With Shadowlands, World of Warcraft has received a new feature, the covenants. They provide you with more story and abilities that make you stronger. For each class, a different covenant may be the best choice. MeinMMO explains which covenant you should choose as a hunter and what makes it so powerful.
This is the best covenant: Hunters have it quite easy in their choice. For each of their three specializations, the Night Fae is the best covenant for any situation in the PvE area. Kyrians offer an alternative if you are not fond of the nature-connected fairies and their Winter Queen.
In PvP, it may look different, but there are too many factors here to make general statements. Venthyr do stand out here, but we focus on raids and dungeons for this guide.
Do I have to choose this covenant? Mathematically, the Night Fae is the best for all situations. However, that doesn’t mean this covenant is necessarily the “best covenant” for you. If you cannot handle the abilities of the Night Fae or do not like the story, you should choose another covenant.
Your experience will show that you do best with what you enjoy the most. The difference between the Night Fae and the other covenants will likely only make a few percentage points, allowing you to look around freely. In doubt, you can always switch.
The best covenant for hunters: Night Fae
Who are the Night Fae? The Night Fae are the third covenant you encounter in the story of Shadowlands. Like every covenant, they provide you with two abilities and three different soul bonds that grant you additional passive abilities.
The covenant ability of the Night Fae is “Soulshape”, which transforms you into a beast and grants movement speed. This is not particularly important for your damage. However, as a hunter, you additionally receive “Wild Spirits”, a powerful damage cooldown. In our guide, you can learn more about all covenants and their abilities and rewards.
What makes them so strong? The Night Fae offer the greatest damage increase for hunters with Wild Spirits and their soul bonds. Thus, they rank in the DPS ranking for Shadowlands even in the upper to middle places.
However, the Night Fae have another special feature: They can prevent your death. A soul bond with the Dreamweaver grants you the ability “Soulshape: Caretaker”. This can prevent your death every 10 minutes and instead encases you in a capsule that heals you. Only if the capsule is destroyed, will you actually die.
Soul Bonds and Abilities
How do I use the abilities correctly? Wild Spirits is relatively self-explanatory. You summon spirits at the target location that deal damage to enemies in the area and apply “Mark of the Hunter”.
As long as this effect lasts, your attacks and those of your companions against targets in the area deal additional damage to nearby targets. The spell has a cooldown of two minutes and should therefore be used in conjunction with other cooldowns to amplify it.
This spell is particularly strong against groups of enemies, such as in mythic plus dungeons or raid bosses with multiple targets. Save this ability if you know that many enemies will take damage for a few seconds soon.
Soulshape can also be used to quickly move out of the range of an area effect in combat, without incurring significant damage losses. The ability works somewhat like the blink of mages.
Which soul bond should I use? The strongest soul bond can be made with the Dreamweaver. Here you start with Caretaker as an ability and at the end of their tree “Blooming Field”. The field grants you haste when you use your covenant ability and pairs excellently with Wild Spirits.
Alternatively, Niya can provide a strong bond, provided you manage to interrupt enemies. Then her ability “Niya’s Tools: Poison” deals damage to enemies if you interrupt one of their spells. With her “Grove’s Empowerment”, you also gain mastery when you cause damage or healing.
When it comes to media, make sure you can definitely weave in two potency media into your bond. The media “Spirit Touch” is always a strong choice as it increases the duration and the damage of Wild Spirits.
Alternative Covenant: Kyrians
What do Kyrians offer me? The Kyrians were considered the strongest covenant according to experts until shortly before the release of Shadowlands. They still represent a strong alternative for hunters, although their most important companion Pelagos received a nerf before launch.
As Kyrians, you gain access to the abilities “Summon Steward” and “Resonating Arrow”. The Steward provides you with useful potions and can dispel harmful effects. The arrow ensures that you deal damage to targets within the effect area, can attack through broken line of sight, and have an increased critical hit chance against them.
Additionally, with Pelagos as a soul bond, you gain the ability “Combat Meditation” early on, which increases your mastery after using Resonating Arrow.
When should I choose Kyrians? Kyrians are in most cases only on par with the Night Fae or even worse. However, they can be stronger in some fights, especially when you are fighting only a single target.
Opt for the Kyrians if you are sure that you will rarely fight against groups or if you simply do not like the Night Fae.
If you are considering playing other classes besides hunters, you can find the best covenant for each class in Shadowlands in our handy overview on MeinMMO here.
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