From my experience in Vanilla, the people that were new to MMORPGs back in 2004-2006 usually went to Alliance, since they were the “pretty” race and had the usual Fantasy hero races (Humans, Dwarves, Elves).
Because of those newer players, they had people less experienced with mechanics, so usually didn’t do as well as people that were able to play and move at the same time. I remember the term “keyboard turners” being thrown around a lot by horde players.
That lack of experience also showed it’s face in the later (more mechanically intense) raids as well. I can’t tell you how many times I was one of the ~8 people that consistently never died to the Heigan Safety dance in Naxx -_-
Before Blizzard nerfed AV the Horde base was a massive advantage because you had to funnel though 2 tiers of the base and there was no way to avoid it. All the NPC’s were powerful and dangerous, and the little room between both halves would dismount you if you attempted to ride past.
lol what, no. You had cover up until you got point blank on the towers, in which you could mount up past and even jump over the walls with all too conveniently placed snowbanks as ramps.
Horde base too was also wide open and the GY flag was out of range of the towers making it a joke in comparison to the NPC swarm of the alliance cap.
Then there is the actual tower themselves with free reign to cap the flag as the bowmen were outside out of LoS.
It is alliance that has a big advantage in (organized) PvP and also endgame PvE, which results in easier gearing and that pools back to even more PvP advantage. Paladins are just that good.
Horde has 99% of the terrain advantage. WSG, Alliance has the really tall ramp which is absolutely beast for hunter coverage. AB, goes to Horde due to the dominance of the Iron Triangle tactic. AV is literally built so that the horde should win. Tactically speaking, if the horde loses they are dumber than a stack of bricks or undergeared.
As for paladin vs shaman, it all comes down to utilization and composition as they are fundamentally different. Paladin is easier to utilize as it is a reactive class with the tools to support that play style. Shaman have to play much more aggressively to really get the most out of them. All in all I would say they are even here.
Racials. WotF is advantageous, but so is making sure the enemy is cautious or punishing them when they aren’t with Shadowmeld. You have poison and bleed immunity for your priests and rogues, and you have escape artist that lets you out of snares and roots
Lol so hard. Usually alliance gives up as quits the BGs. Horde gives up but either turtles or just get honor kills.
It not all but over the years playing I noticed higher percentage of players on the alliance gives up in that manner and same for the horde. We as a player base have to change that rep.
For classic I am going to be alliance.
Great battles will be waged on WPvP in the name of the alliance. Horde will die at my feet. See you Bashan on the battlefield.
In the past alliance mindset by percentages have more that just give up by lack of will power, own goals, not take responsibility (blames others), and lack of motivation.
Not saying horde doesn’t have players like this but the alliance usually gets more players like this for PvP.
The horde if in a losing battle will just farm honor kills or try to turtle.
It may sound like I am horde but I am mostly alliance. Will be alliance in classic.
I am going to stand my ground. Will you?
Example:
Alliance in a losing battle.
4 to 5 player or more in a BGs will state.
Just let them win, so we can end this and get more honor.
Horde in a losing battle.
4 to 5 or more in a BG will state.
Let’s just kill as many as possible %#%* it.
Let’s turtle it, we can get more kills.
Let’s demoralize them, I hate alliance.
I feel like your stated “horde advantage” is definitely a thing. Maybe blizz should think about creating a classic mercenary system where you can queue for the other faction.
Alliance probably has the biggest advantage, all their racials are pvp ones in some sort of way.
Orcs blood thirst gives them a 50% healing debuff, and trolls speed boost depends on hp if your being attacked you probably won’t get max speed.
When playing alliance in legion, the bgs were like just let them win because one guy capped a flag, 7 people go afk.
But it really depends on the competency of team, a lot of whiny ballers on the main server I was on transferred from alliance to horde in cataclysm it was something you would never see in horde side bgs on my server even though we didn’t win every bg.
Horde will definitely have to turtle hard in av if 1.12 comes, instead of light.
Looks like a lot of opinion in here. On the server I played on Alliance usually won whether in BG’s or WPVP. At the same time, Alliance had several large guilds pushing raids hard and getting well geared, so when we met the horde we probably had a gear advantage over them in general.
Not yet they shouldn’t. They should see how this pans out first. Let the servers be up for a good length of time and monitor any issues or just say: Yea. No. Re-roll a more populated server.
What they could do is release some server details so like minded people can congregate to the same servers right ot the gate.
As much as I love this idea. Not in classic. I do believe this would have completely changed some of those issues that “forced changes”. From xrbg’s right down to connected realms.
Wpvp would look completely different. So would bg ques. So would dungeon groups, raids, and even guild recruitment.
I could even see Horde only guilds. Ally only guilds. Mixed guilds. Real player driven guild rivalries that may have dwarfed anything we have seen.
Alas. It did not play out like that. Instead. Blizz kept band-aiding those issues that can all be tied right back to splitting the player pool into two segregated factions for every activity in the game.
It has been happening and was apparent since Vanilla. Lop sided server balance was the first sign. What has masked it so well over the years was at first WoW’s initial growth. Then the sheer size of the player base and blizz’s bandaids kept it a bit more out of sight.
War mode not only shone a light on the issue it brought it into the daylight. Lol.
The more the pop dwindles. The more apparent it is.
Love the two faction system. The rivalry. The idea is great. In practice though it eventually fails. Numbers don’t lie but they sure can misrepresent what’s really happening. /shrug
The Horde was generally more competent in Vanilla, through either maturity, age, experience, w/e. While the alliance attracted a number of “hero” and “lone wolf” types who would often try to shoulder the weight of PvP on their own, leaving teamwork by the wayside.
An organized force will nearly always prove victorious over a disorganized ragtag response.
I’ve played both factions pretty equally over 14 years. I’ve seen both sides have both behaviors just as much as the other. It has nothing to do with the factions specifically, but whichever one is the current “meta”. Remember when Alliance was overpopulated in the PvP community because of EMfH? I do.
Blaming something else. Got it.
Never said the horde didn’t have some of those ppl it just seems the majority of those types of responses in bg come from alliance.
I don’t switch because of meta. I have mostly played alliance. I only played horde because one my brothers wanted me to play with him for a year. I noticed it then and in WPvP/general chat.
They don’t need a raid to WPvP only to destroy a city.
It’s ok it is whatever. I don’t care it’s just what I saw as a player.