Im tasking you stranger, IN FIXING FACTION IMBALANCE!

[Liianas-khaz-modan]

Start with removing merc mode completely from PvP.

High end, and Ranked PvP can already happen within one faction, it doesn’t have to be against the other faction. So… No. Merc mode is here to stay.

Continue with adding a queue to warmode along with a bit more structure and a few more rules to prevent people from turning it on just because there aren’t any disadvantages to not turning it on.

Warmode is going to be imbalanced one way or the other, and there’s no fixing that. Even if the game had now factions and 100% of PvP was opt in, war mode would still be an imbalanced wreck.

Add new features to PvE that turn being on the populous faction into a disadvantage of a sort.

Then remove the cost from faction transfers from high pop to low.

There is literally no good reason for someone who is happily in an established raiding guild, with their friends and players they love playing the game with to transfer to the lower population faction just because “It’s free”

Even if the lower performing faction was given an advantage, No guild leader wants to enforce his guild to swap factions, since players will inevitably be forced into races they enjoy less, or aesthetics that they enjoy less.

So, no that wouldn’t fix anything.

[Liianas-khaz-modan]

WoW is a game, who’s plot is integrally tied to teaming up against all odds.

WITH YOUR FACTION.

Jaina, Shaw, Thrall, and saurfang are not on the same faction. But they were most definitely working together.

WoW is about working together, in gameplay and story.

WITH YOUR FACTION.

Quite literally, in game, you have quests in Nazjatar that work with leaders of the opposite faction. Because the faction divide doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

WoW is based on Warcraft 3, Which ended with all the races of Azeroth standing together as one, against archimonde.

IN ONE MISSION OUT OF FIFTY.

Yes and World of Warcraft is essentially mission 51, and it doesn’t make any sense to just forget that you teamed up in mission 50.

Poor writing is no excuse to get rid of one of the core franchise pillars.

…and that’s what the constant team-ups are: Poor writing.

People absolutely love raids like Ulduar, in which we work together to save the world.

Legion was one of the best expansions in WoW’s history and we worked together the entire time, even shared order halls.

Hell. Even BC made the Aldor and the Scryers and independent choice from the factions. Because, once again, factions didn’t matter.

Only if you completely miss every. single. point to the damn game.

Did you miss every single point of the game? Do I need to get the whole list for you?

Removing factions will make WoW into a worse game because WoW was built to have factions.

Lolwat? How?
This game is about dungeons, and raiding, and working together with your guild. How is it inherently tied to factions?

[Vasdin-area-52]

High end, and Ranked PvP can already happen within one faction, it doesn’t have to be against the other faction. So… No. Merc mode is here to stay.

Then expand it.

Arenas become A v H only.

Ranked BGs become A v H only.

If you’re horde, you’re waiting for alliance to queue (assuming there are more H pvpers than A. If there are more Alliance, then they wait).

Warmode is going to be imbalanced one way or the other, and there’s no fixing that.

I suggest a queue because I suggest aggressively balancing sides. Again, if you’re a part of the side with more players, you should expect to wait.

…or you can faction transfer if you don’t want to wait.

OMG…faction transfer?

There is literally no good reason for someone who is happily in an established raiding guild, with their friends and players they love playing the game with to transfer to the lower population faction just because “It’s free”

Your reading comprehension sucks.

You turn the dogpiling into a disadvantage first. At the point you open up transfers from high to low, being on the high pop faction is a disadvantage.

No guild leader wants to enforce his guild to swap factions, since players will inevitably be forced into races they enjoy less, or aesthetics that they enjoy less.

People have been transferring from alliance to horde and forced to play races they enjoy less with aesthetics they enjoy less. This gives incentive to move back.

So, no that wouldn’t fix anything.

It would fix a lot of the damage that has already been done. Factions were fairly even up until MoP. Before that, the horde had an advantage in PvE, but it was only a slight advantage overall. The alliance was perfectly competitive in all modes (with the exception of PvP which was all kinds of messed up on both sides. Alliance was dominant because of EMFH).

Your goal is the removal of factions.

We will never be friends.

[Vasdin-area-52]

Yes and World of Warcraft is essentially mission 51, and it doesn’t make any sense to just forget that you teamed up in mission 50.

