Dark Souls 2 Covenants

[Kyber]

What do you guys think about the new covenants? There are the obvious ones similar to DaS such as

Brilliant Covenant: Sounds like Warriors of Sunlight, even the image is a sun
Protector Covenant: Summons you to aid against invaders
Sanguinary Covenant: Invader covenant
Covenant of the Meek: Summons others to help you when you get invaded

But there also these, which all sound interesting.

Gnawing Covenant: "the covenant of rodents"
Clangorous Covenant: Clangorous means loud noises or something like repeated clanging.
Covenant of Ancients: Sounds a bit like lore covenant
Covenant of the Fittest: Something to do with stats I feel
Abysmal Covenant: Maybe an invader covenant also, similar to Darkwraiths.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I hope they're better than in the first game, they just felt like such a half-baked feature. Some of these definitely sound interesting, I wonder if they're all gonna be focused on the online aspect or if some will be designed for people who play offline.

 

[Qvar]

My guesses

Brilliant Covenant: Sounds like Warriors of Sunlight, even the image is a sun
Protector Covenant: Summons you to aid against invaders
Sanguinary Covenant: Raids for specific locations or targets who are weaker than the usual.
Covenant of the Meek: Acts as if you weren't online (you can't summon or be invaded).
Gnawing Covenant: Related to some sort of loot scavenging activity.
Clangorous Covenant: Smithies covenant, if there's any chance that weapons may need to be produced by players.
Covenant of Ancients: Magic/Faith users-related
Covenant of the Fittest: Fight club style covenant.
Abysmal Covenant: Darkwraiths

 

[WittyName]

I hope they're better than in the first game, they just felt like such a half-baked feature.

I think this perfectly describes the Gravelord covenant from the first game. It was an interesting idea, but very limited, as not every person wants to play through NG+ when they beat the game, meaning some people would never experience the red phantom enemies.

I'm really interested to see how the new ones work out, and in particular, how difficult to find some of them are, a few of the original Dark Souls covenants were very difficult to find without a guide.

 

[TheEvilCheese]

I'm really interested to see how the new ones work out, and in particular, how difficult to find some of them are, a few of the original Dark Souls covenants were very difficult to find without a guide.

Let's be honest. 90% of people Didn't find the Ash lake (and related boss, items and covenant) without serious help. It was hidden behind a series of illusory walls in the most hated area of the game. Hell, someone playing the game 'normally' will never find the Dark Wraiths, probably the most important covenant.

I quite like the idea of them being out of the way, but DaS probably took it a little far.

OT: I just hope that there's something akin to the forest. Crazy anything goes PVP area with a covenant defending an objective. Obviously this assumes there wont be any hackers. *crosses fingers*

 

[Lawnmooer]

I hope they're integrated better than in Dark Souls 1

I mean, some of them had interesting ideas (Darkmoon for hunting people in Dark Anor Londo, Forest Hunter for a more FFA PvP, Sunbro for jolly co-operation etc) but getting to some of them, the way you leveled up and what you got from leveling them could have done with some work...

For example:

Chaos Servent, requires a large number of Humanity to be given to level up. Could only hand in humanities 1 at a time (Could take a unnecessarily long time to get level 2 via using hard Humanity) - Levels 1 and 3 gave nothing, while level 0 gave a pyromancy and level 2 gave another pyromancy and opened a shortcut.

It would also be nice for easier ways for offline players to get benefits from any PvE covenants (E.g. Subro's can get Medals from beating bosses with Solaire).

 

[WittyName]

It would also be nice for easier ways for offline players to get benefits from any PvE covenants (E.g. Subro's can get Medals from beating bosses with Solaire).

As far as I remember, all the items needed to level up covenants can be obtained offline (with a lot of farming). I'm pretty sure that beating a boss after summoning Solaire gets you a Sunlight medal as long as he survives.

 

[Lawnmooer]

As far as I remember, all the items needed to level up covenants can be obtained offline (with a lot of farming). I'm pretty sure that beating a boss after summoning Solaire gets you a Sunlight medal as long as he survives.

While you can get all the covenants (Beside Forest Hunter) leveled up in offline, most of them require a LOT of farming to do... For example:

Souvenir of Reprisal for Darkmoon you can get 2 guaranteed and then the rest require Online or farming Crow Demons in the Painted World.

Eye of Death for Gravelords you can get 9 guaranteed and then the rest require Online of farming Basalisks.

Sunlight Medals for Sunbro's you can get 9 guaranteed (Though, one of them requires you to beat Gwyn) any more need Online or farming Chaos Bugs.

Dragon Scales for Path of the Dragon you can get 10 guaranteed with more coming from Online or farming Drakes.

All the farming happens to be incredibly low drop rate stuff (Even with 10 Humanity and Covetous Gold Serpent Ring it can take a really, really long time to get these things) meaning that you either spend a really high amount of time farming, do some online play or wait until NG+ and further to get multiple of the guaranteed drops (Which is likely quicker than farming for them)

It's similar to trying to get the Titanite Slabs (Which is needed to upgrade a lot of armour to max level as well as some weapon upgrades) where you CAN farm it, but it has such a low drop rate that it's better to just get the guaranteed stuff in NG+.

If they did something like making it so you progress towards the covenant by beating bosses while a member it would be easier for offliners to do it whilst also making the choice of covenant more meaningful (Since you'll want to stay in the one covenant for most if not all of the game, rather than the current iteration where you just stay in long enough for a specific reward and leave for the next one)

 

[WittyName]

If they did something like making it so you progress towards the covenant by beating bosses while a member it would be easier for offliners to do it whilst also making the choice of covenant more meaningful (Since you'll want to stay in the one covenant for most if not all of the game, rather than the current iteration where you just stay in long enough for a specific reward and leave for the next one)

I'd actually really like to see something like this, as it would actually encourage people to want to find the different covenants to experience the rewards they offer. Also, maybe there could be a reward for each level of a covenant, as some (such as the Chaos Servant) only offered a reward upon joining, and another for reaching +2.