Do you think blood elves were stronger than night elves? Who would have won in a war?

[Mestalis]

So I'd say that it is imperative to mention how the Sin'dorei have allies that are more than willing to assist them in most if not every scenario, such as the Nightborne who are magically superior to every playable race if not every extant race period. The so-called comrades of the Kal'dorei hardly ever assist them in any endeavour, only enlisting them as farmhands after the torching of their capital treehouse.
'

If we're getting other playable races involved, this might as well be an Alliance vs. Horde thread.

[saintminya]

If we're getting other playable races involved, this might as well be an Alliance vs. Horde thread.

Not what I intended with that remark, but if that were the case then the Sin'dorei and however many Horde forces backing them up would easily outnumber and overpower the Kal'dorei and their Worgen allies that would likely be the only significant group that would actually come to their aid. However, in this type of scenario I do think the battle would significantly more balanced than simply Blood Elves sans Nightborne against the more-than-competent but culturally misguided Night Elves. With the support of the Horde and the Blood Elves leading the charge then the battle would be in favour of them, with only the duration being unpredictably variable. Even with the superior healing of NE druids.

[Mestalis]

Not what I intended with that remark, but if that were the case then the Sin'dorei and however many Horde forces backing them up would easily outnumber and overpower the Kal'dorei and their Worgen allies that would likely be the only significant group that would actually come to their aid. However, in this type of scenario I do think the battle would significantly more balanced than simply Blood Elves sans Nightborne against the more-than-competent but culturally misguided Night Elves. With the support of the Horde and the Blood Elves leading the charge then the battle would be in favour of them, with only the duration being unpredictably variable. Even with the superior healing of NE druids.

You said it wasn't what you intended, but then only elaborated on the statement that you said you didn't intend... lol. I think the OP was implicitly excluding other playable races. There's no telling which members of the Alliance or Horde would come to help, and the debate around that is a completely different question than what the OP was asking. In a strictly NE vs BE battle, at any point in the history of Azeroth as we know it, the NE forces would far outnumber the BE forces.

[saintminya]

How do you figure that the dwindling population of the Night Elves, with only hundreds apparently remaining, outnumber the Blood elves and their constructs? Perhaps you know something I don't.

[Kithelle]

So I'd say that it is imperative to mention how the Sin'dorei have allies that are more than willing to assist them in most if not every scenario, such as the Nightborne who are magically superior to every playable race if not every extant race period. The so-called comrades of the Kal'dorei hardly ever assist them in any endeavour, only enlisting them as farmhands after the torching of their capital treehouse.
'
Also, you can't compare corporeal entities to non-corporeal ones like ghosts. The whole of the Horde was decisively not engaged in the Battle for Darkshore, so who knows what the outcome would be if that faction went all in. Ghostlands is stuck in the last decade or so, so while ghouls and ghosts still roam that cursed region there aren't anywhere near as abundant as they were in BC.

So the Blood Elves need their allies to help them beat the Night Elves? So then they're inferior...

Plus Humans make the strongest magic users, they just are short lived...heck in certain magics even the Blood Elves outdo the Nightborne

[Woggmer]

Well, aside from the Scourge at their doorstep and the Amani trolls even closer. Blood Elves are pretty much in a weakened state to where a naval assault is very possible. We've been more focused on the Forsaken having a fleet of some kind yet they closest harbor that they have is in Silverpine. It also doesn't help but that even nature turned against the blood elves, with agitated treants coming active and turning hostile towards any that come near them.

Blood Elves have the isle of Quel'danas on a remote island, sure, but we've seen it get attacked by both Arthas and the Scourge, Kil'jaeden and the Burning Legion, and accidentally by Alleria when she made that little visit to the Sunwell. The Sunwell is a large energy conduit, but it's been the subject of attacks and has nearly fallen to the hands of dangerous groups too many times to count. Nobody was able to stop Arthas from getting to the Sunwell and only a large group of heroes (aka the Players) were able to stop Kil'jaeden before he could use the Sunwell.

Now, Nordrassil is one of the tallest mountains in Kalimdor, it would require a long journey up a mountain just reach the top. Only Archimonde was able to reach the World Tree whereas his commanders never made it far up the path. The Alliance and Horde were stationed at key points to hold them back until the Night Elves came. Then Malfurion blew on a loud horn and summoned a bunch of wisps which destroyed Archimonde before he did permanent damage to Nordrassil. There was also the time Ragneros tried to attack Nordrassil, but he wasn't able to get near it and neither could the Twilight's Hammer or their crazed elementals. Most of the fighting was pushing Ragneros's forces back further and further (yet for some reason nobody thought that Deathwing could get there and do it himself that he had to get Ragneros to do it)

Without the Sunwell, Blood Elves have been prone to become dependent on the magic and suffer from withdrawals. They would have to find various methods and ways to keep their addiction down or else turned into husks of their former self. High Elves are probably stronger since they don't rely on any dependance of magic or they found better alternatives than the blood elves which they turned to Fel Magic (Thanks Kael'thas).

