Cross-Faction Play in WoW – The End or the Rebirth of the MMO?

Common groups of Alliance and Horde in World of Warcraft are there. But how do you like the feature? What are your experiences?

Patch 9.2.5 has now been active for almost a week and has mainly brought a few small improvements and nice, mean innovations, such as unlocking the Dark Ranger.

But the “heart” of the patch is clearly the removal of faction boundaries in the instanced content. Whether it’s PvP battlefields or dungeons and raids of all difficulty levels – since the patch, members of the Horde and Alliance can hop through such content together. The language barrier is gone in these groups and all mechanics work the way you would know them from members of your own faction, such as healing or strengthening effects.

The system has no effect on the open world – here players are still enemies, cannot support each other, but at least talk to each other via the group chat.

Patch 9.2.5 also brought more story to the Forsaken, such as this cutscene:

Pros and cons of cross faction play

The advantages of the system are obvious. There are more players in a shared pool, which means there are significantly more players who can be invited into groups. Whether raids, PvP or M+ – if both Horde and Alliance can apply for a spot in the group, the group window will fill up quickly. This benefits the alliance in particular, which traditionally has far fewer players in the endgame area.

The second major benefit is that you can play with friends without having to give up your beloved faction. Everyone knows a friend, acquaintance or work colleague who also plays World of Warcraft – but unfortunately “on the other side”. This is simply no longer a barrier and allows both to remain loyal to their faction and still experience endgame content together.

However, there are also disadvantages that bother some players. For many players, “Horde” and “Alliance” are fixed attributions that should not simply be dissolved. The fact that you can now play together harmoniously disturbs the feeling of belonging for some. After all, for almost 18 years, Horde and Alliance could only attack each other and not play peacefully with each other. For some, the fact that this is now simply abolished tears down an important pillar that belongs to World of Warcraft.

Still others have feared that hostilities between factions will now also be played out openly in joint groups. For example, if an orc in an alliance group makes a mistake in a dungeon, arguments and accusations could break out more quickly.

For exactly this reason, we now want to start a survey and find out how you perceived the feature in the first few days. Did you benefit from the cross faction play? Did you find groups faster and were you able to do more with your friends? Or do you have negative experiences?

If you want to expand on your experiences with cross-faction groups, please leave us a comment and tell us in more detail how you have experienced the feature so far.

We are curious about your opinion!