While leveling in the Shadowlands, you will encounter four different Covenants; each desperate for your help. In exchange for your aid, they will provide you with a general and a spec-specific ability, as well as a variety of cosmetics such as mounts, pets and armor sets.
Picking the right Covenant is a hard and important decision. This guide will help you decide what the best Covenant is for Monks.
Your first character of the expansion will need to level through all four Shadowlands zones (Revendreth, Maldraxxus, Bastion and Ardenweald) and pick a Covenant at level 60. Subsequent alts can pick a Covenant at level 50 and do not need to complete all questlines.
Table of Contents
All Shadowlands Covenant Guides
What Covenants are there?
There are 4 Covenants in the Shadowlands
- The Venthyr in Revendreth. Their Sanctum is Sinfall.
- The Necrolords in Maldraxxus. Their Sanctum is the Seat of the Primus.
- The Kyrians in Bastion. Their Sanctum is Elysian Hold.
- The Night Fae in Ardenweald. Their Sanctum is the Heart of the Forest.
Can you switch Covenant?
Yes, you can quite easily leave your Covenant and join another Covenant that you have not joined before. Simple speak to the leader of the Covenant you wish to join in Oribos.
If you left a Covenant and wish to rejoin it, the process is a bit more difficult. The Covenant sees your leaving as a betrayal, and you will have to prove your worth by completing dungeons, world quests, daily quests and more.
Rejoining a Covenant requires two weekly quests, thus takes a minimum of two weeks.
General Covenant Abilities
Each Covenant has a Signature Ability. This is an ability that all members of the Covenant get, regardless of race, class or specialization.
Venthyr Covenant Ability: Door of Shadows
- Wend through the shadows, appearing at the targeted location
- 1 minute cooldown – 35 yd range – 1.5 secs cast
Necrolord Covenant Ability: Fleshcraft
- Form a shield of flesh and bone over 4 seconds that prevents damage equal to 20% of your maximum health. Standing near the corpse of a defeated enemy when the ability is cast will create a larger shield, up to 50% of your maximum health.
- 2 minutes cooldown – 10 yd range – 4 seconds channel
Kyrian Covenant Ability: Summon Steward
- Call your steward to bring you a Phial of Serenity that can be consumed to restore 20% 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. - 5 minutes cooldown – instant cast
- The other abilities of the steward are predominantly temporary buffs to stats, movement speed or flat dps/hps increase.
Night Fae Covenant Ability: Soulshape
- Turn into a Vulpin, teleporting 15 yards forward and increasing movement speed by 50%. You may reactivate Soulshape every few seconds to teleport a short distance forward.
While out in the world, this effect has a 12 seconds duration before it wears off, but lasts indefinitely while in a rest area. - 1.5 minute cooldown – instant cast
Monk-specific Covenant Abilities
Each Covenant also gives you access to a class-specific combat ability.
Venthyr Covenant Ability for Monks: Fallen Order
- Opens a mystic portal for the next 24 sec. Every 2 sec, it summons a spirit of your order’s fallen Ox, Crane, or Tiger adepts for 6 sec.
- Fallen Ox adepts assist for an additional 2 sec, and will also attack your enemies with Breath of Fire.
- Fallen Crane adepts assist for an additional 2 sec, and will also heal with Enveloping Mist.
- Fallen Tiger adepts assist for an additional 2 sec, and will also assault with Fists of Fury.
- Costs 2% of base mana – 3 minutes cooldown – instant cast
Necrolord Covenant Ability for Monks: Bonedust Brew
- Hurl a brew created from the bones of your enemies at the ground, coating all targets struck for 10 sec. Your abilities have a 35% chance to affect the target a second time at 35% effectiveness as Shadow damage or healing.
- Brewmaster: Tiger Palm and Keg Smash reduces the cooldown of your brews by an additional 1 second when striking enemies with your Bonedust Brew active
- Mistweaver: Mastery: Gust of Mists heals targets with your Bonedust Brew active for an additional (42% of Attack power)
- Windwalker: Spinning Crane Kick refunds 1 Chi when striking enemies with your Bonedust Brew active
- 1 minute cooldown – 40 yd range – instant cast
Kyrian Covenant Ability for Monks: Weapons of Order
- Brewmaster: For the next 30 sec , your Mastery is increased by 10%. Keg Smash cooldown is reset, and enemies hit by Keg Smash take 5% increased damage from you for 8 sec stacking up to 5 times.
