How to use the Covenant Mission Helper addon for Shadowlands covenant adventures (missions).
The default UI for covenant adventure tables can be brutal to use. In addition to poorly marked XP rewards, it isn’t always clear how combat will play out. Fortunately, there are several addons you can use to make up for these shortcomings. In this guide, I want to show you how to use an addon called CovenantMissionHelper.
How does CovenantMissionHelper work?
CovenantMissionHelper improves on the default adventure UI by adding the base XP for each mission. You can hover over the XP box to see how much experience your companions will earn per hour.
This allows you to see which adventures are awarding the most XP and which ones have the best return for your time.
The addon also adds some helpful tools that you can use to simulate adventures and adjust troop positions for a better chance at success.
I will dive more into those features in a moment, but first, let’s talk about installing the addon.
How to install the CovenantMissionHelper addon in WoW
You can install CovenantMissionHelper by downloading it manually from CurseForge, or you can use an addon manager. I personally prefer to use an addon manager because it makes installing and updating addons much easier. One of the best managers out there now is WowUp.
If you need help installing addons, I did write an Addon Installation Guide that I recommend you read.
How to use the Covenant Mission Helper addon
Using CovenantMissionHelper is straightforward. In addition to clarifying XP rewards, the addon allows you to simulate mission outcomes and optimize your unit placement.
Optimize Units
When you open an individual adventure, you will notice that CovenantMissionHelper adds a box on the right side of the window.
This is where all of the magic happens.
To get started, you can begin placing units on the board. The fastest way to do this is to right-click on the ones you want to add. Don’t worry about where you place them; the addon will take care of that.
As each additional unit is placed, you will notice that the addon begins making a prediction. It will tell you whether you can expect to win or lose and how much HP each of your units will have at the end.
This real-time prediction is one of the best features in CovenantMissionHelper.
Once you finish adding your units, it is time to press the Optimize button. This will move your units to minimize the amount of HP they lose.
Since companions have to level up or regain HP over time, losing less HP is a big deal!
Optimize will also improve your chance of success in missions as well. In the image below, you can see an example of a mission that I was predicted to fail. After hitting the optimize button, I was able to turn the tides and win the mission!
And that is about all there is to optimizing your missions with CovenentMissionHelper. You can dive into the step-by-step detail of the adventure further by clicking on the “Combat Log” tab under the prediction frame.
But what do you do if the optimize button is greyed out?
Simulate Adventures
If the enemies have random abilities or environmental auras, the optimize button will be greyed out. Fear not, the addon has another feature you can use to predict the adventure outcome called ‘Simulate.’
This does what it sounds like it does. It will simulate the mission 100 times to give you an idea of your likelihood of success.
If your simulation predicts defeat, you can try to move your units and simulate again. If that still isn’t working, you may want to include different companions and troops. It requires a little more manual work than optimizing, but it is worth the bit of time before sending troops out for 12 or more hours.
Covenant Mission Helper vs. Venture Plan
In a previous guide, I went over another mission table addon called Venture Plan. In comparing the two, they both have their pros and cons.
Venture Plan has many features and completely replaces the adventure UI. Covenant Mission Helper keeps many aspects of the Blizzard UI and then adds additional information and tools to help. Both addons simulate and help you optimize your units to give you the best chance of success.
The most important question is whether they both do a good job of predicting outcomes. I am hoping to do a future guide where I run many missions and compare the accuracy rate. Until then, I can say that I have used both extensively and found that they both do a decent job predicting success correctly.
I rarely fail a mission that was a predicted success in either addon.
Final Thoughts
The default UI for the adventure table lacks a lot of important information needed to optimize your mission table. CovenantMissionHelper provides an improved interface and several tools to help you win missions more frequently. It is a great addon, and I would recommend that you check it out!
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