class abilities. Please keep in mind that these are a work in progress and may have additional changes during the course of development and testing, so all abilities shown here are subject to change.
Covenant Signature Abilities
Covenant - Kyrian
Signature Ability - Summon Steward
Covenant - Venthyr
Signature Ability - Door of Shadows
Covenant - Necrolord
Signature Ability - Fleshcraft
Covenant - Night Fae
Signature Ability - Soulshape
Aligning with a specific Covenant provides access to class abilities that provide additional combat-oriented gameplay options that are tailored to the theme of that Covenant. Every Covenant offers an ability for each class, but note that some Covenant class abilities are still in development and are not currently represented in the chart.
Bastion Covenant abilities shown for: Priest and Warrior.
Covenant Class Abilities
Death Knight
Demon Hunter
Druid
Hunter
Mage
Monk
Paladin
Priest
Rogue
Shaman
Warlock
Warrior
We look forward to sharing more information as development continues, and we hope this preview helps you find the Covenant that’s right for you.
Which Covenant is your current choice? Join the discussion on the forums.
Continue reading...
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
Four ruling powers control the Shadowlands, each of which is in desperate need of aid from the heroes of Azeroth. In exchange for your help, the Covenants are willing to share a piece of their power and access to the rewards and other blessings, boons, or temptations they have to offer.
As you level up on your initial journey through each of their domains, you’ll get to experience the abilities they have to offer firsthand—before you ultimately choose the Covenant you wish to dedicate yourself to.
- Kyrians: The denizens of Bastion, these angelic beings embrace humility and service to their order.
- Necrolords: Comprised of liches, warlords, and spies, the Necrolord Covenant calls Maldraxxus home. They make up the army that defends the Shadowlands.
- Night Fae: Guardians of nature, the Night Fae inhabit Ardenweald and shepherd beings through the cycle of life and death. It was through their aid that the demigod Cenarius was able to make his return to Azeroth during the events of the Cataclysm.
- Venthyr: Making their home in Revendreth, the vampiric Venthyr are the punishers of the unworthy, seeking to rehabilitate the sinful souls sent to them by the Arbiter.
When the time comes to ally with one of these four, you’ll want to carefully consider the abilities the Covenant will provide you. Each provides two abilities tailored to the theme of the Covenant. The first of these is the Covenant’s signature ability, which is available to all Covenant members regardless of class, race, or specialization. This ability helps you explore and engage with the world in new ways, and gives you a unique tool to help solve the problems you encounter in the Shadowlands. The second of these abilities is specific to your class, and gives you a new spell or power to use in combat.
To give you an idea of what to expect, we’ve put together a list with the Covenant signature abilities and class abilities. Please keep in mind that these are a work in progress and may have additional changes during the course of development and testing, so all abilities shown here are subject to change.
Covenant Signature Abilities
Covenant - Kyrian
Signature Ability - Summon Steward
- Call your steward to bring you a Phial of Serenity that can be consumed to restore some of your health and remove all Curse, Disease, Poison, and Bleed Effects.
- Your Steward additionally offers access to a selection of useful amenities, each once per day.
Covenant - Venthyr
Signature Ability - Door of Shadows
- Wend through the shadows, appearing at the targeted location.
Covenant - Necrolord
Signature Ability - Fleshcraft
- Form a shield of flesh and bone that prevents damage equal to a portion of your maximum health. Standing near the corpse of a defeated enemy when the ability is cast will create a larger shield.
Covenant - Night Fae
Signature Ability - Soulshape
- Turn into a Vulpin, increasing movement speed. You may reactivate Soulshape to teleport a short distance forward.
- Additional cosmetic forms can be earned and collected through a variety of gameplay.
- While out in the world, this effect has a short duration before it wears off, but lasts indefinitely while in a rest area.
Aligning with a specific Covenant provides access to class abilities that provide additional combat-oriented gameplay options that are tailored to the theme of that Covenant. Every Covenant offers an ability for each class, but note that some Covenant class abilities are still in development and are not currently represented in the chart.
Bastion Covenant abilities shown for: Priest and Warrior.
Covenant Class Abilities
- Shackle the Unworthy (Kyrian) - Admonish your target for their past transgressions, reducing the damage they deal to you and dealing Arcane damage over time. Shackle the Unworthy's cooldown is reduced when you damage the affected enemy with a Rune-spending attack.
- Swarming Mist (Venthyr) - A heavy mist surrounds you, increasing your chance to dodge. Deals Shadow damage over time to enemies within range. Every time it deals damage you gain additional Runic Power, up to a maximum amount.