- Mistweaver: For the next 30 sec , your Mastery is increased by 42%. Essence Font cooldown is reset instantly and heals up to 6 nearby allies for (40% of Spell power) health on channel start and end.
- Windwalker: For the next 30 sec , your Mastery is increased by 12.5%. Additionally, Rising Sun Kick reduces Chi costs by 1 for 5 sec, and Blackout Kick reduces the cooldown of affected abilities by an additional 1 sec.
- Costs 5% of base mana – 2 minutes cooldown – instant cast
Night Fae Covenant Ability for Monks: Faeline Stomp
- Strike the ground fiercely to expose a faeline for 30 sec, dealing (91% of Attack power) Nature damage to up to 5 enemies, and restores (91% of Spell power) health to up to 5 allies within 30 yds.
- Brewmaster: Up to 5 enemies caught in the faeline are ignited with Breath of Fire.
- Mistweaver: Up to 5 allies caught in the faeline are healed with an Essence Font bolt.
- Windwalker: Up to 5 enemies caught in the faeline suffer an additional (210% of Attack power) damage.
- Your abilities have a 6% chance of resetting the cooldown of Faeline Stomp while fighting on a faeline.
- Costs 4% of base mana – 30 seconds recharge – instant cast
Best Covenant for Brewmaster Monk
Mythic Plus/Raids
For brewmaster monks in mythic+ and raiding, the Kyrian Covenant provides a good increase to single target damage while also giving you a small mastery buff. Necrolords does very well in AOE situations and in mythic+. You can take either of them and do well in both situations, but I would probably pick Kyrian if I focused on raiding on brewmaster and Necrolords if I was more of a dungeon player.
November 23rd update: Brewmaster monks went through quite the rollercoaster in Beta, with the best and worst Covenants changing from week to week. Right now both Night Fae and Necrolord are amazing picks, with Necro being a bit better in Mythic+, and Night Fae being the best in raids (Faeline Stomp now increases your stagger by 5%). Kyrian is still okay, but not as good as the other two, and Venthyr is just plain bad.
PVP
Kyrian is best for brewmaster monks in Arena and Battlegrounds – probably. None of the four provide you with any amazing benefits in PVP to be honest.
Best Covenant for Mistweaver Monk
Mythic Plus/Raids
Mistweaver monks in dungeons and raiding have the luxury of being able to choose between 3 strong Covenants: Necrolords, Night Fae and Venthyr. All offer a nice increase to AOE healing.
The Venthyr Covenant is an attractive choice purely based on how easy it is to use – the ability is basically a ‘press and forget’. The Faeline Stomp ability from Night Fae deals reasonable damage in addition to healing, making it the strongest option for mythic+ or for raid fights with tight damage checks.
The Kyrian Covenant ability is undertuned, which puts it a tier lower than the other three Covenants.
November 23rd update: Recent changes have made it so that Necrolord is now the strongest Covenant for MW monk, mainly because of the Emeni’s soulbinds. The other three Covenants all perform well as well and share a deserved second place.
PVP
Venthyr is the safest choice for mistweaver monks in Arena and Battlegrounds. Numbers-wise it performs well, and it is easy to use even in a hectic fight. Necrolord and Kyrian are both decent options too, offering you strong burst healing (provided you learn how to maximize the buff window). Night Fae isn’t all that great; its damage and healing aren’t amazing enough to make up for the fact that you have to remain nearly stationary for the duration.
Best Covenant for Windwalker Monk
Mythic Plus/Raids
Currently only the Venthyr Covenant offers a good damage increase for WW monks in raids and dungeons. The Kyrian Covenant ability is not horrible numbers-wise, but it feels really awkward to play (it increases your mastery, making you not want to repeat the same attack, but at the same time promotes a rotation that does involve using the same attack multiple times in a row). Necrolords and Night Fae are just, meh, I guess. They do decent AOE damage and certainly aren’t awful, but nothing to get excited about either.
November 23rd update: Kyrian received quite the buff, and is now the best pick for WW monks. Venthyr is still a very viable and flexible option that feels a bit smoother and easier to play. Night Fae performs well on AOE, but I wouldn’t pick it over Kyrian or Venthyr. Necrolord is weak and offers no special benefits over the other Covenants.
PVP
None of the Covenants really look all that great for windwalker monk in Arena and Battlegrounds. Venthyr seems to be most easy to use, just offering you some benefits without having to change your rotation or having to set up situations where you can make most of your ability.
