Is the Alliance : Horde faction balance that big of difference? Looking to switch SL!

[NordWitcher]

So am considering making the switch to the Horde after almost my entire time on the Alliance. I've spent a short time on the Horde leveling in BFA and this may be a realm specific thing, but the Horde on Wyrmrest Accord were so much better than the Alliance on Moon Guard. I prefer playing on RP realms and the quality of trade chat, community and people were so much better.

Am wondering if the faction imbalance that big as most people on forums make it out to be. Personally am only interested in the AH economy, questing and Mythic + dungeons and am wondering if the quality of the people in PVP, BGs and Mythics is better than the pool on the Alliance?

Anyone that faction swapped recently or in recent months and would like to share their experiences?

[shadowmatrix]

Overall game population seems to be pretty balanced. It really comes down to the server and what you want to do. Raiding is mostly going to end up with a horde majority while mythic plus will lean towards the Alliance aka Night Elves.

[rogoth]

Overall game population seems to be pretty balanced. It really comes down to the server and what you want to do. Raiding is mostly going to end up with a horde majority while mythic plus will lean towards the Alliance aka Night Elves.

that's a pretty disingenuous and incorrect statement to make depending on the context, if we are talking total playerbase as a whole then sure it's going to be fairly evenly split, if you're talking PVP specifically then it's more of an alliance leaning population, if you're talking about raiding then it's almost entirely horde.

@OP it depends very much what level of play you are at, what you're looking to do in the game and how much you value the specific faction perks that come with either side, in your case it looks like you play at a very casual level and don't really care too much for character optimisation meaning that as a generalisation i would say you're safe to play whatever you find most fun as it will have very little impact on your overall gameplay.

[Sialina]

To help you answer that question we need to know your region on top of the server type. In EU for example there are very few alliance PvE guilds and PUGS left, there are about 7-8 times more high end horde groups. PvP is about the same. But it might be different on RP realms, and if you are in the Oceanic region Alliance dominates. So we really need to know where you are planning to play.

[A Chozo]

that's a pretty disingenuous and incorrect statement to make depending on the context

It isn't. Except for the Mythic+ part he's right, overall game population is almost even. It leans towards Horde when we talk about Hardcore Raiding but since almost no one hardcore raids, it's not considered part of any "overall". And as he said, it also depends on region / server. If OP plays OCE then it's ally-favored as far as I'm aware.

People are being dramatic when they say that "everyone" are Horde. It's just the Hardcore PvE players. Everyone else is nicely divided.

[deviantcultist]

People are being dramatic when they say that "everyone" are Horde.

From the people I've known over the years playing WoW, it feels like Horde have more of a mob mentality. In other words, you tend to see a few Hordies being extremely vocal and having people blindly following for the memes and such.

With that being said, I see Alliance people being more spread and having a hard time to stick together because of that. Due to the mentallity I mentioned above, I'm mostly content playing WoW without RL friends due to the fact that it always ends up being Horde blackmail.

[Throwme]

that's a pretty disingenuous and incorrect statement to make depending on the context, if we are talking total playerbase as a whole then sure it's going to be fairly evenly split

That is exactly what the bold part of your quote means.

[NordWitcher]

To help you answer that question we need to know your region on top of the server type. In EU for example there are very few alliance PvE guilds and PUGS left, there are about 7-8 times more high end horde groups. PvP is about the same. But it might be different on RP realms, and if you are in the Oceanic region Alliance dominates. So we really need to know where you are planning to play.

Hey...So am in the NA region. Am stuck deciding between Moon Guard or Wyrmrest Accord. Yet both are RP realms and am mostly looking for something laid back.

[Aleksej89]

If you want to compete in the world first records then perhaps the faction choice can matter.

But if you just want to enjoy the game and are fine not being in the top 5% fastest clears then pick the biggest server of the type you want and play the race/faction you desire.

I prefer to go for the biggest servers and (aside from expansion launch queues) i always have a MUCH better experience than on medium or low pop servers.

Meet and party up with people of compatible mentality (avoid ocd min/maxers unless you are one) and you will have a fun time.

[Cyi]

Hey...So am in the NA region. Am stuck deciding between Moon Guard or Wyrmrest Accord. Yet both are RP realms and am mostly looking for something laid back.