- Abomination Limb (Necrolord) - Sprout an additional limb for a limited time, dealing Shadow damage to nearby enemies. If an enemy is farther away from you, they are pulled to your location.
- Death’s Due - (Replaces Death and Decay). Corrupts the targeted ground, causing Shadow damage over a duration of time to targets within the area. Affected enemies deal reduced damage to you (up to a maximum amount) and their power is transferred to you as an equal amount of Strength. While you remain within the area, your Necrotic Strike and Heart Strike will hit additional targets. Scourge Strike and Clawing Shadows will hit all enemies near the target.
- Elysian Decree (Kyrian) - Carve runes into the ground in front of you, which detonate to deal Arcane damage and shatter Lesser Soul Fragments from enemies.
- Sinful Brand (Venthyr) - Brand an enemy with the mark of the Venthyr, reducing their melee and casting speeds and inflicting Shadow damage over time. Activating Metamorphosis applies Sinful Brand to all nearby enemies.
- Necrolord - Work in Progress
- The Hunt (Night Fae) - Charge to an enemy, inflicting Nature damage and rooting them. The target is marked for a period of time, increasing your Fury from Demon's Bite and Shear against them. You may reactivate The Hunt every 30 seconds to teleport behind the marked target and ignoring line of sight.
- Kindred Spirits (Kyrian) - Form a bond with an ally. On a cooldown, you may empower the bond for a period of time, granting you an effect based on your partner’s role, and granting them an effect based on your role.
- Ravenous Frenzy (Venthyr) - For a period of time, Druid spells you cast increase your damage, healing, and haste by a percentage, stacking. If you spend a period of time idle, the Frenzy overcomes you, consuming a percentage of your health per stack, stunning you, and then ending.
- Adaptive Swarm (Necrolord) - Command a swarm that heals or deals Shadow damage to a target and increases the effectiveness of your periodic effects on them. Upon expiration, travels to a new target within range, alternating between friend and foe up to a set number of times.
- Convoke the Spirits (Night Fae) - Call upon the Night Fae for an eruption of energy, channeling a rapid flurry of 16 Druid spells and abilities over 4 seconds. You will cast Moonfire, Wrath, Regrowth, Rejuvenation, Thrash, Rake, Shred, and Ironfur on appropriate nearby targets, favoring your current specialization.
- Resonating Arrow (Kyrian) - Fire a resonating arrow to the target location and fill the area with echoing anima. The effect causes your attacks to ignore line of sight to enemies in the area, and you have an increased critical strike chance against them.
- Flayed Shot (Venthyr) - Fire a shot at your enemy, causing them to bleed Shadow damage over a period of time. Each time Flayed Shot deals damage, you have a chance to gain Flayer's Mark, causing your next Kill Shot to be usable on any target, regardless of their current health.
- Death Chakram (Necrolord) - Throw a deadly chakram at your current target which will rapidly deal additional Shadow damage. Each time the chakram damages a different target, its damage is increased, and you generate additional Focus.
- Night Fae - Work in Progress
- Radiant Spark (Kyrian) - Conjure a radiant spark that causes Arcane damage instantly and additional damage over time. The target takes a percentage of increased damage from your direct damage spells, stacking each time they are struck. This effect ends after a number of spells.
- Mirrors of Torment (Venthyr) - Conjure mirrors to torment the enemy for a time. Whenever the target casts a spell or ability, a mirror is consumed to inflict Shadow damage and their movement and cast speed are slowed. The final mirror will instead inflict Shadow damage to the enemy, Rooting and Silencing them for some time.
- Deathborne (Necrolord) - Transform into a powerful Skeletal Mage for a period of time. While in the form of a Skeletal Mage, your Frostbolt, Fireball, and Arcane Blast are greatly enhanced, and your spell damage is increased.
- Shifting Power (Night Fae) - Draw from the ground beneath you for a period of time, dealing Nature damage over time to nearby enemies. While channeling, your ability cooldowns are reduced.
- Weapons of Order (Kyrian) - For a short duration, your Mastery is increased by a percentage. In addition: Windwalkers’ Rising Sun Kick cooldown is reset instantly, and your Rising Sun Kick reduces the cost of your Chi abilities; Brewmasters’ Keg Smash cooldown is reset, and enemies hit by Keg Smash take increased damage from you (stacks up to a set amount); Mistweavers’ Essence Font cooldown is reset instantly and heals nearby allies on channel start and end.
- Venthyr - Work in Progress
- Necrolord - Work in Progress
- Night Fae - Work in Progress
- Divine Toll (Kyrian) - Instantly cast Holy Shock, Avenger's Shield, or Judgment on several targets within range (based on your current specialization).
