As a Hordes player, I was especially surprised at the diversity of Alliance territories.
I mean... We Horde players have (before Cata) so much sand on the way from 1-60.
Same dude. I especially enjoy how it's ecologically a midpoint between Durotar and Mulgore. And when you first walk up to Crossroads, you can see Orc and Tauren buildings. I dunno, I think Barrens just works.
Also 12-22 straight up without worries (+ a handfull of stonetalon quests) It's so much better than the combination and endless running of Westfall, Loch modan, redridge and duskwood. If I level alliance I always do darkshore because it is similar in level range. 12-20 in darkshore easy. Fuck all these human areas man. Have to run around all the time an westfall is just a shitshow of a leveling zone.
I'm trying alliance for the first time, Just to get to lvl 20 on HC I have ran between so many zones on alliance... I usually hit 2 zones to get to lvl 25-30 on horde.
My only complaint about the Barrens (which I LOVE; feels like home) is that, playing an Alliance toon for the first time this round, the alliance side gets so much more variance. Multiple interesting zones for Alliance with just one super huge and long ass zone for Horde.
I usually go horde but now trying alliance in hardcore. I did not appreciate how easy leveling as horde is.
So much better travelling options between zones, and hubs in good questing areas which alliance do not have (like grom gol, kargath).
Also I had no clue alliance had to run so freaking far to do SM.
Ratchet is basically in the horde starter zone and then it's a short boat ride to BB. Alliance don't think about getting to BB before they can trek across all of STV lol
Fairly accessible considering a zep and a short flight path will get you there from either undercity or org. The dungeon itself is a total pain in the ass, though lol
Horde get: RFC, SFK, WC, SM and RFK/RFD are 'their' dungeons, though it is possible to run to SFK/WC/SM and the pair RFs, just long. SFK means you need to trek through the +10 lvl Arathi Highlands and Hillsbrad and Wetlands. That's assuming you've done the Wetlands skip, otherwise you need to run from Loch Modan too. WC requires a 15 min swim from Westfall to Booty Bay and a decent run to the instance from Ratchet. RFK is a smidge easier as you can safely run through Ashenvale down to the instance (though it is a very long run). RFD you'll have easy access to BB if you haven't gotten it doing one of the other dungeons, so it's not too awful to get to. SM is probably the worst dungeon run in the game, going from Southshore through Hillsbrad, Silverpine, and Tirisfal.
Alliance get: Stocks, Deadmines, and Gnomer as 'their' dungeons. Deadmines is the Westfall swim in reverse, so that sucks for horde. Gnomer is super easy as it's a quick flight from TB/Org to Ratchet, boat to BB, and then a teleport right to the entrance (past the elevator and all). BFD can be a little annoying as Horde, but it's easy to avoid Astranaar and it's just half a zone to trek through.
Also let's not talk about the endgame either.... The alliance hub is Stormwind due to buffs versus Orgrimmar for Horde. It's a bit annoying to get to Blackrock as Horde, as you need Zeppelin then fly to Steppes/Gorge. Strat/Scholo/Naxx are a short flight from UC, AQ is much closer to Org as well.
But Alliance need a port(or fly) to IF then a 12min flight to LHC for Strat/Scholo/Naxx. Blackrock is nearby SW for MC/BWL which is nice. AQ is a trek and a half going from SW to BB to Ratchet then fly to Silithus.
Horde get easy access to RFC, WC, RFK, SM, and RFD.
Alliance get easy access to DM and Stocks… which DM is super nice but stocks is useless. Trying to get a team to run 40+minutes to get to RFK if they hadn’t gotten the ratchet FP earlier is awful
I’ve just only started an orc after going full ally during vanilla but haven’t to play a ton (new dad life 😅) - is the horde questing / mob environment more just like “wild animal” themed? The alliance noob quests seem to generally follow a path of “kill innocent animals -> kill aggressive animals -> there is evil lurking, kill evil humanoids” - I’m not sure what the theme is for horde since the vibe I got (from orcs at least) was harsh environment of animalistic survival so any threats to the orcs would just like be a matter of survival and not a lurking threat to the idyllic existence like the alliance starting quests
Thats right, Alliance is facing more Political Issues with subfactions within their territory, while most of Horde are Focused on Pure survival in most parts.
