severe imbalance is almost always problematic.
i.e. - classic atm.
the oppressed cry
the oppressors deny … human nature at it’s finest
that said, retail BGs already have the game mechanic in place (merc mode) to be a force for balance however blizz refuses to address the issue which leads me to believe this:
“Blizzard either doesn’t care about faction balance or won’t take any actions that would either “punish” horde or “reward” Alliance.” … /sigh
and so it goes
nevertheless, onward and upward 
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Blizzard has manipulated faction imbalance through racials for years. They’ve said they feel racials are mostly balanced now and seem hesitant to change that. I don’t think they have found anything that changes faction imbalance the way racials have so we’re at a stalemate with a fairly big imbalance going the wrong direction.
Doesn’t help that alliance storyline in BfA is weak. The expansion touted to bring back faction war turned out to be mostly about horde internal conflict while alliance “can’t do it alone”. Very disappointing.
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Obtaining balanced racials after the fact only serves to keep the current faction imbalance as the staus quo … That said, then logic suggests it’s now time to tweak the racials again. Someone is asleep at the wheel on the dev team.
re: storyline … I never was one to care much about lore but hey, whatever it takes. lol
here’s hoping something breaks sooner rather than later
peace friend 
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I agree. Balance factions before balancing racials but Blizzard failed at that. And their negligence just allows the imbalance to grow as more players migrate to the dominant faction so they can do the parts of the game that needs more players.
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While I’d definitely like blizz to care about and fix the faction imbalance, I worry that their attempt at a fix will be another mistake, especially when it comes to changing/adding racials.
Although maining the underpowered alliance can feel painful at times, I don’t really want a horde (hah) of min-maxer/follow-the-crowd types to pour back into alliance primarily because a racial or whatnot helps them push raids or dungeons more effectively.
I would argue that you are not paying attention
Racials between the factions became balanced when Orcs and Belfs were nerfed and Void Elves were added.
Racials went in favor of Alliance when Dark Irons and Kul Tirans were added
In 8.3, the racials will tilt even more in our favor with the addition of mechagnomes and the laughable racials of the Vulpera
How imbalanced do you want the racials to be?
Anyone who is simply looking for individual 1:1 PvP power can already find an Alliance race for any class that has top notch racials equal to or better than the Horde in almost every case
You need to start understanding that a lot of what you perceive as imbalance is WOW culture.
Making Alliance racials more OP than they already are won’t change anything.
The only thing that could really drive faction changes would be nerfing Horde racials into the dust or giving them racials that were a PVP liability (negative dmg, negative mobility, negative health)
If you want to be the champion of punitive nerfing, intended to make gameplay unpleasant for the horde players, then sign up for that and wave your flag high
If not, you need to look in the mirror and at your fellow alliance and realize the problem
lies with the players.
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How effective do you think just offering free faction changes from Horde -> Alliance would be? Maybe then remove Merc mode and let the people who hate queues migrate.
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Isnt it Alliance>Horde in EU? They are the better pvp region as well. I doubt racials have anything to do with it, they have the same ones we do.
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EU forums look a lot like NA forums with a lot of the same complaints and horde have access to merc mode there as well, which implies they have “excessive” queues.
I’m curious why you think it’s different for EU players.
EU rated is more towards Alliance.
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The problem is that the overall faction balance does not favor Horde.
I’m not sure there’s a way to offer something like only eligible for “Good PVP players who like Alliance’s newly improved racials but don’t like long Horde queues”
It’s just not a lever that’s easily turned.
That would be one way for sure but two wrongs doesn’t make a right.
I think with population numbers dwindling people are migrating to more populated realms and adding a faction change on top of it to get to the full pop realms.
Blizz needs to figure out how to either merge all these servers to just a handful mega servers or figure out a way to loosen cross realm rules regarding trading and guilds.
It feels weird and wrong to group with friends cross realm to go into a dungeon or bg and can’t trade them potions and enchants/gems.
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I’m fine with some server merges
Realms first lost semblance of true community when they started merging battle groups and then once sharding and the elimination of PVP servers happened, it was gone completely.
They should follow your suggestion
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EU’s better players skew alliance, proven by the stats, but there are still plenty of alliance Bads who play and complain about random BG’s, just like the US
That doesn’t explain merc mode which is only available when queue times for one faction are deemed excessive.
Faction imbalance exists and has been acknowledged by Ion. Diverting attention to rated or EU does nothing to address that.
Maybe Jd’s suggestion is worth a shot, but I enjoy a two faction game and would like to see it continue. It can’t keep going the wrong direction if that’s the expected outcome.
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Im not seeing how merc mode is a problem.
Also, im not saying the populations of both sides are equal. They never will be. I want to know how the population is a problem for you.
Merc mode implies queues for one faction are deemed excessive or it wouldn’t be available. EU horde also have merc mode.
I think I’ve been very clear in why the imbalance is a problem for me. The longer it goes without intervention, the more players migrate to the dominant faction for accessibility. A two faction system will eventually collapse if that trend keeps going. Blizzard has said the two faction system is fundamental to this game and I agree.
I don’t expect perfect faction balance. I realize that’s unrealistic but I do hope for faction balance to be better than it is now.
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Alliance is the stronger faction on EU. So if horde has excessive queues, then population isnt the concern. I win the vast majority of my games on all my toons because guess what. When I join a bg, its a 10v10 not a 10v50.
How might you achieve that short of forcing players’ hands?
Overtuning racials is a ‘solution’ which adds its own problem and removing merc mode would be a minor motivator to reroll at best.
In the upper ladder section of pvp. Not the general pop that does random bgs.
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