Allied Races made faction imbalance even worse.

[ro9ue]

You're free to believe what you want, but my point was that people don't have to play everyday in order to have unlocked Mechagnomes by now. I myself came back to 8.2.5 and didn't play since whenever Uldir released, played that for a few weeks then stopped, and I still unlocked Mechagnomes day 1.

And your conclusion doesn't make sense, so a whole one side of the two factions, Horde, did manage to have most of its playerbase play all the time in order to have Vulperas unlocked but this wasn't the case for majority of Alliance side? Plus if people aren't always doing Mechagon rep when they're online then it fits with what I said: People are not compelled enough by most of the AR Alliance side to unlock them. Mechagnomes appear to fall under this.

Especially when if you think about it, the initial release of an AR should be when it has its most population.

A lot of your response is supporting my conclusions.

Vulpera were a part of the first questing zones that almost everyone did years ago. Mechagon was added after the game fell off for a while and lots unsubbed.

[Aresk]

My only 120 allied race is a void elf. I have a lightforged, mag'har, and vulpera that have been barely touched (all sub 60, and the vulpera started at level 58). I'm guessing I'm not alone in dabbling a bit in both factions for AR, though I've definitely put more time in Alliance than Horde this expansion. Overall, drawing any conclusion about faction imbalance based solely on those numbers is going to be questionable at best.

Ah yes, I remember the countless threads of Horde players saying "I want me some more of that AU stuff, who doesn't like AU" or asking for Tauren but with antlers.

People have been asking for mag'har orcs since BC. The fact they came from the AU wasn't requested, but the outcome of making a brown-skinned orc was still achieved.

Mok'nathal? Nope, AU abominations.
Forest Trolls? Nope, Trolls whose model is at least partially built upon the Night Elven skeleton.
Taunka? Nope, Highmountain.
Gilgoblins? Nope, furry Goblins.
San'layn? Nope, Nightborne that suffered a downgrade since Legion.

I would definitely have liked for mok'nathal (though not Mok'nathal) to be added, and I would've loved to play an Amani troll. I wouldn't want to exclude the mag'har or zandalari, but I'd take them over nightborne. Given that vulpera already outnumber goblins in the 20-120 range, I think your assessment about gilgoblins over vulpera is in the minority, but without actual gilgoblin numbers, that's just conjecture.

[Byleth]

Quick side note about diaper gnomes... I know a lot of my ally friends have yet to unlock these. They been slacking on the requirements, but they should pick up some traction over time.

[FossilFree]

They really should scrap the faction divide or at least shake things up a bit. Covenants could have been a new faction system pitting 4 different factions against each other, while letting you choose your faction. Sure there would still be imbalances, but it wouldn't be based on race choice anymore.

Such a missed opportunity with Covenants.

[Doffen]

Shame realmpop isn't up anymore. It shows a quite even side when it comes to Allied Races and Void Elves are the most popular by far.

Problem with warcraftrealms is that it needs us to provide them with info. So to take an absurd example: If you take 4 servers and use whatever addon that provides them with info, and you take info from Illidan-US, Draenor-EU both heavily horde populated servers with two mixed servers, it would of course show that Horde Allied Races are more popular because their intel is based on 80% Horde players and 20% Alliance players. Point is that info like that can be heavily skewed.

[Kithelle]

What? Did you not actually read it? The OP does state “ Only 31.7% of all allied races characters are Alliance.” How about looking at the whole thing?

But why pay attention to facts when he can call Alliance whiners?

Kinda ironic how people (Probably just like him) were whining how Mechagnome racials are so OP

[agentsi]

I was looking out of curiosity at the mecha gnome numbers lately and was shocked about the overall numbers of allied races. I was guessing it was bad but not in that margin.