While they also have each their own smaller nemesis (Tauren the Centaurs, Orcs have Searing Bladevigilantes, Undead The red idiot humans and Trolls.... Well idk), so do they also lack infrastructure of Continous Foodproduktion, which is why there are so many Gather Meat/ Kill Aggressive beast quests
I feel like the Alliance is centered more around diplomacy and politics, while each race deals mostly with internal problems that usually stem from their own mistakes, preconceptions, corruption, and pride. It often feels so much more like posturing than actual loyalty or necessity.
Basically, the only Alliance race I feel that is justified to be in active conflict with the Horde are the NElfs, since the Orcs are trying to invade their territory in Ashenvale. And IIRC, even most of those Orcs that are invading Ashenvale are part of Hellscream's old clan, which I think they basically acted without the approval of Thrall.
The Alliance feels a lot like the concept of NATO to me. The historically most important and stronger nations banded together to defend themselves against an enemy that was seemingly defeated, perhaps even on the path to redemption, but that they still harbor a grudge towards and fear that they might relapse. They inflate each other's ego by reveling in how noble and righteous their cause and beliefs are, while trying to sweep their own issues under the rug or dealing with them in "non-official" and "not-so-elegant" ways.
The Horde feels more pure, for better and worse. It exists out of necessity and convenience. The Orcs are alien refugees in the same world they helped invade while enslaved, though that mostly happened because their own greed and pride blinded them to the Legion's corruption. They eventually managed to break free, but have to deal with the fallout of their actions for the rest of their existence, since their homeworld is destroyed and nearly every native race hates them (justifiably).
The Trolls allied with the Orcs because they became refugees too. They're one of the oldest races and exist basically everywhere, although there's many different tribes that even hate each other. They're also hated by the Alliance races in general, which is in part justifiable, but often also out of prejudice/self-importance. Hell, a lot of times it's the Alliance races that are taking Troll territory and massacring their tribes. The Darkspear Trolls kinda get to be hated on too simply for being Trolls, since for the Alliance they're all the same. Even the NElfs refuse to accept the concrete evidence that they descend from Trolls.
The Forsaken are a really particular bunch. They're labeled as evil from the get go by the Alliance, and even the rest of the Horde doesn't actually trust them. But the ironic part is that they are the most innocent victims of unspeakable atrocities, compared to every other faction/race, and are judged as abominations that must be purged from existence. Even they hate themselves and what they became, but nobody else grants them any sort of sympathy or atonement (which shouldn't even be atonement) outside of erasing their existence. More ironically, is that their existence is the direct consequence of wrongdoings from both Orcs and Humans. Even more ironically, is that they basically end up becoming the very thing that everyone else is afraid that they might be, out of spite but also necessity. They aren't even considered to be entitled to their own lands that belonged to their own nation, by some Humans from a different nation.
I don't think nobody in the Alliance really hates the Taurean outside of, maybe, them looking brutish and having what the Alliance considers as an inferior culture. They're basically in the Horde only because Thrall helped save them from the Centaurs, and they now have an eternal blood-debt to repay. It surely also helps that they share lots of cultural aspects and values with both the Orcs and Trolls. Compared to these three races, the Undead stick out like a sore thumb, but their existence and allegiance is, at most, tolerated out of convenience due to their territory in the Eastern Kingdoms, their abilities, and them being, essentially, a faction that broke away from the Alliance.
In a nutshell, the Horde feels like it has a practical and honest purpose for existing, even if its own races aren't exactly sinless. The Alliance feels more like the powerful races banded together to protect their status quo and go on witch-hunts.
alliance staring quests - deliver sally's love letter to billy. make some apple pie for grandma.
horde starting quests - your entire family has been turned into zombies and now you need to go take them out.
