With World of Warcraft: Shadowlands well on its way, the Soulbindings that will be available to players have all been revealed. Each of the four available Covenants have had their Soulbindings and the traits therein revealed for players to plan.
Within each Covenant will be three separate Soulbinding paths, each of which support a similar theme but have unique abilities and traits. These are primarily passive traits that help to augment or add new effects for each player.
Recently, Wowhead released a calculator of the Soulbinding effects to help players plan for what Covenant they’re planning on joining, which you can find embedded below. With twelve Soulbindings altogether, it can be a bit overwhelming.
We’ll be discussing the Necrolord Covenant here, a death-focused Covenant given when one pledges themselves to the realm of Maldraxxus. Primarily focused on rot, death, and undeath, the Necrolords make strong use of combat-centric traits.
The first option, Bonesmith Heirmir, grants the following eight traits:
- Serrated Spaulders – Inflicts a Shadow DoT effect to melee attackers
- Resourceful Fleshcrafting – Defeating an enemy reduces the cooldown of Fleshcraft by 1 second
- Heirmir’s Arsenal: Ravenous Pendant – Defeating an opponent restores 1% of max health, stacking 5 times
- Heirmir’s Arsenal: Gorestompers – Damaging/healing a target below 35% health grants movement speed
- Heirmir’s Arsenal: Marrowed Gemstone – After landing 10 crit strikes, gain increased crit strike chance for 10 seconds
- Runeforged Spurs – Mounted movement speed increased by 5%, increasing to 10% for 30 seconds if struck while mounted
- Smithing Expertise – Gain mining materials from various activities
- Forgeborne Reveries – Upon death, fight for 10 additional seconds before dying with 50% reduced damage/healing
The second option, Emeni, will grant you the following eight traits:
- Emeni’s Magnificent Skin – When using your Necrlord class ability, gain a stack of this trait, consumable by Fleshcraft to increase your health by 5%. Stacks up to 4 times
- Cartilaginous Legs – After taking fall damage, the lost health becomes a 15-second shield
- Hearth Kidneystone – Attunable to any location with a 24-hour cooldown, which is reduced by 5 minutes for every killing blow
- Gristled Toes – Movement speed increased by 2% for every nearby enemy, stacking 5 times
- Gnashing Chompers – Defeating an enemy grants 1% haste for 20 seconds, stacking 5 times
- Sulfuric Emission – When reduced below 20% max health, fear nearby enemies for 3 seconds
- Runescribed Bone – Defeating enemies grants one stack of 1% magic damage reduction. At 5 stacks, empowers other soulbound traits.
Finally, if neither of these two effective options appeals to you, then Plague Deviser Marileth may offer a Soulbinding you prefer, with the following eight traits:
- Volatile Solvent – Fleshcraft grants bonuses when used near a corpse, with the bonus depending on the creature’s type
- Travel with Bloop – standing still builds stacks of Bloop’s Wanderlust. At 10 stacks, movement speed is increased by 10%
- Ooz’s Frictionless Coating – When reduced below half max health, grants a shield for 10% of max health
- Plaguey’s Preemptive Strike – first attack/spell on an enemy increases damage done to them by 10%, assuming Plaguey isn’t already attacking another target
- Kevin’s Keyring – Opens locks up to 600 skill, with a cooldown reduced by utilizing Fleshcraft
- Plagueborn Cleansing Slime – Chance to slightly repair your armor when defeating an enemy
- Ultimate Form – Fleshcraft grants immunity to crowd control
With these three options, the Necrlords provide a wonderful bit of utility while also granting some excellent damage buffs and bonuses. While it may not be the most effective for every specific class, every role will certainly find something worth pledging to here.
