Allied Races made faction imbalance even worse.

[hulkgor]

This probably doesn't have any impact whatsoever in faction imbalance.

What it means is that Alliance players seemed to stick to the original ones more so than Hordes. Maybe Horde ones are more original? Cooler looking? Personally i love Dark Irons and Kul'tirans, even playing Horde. Those are my favorites.

Woopidy Doo.

[Rendark]

Ya allied races suck. Never should have been a thing.

[Biske]

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.

[Laerrus]

Alliance should have gotten Sethrak, not those absurd looking puntable cyborgs.

Vulpera so high in the list? Oh no.

Yup and it will probably get worse. Get ready for an influx of the fur suit pervs. I've already seen many of them named with the Yiff prefix.

[Alanar]

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.

Dissagree on that, they have their own culture, language etc. Even their model is not the same as humans at all.
They could have been such a cool allied race and I know a lot would agree.

The two things people lean on when it's about Vrykul is..
1: Vrykul, who are just tall humans
2: They are to tall the unique thing about Vrykul is being tall and can't fit door.

[Pony Soldier]

I think faction balance was the absolute last thing on Blizzard's minds when it came to the allied races. They were a major selling point for the expansion and the recent 8.3 patch. You really think Blizzard is going to give up the chance to win back some subbers for faction balance? Hell no. All they care about is the money going in their pockets.

[ClassicIsTerrible]

Everytime I see a dwarf it's a Dark Iron. Kul Tirans I see everywhere. The only race I don't see are mechagnomes lol.

[SirKickBan]

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.

..Even I, someone who's pretty sure WoW is past its last leg, have a little doubt that there are less than 150 000 players left in WoW. This is clearly not the full range of players, and as such you have no idea if this is representative of the entire game's population.

You aren't even looking at characters you know are active, when you pick a level range from 20-120. Even if your data included every character, that would catch every level 20 allied race alt someone made for the novelty, and then abandoned before they even hit BC.

[Liftinmammals]

*shrug* It's all for the fun of it, brotha. Not everything has to be to the T balanced. It's a game my dude. Just enjoy it.

[ro9ue]

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.

<snip chart showing low mechagnome numbers>

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

I think you have to wait a little bit. We ran into the same problem at the end of Legion because the Alliance's two Allied Races (Lightforged and Void Elf) were tied to the last patc rep so there weren't as many unlocked.

There are still people trying to get exalted with Mechagon (I'm one of them), so give it some time.

[FlubberPuddy]

I think you have to wait a little bit. We ran into the same problem at the end of Legion because the Alliance's two Allied Races (Lightforged and Void Elf) were tied to the last patc rep so there weren't as many unlocked.

There are still people trying to get exalted with Mechagon (I'm one of them), so give it some time.

Mechagon rep is fast and easy to get because of the fact that every day minimum you can get 850 rep in like 5-10 mins.

8.2 (when mechagon released) has been about for about 6 months (that's roughly 180 days). Would take someone only about 50 days JUST off the 850 rep. Not taking into account the numerous WQ weeks (50% increased rep would apply to the 850 rep daily for huge gains), DMF buffs, recent anniversary, etc.

Doubtful Mechagnomes will reach the popularity of the top 5 Allied Races. Especially when at the same time Vulpera were made available and they've exploded in pop.

What this post can conclude is that many of the AR on the Alliance were not compelling enough to be played by Alliance players. What that reason might be, is up in the air.

I do not believe this is a case of "not as many people have had time to gain mechagnome rep/complete the requirements".

[Phantombeard]

All allied races should have been from races we have know in the game. I think it would have made a huge difference. Tuskarr , The Broken, Mogu, just to name a few.

[Amaterasu65]

Alliance got crappy AR. Makes sense, nobody ever played gnomes and though I believe Mechagnomes have some cool characteristics and racials, they are still gnomes that look terrible without robes. Vulpera might be using the goblin rig, Zandalari males might be using NE rig, but they feel unique and I can see why people roll those races (don't like Zandalari males at all though, Darkspear are superior in every way but I guess Zandalari have straight backs and Hordies tend to beg for those for every monster race they have->UD next).

Meanwhile the Alliance got the Kul Tirans as a unique AR. Males are decent, bulky with some nice customizations on eyes with scars. Females are absolutely hideous. And no I don't care about the bodies, their faces are dumb af. Soulless, challenged faces. And the rest are recolors (VE included, but elves are pretty so they are bound to be popular, but even then Nightborne have unique poses). Also I'm tired of seeing the same 3 VE female copies (hairstyle+color, cause faces don't make a difference).