But it makes sense to forget the other 49?

[Liianas-khaz-modan]

People have been transferring from alliance to horde and forced to play races they enjoy less with aesthetics they enjoy less. This gives incentive to move back.

Yeah, or, if you really wanted.

You could just let people play whatever race they want…

And still play with their friends and guilds.

Break a lot less hearts that way.

Do you want people to have less player choice?

The solution of removing the factions would WORK. There would be no more imbalance, because there would be nothing left to balance.
Everyone would be able to enjoy whatever they want, and not be pulled away from their friends.

It’s pretty Thanos-esque. But it’s the only way that’ll work

But it makes sense to forget the other 49?

Those other 49 missions lead to us teaming up.

and once you get to WoW you are playing as the Hero. The Champion of Azeroth.
You of all people should be able to choose where you put your loyalties.

[Bourbonboxer-lightbringer (Bourbonboxer)]

I notice you ignored the part where they get blond hair blue eyed elves.

Wouldnt matter, since a lot of blood elf players play a very specific and popular class that isnt available to void elves.

Ill give you a hint: It begins with “P” and ends in “aladin”

[Vasdin-area-52]

Do you want people to have less player choice?

I don’t want to sacrifice the factions.

The solution of removing the factions would WORK. There would be no more imbalance, because there would be nothing left to balance.

You would lose the heart of WoW in the process. You would turn the game into just another generic fantasy MMO with zero mechanical reinforcement for its primary story conceit.

Remove factions is what failed MMOs do.

Everyone would be able to enjoy whatever they want, and not be pulled away from their friends.

And people like me who like the faction divide…

…who enjoy the idea that there’s more to the story…

…who enjoy the idea that there’s another half that sees the opposite…

…who enjoys the idea that there are people out there that we will never see, meet, or get to know except as adversaries…

…will all leave.

It’s very easy to do more damage than good with a change like that, and I would prefer it if they didn’t.

I feel that the factions are worth saving. I don’t feel that cheapening the game experience is worth the risk.

Those other 49 missions lead to us teaming up.

and once you get to WoW you are playing as the Hero. The Champion of Azeroth.
You of all people should be able to choose where you put your loyalties.

Factions matter. Mission 50 was one-and-done as evidenced with the majority of the 16 following years where we were at one another’s throats.

This is not the world of peacecraft.

This is war. It’s why there are two sides in the first place.

And before you say it, because you’re going to because you have before. I swear we’ve had this conversation before…

No. The other side is not the PvE enemy.

This whole idea of “we work together, therefore we should get along” is garbage that comes from garbage writing. It’s how bad the writing in WoW tends to be and nothing more.

Here’s why we keep working together all the freaking time. It’s very simple. It’s a writing trap that a team with good authors would have been able to avoid, however the wow team is, unfortunately, filled with 2-bit hacks where story is concerned (who just happen to write 2-bit hackery that I enjoy playing through…a lot).

They’ve fallen into an escalation trap. Movies fall into this all the time. It’s what happens when you make one too many sequel in a film series. It’s one of the leading reasons for “jumping the shark”.

Basically, once upon a time, the wow devs had us save the world. And every expansion since then they’ve had to raise the stakes, and they haven’t been able to stop.

In vanilla we saved the world from being taken over.

In TBC we saved the world from being overrun.

In Wrath we saved Azeroth from killing all life.

In Cata we saved Azeroth from destruction.

In MoP we saved Azeroth from anger demons.

In WoD we saved time and azeroth from the iron horde.

In legion we saved all life from the legion.

In BFA we saved all life from the old gods.

In Shadowlands we’re saving all creation from whatever stupid garbage sylvanas is cooking up with the jailor.

They just keep escalating the threat! And once you have to team up to battle a threat, you cannot stop teaming up if the threat keeps getting bigger and bigger!

It’s just bad story planning. Nothing more.

Your idea takes a mistake, and builds the future of the product around that mistake. It would be like planning the function of an airline around the assumption that all of your planes are going to crash. Therefore, the crash just becomes a part of your regular business model.

“So, first we take off, then we fly you to your destination, then we crash into a field, and you finish your trip in an ambulance to the hospital! Would you like to pay for first-rate recovery accommodations? Or is the ER sufficient?”