Zandalari Troll	5504	19,4	H
Void Elf	5089	17,9	A
Nightborne	3895	13,7	H
Vulpera	3686	13,0	H
Mag'thar Orc	3164	11,2	H
HighMountain Tauren	1913	6,7	H
Dark Iron	1833	6,5	A
Lightforged Draenei	1832	6,5	A
Kul Tiran	847	3,0	A
Mechagnome	591	2,1	A

(23.Jan.2020 Src: Warcraftrealms)
Only 31.7% of all allied races characters are Alliance. Given that the numbers of warcraftrealms aren't complete but the margin is big enough to see a strong trend here.
The only Alliance allied being able to compete are void elves. The rest is played less than the least played horde allied race (Lightforged and Darkiron are close but still less). Mechagnomes and Kul Tiran are over 6 times less played than their counterparts with Vulpera and Zandalari. (Who would have guessed )
Zandalari alone are more than Lightforged, Darkiron, Kultirans and Mechagnomes combined (19,4% vs 18,1%)

This is what happens when you give one side races that they wanted and the other one ones that they never asked for.

Nobody likes gnomes, they NEVER should've been an allied race in the first place when alliance have so many other options that make just as much sense if not more.

[De Lupe]

As opposed to Vrykul, who are just tall humans.

And even then they would have to be scaled down so much to fit in the Alliance architecture that they would really just be beardy humans.

Sooo...tall Dwarves.

[qwerty123456]

Ah yes, I remember the countless threads of Horde players saying "I want me some more of that AU stuff, who doesn't like AU" or asking for Tauren but with antlers.




It suggests no such thing. There's literally no data here that would do so.




Yet looking at those numbers, Void Elves are the superior option to Nightborne. So that would be at least two. The rest of your post is subjective nonsense.

Mok'nathal? Nope, AU abominations.
Forest Trolls? Nope, Trolls whose model is at least partially built upon the Night Elven skeleton.
Taunka? Nope, Highmountain.
Gilgoblins? Nope, furry Goblins.
San'layn? Nope, Nightborne that suffered a downgrade since Legion.

Just because there were viable alternatives to each race doesn't mean those alternatives would be vastly more popular or that Blizzard is objectively giving the Alliance lesser options. I mean, Broken? Seriously? Broken are not only ugly as sin by design (since they are corrupted abomination) but also short. Both of which tend to make a race unpopular.

How can you say the data doesn't suggest such a thing and then in the very same post and say Void Elves are superior to Nightborne? I agree with you that you can't draw any conclusions from the data.

[Ielenia]

<snip>

What did you expect, when the Horde gets three races they actually asked for (Zandalari, Mag'har orcs, Vulpera) plus two races that we spent the first half of Legion developing their lore and getting to know them (Highmountain tauren, Nightborne)... while the Alliance gains one race they actually asked for (Dark Iron dwarves) and then four races no one asked for (lightforged draenei, fat humans, void elves, and [in my opinion, the shittier version of an already shitty race] junker gnomes)

[Rootsbum]

My main is a KT Human, and main alt a mechagnome.

Im a special snowflake.

I prefer less played races though, since my characters stand mlre out of the crowd

[Yarathir]

I'm shocked Mechagnomes are even that, uhh.. 'popular' that so many of them were made in such a short timespan.

- - - Updated - - -

This is a chicken or the egg sorta thing.

Are there not many people playing Alliance races because they're "uninteresting" races or -much more likely in my opinion- because most people prefer to play Horde?

Well, considering people had ties to Nightborne from pretty much having a dedicated questline to giving them a second chance and helping their rebellion and people have asked for Zandalari since forever.. prolly the former.

And frankly, who wants to play fat humans and amputee gnomes? I respect that Kul Tirans have mostly or entirely a unique rig, but their aesthetic is still not very appealing to most. Dark Irons are fairly popular and were tied with another reskin race. Void Elves are popular because they're the Blood Elf model on the Alliance. Lightforged are just a bunch of customization options that should've gone to draenei.

[Polarthief]

Yet another reason they need to break down the faction barriers. When Ion said the "HvA war is the cornerstone of WoW", I just lost all faith in him.

[Yarathir]

Vulpera were a part of the first questing zones that almost everyone did years ago. Mechagon was added after the game fell off for a while and lots unsubbed.

Mechagnome unlock requirements are faction agnostic, though.

Vulpera ones are not.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm honestly surprised Kul Tiran numbers are so low. They're universally liked by my friends, saying they look far cooler than regular humans ("at least the males do") even though they're fat, because they look "strong-fat", and have awesome druid forms. Only reason my friends don't play them is because they're diehard Horde.

