I’m #teamAlliance for life, so over the years I can see the true difference between Alliance and Horde.
Back during the wrath days, it was definitely a skill gap. It felt impossible to win in BGs as Alliance.
Over the years, Alliance wasn’t that “bad”. Even now, I don’t see much of a skill gap between factions in pugs. The major difference I see is that Horde will play to WIN. They will cap all 3 flags even if they don’t need to. They will turn a game around at the very end even if they were getting crushed before. Alliance…doesn’t play to WIN. And I know it stems from a demoralizing culture of “always losing” over the years that made players just strive for individual success (highest damage, killing blows etc.) but just not that willing to work together on the objective.
We get cocky after one flag cap. We get lazy when we’re ahead. I wish we’d be focused to the VERY END.
If Alliance would be more team-oriented and objective-focused, Horde would seriously have a problem on their hands.
I’ve played Alliance for a couple days now on an alt. The biggest difference I’m aware of is Alliance literally talk about how they’re going to lose the BG before it even starts, and Horde does not.
Their defeatist attitude probably costs them more wins than actually being outmatched would. People queue and just chase butterflies on Alliance because they think they have no chance.
It’s just because the majority of the pvp
player base is Horde. Just looking at LFG it’s night and day. LFG is 3x more active on horde side at any given point. It’s odd because at the top end, a lot of glad+ players are ally because they have better racials currently. It’s just that the bottom majority hasn’t switched with them.
There was a time when the horde racials were considered strong enough to warrant a competitive guild rolling Horde for the slight advantage. The more competitive player, wanting a better chance of winning, followed suit. After a while the difference wasn’t as notable, but the players stayed where they were.
Now the perception “Horde always wins” and “Alliance always loses” persists and it reflects in the playerbase. More competitive players favor horde while more casual players favor alliance. There’s no real difference that makes one faction inherently better than the other, players just follow the belief and the factions reflect it.
Chasing butterflies describes it so perfectly. Can’t tell you how many games I’ve been in where we were absolutely steamrolled as far as objective but alliance players topping the stats. Imagine if they did that to people near flags or carrying flags…
I actually met a friendo that I queued up with in a few random BGs. A rogue. Deepwind Gorge came up the most and he, alone, kept up RELENTLESS pressure on weakly defended bases to the point where Horde just couldn’t get ahead. Just one or two really good and focused players could control a game lol but that’s how rare it is on Alliance side.
It’s a huge motivation … when you are waiting 12 minutes for a game , you want to win till the end , hence you see more last minute wins from Horde . When you wait less than 2 minutes , you do whatever . Who cares right … you get another one within 2 minutes .
Just through recent experience time of day really makes all the difference doing BG’s as Alliance.
In the afternoons and primetime? They don’t defend the bases they just capture and leave to go into the cluster, the average health difference between the teams is also huge. People troll the battleground chat, and Horde mercs pull Drek’thar and keep resetting him to sabotage the epic BGs (this has happened to me 3 times and idk why anyone would want to waste their own time like this).
3am? There’s a more coordinated effort, not sure why. Gear difference flattens, and I’ve had some genuinely good matches in the late hours of the night. The defeatist attitude tapers off as the hour gets later. It’s just more pleasant.
So doing BGs as Alliance genuinely isn’t bad if you pick the right time to do them I guess. This is just based on what I’ve experienced the last week.
While I have been up through this hour, est, not everyone who is in N. America, can stay up this late to wait for somewhat decent battlegrounds.
On the flag cap, yep all too many times they just cap and run off. Its easy to predict the outcome of this. If I cap I sit, so easy to do. Call out when help is needed.
Also SSM where the opposing team has several stealthers and you leave only one person guarding cart…
I get off work around midnight so 1am-6am is my “Day”. And I’m pretty sure the battlegrounds are decent at that hour because there’s just flat out less chaff queueing at night. Less likely to run into trolls or mean-spirited mercs.
I’ve seen people take bases, be there alone, and just walk off. It just makes no sense and there’s no shame in playing defense. The damage on the scoreboard doesn’t matter much if you lose.
Its not a horde or alliance thing. Its a random BGs thing. Most of the teams that crush you have at least a few people that joined as a group. Even two or three people working in tandem can carry a game against a team of boneheads fighting on roads.
It’s really more that Oceanic players are the ones queuing at that time and the good Oceanic players are heavily Alliance. Same reason war mode in Oceanic servers is dominated by Alliance instead of how it is on non-RP NA shards.
This is basically me right now, been putting a lot of “miles” on the Alliance alts lately. Finally getting around to doing their Torghast runs ( ), too.
It’s shocking how few Torgast groups are in LFG for alliance compared to Horde . And as the few available won’t take or join an undergeared shaman , I have to run on my own which takes a lot of time