Night Elves don't depend on the arcane arts and even for a time ostracized any Night Elf who tried to learn the ways of the arcane like the Highborne did. They've always relied on Nature magic along with communing with the Wild Gods and Dragons (Mostly Ysera). Because of their tune to nature, they can mend and ease a treant or the Ancients.

Then one might say, Well, Sylvanas burned down Teldrassil and it shows how weak the Night Elves are. She did burn down Teldrassil, but it wasn't exactly an easy process. The Night Elves had a force field protecting them and blocking Sylvanas's path into Darkshore from Ashenvale. Wisps pushed Sylvanas back to halt everything until Saurfang did something nobody expected and did a huge pincer attack from the north of Darkshore from Felwood. Nobody could've predicted that would happen, and had it not happen then Sylvanas's plans would've been ruined.

So, ultimately... Night Elves are much more powerful than Blood Elves. HOWEVER... because they're so powerful, it makes it hard for Blizzard to write them in a compelling way. The Blood Elves are weaker, but that's what makes them interesting. We've seen them go through the worst things imaginable, the Sunwell getting destroyed, or Jaina locking them up in Dalaran because of the Bell Incident, or the Scourge knocking at their door, or Kael'thas turning evil. The Blood Elves are rich with intrigue becuase they're not entirely perfect. They don't need to rely on gods, dragons, or nature, they just need a bit of magic and their wits to get them through.

Night Elves, on the other hand, whenever they fail or suffer a heavy loss, it turns into a small pity party until they find the one thing that could fix everything. You don't see actual growth from them, they just kind of stagnate with each expansion. Then it raises the question of how they're able to last this long before "progress" hits them. Meanwhile Blood Elves actually managed to restore their Sunwell, and we're seeing the effects of it show in their eyes (Golden Glowing Eyes).

TL;DR: Night Elves are stronger to Blood Elves in terms of power along with strategic advantage, but Blood Elves are more interesting to write lore and stories for than Night Elves.

[Loreth88]

How do you figure that the dwindling population of the Night Elves, with only hundreds apparently remaining, outnumber the Blood elves and their constructs? Perhaps you know something I don't.

n elfs have constructs to, they called ancients. No one know how many n elf left, not even the blizzard. Blood elfs are almost extinct to remember? They almost wiped out by the scourge, then most of them go to outland, there most of them become enemy of the horde and the alliance and killed in shadowmoon, netherstorm, terrokar, after that killed in quel danas.

[saintminya]

So the Blood Elves need their allies to help them beat the Night Elves? So then they're inferior...

Plus Humans make the strongest magic users, they just are short lived...heck in certain magics even the Blood Elves outdo the Nightborne

Never said such nonsense, only that the Blood Elves would have more of an advantage than they already do if the Nightborne assisted them. Significantly more with other Horde races jumping in. Humans would pose more of a challenge, but of course it was the long-lived elves who shared aspects of their Arcane affinity with those lowly humans. Just because Blizz has some peculiar human bias, which directly contradicts their firmly-established Horde bias, that led to the creation of many named human mages doesn't make them superior to elves as wielders of any school of magic.

[Loreth88]

TL;DR: Night Elves are stronger to Blood Elves in terms of power along with strategic advantage, but Blood Elves are more interesting to write lore and stories for than Night Elves.

Because they are look like young Britney with long ears, easy to sell.

[Shiny212]

"Blood Elf" population was decimated, would be outnumbered, badly. Actual High Elves though, pre-Scourge maybe a match worth having.

[Lolites]

The High Elves descended from only a very small sub-set of Night Elf society

true, but dont forget high (blood) elfs were not immortal, they lived shorter hence most likely have faster reproduction cycle

- - - Updated - - -

"Blood Elf" population was decimated, would be outnumbered, badly. Actual High Elves though, pre-Scourge maybe a match worth having.

ehm... burning of teldrasil? didnt that decimate night elf society?