The males are ok because they're strongfat, but the women are.. eh. Amy Schumer.

Neither of those beat Zandalari Trolls, though.

- - - Updated - - -

Kul Tiran are bears with a belly, they got really thick arms and legs so it's not just fat. But I'm not arguing the point players here would sooner play a skinny twink model then one with a belly.

Or a tall, lean upright troll with mayan culture and gold everything.

- - - Updated - - -

When it comes to gnomes, not really anything else. But when it comes to Alliance itself? I'm sure there were better options than Mechagnomes.

If Junker Gnomes hadn't been built from the ground up to be amputees, they could've just been actual fully mechanized Gnomes, not diaperchildren.

- - - Updated - - -

If they had given skinny kul tirans I bet that number would be higher.

It's funny because Rexxar is on the kul tiran rig and he actually looks muscular, not musclefat. He's probably also a sign of what's to come, (Mok'nathal allied race) so that means that even when the Alliance does get a technically very invested rig, the Horde will have it used for a cooler looking race.

And no, I don't believe they made the kul tiran rig and never plan to reuse it. That's just not financially viable for a gaming company with player races and an overt system that reuses player skeletons.

[Surfd]

Yeah not really surprisingly in the least. All but one Alliance allied race was the lesser option.

High Elves? Nope, Void. Yeah Void is a high number, would have been higher.
Broken? Nope, lightforged.
Vrykul? Nope, fat humans.
Mechagnomes? Nope, trash gnomes.

So your choices for Alliance races are literally 3 races that blizzard would have had to Straight up obliterate any pretense of lore to make work?

Broken, sure, they work.

High elves? Not happening. Ever. Get over it. That ship sailed long ago.
Vyrkul? Not happening. The Vyrkul HATE humans, like, literally consider them deformed weaklings who should be left out to die from exposure at birth, and straight up have 0 reason by even the craziest twisting of the lore to work with the alliance.
Mechagnomes? They aren't even a "race" in the proper sense. They are Titan constructs. There is about as much chance of them joining the alliance as "allies" as the Earthen. Any "True" Mechagnome would probably view 90% of Azeroths inhabitants as aberrations in the titan's great plan, rather than something to be approached as a partner.

[dragi]

Alliance horde....slightly imbalance...today example from 7:45AM EU, dungeon finder m+ : alliance 2 groups, horde ~15
But no problem everything ok....

[MatthiasLehner]

I'm shocked that you were shocked. Which part of this is shocking?

1. Zandalar, Nightborne, Vulpera were going to be popular from the get go.

2. Mag'har Orcs are one of the fan favourites as well. With many customization options for varying tribes.

3. Alliance got great racials but extra tidious rep grinds, not so great of visual variations, and Kul Tiran are just a no-no, and the nail on the coffin was Mechagnomes, the worst of the worst for the mass. (Dwarves and Gnomes are the least popular in the first place)

If some of the Alliance AR received more visually differing treatments, it would've been better but yeah, none of that happened.

[Devilyaki]

Just think this shows more people playing their factions allied races than more people moving over to a faction.

[Echocho]

[H] Zandalari Troll - Unique good looking model, very popular.
[A] Void Elf - Reskin but of one of the most popular races in the game
[H] Nightborne - Unique good looking model (although I believe it uses the same skeleton as night elves), very popular.
[H] Vulpera - Uses the same skeleton as goblins (I believe?) but sorta unique and extremely popular.
[H] Mag'thar Orc - Reskin
[H] HighMountain Tauren - Reskin
[A] Dark Iron - Reskin
[A] Lightforged Draenei - Reskin
[A] Kul Tiran - Unique awful looking model. Not very popular.
[A] Mechagnome - Reskin that's somehow worse than the original that wasn't very good to begin with.

If they hadn't given the alliance as many reskins it would've been better.

[GreenJesus]

Worgen became one of the highest played races for abit when they were introduced, quickly dropped.
people love the cool animal races, cause anyone can go outsdie and see/be a tall buff dude, or short chubby guy.
but no one can see/be an animal.
except furries.... weebs.

Hey now.. dont assume weebs are furries. We may be degenerates but at least we aren't furries.