I live WrA and have since moved all my characters here. Alliance always has war mode bonus. I have heard that WrA is mostly horde biased were as MG is mostly alliance.

I am alliance and always am able to get done what I need to for what that’s worth.

[NordWitcher]

If you want to compete in the world first records then perhaps the faction choice can matter.

But if you just want to enjoy the game and are fine not being in the top 5% fastest clears then pick the biggest server of the type you want and play the race/faction you desire.

I prefer to go for the biggest servers and (aside from expansion launch queues) i always have a MUCH better experience than on medium or low pop servers.

Meet and party up with people of compatible mentality (avoid ocd min/maxers unless you are one) and you will have a fun time.

I remember back when I played the game or rather when the game was not "dying" I tried to move from "heavy" servers like Kel'Thuzad, Stormrage, etc and wanted a more smaller community approach. So I moved to a medium size server and was pretty happy - Doomhammer I think until I rerolled on Emerald Dream. I kinda like the "medium-smaller" server feel. I usually find the bigger servers to be terrible in the sense of community. Sure the city feels alive but trade chat is just totally hard to read at any time for instance. Also the economy is kinda fucked up if you are not camping these servers since they have a ton of campers.

So am trying to understand if things have changed and what are the benefits of running on a huge server like say Moon Guard? I mean how different is the experience on say a medium or low pop server?

- - - Updated - - -

I live WrA and have since moved all my characters here. Alliance always has war mode bonus. I have heard that WrA is mostly horde biased were as MG is mostly alliance.

I am alliance and always am able to get done what I need to for what that’s worth.

Where did you move from? I was actually on WrA back during 2011-14. I think this was probably my longest time on any one given realm and I enjoyed it. I quit the game at around 2014 and returned a few months ago and WrA had changed. Heard there was a mass exodus shortly after the launch of WoD. A lot moved to Moon Guard from what I was told. So I started on Moon Guard since I had a low level alt there and that was the only other Alliance heavy RP server. However, its a shit storm on this realm. Quite a mess really. I mean its great from the population point of view and the city feels really lively. A lot of people in every part of SW for example, however its a troll haven.

So am considering trying out Horde WrA and was wondering if you had any experience on the Horde side of things on WrA and if you could share.

[Khain]

It's retail community doesn't matter, I log and all I see are crossrealm randoms.

[Cyi]

- - - Updated - - -



Where did you move from? I was actually on WrA back during 2011-14. I think this was probably my longest time on any one given realm and I enjoyed it. I quit the game at around 2014 and returned a few months ago and WrA had changed. Heard there was a mass exodus shortly after the launch of WoD. A lot moved to Moon Guard from what I was told. So I started on Moon Guard since I had a low level alt there and that was the only other Alliance heavy RP server. However, its a shit storm on this realm. Quite a mess really. I mean its great from the population point of view and the city feels really lively. A lot of people in every part of SW for example, however its a troll haven.

So am considering trying out Horde WrA and was wondering if you had any experience on the Horde side of things on WrA and if you could share.

i actually moved characters from several realms, both RP and non. Moon guard, Boulderfist etc. I find the WrA Alliance pretty good, to be honest. Sure you will get the occasional morons in chat, but overall it seems good. Lots of guilds that do all kinds of content and lots of guilds doing RP focused stuff. We have an Alliance defense network community for PvP focused things as well. Overall, very happy here and can't imagine leaving it.

On the horde side, I only have one alt, but I find their trade to be lively, active, and generally troll-free as well, although admittedly I have much less experience on that side. Horde is the slightly dominant faction on WrA, much like Alliance is on MG although I don't really see it out in the open world. World PvP is pretty good, but not a ton of griefing, although I do tend to form up with groups in hotly contested areas.

My suggestion would be to make an alt and check out the horde side if you are interested. I don't think you would be unhappy and this is far from a "dead" server. Good luck and hope you find a good home.

[mrsohta]

Check raid progressions, mostly horde there... I also find groups easier on the horde side

[Overlord Anrakyr]

To help you answer that question we need to know your region on top of the server type. In EU for example there are very few alliance PvE guilds and PUGS left, there are about 7-8 times more high end horde groups. PvP is about the same. But it might be different on RP realms, and if you are in the Oceanic region Alliance dominates. So we really need to know where you are planning to play.

Uh...what?

