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Did Horde get the short end of the stick in Vanilla?

Kveld

Kveld

Authorized
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Hai thar! :laugh:

I've stumbled upon an article that made some memories kick in from back in the day when players felt a kind of "faction favouritism" towards the Alliance. Nowadays, we hear the opposite (like expansions based on Horde leaders, Blizzcons transformed into Hordecons)

http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/08/02/wow-archivist-when-blizzard-hated-the-horde/

TL;DR version:

- Horde side felt unpolished/rushed/unfinished
- Unbalanced content: Alliance had more zones to choose from and more quests - Barrens sucked
- Stronger Alliance side skills: Salvation, Fear Ward
- Lack of security in world PvP. Orgrimmar had a back entrance with no guards; the same for TB
- Alliance travel convenience: Blackrock Mountain was closer to SW and IF
- Stormwind had a greater level of detail: fancy buildings, underground tram, kids chasing each other, speaking NCPs while Orgrimmar was lifeless

What's your opinion?

Do these shortcomings actually make the game more challenging, therefore more enjoyable or it's just a case of poor design and lack of experience? (notable examples in this case: Corrupted Blood incident, Reckoning bomb etc. that were hotfixed immediately)
 
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I think the opposite. Honestly I play alliance every server and I always notice that set of levels where there are NO QUESTS TO DO AT ALL This is, if I recall correctly, around the time you'd do Arathi Highlands, or maybe just before.

QUESTING IN STRANGLETHORN IS SHIT AS FUCK FOR ALLIANCE because to fly from the top of the zone to the bottom you have to go all the way to Darkshire. What the fuck is that shit. Plus Night Elfs have to make that shit as fuck dreaded run from shitty ass darnassus all the way to Ironforge. What is this wizardry?
 
Questwise - No, its pretty euqal

Cities - Alliances takes this easily.

Fligthpaths - Alliance again for obvious reasons. Also IF is the best city in terms of location. Middle of map and close to harbor.

City Raids - Alliance has an easier time defending. No city has more then 1 entrance (Darnassus has 2, but horde can only enter from 1) while all horde cities at least have 2.

Abilities - For both group play PvP and PvE alliance has the stronger racial traits if you take everything into account like priest specials and such. Windfury and Purge aren't enought to cover alliances advantage.
 
Great thread, didn't really notice the imbalance of the two factions when I was leveling up my first ever character on Horde side. But now that I think of it, Alliance does seem to have it easier. Anyways, whoever doesnt roll Alliance deserves it! :whistling:
 
Alliance is the PvE faction. It enjoys better PvE racials, superior PvE buffs (pala blessings benefit the entire raid unlike shaman totems), proximity to BRM. Playing ally is basically the easy mode of PvE.

Horde is the way to go for PvP. It has stronger PvP racials, kinda easier access to most "battleground" wPvP zones like Stranglethorn or Hillsbrad. It's also arguably easier to level as Horde - it has quite a bit more quests available.
Oh, and if somebody is making a character with intent to focus on PvP, he's more likely to choose Horde for its meaner-looking races instead of forcing himself to play with those goddamn gnomes and oh-so-kawaii night elves.
 
Something is very wrong in that article. Let see:

Kveld said:
- Horde side felt unpolished/rushed/unfinished
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Well maybe, i don't know. I feel that Stormwind and Ironforge (but even Darnassus) are better polished than the Horde's Capital cities.
So good point i guess.

- Unbalanced content: Alliance had more zones to choose from and more quests - Barrens sucked
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Wrong, horde had more quests. Like, alot more. You will find yourself grinding while leveling for lacking of quest when playing alliance, this not happen if you rolled horde.

- Stronger Alliance side skills: Salvation, Fear Ward
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For PVE, sure. Fear Ward & Blessing are godsend in a PVE perspective.
On the other hand, Horde had the strongest (by far) PVP racials. Will of the Forsaken is borderline OP (heh, borderline) and 25% avoiding stun (Orc racial) is nearly an hard counter to rogues, pala and warrior. Especially rogue tho.