[khazlol]

true, but dont forget high (blood) elfs were not immortal, they lived shorter hence most likely have faster reproduction cycle

- - - Updated - - -



ehm... burning of teldrasil? didnt that decimate night elf society?

i think that depends on what role this new tear of elune will play

[Lolites]

i think that depends on what role this new tear of elune will play

well if might help regrow the tree, but i doubt it will "Revive" dead nelfs, especialy those who put thir anima or whatnot into the tear/seed/whatever

[Shadowferal]

And yet, I wonder, hypothetically, if they both fought each other at some point in the past (perhaps just before Battle for Azeroth, for example), and there was absolutely no external interference or assistance, which side would most likely have emerged victorious.

I don't see how this is even debatable. Blood elves just don't have the numbers in any category beyond what mages they could summon.

[khazlol]

well if might help regrow the tree, but i doubt it will "Revive" dead nelfs, especialy those who put thir anima or whatnot into the tear/seed/whatever

Well it's possible the tree will be sentient like one of the ancient

[Lolites]

Well it's possible the tree will be sentient like one of the ancient

sure, still doesnt mean more nelfs...
belfs were decimated by arthas from which they had sometime to recuperate, nelfs were decimated by burning of teldrasil quite recently, so saying nelfs are outnmbering belfs is kinda asspull... that was my original point, doesnt matter what might happen in the future, as of now they are probably more even in numbers than ever

[Varodoc]

At least the Blood Elves didn't have their capital burned down by a few flaming catapults on a whim because one night elf said the wrong thing to the wrong person.

That is literally what happened to them though lol.

The Fall of Silvermoon and Burning of Teldrassil are intentionally written as parallels.

The Quel'dorei had their capital completely destroyed by Arthas (it would later be partially rebuilt in TBC) because Sylvanas (parallel of Delaryn) kept bad-mouthing and mocking Arthas (= parallel of Undead Sylvanas). And so Arthas, as he openly explains, decided to destroy everything the elves built and exterminate them precisely because of their constant defiance (through Sylvanas).

As for the "few flaming catapults" part, in the end it's just bad writing from Blizzard, so it's irrelevant. But Silvermoon was indeed destroyed because Sylvanas made Arthas salty.

I mean, if we want to focus on the details, back in WC3, Silvermoon fell because Arthas bought one goblin zeppelin to cross the bridge Sylvanas destroyed.

[Woggmer]

Because they are look like young Britney with long ears, easy to sell.

And most times when the Night Elves actually get some lore focus, it's either not as memorable, gets cringe-inducing (Malfurion: TYRANDE! I NEED YOU!), or becomes an atrocity that people will meme about it.

[Varodoc]

true, but dont forget high (blood) elfs were not immortal, they lived shorter hence most likely have faster reproduction cycle

- - - Updated - - -



ehm... burning of teldrasil? didnt that decimate night elf society?

Did that decimate the Night elves though? I have the impression that Horde fanboys like you generally use the excuse "Oh but many night elves lived elsewhere like in Ashenvale" so that you can then excuse the Horde and say that it wasn't a genocide or any kind of mass murder, just standard military tactics.

Even though the novel indeed states it was a genocide so you might be onto something.

- - - Updated - - -

So I'd say that it is imperative to mention how the Sin'dorei have allies that are more than willing to assist them in most if not every scenario, such as the Nightborne who are magically superior to every playable race if not every extant race period. The so-called comrades of the Kal'dorei hardly ever assist them in any endeavour, only enlisting them as farmhands after the torching of their capital treehouse.
'
Also, you can't compare corporeal entities to non-corporeal ones like ghosts. The whole of the Horde was decisively not engaged in the Battle for Darkshore, so who knows what the outcome would be if that faction went all in. Ghostlands is stuck in the last decade or so, so while ghouls and ghosts still roam that cursed region there aren't anywhere near as abundant as they were in BC.

In the Void, Nightborne are outclassed by the Ren'dorei. In the Arcane, Nightborne are outclassed by the Draenei (species that attracted Sargeras himself). They are not the best at anything, except making addictive mana drugs maybe. But even then, they might be outclassed by Blood elves.

[Loreth88]

And most times when the Night Elves actually get some lore focus, it's either not as memorable, gets cringe-inducing (Malfurion: TYRANDE! I NEED YOU!), or becomes an atrocity that people will meme about it.

Because usually, they getting used for others to shine. War of thorns, in ashenvale, stonetalon etc. and when they have an opportunity to shine they go netural like, hyjal. they live in harmony with the keepers and dryads not simple alliance with them, but mostly a whole kaldorei race is one with them like in w3 but somehow thats forgotten in wow they strong together, because they fight for the same goals. Blizzard can’t handle the unique races, n elfs, trolls, taurens, worgens and undeads they become sidekicks of the factions.