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 paladins.
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
Paladin-specific Covenant Abilities
Each Covenant also gives you access to a class-specific combat ability.
Venthyr Covenant Ability for Paladins: Ashen Hallow
- Hallow the target area for 30 sec. Enemies in the area suffer up to [(55% of Spell power) * 30 / 2] Shadow damage, and allies are healed for up to [(42% of Spell power) * 30 / 2], reduced if there are more than 5 targets.
Within the Hallow, you may use Hammer of Wrath on any target, and its damage is increased by 100%. - Costs 20% of base mana – 4 minutes cooldown – 30 yd range – 1.5 seconds cast
Necrolord Covenant Ability for Paladins: Vanquisher’s Hammer
- Holy: Throws a hammer at your target dealing (170% of Spell power) Shadow damage, and empowering your next Word of Glory to automatically trigger Light of Dawn.
- Protection: Throws a hammer at your target dealing (170% of Spell power) Shadow damage, and empowering your next Word of Glory to automatically trigger Shield of the Righteous.
- Retribution: Throws a hammer at your target dealing (170% of Spell power) Shadow damage, and empowering your next Templar’s Verdict to automatically trigger Divine Storm.
- Costs 1 Holy Power – 30 seconds cooldown – 30 yd range – instant cast
Kyrian Covenant Ability for Paladins: Divine Toll
- Holy: Instantly cast Holy Shock on up to 5 targets within 30 yards.
- Protection: Instantly cast Avenger’s Shield on up to 5 targets within 30 yards.
- Retribution: Instantly cast Judgment on up to 5 targets within 30 yards.
- Costs 15% of base mana – 1 minute cooldown – 30 yd range – instant cast
Night Fae Covenant Ability for Paladins: Blessing of the Seasons
- Blessing of Spring: Bless an ally for 30 sec, increasing their healing done and healing received by 10%.
- Turns to Blessing of Summer after use. 15 seconds cooldown.
- Costs 5% of base mana – 45 seconds cooldown – 40 yd range – instant cast
- Blessing of Summer: Bless an ally for 30 sec, causing their attacks to have a 40% chance to deal 30% additional damage as Holy.
- Turns to Blessing of Autumn after use. 15 seconds cooldown.
- Costs 5% of base mana – 45 seconds cooldown – 100 yd range – instant cast
- Blessing of Autumn: Bless an ally for 30 sec, causing their cooldowns to recover 30% faster.
- Turns to Blessing of Winter after use. 15 seconds cooldown.
- Costs 5% of base mana – 45 seconds cooldown – 40 yd range – instant cast
- Blessing of Winter: Bless an ally for 30 sec. Their attacks deal [5 / 100 * max(Attack power, Spell power) * (1 + Versatility)] Frost damage and reduce enemies’ movement speed by 3% and their attack speed by 2%, stacking 10 times.
- Turns to Blessing of Spring after use. 15 seconds cooldown.
- Costs 5% of base mana – 45 seconds cooldown – 40 yd range – instant cast
Best Covenant for Holy Paladin
Mythic Plus/Raids
The best Covenant for holy paladins in raiding and dungeons is Kyrian, without a doubt. The heal from Divine Toll is a smart heal, making the ability a strong burst heal on those allies who need it most. The Night Fae Covenant is also quite strong, but does require you to select an appropriate ally every 15 seconds. While the utility of it is amazing, do realize that this does not directly reflect in your HPS numbers. If you have a raid leader who is obsessed by numbers, you might just wanna pick Kyrian to appease them.
November 23rd update: Just go Kyrian, really. It is by far the BiS option for Hpal – the other 3 don’t even come close.
PVP
Both Venthyr and Kyrian are safe choices for holy paladin in Arena and Battlegrounds. While Blessing of the Seasons from the Night Fae Covenant is strong too, it can be hard to use well in a hectic fight. The Necrolord Covenant falls flat for HPal when compared to the others.
Best Covenant for Protection Paladin
Mythic Plus/Raids
For raiding, I recommend Necrolord for protection paladins. Vanquisher’s Hammer (the Necrolord ability) does good single target damage while also giving a slight boost to survivability. For mythic+ dungeons and on AOE fights, the Kyrian Covenant performs best.
Blessing of the Seasons provides your party or raid with decent buffs, but offers you very little personal gain. You could go for this if you’re very selfless and just love helping others perform well. Personally I do not find it very fun to play.
November 23rd update: Protection paladins will have a tough time picking a Covenant, as the viability differs greatly between AOE and single target. Kyrian performs great on fights with multiple targets, but is VERY bad on single target because Divine Toll only casts 1 Avenger’s Shield if there is 1 target (instead of 5 shields on that 1 target). Venthyr does good on single target, but does not compare to Kyrian on AOE situations.
The prot pala community seems to be split between two courses; some prot pala mains will level two paladins so they have one for each type of content. Most protection pally’s are leaning towards Kyrian, and trust in Blizzard to buff Divine Toll so it fires 5 Avenger’s Shields even on single target.
PVP
Kyrian – maybe? None of the abilities are currently all that great for protection paladin in Arena and Battlegrounds – just as protection paladin itself isn’t great in PVP.
Best Covenant for Retribution Paladin
Mythic Plus/Raids
Venthyr is a solid choice for retribution paladin in raiding and dungeons, though Kyrian outperforms it in AOE situations. I would recommend you pick Venthyr for PVE overall, but if you are an avid mythic+ pusher by all means go Kyrian. Just don’t pick Necrolord – currently it is horribly undertuned.
November 23rd update: Venthyr is still the best for single target, and Kyrian still does the most damage in fights with multiple targets. Unfortunately ret pala’s suffer from the same dilemma as prot pala’s, with Venthyr being pretty bad for AOE and Kyrian not performing well on single target. Personally I would pick Kyrian, as it seems just a little bit better overall. Night Fae is meh, and Necrolord is still absolutely terrible.
PVP
Both the Kyrian and the Night Fae Covenant work well for ret pala in Arena and BGs. The Night Fae Covenant has a bit more potential but also costs more effort to use (though you could just always cast all blessings on yourself, which is easier but also dimishes its potential). The choice between Kyrian and Night Fae comes down to personal preference; if you also play PVE, for example, you might just wanna pick Kyrian since it’s strong there as well.