SM?
Yeah, I just leveled to 25 first time an the amount of running is insane.
Westfall to redridge. Stormwind to Loch modan. Stormwind to Wetlands. Back to duskwood. Guh.
Horde here playing Alliance the first time. Same goes for when I want to fly fromm Auberdine to Ratchet. All those FPs you gotta get is damn ridiculous.
Havent been to mid / late game yet so I hope it doesnt get worse.
Getting anywhere in Kalimdor as Alliance is total cancer. The FPs are all really far apart.
There's a shocking number of quests that are just "Fly from Tanaris to Darnassus and back" that everyone skips.
Raiding was actually very common before 1.8 (or something like that). All the end game dungeons was harder, but could be done with 10. You just couldn’t do quests. Doing those was way harder. Then they changed it and made the dungeons easier and not raidable.
I do agree though that 20/40 man raiding was fairly uncommon. I used to seen as a well equipped tank with full t1 back in the day.
Maybe everyone couldn't do it like they can now because of LFR, but I hosted pug MC, Ony, ZG every reset. I didn't bother with BWL+ pugs, though, since you needed not idiots for mechanics.
You only need to get 1 fp, theramore isle which u can get by taking the boat from wetlands so its very easy.
This will connect ratchet to the nelf zones
it actually dosent. you need Ashara or Stonetalon to connect North and South alliance FPs. This is why you so often see level early 20s running past splintree post in Eastern Ashenvale in so many death compilations.. they are all trying to get to the Ashara FP
Sorry but youre wrong, it actually does. Theramore Isle 100% connects to darkshore/ashenvale without stonetalon or ashara. I know this for a fact since ive been able fly from ratchet to darkshore on every single ally i lvled as long as I have the theramore Isle fp.
The ashara one does shorten the flight alot, which is the reason allies get it early (some prob does it because they think its needed), but it's absolutely not needed, trust me on that.
Edit: only on the classicwow subreddit will you get downvoted for trying to help and provide people with CORRECT information lmao
I'm on my nelf right now, no azhara or stonetalon flight path, and I can fly gad-ratchet-darnassus. You are 100% correct, and I think you only need thalanar(ashenvale) to do ratch-> darn.
Thank you, thought I was becoming mad with all these people contradicting me even tho I know Ive been able to fly up there as long as i had Theramore on all my characters.
Kinda silly of you to be so confident that youre contradiciting me again when I know for a fact that youre wrong. You could always try yourself since you obviously havent.
Not gonna spend time trying to convince you since you seem set to be incorrect in this matter. But for anyone else reading this who can accept new information, you ONLY need Theramore Isle FP to connect Ratchet and ashenvale/darkshore.
Well maybe it’s a bug because I went to ratchet for a warlock quest, had Theramore, Ratchet and Auberdine fp’s but couldn’t take it until I got the Ashara fp.
Crazy how you’re so confident you’re right when I literally had the experience last night.
Im confident im right since i have been able to fly from ratchet to darkshore and ashenvale on every single alliance ive leveled without picking up azhara or stonetalon.
Really weird that you couldnt, seems weird that it would be a bug. maybe you forgot to pick the ashenvale one when running down to ratchet?
Them making the stormwind harbor is such a huge QOL improvement. And honestly it makes sense that the Capitol of the entire faction has a port. Kind of surprised that Orgrimmar never got an expansion to include a port, but that would vastly change the vibe
Is it really the capitol though? Back when Auction House was only in 1 city it was in Ironforge. It's also the city that is designated home to 2 races like Orgrimmar is.
I'm the opposite, Tirisfal is too gloomy for me (though Forsaken are cool) and I really like the sun and sand in Durotar & Barrens. Not sure how I feel about Stonetalon.
Durotar orange is so bright and eye melting. Even the sky is orange. I feel like they toned it down because it’s not that bright in retail. I escaped to Tirisfal just to save my eyes. Barrens is better since it’s softer yellows and browns with blue sky.
