Shadowlands: A Look at Cross-Faction Instances
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Make frenemies of your enemies when you party with players from the opposing faction!

As initially outlined in a previous post, cross-faction instances will break the faction divide by allowing friends from the opposite faction to play together. It will also expand opportunities for players to pursue their favorite group content.

Grouping Up
To invite members of the opposite faction to a party, players must have a BattleTag or Real ID friendship or be members of a cross-faction WoW Community.

Players will have the ability to find Premade Groups in the Group Finder for dungeons (Normal, Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+), raids, rated arena/RBGs, and also Torghast. However, the group leader may restrict the listing to same-faction applicants if they choose.

Once in a party, members of the opposite faction will remain unfriendly while outside of instances, though they will be able to communicate through party and raid chat, as well as use /say and /yell within proximity of one another.

Upon entering a dungeon, raid, or rated PvP match, however, all members will be friendly and able to assist each other in combat, trade loot, earn shared achievements, and otherwise fully engage the same way members of the same faction do.

Guilds
Guilds will remain single-faction, and random matchmade activities like Heroic dungeons, Skirmishes, or Random Battlegrounds will all remain same-faction.

Legacy Instances
The functionality of the cross-faction instance feature will also apply to legacy instances and is available at all levels. However, there will be several older instances that cross-faction parties cannot enter due to faction-specific components, and they are:

  • Trial of the Champion
  • Trial of the Crusader
  • Vault of Archavon
  • Icecrown Citadel
  • Baradin Hold
  • Siege of Boralus
  • Battle of Dazar'alor
  • Darkmaul Citadel (Exile's Reach dungeon)

Cross-faction instances are ready for you to reach across the faction divide in the Shadowlands 9.2.5 content update. We'll see you in the Azeroth!
This article was originally published in forum thread: Shadowlands: A Look at Cross-Faction Instances started by Stoy View original post
Comments 30 Comments
  1. Rucati's Avatar
    "To invite members of the opposite faction to a party, players must have a BattleTag or Real ID friendship or be members of a cross-faction WoW Community."

    I could have sworn they said this would work through group finder, which doesn't use any of those. If it's actually only for people on realID or in a community that's basically useless for m+ and arenas, which are 2 of the 3 things you're able to do with this.
  1. Edlarel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rucati View Post
    "To invite members of the opposite faction to a party, players must have a BattleTag or Real ID friendship or be members of a cross-faction WoW Community."

    I could have sworn they said this would work through group finder, which doesn't use any of those. If it's actually only for people on realID or in a community that's basically useless for m+ and arenas, which are 2 of the 3 things you're able to do with this.
    Literally the next sentence.

    Players will have the ability to find Premade Groups in the Group Finder for dungeons (Normal, Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+), raids, rated arena/RBGs, and also Torghast. However, the group leader may restrict the listing to same-faction applicants if they choose.
  1. Rucati's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Edlarel View Post
    Literally the next sentence.

    Players will have the ability to find Premade Groups in the Group Finder for dungeons (Normal, Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+), raids, rated arena/RBGs, and also Torghast. However, the group leader may restrict the listing to same-faction applicants if they choose.
    Ah, see it really helps a lot to not skip over paragraphs rofl. Good thing at least someone around here reads the whole post.
  1. InfernalDark's Avatar
    Alliance dogs are not welcome to my raids, sorry.
  1. Rendark's Avatar
    It's a good start.
  1. Deadite's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by InfernalDark View Post
    Alliance dogs are not welcome to my raids, sorry.
    LFM Normal Sepulcher 280ilvl NO GNOMES!! You know it is gonna happen.
  1. 3DTyrant's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Deadite View Post
    LFM Normal Sepulcher 280ilvl NO GNOMES!! You know it is gonna happen.
    I can see it now, "My weapon broke, load the Gnome Launcher 3000!"
  1. Knight Meta's Avatar
    So I may have missed a detail somewhere along the line here but did they ever explain WHY they are not opening up for LFD and LFR to be done cross faction? Like don't get me wrong; I got no friends so it does not really phase me too much but since I just can't recall ever seeing WHY they are not opening up for this; I figured I'd just ask and hope that someone can confirm for me that it's NOT due to "technical limitations" seen as Private Servers have done cross-faction LFD for like 5+ years now.

    Yeah I know you can just "Make group and go there manually" with the premade group finder, but this means that they do allow cross faction to in fact do dungeons together. So why not allow it to be done via LFD / LFR?
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Knight Meta View Post
    So I may have missed a detail somewhere along the line here but did they ever explain WHY they are not opening up for LFD and LFR to be done cross faction? Like don't get me wrong; I got no friends so it does not really phase me too much but since I just can't recall ever seeing WHY they are not opening up for this; I figured I'd just ask and hope that someone can confirm for me that it's NOT due to "technical limitations" seen as Private Servers have done cross-faction LFD for like 5+ years now.

    Yeah I know you can just "Make group and go there manually" with the premade group finder, but this means that they do allow cross faction to in fact do dungeons together. So why not allow it to be done via LFD / LFR?
    From what I recall, it's been stated that they wanted cross-faction to be an opt-in experience. That approach wouldn't work for LFD/LFR.
  1. Klingers's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by InfernalDark View Post
    Alliance dogs are not welcome to my raids, sorry.
    So as long as we're not Worgen we're fine?
  1. Biomega's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alayea View Post
    From what I recall, it's been stated that they wanted cross-faction to be an opt-in experience. That approach wouldn't work for LFD/LFR.
    Why not? Have a checkbox, "I'm fine with cross-faction" -> if not checked nothing changes -> if checked you can mix and match with other faction.

    Doesn't seem like a massive hurdle to overcome, no?
  1. Cosmic Janitor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Biomega View Post
    Why not? Have a checkbox, "I'm fine with cross-faction" -> if not checked nothing changes -> if checked you can mix and match with other faction.

    Doesn't seem like a massive hurdle to overcome, no?
    Let the tribalistic man babies get used to some simple 5 man cross faction stuff first.
  1. Caprias's Avatar
    I'd really love to make 2-3 classes alliance now for dragonflight but that's all for naught if there is no cross-guilds in the prepatch or at launch..
  1. Biomega's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Caprias View Post
    I'd really love to make 2-3 classes alliance now for dragonflight but that's all for naught if there is no cross-guilds in the prepatch or at launch..
    Yeah I don't think we'll see significant improvement until it works for guilds.

    Don't get me wrong it'll help some right away, but guilds is where it's at for alleviating the bulk of the problem.
  1. bruxx's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Caprias View Post
    I'd really love to make 2-3 classes alliance now for dragonflight but that's all for naught if there is no cross-guilds in the prepatch or at launch..
    Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, nothing has changed until it affects guilds.
    A good first step to be sure.
  1. Rafalga's Avatar
    So this says party members will be unfriendly till they enter the instance except chatting is open as usual but what does this mean for the summoning stone?
  1. PsychoSe7eN's Avatar
    Alliance scum not welcome to come.
  1. Doffen's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Deadite View Post
    LFM Normal Sepulcher 280ilvl NO GNOMES!! You know it is gonna happen.
    No gnomes is already a requirement in many Alliance raids.
  1. Relapses's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Doffen View Post
    No gnomes is already a requirement in many Alliance raids.
    To be fair, Goblins get a similar treatment here on the Horde.
  1. Celement's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Cosmic Janitor View Post
    Let the tribalistic man babies get used to some simple 5 man cross faction stuff first.
    Do they even exist?

    I can recall when alliance outnumbered horde before racials killed them. Are they pretending most didn't chase power now?

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