- Ashen Hallow (Venthyr) - Hallow the target area, dealing Shadow damage split among enemies and restoring health split among injured allies over time. The land remains filled with anima, causing additional Shadow damage to all enemies. You gain the benefits of Consecration while within the area.
- Necrolord (Necrolord) - Work in Progress
- Night Fae - Work in Progress
- Boon of the Ascended (Kyrian) - Gain the Boon of the Ascended, granting access to Ascended Nova and Ascended Blast, and increasing your movement speed. Both abilities damage your enemies, heal your allies, and build power that will erupt in a powerful explosion of damage and healing at the end of Boon of the Ascended’s duration.
- Mindgames (Venthyr) - Assault an enemy's mind, dealing Shadow damage and briefly reversing their perception of reality. For a period of time, the next damage they deal will heal their target, and the next healing they do will damage their target.
- Unholy Nova (Necrolord) - An explosion of dark energy heals nearby allies and infects nearby enemies with Unholy Transfusion.
Unholy Transfusion deals Shadow damage over time. Enemies who damage this target receive healing. - Night Fae - Work in Progress
- Echoing Reprimand (Kyrian) - Deal Arcane damage to an enemy, extracting their anima to Animacharge a combo point. Damaging finishing moves that consume the same number of your combo points as your Animacharge deal damage as if they consume 7 combo points.
- Slaughter (Venthyr) - Slaughter the target, causing Physical damage. The target's anima mixes with your lethal poison, coating your weapons for the next 5 minutes. Slaughter Poison deals Shadow damage over time and steals a percentage of healing done to the target. This also awards combo points.
- Serrated Bone Spike (Necrolord) - Embed a bone spike in the target, dealing Physical damage over time until they die. Attacking with Serrated Bone Spike causes all of your active bone spikes to fracture and strike your current target, increasing initial damage by a percentage per spike.
Unholy Transfusion deals Shadow damage over time. Enemies who damage this target receive healing. - Night Fae - Work in Progress
- Vesper Totem (Kyrian) - Summon a totem at the target location for 30 seconds. Your next 3 damage spells or abilities will cause the totem to radiate Arcane damage to enemies near the totem and your next 3 healing spells will heal up to 6 allies near the totem. Casting this ability again while the totem is active will relocate the totem.
- Chain Harvest (Venthyr) - Send a wave of anima at the target, which then jumps to additional nearby targets. Deals Shadow damage to enemies and restores health to allies. For each target critically struck, the cooldown of Chain Harvest is reduced.
- Necrolord - Work in Progress
- Night Fae - Work in Progress
- Scouring Tithe (Kyrian) - Deal Arcane damage instantly and additional Arcane damage over time. If the enemy dies while affected by Scouring Tithe, you generate additional Soul Shards. If they survive, Scouring Tithe's cooldown is refreshed.
- Impending Catastrophe (Venthyr) - Call forth a cloud of chaotic anima that travels to the target enemy, dealing Shadow damage to enemies within their path. When the anima reaches the target it explodes, inflicting a random Curse and dealing Shadow damage to all nearby enemies.
- Decimating Bolt (Necrolord) - Hurl a bolt of shadow magic at your target, dealing Shadow damage and increasing the damage of your next Incinerates, Drain Souls, or Shadow Bolts. Decimation Bolt's damage, and the bonus to Incinerate, Drain Soul, or Shadow Bolt both increase as your target's health decreases.
- Night Fae - Work in Progress
- Spear of Bastion (Kyrian) - Throw a Kyrian spear at the target location, dealing Arcane damage instantly, dealing additional damage over time, and generating Rage. Enemies hit are tethered to Spear of Bastion's location for the duration
- Condemn (Venthyr) - (Replaces Execute) Condemn a foe to suffer for their sins, causing Shadow damage. Only usable on enemies who are above 80% health or below 20% health. The primary target is weakened, preventing a moderate amount of damage they would deal to you. If your foe survives, a portion of the Rage spent is refunded.
- Conqueror’s Banner (Necrolord) - Brandish the banner of the Necrolords, increasing your movement speed and causing Mortal Strike, Raging Blow, and Shield Slam to grant you Glory. Killing an enemy grants additional stacks of Glory. Reactivating this ability plants the banner in the ground, granting an increased amount of maximum health and additional attack speed to you and your allies within range of the banner. Lasts additional time per Glory, up to a maximum amount.
- Night Fae - Work in Progress
We look forward to sharing more information as development continues, and we hope this preview helps you find the Covenant that’s right for you.
Which Covenant is your current choice? Join the discussion on the forums.
Continue reading...