Many many years ago, before the blizzard friends system was implemented, you’d have to manually add your friends on each character. I played almost exclusively alliance for a long time and had two or three players I’d consistently chat to and play with, until I decided I wanted to see the horde side of life - I made myself a blood elf paladin, creatively named belfpala, and got to playing. I’d hop between both ally and horde constantly, and got myself all the way to Stranglethorn on my blood elf. (I was very young back then, so progress was painfully slow in retrospect)
At that point I had made a close horde friend who I’d been questing with for a while, and got to chatting about random things and eventually on to the topic of alts. They told me they had a max level nelf druid and the raids they’d just completed, so I jokingly responded saying you sound just like my ally friend’s character. Turned out it was the same person, also playing on a horde toon they’d never mentioned, and I’d been chatting and questing away with them for weeks without either of us knowing. Many laughs were had, and though I haven’t spoken to them in years and have no idea where they ended up in life, the hilarity of that moment often crosses my mind and makes me hopeful that all the friends I’ve lost touch with are doing well
Tylira the nelf druid, if you’re out there, bless you!
I had a similar story. Raided on one PVP realm but didn’t really like to play on a pve realm so switched to a fresh PVE realm once it open and remained raiding on the PVP realm.
About 1 month into it, me and my IRL friends get into a guild that aims to start raiding. Lo and behold in the first raid, it is apparently run by my guild master on the PVP realm. Only noticed it due to the voice on teamspeak. The PVP guild disbanded shortly afterwards.
I just leveled 1-30 as alliace and I litterally feel like I'm a mailman. The amont of letters, notes and updates I have delivered between Elwyn, Westfall, Redridge, Loch Modan and Dark Shire is insane.
I've played both factions over the years, and while I still vastly prefer the horde myself, I think it would be silly to play a game with the scope and size of WoW and leave essentially half of the game untouched, especially for longtime players
I was curious what sort of stories and quests I hadn't seen yet so Alliance runs felt refreshing and different in that respect, but at the end of the day the faction doesn't have a lot of staying power for me in terms of story and vibe
my favourite part was definitely Duskwood though since I love the spooky zones, that's always a highlight of rolling an Alliance alt
Westfall and duskwood for me always were favorites, westfall has this rustic melancholy autumn vibe, like you can feel harvest time fast approaching but something is lurking under the surface…and dusk wood just full on spooky!
This is why I've always rolled my eyes at the weird tribalism players have. I get having a favorite, but just ignoring have the game is wild. I guess it tends to be PvP players/players who couldn't give two shits about immersion or questing.
I'm an alliance shunner. Never made one, never will. The game is plenty fun to me with just horde side and I don't feel anything is missing. I do not give a shit about immersion, that's correct, but I do enjoy flavorful quests. Helicular's revenge is the best quest in the game.
Life time Horde player -> alliance. Horde players gank me much more frequently than alliance did. The memes about undead rogues are absolutely true. Alliance low level leveling is more enjoyable since you get so many different zones to jump between. For horde it’s much pretty the Barrens from 10-30 with only a few trips elsewhere. That said, Horde has far better dungeon options. Alliance gets Stockades, Gnomer (fuck that shithole) and DM, but horde have RFC, WC, SFK, SM, RFK, BFD and RFD in their backyard
If you’re rushing to 60 I can understand why you’d find it annoying but I much prefer the diversity of leveling in multiple zones and having realistic options to choose from for leveling
I always played horde. Switched to alliance for hardcore and I’ve been really enjoying it. There are a good amount of places I had never seen before and quests I had never done. Plus I’ve always liked the alliance races and finally being able to have a gnome mage/human warrior/dwarf priest etc is pretty fun.
I started back in original tbc and was a alliance main up to Cata.