That’s removing factions from WoW. That’s the level of stupid the whole idea is.

Fix the story and pull the devs out of the escalation trap they fell into. That fixes the “we always team up!” problem, and fixing the actual problem invalidates your core argument.

[Liianas-khaz-modan]

And people like me who like the faction divide…

…who enjoy the idea that there’s more to the story…

…who enjoy the idea that there’s another half that sees the opposite…

…who enjoys the idea that there are people out there that we will never see, meet, or get to know except as adversaries…

…will all leave.

No you wont, you’ll whine until you realized it made the game better.

And if you don’t like interacting with the opposite faction, just don’t.

Make Horde only guilds and Horde only queues.

Remove factions is what failed MMOs do.

Other MMO’s Fail for different reasons. Not because they don’t have factions.

They just keep escalating the threat! And once you have to team up to battle a threat, you cannot stop teaming up if the threat keeps getting bigger and bigger!

It’s just bad story planning. Nothing more.

Dumbing the threat down to “Blue Versus Red” Is WAY worse.

[Vasdin-area-52]

Dumbing the threat down to “Blue Versus Red” Is WAY worse.

De-escalating the scope of the story would not be “dumbing down”.

It would invalidate your core claim, though.

I don’t want to be on a plane that crashes into a field. Stop trying to plan the future of WoW around crashing into a field.

[Liianas-khaz-modan]

I don’t want to be on a plane that crashes into a field. Stop trying to plan the future of WoW around crashing into a field.

I’m just living in the world of warcraft we have today.

You are pretend WoW is something it isn’t.

Something you THINK it is, think it should be, but it isn’t.

[Lacryma-wyrmrest-accord (Lacryma)]

Alliance and Horde have merged into a single faction.

There. I just fixed the Faction balance issue.

I’ll send you guys my consultation fee.

[Yogsothòth-tichondrius]

have L70Etc move to stormwind, fixed.

[Aggressor-wyrmrest-accord-926268]

What imbalance ? you are so small I have hard time targeting you in BGs basically its so hard I sometimes die without even finding out it vulpera was there.

[Starlagosa-dentarg (Starlagosa)]

Delete Blood Elves, watch the problem heal itself overnight.

Nah…just delete the Alliance.

[Powercrystal-faerlina]

Delete blood elves, vulpera, Nightborne. In other words delete all the pretty races from the horde and things are looking better. It’s an issue when the most played race by a literal MILE is blood elves.

[Daiza-gilneas]

Do you have any solutions? Go crazy with suggestions. You are the CEO of blizz, all decisions are avalible. How do you fix faction imbalance?

Introduce a new faction at level around level 15 called “Adventurer”. This way there’s enough time to keep the starting areas relatively stable. I do not know how this would change with the new starting area with Shadowlands so it was not considered.

It’s toggle-able, but once it’s toggled, you are unable to engage in open world pvp for any faction, but you are allowed to group and play with both.

Capital Cities will be off limits, but in an effort to make peace, both factions are allowing adventurers from the other factions into their lands to do adventurer stuff.

Guilds can be factionless, at the decision of the guild master. Group content can also be factionless. Include a toggle in the lfg tool if you want to still have your group be only Alliance/Horde.

I’ve added a lot of toggles in here in case people whinge about “Faction Pride”.

[Kaurmine-area-52]

You are the CEO of blizz, all decisions are avalible. How do you fix faction imbalance?

Easy, remove factions Now the entire wow playerbase is available to you

lights 100 dollar bill on fire, then uses it to light cigar

ggez

[Tamalpais-blackrock]

Mirroring race abilities side to side always seemed like a good first step.

[Tuurtlez-thrall]

Easy, remove factions Now the entire wow playerbase is available to you

1. Blizz said it isn’t happening
2. It’s never going to happen
3. There is no imbalance, only a participation imbalance. Why don’t you carebears push content?

[Sarvash-stormrage]

While out of war mode horde and alliance characters get a shared language and can group and enter instanced content(including mythic) as a group. Make cross faction guilds a thing or make community banks for server communities that have the same function. Let players from both factions see lfg groups for both factions and join said groups except in war mode. This should fix the major issue that the horde simply has the bigger hardcore population for raid progression and allow people to play the characters they like again.