Blizzard to finally ditch WoW Shadowlands covenants with new animations for multiple class abilities

We’re a little over a year removed from the end of WoW Shadowlands, and Blizzard is now making a conscious effort to clean up some of the lingering animations introduced during that expansion. 

Although we’ve left the Shadowlands behind, many of the abilities that were introduced during that expansion stuck around after the conclusion of the expansion, finding their way into some classes’ talent trees. Furthermore, many of those abilities have remained consistently part of the meta, meaning the Shadowlands-era animations have lived on for years. Spells like Mages’ Shifting Power and Druids’ Convoke the Spirits (both of which were given to those classes if they joined forces with the Night Fae covenant during Shadowlands) are being altered on the WoW Public Test Realm, and the latest spell to also join them on that list is Monks’ Night Fae ability, Faeline Stomp. 

Players on the WoW subreddit have nothing but praise for the new Faeline Stomp animation, which sets forth a misty, jade-green line in the shape of a serpent. For reference, it has a crystalline blue animation on live servers, like most Night Fae abilities do.

“I have no idea what you Monks do, what your spec do or who plays that. But this is beautiful,” one player said in the comments. Another player mentioned how the ability should maybe get a name change, considering it’s moving away from the “Fae” aspect of its namesake, but that part remains to be seen. 

These abilities have traditionally emitted ethereal, blue animations that closely resemble the aesthetic found in Ardenweald, the Night Fae’s home zone. However, now that much of the Shadowlands content is becoming dated, Blizzard must feel like it’s time to move on and give these abilities a more streamlined appearance that moves away from the Night Fae altogether. Beyond Night Fae moves, other covenant abilities, such as Mages’ Radiant Spark (Kyrian) and Shamans’ Primordial Wave (Necrolord), are also receiving visual updates.

I can recall when Shadowlands was first being teased, and all of the new class-specific covenant abilities were being revealed one by one. I play a Monk pretty regularly on retail WoW, and I remember having plans to switch off the class for Shadowlands. But, when Faeline Stomp was revealed to be the Monk ability, I knew I had to stick around. Even when the Night Fae were a substantially worse choice meta-wise, I just couldn’t let that animation go. Now, it looks like I won’t have a choice. Thankfully, this new green animation for the move is an equally beautiful replacement. 

Many of the updated Shadowlands covenant abilities are currently available to test on the WoW Patch 10.2.5 PTR.