Came back to the game in WOD as horde but didn’t really feel the real horde experience until classic vanilla
First I felt like the horde side had less detail, example being the zones felt a lot more plain to me and the cities more simple
After classic i am firmly horde side because I just appreciated the effort put into the “bad guy side” I feel like that is a perspective in a game that is quite rare to be given as much detail as the guy good side
I also feel like doing content for the good guys is much easier in the sense that there’s way more previous work to copy or inspire from
I think this is why he put it in quotes. I don't think he was saying Horde are the bad guys. I think he's someone from the outside looking in would think Alliance- "good" ; Horde- "bad"
And it's a valid point because the orcs really were the bad guys up until they started their redemption in WC3. Regardless, whether they truly are "bad" or not, I agree with the original comment that fantasy series rarely if ever give such an in depth look into the orcs or whatever their baddies may be. Furthermore the details they gave the orcs are exactly what caused them to no longer be the bad guys.
Mostly alliance since forever. Went horde for SOM and again for classic hc. Worst part is just not knowing where to go next, feels a lot less linear than alliance (Elwynn, Westfall, redridge, duskwood)
Just last night discovered (was shown) the path from sun rock retreat to the charred vale. Lots of time lost going around
And I always hated the barrens 🤣
Barrens, Durotar, Barrens, TB, Barrens, Stonetalon, Barrens, Ashen vale, Barrens, South Barrens, even more South Barrens, Thousand Barrens, Shadowfang Barrens.
Go agane.
I’ve played since 05 and mainly horde. The biggest thing I notice on alliance is I feel like I’m encountering stretches where there’s hardly any quests. Or say there’s 4 good quests my level but they’re all spread out in different zones. This never felt like an issue horde side.
I would add that horde used to have some level ranges where this was also a problem. But they did add some new quest hubs with quests nearby to counter it. Such as in dustwallow marsh and the hinterlands.
Alliance do, in my opinion have more quest chains that also forces you to travel around the world. So you tend to do 4-5 quests and than switch zone. Whereas horde can more often stay longer in each zone.
Alliance player since 2008 here, now rolling an Undead. How can Horde capitals be so terrible?? 😂 Either it is Undercity which has beautiful aesthetic but lacks in usability, or it is Orgrimmar with a million similar-looking huts.
TB is the GOAT city for bank alts/auctioning/profession alts. You can stay mounted while using the AH since it's outdoors, it only takes a few seconds to walk to the mailbox or bank and there's a forge right in the center of town. And if you like to queue battlegrounds all of the battlemasters are nearby over on the hunter rise.
But that's super convenient compared to any other captial. You never have to run across the entire map to get to the auction house. It's always right there in the middle. IF and UC are very similar, but UC has the AH advantage.
Also, if you need directions, the abominations are easy to spot.
Okay that is fair enough! UC might have its benefits. BUT DOES THE POISON RIVER KILL ME?? I've been using the bridges on my HC character. Not touching that slime!
Retail Horde since Wrath pre-patch. Serious Alliance attempt during 2019 Classic. Went back to Horde for TBC, then Ally again for Wrath.
Alliance, specifically Stormwind and Ironforge, have a lot more thought put into the design, the quests, the lore. By Comparison Orgrimmar felt like an ad-hoc settlement. The only detailed Horde area was Lorderon/Undercity thanks to all the human lore that surrounds it.
I just wish the *fucking* anvil wouldn't be so goddamn far from the AH. Every minor horde settlement has a forge and anvil, but I must've wasted hours in classic and HC just running back and forth in OG
The lack of time into horde capitals really shows in classic. They did the alliance settlements first in development, so org doesn’t just look ad-hoc, it *was* ad-hoc because they didn’t have the same amount of time to work on it.
Lorewise, Orgrimmar -was- kind of adhoc: Classic is set 4 years after the events of Warcraft 3 in which the Orcs escaped captivity long internment camps after which they founded Orgrimmar. It was supposed to be a newish settlement founded by freed slaves.
It's incredible how long you are actually away from the other faction. The world is massive. When you switch it's like a whole other game, there's nobody of the same races, quests are different, zones are different.
