Best Covenants for All Shadowlands DPS in Raid and Mythic+

By Archimtiros Last Updated: 2020/11/22 Changelog Patch: 10.2.6
Table of Contents


For Mythic+, the best Subtlety Rogue Covenant is Kyrian or Night Fae.

Looking at Mythic plus Pelagos/Kyrian stays strong as well, but Korayn/Night Fae looks great because getting new adds or pulls feeds well into Wild Hunt Tactics and First Strike.


Best Elemental Shaman Covenant in Shadowlands



For Raid, the best Elemental Shaman Covenant is Necrolord.

The changes to the covenant hierarchy this week can be attributed to a deliberate change in how the Venthyr covenant ability Chain Harvest & the talent Echoing Shock interact. Previously, Chain Harvest was the only covenant ability that was duplicated by Echoing Shock. Blizzard noted in a post made before the build went out that they intended to remove that interaction, and testing has since confirmed that Echoing Shock no longer duplicates Chain Harvest.

With the official decoupling of Echoing Shock and Chain Harvest and the rework of the Night Fae conduit, Necrolord will move to the front when it comes to damage for Elemental. Primordial Wave is noticeably ahead of the other covenants now in the damage. Some specific scenarios in raid may favor others (E.G. Dreamweaver makes a very strong case for Night Fae across the board, as the Cheat Death effect provided by Podtender is extremely strong,) but for damage in most raid scenarios Necrolord is on top for the moment.


For Mythic+, the best Elemental Shaman Covenant is Kyrian.

While Venthyr is still competitive here as the Pelagos Soulbind ability Let Go of the Past was nerfed at the same time, Vesper Totem will without a doubt outperform Chain Harvest in M+ without the Echoing Shock interaction.


Best Enhancement Shaman Covenant in Shadowlands



For Raid and Mythic+, the best Enhancement Shaman Covenant is Venthyr.

The nerf to Pelagos's Soulbind tree was just enough to push Kyrian out of contention with Venthyr in raids but only barely. Kyrian's Vesper Totem still shines in Mythic+ though alongside Venthyr. 3 of the 4 soulbinds are all very close, with Necrolord lagging slightly behind due to being overly single target focused.


For Mythic+, the best Enhancement Shaman Covenant is Venthyr.

These are both very close now as the increased opportunity cost of Chain Harvest caused by the buff to Maelstrom Weapon spenders has almost eliminated the gap. The soulbinds are also doing a lot of work for Kyrian here so these remain extremely close depending on target counts.


Best Affliction Warlock Covenant in Shadowlands



For Raid, the best Affliction Warlock Covenant is Kyrian and Night Fae.


For most raid content, the main benefit of Scouring Tithe is that it counts as a DoT to increase your Malefic Rapture's damage, in addition to just being an extra DoT for a class that specializes in DoTs.

For another option, Night Fae is almost equally as strong as Kyrian, with the added benefit of a strong movement ability in Soulshape. Grove Invigoration is almost equal in strength to Pelagos' Combat Meditation, and from the first week of Mythic Castle Nathria opening, you'll have access to two potency slots before any other soulbind in the game with Dreamweaver. In addition to this, Soul Rot is way easier to use functionally than Scouring Tithe, as it's essentially just a cooldown you have to hit every minute, instead of constantly assessing which benefit you want to gain from casting it.


For Mythic+, the best Affliction Warlock Covenant is Kyrian.

For Mythic+, you still retain that benefit of added single target damage for bosses, but in multi-target scenarios you can throw Scouring Tithe on an add that's about to die, and instantly gain 5 shards which can be thrown into spamming Malefic Rapture on AoE.


Best Demonology Warlock Covenant in Shadowlands



For Raid, the best Demonology Warlock Covenant is Necrolord or Night Fae.

The niche Demonology fills for single target is complemented very nicely with Decimating Bolt, this is mostly applicable when using specific conduits and legendaries geared towards buffing Demonbolt further. Night Fae, in particular Dreamweaver, has very strong synergy with Demonology in later Renown levels as the final trait gives you a large Haste bonus every time you cast Soul Rot which you can delay and use with Demonic Tyrant.