Unless you're talking cutting edge, world first, content, that is far from being the case.
99,99999999% of people who do PVE will never raid above heroic and maybe a couple of bosses of mythic. So unless the OP thinks they're Method material, they really shouldn't be concerned about finding a PVE guild on the Alliance side.

I'm going to assume you play on a small-medium server, and that's why you're saying this. But things are entirely different on big servers. On Silvermoon EU I never found any issues getting into a PVE guild, and the guild finder has dozens of heroic guilds to choose from.

[Inukashi]

There's enough warcraft stats sides.

People having a character on both sides? Yeah that's even, because everyone has a lvl 1 toon on each side.

But after googling and comparing the first 2-3 sources it looks a bit different.

If we just take active lvl 50 characters it's 2:3 right now with more horde players and another migration coming with shadowlands.

After shadowlands we will have twice as much players with a max level character on horde side, than on alliance side. (1:2)

This isn't as much of a problem for raiders in EU where the two biggest servers on alliance and horde are of the same size. So if you wanna raid as alliance, go to silvermoon.

In USA the biggest server is already 25% smaller on alliance side, than on horde.

If you wanna pug m+ as alliance it's of course a problem, because this is not just one realm.

In korea it's 30k alliance vs 100k horde already on the biggest servers and Taiwan is pretty even right now.

[Spiffums]

Population balance is just like Havoc DHs.....not a problem unless you're in queable content that doesn't really matter.

[NordWitcher]

i actually moved characters from several realms, both RP and non. Moon guard, Boulderfist etc. I find the WrA Alliance pretty good, to be honest. Sure you will get the occasional morons in chat, but overall it seems good. Lots of guilds that do all kinds of content and lots of guilds doing RP focused stuff. We have an Alliance defense network community for PvP focused things as well. Overall, very happy here and can't imagine leaving it.

On the horde side, I only have one alt, but I find their trade to be lively, active, and generally troll-free as well, although admittedly I have much less experience on that side. Horde is the slightly dominant faction on WrA, much like Alliance is on MG although I don't really see it out in the open world. World PvP is pretty good, but not a ton of griefing, although I do tend to form up with groups in hotly contested areas.

My suggestion would be to make an alt and check out the horde side if you are interested. I don't think you would be unhappy and this is far from a "dead" server. Good luck and hope you find a good home.

And you mentioned Moon Guard. How was your Moon Guard experience as a whole? How was the economy on both Moon Guard and WrA? Would you recommend Moon Guard Alliance?

[Kithelle]

So am considering making the switch to the Horde after almost my entire time on the Alliance. I've spent a short time on the Horde leveling in BFA and this may be a realm specific thing, but the Horde on Wyrmrest Accord were so much better than the Alliance on Moon Guard. I prefer playing on RP realms and the quality of trade chat, community and people were so much better.

Am wondering if the faction imbalance that big as most people on forums make it out to be. Personally am only interested in the AH economy, questing and Mythic + dungeons and am wondering if the quality of the people in PVP, BGs and Mythics is better than the pool on the Alliance?

Anyone that faction swapped recently or in recent months and would like to share their experiences?

If you want to do anything competitive I'd say go Horde...if you just don't care go Alliance

[kranur]

There's enough warcraft stats sides.

People having a character on both sides? Yeah that's even, because everyone has a lvl 1 toon on each side.

But after googling and comparing the first 2-3 sources it looks a bit different.

If we just take active lvl 50 characters it's 2:3 right now with more horde players and another migration coming with shadowlands.

After shadowlands we will have twice as much players with a max level character on horde side, than on alliance side. (1:2)

This isn't as much of a problem for raiders in EU where the two biggest servers on alliance and horde are of the same size. So if you wanna raid as alliance, go to silvermoon.

In USA the biggest server is already 25% smaller on alliance side, than on horde.

If you wanna pug m+ as alliance it's of course a problem, because this is not just one realm.

In korea it's 30k alliance vs 100k horde already on the biggest servers and Taiwan is pretty even right now.

You really need to learn how to count. If you look on wowprogress where only max level characters are counted you'll see that OVERALL the population is pretty even.

Now that hardcore raiders prefer horde and hardcore pvp-ers prefer alliance or are even it's a different thing.

Now on picking factions, if you're not aiming to be a very hardcore player in either area just pick the faction you like on a server that has a high population for it and you'll be fine. End of story.