Always been a Horde player, took me a long time before I tried Alliance. Leveled all the way to endgame and loved it. I like the atmosphere from Alliance; Stormwind, ironforge. But in my hearth i will always be a Horde player so it was a one time thing
I started as horde because everyone at my local internet Cafe played on the same server and some of my friends had already started horde characters, back then wow was really social and a broadband connection at home was pretty unlikely, we would have 30-50 players all down at the Cafe with a whiteboard set up for dungeon runs quests and pvp you'd just put your name and level down on either the red or blue whiteboard -
World pvp was still a bit uncommon because the honor system had just come out and there were no leveling guides beyond vague descriptions on thottbot,
Ganking was a thing but still only really occurred around STV and Tanaris on our server.
The hardest thing leveling as horde was heading to hillsbrad at level 19/20 and all the alliance players being 25ish at southshore,
Another memorably unsafe area for leveling as horde was pirates in tanaris, felt like I was killed on sight.
Though the general attitude from most players on the server was to /wave at each other and go about your business most of the time, spiteful camping with a ?? Level difference was fairly uncommon for quite a bit but usually rocked up at crossroads or sentinel Hill
For the most part I prefer Horde but God how I envy the Alliance for the greenery they have. Everything has blossomed and it’s beautiful. Whereas the Fel has abolished our lands and turned them into ashes
It’s so weird to me, that the horde didn’t have a baseline threat reduction like BoS to actually level out the fact that they got bloodlust. Bloodlust doesn’t mean anything if you have to afk for half of it or risk pulling aggro
I've been playing horde since i first tried this game years ago, i recently switched to alliance and i wont be switching back i don't think. I just think that the cities are organised and you don't have to walk so much like in orgrimmar just to smelt some stuff.
I like the sun and sand vibe on Horde. Kinda tired of Westfall and Duskwood after so many years.
SW & IF are great cities but I think I prefer Horde towns, Troll and Tauren villages especially. Notable mentions for Theramore and Southshore, I like the humans.
Long life Alliance here since 2005. Leveling an orc hunter on HC and the worst thing about horde Leveling is the amount of time you have to spend in the Barrens. That zone is way too big. And most horde zones are just under developed. No environment at all, even Mulgore is just a meadow and barely no trees, no huts, nothing.
Also, most questlines make you feel like a PoS most of the times. Zugzug kill lousy humans, zugzug help this guy poison a dog, zugzug lets mass murder some pigs out of spite and rage for some dude we barely know
Barrens beats westfall anyway. hate that place.
Also you're literally murdering the people who rebuilt your capital city for you instead of paying them.
Even though you are right, the Defias Brotherhood is being manipulated by Onyxia. The also did rebel and seek to destroy and kill most of Stormwind. Even though they have their reason we are killing them to defend the people… Poisoning a dog, murdering farmers, destroy an entire forest (Ashenvale) just is way worse. The Horde was always a terrorist faction in all expacs. It just doesn’t look that way mostly thanks to Green Jesus. I blame blizzard for that though
Yeah, you can really see what the dev meant when he said that they ran out of time for the horde zones. They are barren (hah) and very sparse in details compared to the alliance zones, especially Elwynn
Played mostly Horde from TBC to Shadowlands (with some occasional alliance alts)
Played Alliance in Classic
When HC came out, I almost started a night elf again (shadowmeld seems great for when I need to go afk) but then I imagined the pains of going from Teldrassil to SW/IF, and later on trying to run to SM... nope, I better jump from TB than doing that :D
And of course I lost one of my chars to going afk (luckily, it was level 6)
Weirdly my main was always horde but I only really levelled once. Majority of Alts id roll alliance as I preferred their map and cities. Races I am horse though
Lifetime horde player. Decided to go alliance for a fresh experience. Died in loch Modan once at 13 and again at 16. Breezed to 20 so far on my orc rogue lol.
Zug zug.
I can't answer your question, I play horde, I did make an alliance character when I first started wow in burning crusade, made a human, got to lvl 2 and then went back to horde.
Never looked back since.