So, it's even. Depends on what you want to do basically.

- Lack of security in world PvP. Orgrimmar had a back entrance with no guards; the same for TB
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Yeah, not really a big deal. You can enter and find no guards, ok. Then, when you are inside, you will deal with the guards no matter what.
On the other hand, again, Alliance had huge disadvantages: two of the major questing zones (Redrige and Duskwood) are contested. So you are basically a dead man walking. Especially in Lakeshire, expet to find a random rogue smurf/random bored horde that will camp you with no problems at all.


- Alliance travel convenience: Blackrock Mountain was closer to SW and IF
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True. But once you discover the flightpath, the difference is a couple of minutes.
In STV, while leveling, Horde had a middle flight path, while alliance got none. Enjoy BB - Darkshire to give in Nesingwary quests :p

- Stormwind had a greater level of detail: fancy buildings, underground tram, kids chasing each other, speaking NCPs while Orgrimmar was lifeless
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As i said before, i agree with that. Alliance city are far, far better than the Horde ones.

Sorry for my bad englando etc etc.

Peace
 
How do you define "unpolished/unfinished"?
Alliance might have more zones to choose from, however Horde has more quests, and actually I really liked the Barrens athmosphere.
Alliance racials are better for PvE sure, including Paladin as a "racial", but Horde really rocks regarding PvP, WotF is incredibly OP and orc stun res might be rng but is a really great counter against all those rogues of Vanilla.
Lack of security? Two of the Horde's Faction leaders come with an additional Boss add (Vol'jin and Varimathras) to deal with, Alliance Faction leaders are all alone.
Travel convenience: Alliance has easier access to Blackrock yeah, but T2,5 and T3 content is horde favoured as far as traveling distance is considered. But still, Alliance might be off a little bit better..
I think the "level of detail" is something you cannot really say objectively. I like the wooden buildings with claws and bones of Orgrimmar, the desert flair, feels like a true warrior city, not like "lets-all-hide-behind-our-walls-and 5 metre statues" - Stormwind City. So i guess it depends what faction you prefer...
 
I dunno about that, while I am planning to roll human to take the edge off some of those rep grinds I always preferred the 1-30 experience horde has. I'll take the barrens over westfall and redridge any day of the week. I'd much rather be running RFC and SFK than DM and Stockades, and I find the quests in stromguarde far more compelling than those in alterac.
 
Meh. I love Horde regardless.

I just came on to say...What do you mean Barrens Sucked!?

I love the Barrens :D. Great history from WC3 and decent on the lore side in WoW. I remember when walking from Camp T to Xroads as a level 11 Tauren Warrior, just trying to find my way around and not die by the level 18 pats. Was a good feeling.

Yea Barrens is awesome.
 
I prefer leveling as Horde due to the availability of Barrens as an uncontested zone to plan out leveling so I'm at a superior level when doing Stonetalon / Ashenvale quests, and I REALLY prefer being Horde for the level 51-60 stretch as they have better quests all the way around over Alliance. Hinterlands and Azshara are an experience point bonanza for leveling up, while Alliance gets jack-all for quests in that range in their available zones.

It's not even close. Same thing for Swamp of No Hope and Dustwallow. I'll be leveling as Alliance this time around, but I'm doing so knowing ahead of time that I'm playing the game on 'hard mode' for those last levels on the path to 60.

Edit - for the early levels to the path to 30, Westfall / Redridge sucks and you're a freakin' target for griefing in Redridge. I'm going to do all of Dun Morogh and Darkshore as well as hitting Wetlands and Ashenvale as a combo. Far less griefing exposure with this route, as Horde almost never goes to Wetlands to do anything other than blaze through to get the flight path for Badlands. Which has a great line of quests in that zone, over Alliance as well! ARRRGH. It makes me mad just thinking about it.
 
