World of Warcraft MEGA-FAQ

Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Draenei are Alliance, or good. Orcs, Forsaken, Tauren (bulls), Trolls, and Blood Elves are Horde, or bad. Though you may find it interesting to find out that Tauren and Forsaken are not actually all-evil, and quite possibly none of the Horde is “evil.”

You won’t run into this battle of good and evil very often in PvE realms (player versus environment), but it’s more than half the game in PvP realms (player vs player).

There is no difference in which you choose other than the decor and what kind of other players you see all the time, but the quests don’t vary too much until about level 30 as the whole world opens up, both continents, and quests are similar and in the same areas for both factions.

PvP vs PvE

I will say that the background of the horde classifies them as “brute force with small numbers.” It makes sense because I’ll bet most WoW players start  with the Alliance and then make a horde character after. But don’t be shocked if you choose a low-medium population realm and find the other faction is  dominant.

For chat you can’t understand the other faction.

In PvE it’s you and the game, with you deciding when to interact in combat with the other faction’s players. This is the “normal” gameplay if you are just  starting to play Warcraft.

The next step is PvP realms in which you can be attacked at any moment. Since  this is not the start of World of Warcraft there are tons of level 80’s in any realm you choose to play. Basically I’m just warning you that unless  level 80’s from your faction are protecting the area you play in, expect to  be attacked. Rogues and druids are probably the best choice in PvP since you can disappear when needed. But again, I suggest you play on a PvP realm after you’ve played on a PvE realm for some time.

*NOTE: Since realms are not connected you can’t make a 80 on one and support a character in a different realm. You also cannot support a character of yours on the other faction, even in on the same realm. Nor can you befriend the other side, no matter how much they may help you.*

*NOTE: You’re subject to “ganking” in PvP, which means people can feast on low level characters, camp at graveyards, camp your body, kill quest givers,  rogues can stealth you at any moment, and so on. This is why PvP is basically like playing WoW on HARD, and why you need to play on the PvE first so your questing in PvP will take less time. Nevermind you can put WoW on HARDER if you play the less-popular faction on a PvP realm.*

*NOTE: I believe from level 1-20 your PvP flag is not on in PvP realms.*

You can make a DK on any realm once one character is 55 and you have WotLK installed, you can make level 55 Death Knights on a PvP realm, but of course that isn’t a huge advantage, you just avoid early game PvP.

Universal PvP

There are battlegrounds in which you basically play multiplayer against the other faction. There is one you can enter from level 10, Warsong Gulch. These are all accessible from a “battle room” area in a major city, or in the region where the battleground is “taking place”. They work from groups 1-9, meaning level 11’s and 19’s play in one game, 21’s and 29’s. Of course the 0’s play in the correct group as well, with the exceptions being 60’s being the last level allowed in Alterac and 80’s having their own grounds. Basically you want to be at least near the last accepted level for your grouping to not be a  detriment to your team.

There are also arenas in select areas, or entered like a battleground, in which you can fight in groups with near-level players. Finding these in the wild you enter PvA, player versus all, in which it’s a free-for-all.

In PvE there can be brief instances of PvP outside battlegrounds. Dueling  is a solo combat with anyone that can be asked and declined by anyone. The other time is when a group of the other faction storm a town or city, or  even a single character, though rarely. When you see someone of the other  faction with their PvP flagged, meaning their name color is changed, then you can attack if you wish. Attacking a PvP turns on yours, as well as attacking  NPC’s of the other faction.

*NOTE: The honor system rewards more for killing like-level or higher level characters. You get no honor for killing lowly players.*

For PvE you’ll mainly encounter small bands of enemies entering a city to cause minor damage, essentially just seeing how long they can go. Rarely, and you’ll want to at least watch these, will a raiding army of the other faction enter a city and bolt for the king. This is because aside from the fun of it, they are trying to get the achievement for killing the leaders of the factions.

One last note, if you’re on PvE and get killed by another player you can wait 5 minutes in ghost form so that your PvP flag clears.

Balance?

This is concerning the PvP aspect of Warcraft, no matter your realm. Are the  factions balanced in skill, numbers, and classes?

No, and for some obvious reasons, others not so obvious to an Alliance player such as myself. I can assure you that 10 Horde players can defeat 10 Alliance players of the same level and skill. I think a part of it is a tiny perk for Blood Elves where it says they can sometimes gain extra runic power, mana, and energy. Aside from that they have more races that can be Shaman, so that allows for extra healing.

The not-so-obvious reason is that probably most Alliance players are new to WoW, and while there may be just as many good Alliance as Horde players, the fact that there are more not so good Alliance players means those players  dilute battlegrounds. It’s also reasonable to assume that if people do start on Alliance, that means that when they do create a Horde toon they will know their stuff better. Finally, there may be an element of “us against them” with Horde players. I don’t think the last reason is as true as I may think, but there are more twink Horde than Alliance, and most likely have a little help.

I would say have some faction pride, but I would rather say go Alliance, so  I’ll say neither.

One interesting thing that bugs me is that these factions must be at war with each other. In Outland and Northrend you see every camp has a mixture of the  factions and races. Other than betting that paladin is the most broken class, I would say that at some point you could make any race for either faction.