For Mythic+, the best Demonology Warlock Covenant is Necrolord or Night Fae.

Night Fae's AoE component is helpful in M+ and just adds to the Demonology toolkit while also giving you access two early potency conduits. Necrolord does not shine as much in AoE but is still a solid option as two of three Soulbinds give you basically static stats.


Best Destruction Warlock Covenant in Shadowlands



For Raid, the best Destruction Warlock Covenant is Kyrian.

Scouring Tithe is designed to fit all situations. It can work as a dot with very high uptime on straight Single Target, but also has a nice twist when introducing adds. The Soulbind bonuses you gain through the Kyrian covenant are also very nice, despite the Summon Steward ability not bringing much to the table.


For Mythic+, the best Destruction Warlock Covenant is Kyrian.

Scouring Tithe has its place in dungeons, both on bosses, but also on packs with multiple adds. You're able to proc the 5 shard bonus often which basically nets you up to 1+2/3 Rain of Fire casts or 2.5 Chaos Bolt casts. Alternatively, you're able to maintain high uptime on this dot due to the reset cooldown of the ability.


Best Arms Warrior Covenant in Shadowlands



For Raid, the best Arms Warrior Covenant is Kyrian or Venthyr.

Kyrian has risen considerably, though Condemn remains a close option. Condemn was recently buffed and the interaction with Massacre fixed, which adds a lot of extra damage towards the end of the fight, but Spear of Bastion works quite nicely alongside Rend, making them both fairly competitive. The real difference between them comes down to how viable those talents are in particular encounters, and the difference between their available Soulbinds, which Venthyr tends a little bit ahead on in terms of DPS.

Door of Shadows is somewhat lackluster, as Warriors already have a lot of mobility. When it's useful, it's very useful, but those times tend to be few and far between in raid where the entire raid often needs to move rather than just one person. On the other hand, Kyrian's Phial of Serenity is one of the best, making it a very good pick in a wide variety of situations.


For Mythic+, the best Arms Warrior Covenant is Venthyr.

Venthyr and Kyrian are again both very viable. Kyrian has a clear multitarget burst advantage, but Arms already has a lot of multitarget options in Warbreaker, , and even Ravager. That said, Venthyr is surprisingly competitive, since although it is a single target ability (outside of Sweeping Strikes), the damage is so high that it still takes priority over Whirlwind even against multiple targets.

Door of Shadows will likely see more use in Mythic+ than raid, as players find creative ways to skip certain pulls or bypass enemy mechanics with it, but it's still fairly niche, while Phial of Serenity remains much more widely useful.


Best Fury Warrior Covenant in Shadowlands



For Raid, the best Fury Warrior Covenant is Venthyr.

Fury's best covenant remains Venthyr. Despite the recent nerfs, Condemn remains very versatile in single target and AoE, helping jumpstart the early rotation. The defensive aspect is not quite as useful since Fury cannot spam the ability, but it's a nice supplement to Bloodthirst healing when considering the amount of raid encounters which incorporate rot damage (G'huun and Queen Azshara both come to mind as recent examples).

Door of Shadows is somewhat lackluster, as Warriors already have a lot of mobility. When it's useful, it's very useful, but those times tend to be few and far between in raid where the entire raid often needs to move rather than just one person. On the other hand, Kyrian's Phial of Serenity is one of the best, making it a very good pick in a wide variety of situations.


For Mythic+, the best Fury Warrior Covenant is Venthyr.

Condemn remains a very strong option due to Fury's ability to innately cleave single target attacks with Whirlwind, however Kyrian's Spear of Bastion sacrifices throughput for better multitarget burst, which can be attractive for Mythic+ focused players.

Door of Shadows will likely see more use in Mythic+ than raid, as players find creative ways to skip certain pulls or bypass enemy mechanics with it, but it's still fairly niche, while Phial of Serenity remains much more widely useful.