That said, AR have nothing to do with the imbalance. The imbalance started in MoP, became a thing in WoD, the recruitment becoming harder and forcing many guilds to Horde became a trend in Legion, and now even more people go Horde cause more keys in Group Finder any given time.

[Paraka]

I'm surprised at the kul Tiran statistics, but then maybe not when looking at the void elves and given the blood elf population, just shows how many players here want to play a skinny twink or highschool girl, even if they have purple skin.

Zandalari numbers though make me happy given how ripped they are, and just hope vulpera population grows, so dam cute!

I gotta admit, I can definitely tolerate the Vulpening more than I expected. I am not opposed to beastial furry characters, I just find it a lazy way for Blizzard to make new races. At least they can differentiate between silhouettes.

Number one, faction imbalance isn't really an issue. There's a bit more horde players, but as someone who plays Alliance I can assure you that there's no problem in finding groups, guilds etc. as an Alliance player.

Number two, just because someone has an allied race on the horde side does not mean they main a horde character. Many people treat allied races as achievements to get (like me) and just level them for the sake of the mount and heritage armor, not to actually main/play them.

Number three, just because Alliance players don't create as many allied race toons does not mean this somehow contributes to faction imbalance, because the same number of people are playing anyway. If anything, this could confirm, once again, that Alliance is the faction with more casual players, who don't really play alts, or max out characters just for the sake of an achievement in their achievement menu.

The whole argument is flawed, because Allied races require you to have a maxed main toon with requirements done. This means that they do not contribute to faction imbalance at all. You could argue that maybe people are returning to the game specifically for the reason of playing a Horde allied race (which you aren't doing here) which is a hypothesis that everyone is allowed to make, but we have no real way of verifying this. Just sheer numbers of created allied race toons have absolutely nothing to do with increasing the faction imbalance.

I am likely a good example of this: I have only three Alliance alts, 2 being Gnomes and a Dwarf. If I exists there is likely others on Alliance side who do the same.

The stats alone aren't enough, it just shows the interest of AR on Alliance is just not there. I would definitely say one major reason is a lot of people spoke here on it; lack of unique traits.

Kul Tiran are the only AR to use a whole new rig and animations, but they're still Human. Vulpera are the only non-genus AR, but recycles an older rig. Outside that, everything AR is recycled and adjusted. And for Alliance, much of those options were... just not enough.

If Mogu were used opposed to LF Draenei, or Broken even, the interest in the AR would have likely seen a broader rise. There isn't enough on a LF that stands out, even being compared to Mag'har who were also just different skins.

[Danuel]

Oi look mates! Another allys crying posts about high elves!

[StillMcfuu]

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.

I think the issue with Kul Tiran is they are on the wrong faction. If you are the type of person to play as a Orc, Tauren, Troll, etc.. all the big monster like races, I find a lot of those people like Kul Tirans. If you are an Elf or Human kind of person, I find they don't like Kul Tirans.

[ro9ue]

Mechagon rep is fast and easy to get because of the fact that every day minimum you can get 850 rep in like 5-10 mins.

8.2 (when mechagon released) has been about for about 6 months (that's roughly 180 days). Would take someone only about 50 days JUST off the 850 rep. Not taking into account the numerous WQ weeks (50% increased rep would apply to the 850 rep daily for huge gains), DMF buffs, recent anniversary, etc.

Doubtful Mechagnomes will reach the popularity of the top 5 Allied Races. Especially when at the same time Vulpera were made available and they've exploded in pop.

What this post can conclude is that many of the AR on the Alliance were not compelling enough to be played by Alliance players. What that reason might be, is up in the air.

I do not believe this is a case of "not as many people have had time to gain mechagnome rep/complete the requirements".

I don't think most people play every day. And even then, do they always do the Mechagon rep when they're online, maybe they just logged on 2-3 nights to raid or do dungeons. Maybe they just didn't care to get exalted until Mechagnomes were announced. I dunno, I think it absolutely is the case of not that many people did Mechagon rep - or is at least a major factor.

[ravenmoon]

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.

Blizzard are fine with horde numbers being higher for active end game players. it's only a worry when alliance numbers are higher

[FlubberPuddy]

I don't think most people play every day. And even then, do they always do the Mechagon rep when they're online, maybe they just logged on 2-3 nights to raid or do dungeons. Maybe they just didn't care to get exalted until Mechagnomes were announced. I dunno, I think it absolutely is the case of not that many people did Mechagon rep - or is at least a major factor.

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.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

This is a problem of Blizzard's own making.

Ever since MoP 5.4's ending, faction restrictions should have been lifted and everyone should have been allowed to interact with each other.