Necrolord Covenant in Shadowlands

In the skull-and-bone laboratories of Maldraxxus, strength is rewarded, and weakness cast aside. Necromancers experiment on the souls of the ambitious and contentious, reforming only the greatest into undead soldiers who protect the Shadowlands. Those who are determined rise to positions of power. The less-promising become fuel for Maldraxxus’ malign weapons.

Maldraxxus’ brutal selection process has built a vast and capable militia… but its hierarchy is wobbling. The longtime leader of the realm has vanished. In his absence, five of the most eminent Necrolords vie for the position, and the responsibility to advance the cause of death throughout the cosmos. Each bids on newly-arrived souls, filling their personal guard with capable soldiers and building armies larger than any yet known.

When they march, will it be towards one another… or the realms they swore to defend?

Players will receive cosmetic and ability rewards for choosing the Necrolords as their Covenant. They also gain the ability to unlock unique buffs for their parties in the Maldraxxus dungeons.

Most importantly, you unlock item level 197 gear by completing your Covenant campaign, as long as you have the Anima required to upgrade it. This allows any kind of player to attain at least that item level easily, just by doing questing content.

For Necrolords, the vendor and upgrade NPCs are located in the Seat of the Primus, in the southeastern room around the 57, 49 map coordinates. You can also upgrade your gear at the PvP upgrade NPC in Oribos, for Anima.

Buying a piece of gear you previously sold costs 100 Anima and upgrading costs 50 for the Rank 1 to Rank 2 upgrade and 50 additional Anima for each following level, so going to Rank 3 costs 100, going to Rank 4 costs 150 and so on. The gear obtained on later Covenant quests already comes with a much higher rank, so it is not nearly as expensive as it looks to buy a full perfect set.

Covenants will reward players with cosmetics based on their chosen covenant. As of right now, we know that players will receive a mount, a pet, an armour set, and cloaks that have the appearance of wings.

Below is an image of all of the plate sets. The Necrolord set is the first set from the left.

The signature ability for the Necrolords is Fleshcraft. It forms a shield of flesh and bone over 4 seconds that prevents damage equal to 20% of your maximum health for 2 minutes. Standing witin 10 yards of the corpse of a defeated enemy when the ability is cast will create a larger shield, up to 50% of your maximum health.

The Necrolord class abilities are different for each class. You can find them in our class ability guides below.

By completing weekly quests for the Necrolord Covenant and progressing its unique storyline campaign, you will be able to advance your renown.

Renown is one of the main power progression systems of Shadowlands, and is heavily time gated, as you can only advance your renown level by a very limited amount every week.

If you miss out on advancing your renown in certain weeks, or have just hit 60 with a new alt, you will be able to advance your renown rapidly until you arrive at the current week's renown cap.

Increasing renown unlocks extra powers for your Soulbinds, increases the item level of rewards from World Quests, enables the crafting of new legendaries and grants you cosmetic items, among other effects. Learn more about renown here:

Plague Deviser Marileth, Emeni and Bonesmith Heirmir will, over the course of the Necrolord quests, allow you to bind with them as Soulbinds.

By progressing through your Renown, you will be able to unlock unique powers and extra slots for Conduits. Discover these powers and experiment yourself with our calculator.

The Anima Conductor is unlocked and upgraded through your Anima Reservoir and allows you to unlock extra daily activities in your Covenant's home zone.

While each zone has its own activities, the design logic behind each is very similar between Covenants, and as such we created a general guide to help you decide where to focus your daily efforts, complete with Maldraxxus examples!

Adventures are the new mission table system in Shadowlands. Missions will no longer have up to 200% success, depending on how well your followers counter its hazards, but instead they play out like an auto-battler and follower positioning is almost as important as the choice of followers to use.

Because the core mechanics of this system work similarly for all Covenants, we have created a common guide for Adventures, which you can access in the link below.

By becoming a Necrolord, you become able to grant your party unique buffs in the Maldraxxus dungeons. Learn more about these on our detailed guide below!

If you ever regret having picked the Necrolord, you can change your Covenant. This is simple if you are changing to a Covenant you never tried before, but complex if you want to rejoin another Covenant. Learn more about changing your Covenant in our detailed guide below!