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Struckd said:
Meh. I love Horde regardless.

I just came on to say...What do you mean Barrens Sucked!?

I love the Barrens :D. Great history from WC3 and decent on the lore side in WoW. I remember when walking from Camp T to Xroads as a level 11 Tauren Warrior, just trying to find my way around and not die by the level 18 pats. Was a good feeling.

Yea Barrens is awesome.
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barrens my fav leveling zone, always go there no matter what horde race i play :p just too sweet to pass:) and having WC in you backyard aint too bad either :p
 
cento said:
barrens my fav leveling zone, always go there no matter what horde race i play :p just too sweet to pass:) and having WC in you backyard aint too bad either :p
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Amen...and from there you have access to so quite a few more zones.

Right level 15 now shall I haead on to Stonetalon? nah ill keep on questing here.

Right level 20 now shall I head on to Ashenvale? nah ill keep on questing here.

Right level 25 now. I can get to desolace or 1k needles. Ah the choices.
 
All you QQ'ing newbs need to get educated. High end pve horde has it easier than alliance.

First of all, horde raid DPS is superior to alliance raid DPS, cause of Windfury totems with weapon swapping macro's.
Second, Chain heal is overpowered, like really make a shaman and try it once.
Thirdly ehm, poison cleansing totems in AQ40 and Naxx anyone ???
 
AzaGuilla said:
All you QQ'ing newbs need to get educated. High end pve horde has it easier than alliance.

First of all, horde raid DPS is superior to alliance raid DPS, cause of Windfury totems with weapon swapping macro's.
Second, Chain heal is overpowered, like really make a shaman and try it once.
Thirdly ehm, poison cleansing totems in AQ40 and Naxx anyone ???
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What a bunch of nonsense. Pala blessings are stronger, especially salvation, which allows people to push dps with almost no regard for threat. Not to mention that they can be buffed on any member in the raid. Shaman totems though? Gonna need a shaman in each group for that, mate. Nobody fucking raids with 8 shamans. Not to mention that your beloved windfury only benefits melee dps. Also, last time I checked, Poison Cleaning Totems don't help versus, say, Huhuran's poison volley. Dwarven Stoneform does, though. And I'm not even gonna start listing other alliance racials here. Ally is the PvE hero faction, period.
 
I cant level as alliance, westfall and redridge seem really slow compared to barrense, the missing fly path apart from BB in STV made me mad as a mf, I dont know what to do in Hinterlands, Azshara, also Gromgol and Feralas have better quests I believe.

50+ content apart from the Blackrock one is faster to reach by horde, not to mention something like Scarlet monastery, DM.

Alliance lacks any Kalimdor presence. Darnassus is nonexistant, due to its unconvienent location
Horde has the city trio linked together

Hinterlands and Azshara chains are superior by far. And I dont even know the alliance ones.

Blessings are op, and hpallys dont know what oom means. Honestly especially 5maning with a hpal is the shit.
Maybe too many hunters on ally, and rogues on horde.

Just some stuff that bothers me, and since im mainly pvp I just cant play alliance as a priest, rogue or warlock
 
Ghostly said:
What a bunch of nonsense.
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Learn to read, i said high end game. Especially with TF and hitcap on your tank combined with WF, your tank will have so much threat that Salvation will be negated. Sure when everyone has no gear and your tanks abilities miss/dodge/parry 70% of the time he will be getting shit threat and that's where Salvation is better, but even at that stage, salvation still won't stop warlocks/rogues/mages from stealing aggro if they get some lucky crit chain.
 
I agree with everything OP mentioned except for the number of quests. I believe horde had more quests. Despite that I still believe you can level to 60 on alliance only doing quests. But you need to very carefully plan ahead. Horde had this easier. You could miss a quest or two and still make it ok.

I like what somebody said that horde seems more like the PvP faction.
 
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