Teldrassil
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Night Elf
Hunter
23 hours ago
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I've been thinking quite a bit about the current content in WoW Forever and how much of it seems to favour the Alliance so far.

I'll admit that I'm probably looking at it from a slightly biased (and admittedly tilted) perspective. I play Alliance in Classic, where the world already tends to favour that faction, and my guild is adamant about going Horde this time around. I'm really hoping we see more Horde-focused content in the near future, if only to spare myself the overwhelming FOMO of missing out on all the Alliance additions. But I digress!

Anyway, I've put together a summary of the differences below. Feel free to chip in with your thoughts or point out any content I've overlooked!

For context, I've exclusively played Horde on the beta, so there may well be some Alliance-specific content I've missed. My comparison is largely based on information shared by the developers, alongside some of the more obvious additions currently available in-game.

It's also worth acknowledging that comparing racial abilities introduces a bit of an Alliance bias from the outset, simply because many Horde racials were already strong and didn't necessarily need the same level of attention.

I've also intentionally left out some additions that are fairly evenly distributed between the factions, such as the handful of new quests added to most zones and the new race/class combinations available to both sides (Gnome Priest, Orc Mage, etc.).

Horde

  • Undead Paladin
  • Plainsrunning - Tauren
  • Touch of the Grave - Undead
  • Shatter Curse - Orc
  • Venomhide Ravasaur mount which serves as the Horde's version of the Winterspring Frostsaber
Alliance
  • Dwarf Shaman
  • Basically all Gnome racials
  • Will to Survive - Human
  • Elunes Light - Night Elf
  • Dalaran City & Kirin Tor reputation
  • Improved travel around Azeroth
  • Substantial new quest content in Wetlands12
  • Additional content in Darkshore source*
*The Darkshore additions might fall under the broader category of zones receiving a handful of new quests or existing storylines being concluded, rather than representing a significant Alliance-specific addition - please do correct me on this one!

I appreciate that not every addition needs to have a direct equivalent on the opposing faction, and that some of these changes are addressing existing imbalances rather than creating new ones. That said, looking at everything together, I can't help but feel that the Alliance is receiving a little more attention, particularly when it comes to world content.

Furthermore, Blizzard has apparently teased that the Horde are getting a Dalaran-equivalent city somewhere, but I cannot find the source on this rumour.

Am I letting my own bias (and Horde FOMO) get the better of me, or do you think there's a legitimate imbalance in the content we've seen so far?

Priest Discipline
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Undead
Priest
22 hours ago
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Alliance getting Dalaran when we haven't seen anything like that for Horde yet is pretty wild, but I feel like they must have something good up their sleeves for that in the higher levels. My best bet would be something related to ogres, which are heavily requested/speculated as a future race for Horde.

Or maybe Blizzard just decided to lean into the notion that they favor Alliance rather than trying to actually balance the factions :lol:

Ashenvale
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Night Elf
Druid
15 hours ago
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I maintain that Dalaran will be a cross faction hub. I don't believe that "it's a bug" was accurate and blame miscommunication. It makes no sense to create a quest line designed specifically to get Horde invited to Dalaran, and write unique lines for NPC reactions when you get there as a Horde character to then do a 180 and lock it up.

But I've also been saying Blizzard hates Horde for a long time. Outside of zeppelin travel, everything is better for Alliance - cities, questing progression, zones, racials. And in Forever, they even made ships better, without adding any new zep routes.

Hyperbole aside, Blizzard just doesn't get Horde. Which adding Blelves, and now Skelves as a playable race to them proves. It's like that old joke - "Horde is people playing as monsters. And Alliance is monsters playing as people." Add a 'pretty' race to the Horde and you ruin that, and create a situation where 30% of all characters are elves. It kills the whole flavor of the faction.

Before Classic, I have never touched an Alliance character and had no idea what the other side had. Decided to give it a go once Classic rolled around and I was shocked at how much better and smoother everything was. Now I'm an Alliance main. Because if Horde has elves anyway, at least I'll play as a faction that doesn't have to go to any undead zone until the 50s, and has cities that don't actively try to kill you.

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