The three recently revealed covenant legendaries for Night Fae, Necrolord, and Venthyr all appear designed to double down on the strengths already established by covenant ability, seemingly intended for players to further specialize their characters. For Venthyr, this means an increased emphasis on the Execute phase and single target DPS, increased multitarget for Night Fae, and greater buff potential for Necrolords.
There are pros and cons to this approach - on the one hand, it allows players to specialize, but the downside is that it also makes characters which participate in a wide range of content less well rounded. This is all rather hypothetical though, because it doesn't matter if they're not tuned well enough to actually consider using them over what we already have - a Mythic+ oriented player may choose Night Fae due to the advantages of
선제 공격 and
고대의 여진, but they're still going to use
고통받는 왕의 인장 if
자연의 격노 isn't strong enough to compete with it. Therein lies the question - how good are these legendaries, and the answer is somewhat mixed.
Night Fae -
자연의 격노Night Fae
자연의 격노 is fairly strong and the rolling DoT adds up to quite a bit of extra multitarget damage, but it has a major downside in the time it takes to actually deal all of that damage. While it is a DoT instead of a ground effect, the DoT only stacks when
고대의 여진 ground effect ticks. This means the targets must be held in a small area and survive for around 20 seconds in order to maximize the legendary's damage. Interesting, the legendary also does not benefit from class buffs such as
거인의 강타,
투신, or
격노. The result is that can be strong, but probably isn't practical for most content, and
고통받는 왕의 인장 will continue to be the go-to legendary in Mythic+.
Necrolord -
영광Necrolord
영광 is very strong... just not for the Warrior.
정복자의 깃발 is already extremely competitive if not ahead of other covenants when regularly buffing the right two players (mostly Boomkins, Mages, and Warlocks), and buffing a third ally pushes that potential ahead even further, but it doesn't add nearly as much for the Warrior. Therefore the value of the legendary is mostly dependent on who else you can buff every 2 minutes, and how accessible that is in the new raid encounters, but on paper Glory is the most powerful legendary in the game by a significant margin. It should also be noted that the increased duration of the banner does not apply to buffed allies, only the Warrior benefits from the increased up time - pushing it out to about a 25-30 second duration for Arms & Fury. The Necrolord conduit,
역전용사의 명망 also has its duration increased, although Emeni's soulbind ability
타인의 귀감, has its own duration and is therefore not affected.
Venthyr
죄악의 쇄도Venthyr
죄악의 쇄도 depends on the spec. Although Arms can spam
규탄 enough to extend
거인의 강타 out to 100% uptime, the spec becomes very rage starved without
backed by
고통받는 왕의 인장, so the hits aren't very strong and the legendary doesn't perform quite as well. For Fury however,
죄악의 쇄도 is fantastic, capable of extending
무모한 희생 out to 100% uptime without
분노 제어 or
광기의 심연 (allowing stronger options) during
규탄 phases. If anything, it's a little too strong, although the effect could be difficult to tune down without neutering it completely. That said, it is still mostly single target oriented, so the
고통받는 왕의 인장 legendary and the Night Fae Covenant still pull ahead in AoE/Mythic+.
TLDR:
죄악의 쇄도 is downright overpowered for Fury in single target, and
영광 is even more powerful presuming you're buffing the right people, but
고통받는 왕의 인장 continues to pull ahead in all other situations.
The two Legendaries that these three new choices are competing against for Protection Warriors are
앙갚음 and
벽.
앙갚음 was newly revamped in Patch 9.0.5 to grant a serious increase in
방패 올리기 uptime and Rage generation, and it has become the de facto choice for Protection Warriors in Mythic+, and a semi-competitive alternative to
벽 in raids.
벽 has maintained its place of prominence in Castle Nathria for the most part, due to being simpler and much more forgiving than
앙갚음, even if it's somewhat weaker on paper.
Night Fae -
자연의 격노Starting with
자연의 격노, it works exactly the way it reads. It adds one (1) extra tick of
고대의 여진, which is a decent burst damage increase, especially in AoE. Basically, this Legendary plays further into
고대의 여진's strengths -- but also amplifies its weaknesses. Increasing the duration of
고대의 여진 is great when it works as intended, such as repeatedly interrupting a group of caster mobs, but it's even more of a waste of resources when enemies move out of the circle. Additionally, the DoT effect provided by
자연의 격노 stacks up to 6 times -- which is the total number of ticks that
고대의 여진 will deal with the Legendary. It's a decent burst damage increase, but not a consistent Rage generation buff, and it's even more vulnerable to movement than before. This Legendary might be fun for boosting your burst damage, but otherwise, it probably won't be particularly good or desirable for Protection Warriors, and it really doesn't do anything to make Night Fae a more appealing Covenant choice, either.
Necrolord -
영광Necrolord Warriors gain
영광, and despite its relatively unassuming tooltip, it has potential to be extraordinarily good. With
불굴의 집중력 &
최후의 저항 active,
분노 제어,
우렁찬 음성, and
쇠날발톱 can all combine with
정복자의 깃발 to give a Protection Warrior an absolutely absurd burst of Rage generation. This has the possibility of making a single
정복자의 깃발 cast last for upwards of 70 seconds when all other Rage generation cooldowns are available. Without them, or while using
강화, uptime in the 40-second range per cast is still realistic. This is, without question, overpowered, but don't go changing to Necrolord just yet. This is an incredibly powerful bonus that absolutely shifts the balance hard in favor of all Protection Warriors playing Necrolord with this Legendary in every situation. That's a design that probably won't make it through the PTR as it currently stands. Also, the
정복자의 깃발 uptime on your nearby allies
does not get extended by this Legendary, just your own. It's still a terrific support Legendary, since it applies
정복자의 깃발's bonus to an additional group member. Even if the uptime extension receives a major nerf, this may still get some use from Necrolord Warriors looking to play an extreme support role, but it would come at a meaningful defensive sacrifice. As it's currently designed, it's better offensively, defensively, supportively, etcera-lly than either of the two current go-to options.
Venthyr
죄악의 쇄도And last, for Venthyr, we have
죄악의 쇄도, which is bad. Venthyr isn't a great Protection Warrior Covenant to begin with, and this adds zero damage and barely any meaningful defensive value. Extending
최후의 저항 is a decent concept, but this Legendary has no interaction with
강화, so it's purely an extension of the health increase. That's just nowhere close to being competitive with
앙갚음 or
벽, either offensively or defensively. Couple that with the defensive concerns Venthyr Warriors already face in choosing to cast
규탄 instead of
고통 감내, and you've got yourself a basically-worthless bonus. This may be great for the DPS specs, but it's a real stinker for Protection. Sorry.