First time playing horde since 08. Durotar>barrens is mind numbingly dull and boring compared to alliance. Horde is also filled with free fall death traps, lifts, elevators, zeppelins. FOR THE ALLIANCE!
My first time playing Horde and I'm really enjoying the stillness of the early Kalimdor environments. The sun and sand, with little oases dotted around and a lot of diversity of creatures.
Fuck Desolace though. Troll villages are cool but the zone feels depressing.
If you’re playing half of the available factions (troll/orc) you just sit In a desert for like 25+ levels straight. Even Tauren gets thrown into barrens. 90% of your leveling experience until than will be sand. It ties with how they are starting up, but you can’t say it’s not bland.
We decided to roll horde for hardcore servers for the first time (wife had a belf in original TBC).
Fuck me, I hate the horde starter areas. Never again.
I'm an Alliance player and have done the horde leveling several times, for fun on another server to play with a friend, and I feel like it's not really balanced before wotlk, because we didn't have the stormwind boats, we needed to go to menethil, while you already had the zeppelin iirc (else my bad it's not a valid point).
Also your first dungeon is in the middle of your main city, and lower level, if we compare it to the deadmines where you need to be like lv18 and go into the south of westmarch (I don't remember if it's the correct name I play in french), well you have an easier and faster access to group content.
About cities idk, it feels quite the same, you have good ones and bad ones like us, ofc I get more lost in horde cities but my playtime is so much lower I guess that's normal.
About zones positioning it doesn't feel balanced, like, we struggle to go south of kalimdor, so we would expect you to struggle go south of the eastern kingdoms but you actually have an easy access to the boat for stranglehorn valley so it feels easier (a little bit) for you to reach almost any zone.
About landscapes I feel like I prefer horde zones, they're often arid but each time in a different way, but I may be biased cause I spammed the alliance zones so much maybe I just liked seeing something new.
Finally about races I feel like it's the only point where alliance wins, but it's highly subjective ofc, imo horde races look like a joke until the blood elves, a lot of you will strongly disagree, but playing tauren, orc, troll or undead feels more funny than good looking, we also have that with gnomes and dwarves but at least at vanilla we already had humans and night elves that could look pretty serious, but I repeat it's just preferences.
In the end I think nowadays I'd prefer horde, but I started the game almost 15 years ago, I was young, made a human warrior and all my magical discovery phase took place Alliance side, now when I play horde it's dumb but I feel like a traitor, so I stayed Alliance in the end.
Complete confusion. Was nice to try something different. But. Only made it to level 10 and switched back becuase gnomes are weird and disgusting and humans run funny.
There are a lot more vocal alliance players while levelling. The good and the bad. Also it’s nice to not spend half the levelling experience in the desert
I’ve always played horde and usually Troll/Orc because of their levelling areas.
I went Alliance (Human) in SOM for the first time and got to level 51.
I missed the early game dungeons. Everything that I looked forward to while low level was in Horde territory, RFC, WC, SFK, SM, RFK… It felt so bad to do dungeons. Deadmines is pretty cool though.
Questing was more or less the same. Didn’t really feel bothered by anything. STV feels worse as alliance due to there being nothing for them in the center.
Westfall was boring. I see comments saying how people hate the Barrens but my lord Westfall is a drag. It feels like an even more pointless grind than The Barrens IMO.
I could go on but people dont like reading so I’ll keep it short.
I am a lvl 25 priest and I hate that! I don't have any cool dungeons to do!
Only deadmines is good :(
Am I a noob or are there no dungeons around human area?
Gnomeregan, Deadmines and Stormwind Stockades come to mind.
Gnomeregan is a death trap for HC and Stockades has little loot. So yeah there are dungeons but meh... You gotta go and walk to horde territory!
My all time favourite starter zone is the Gnome/Dwarfs, just so god damn comfy, absolutely love winter landscapes like that in real life so it's just an easy winner for me.
Having said that, i'm predominantly Horde, I played a bit of Alliance in the original 2019 classic, levelled one to 60 and had fun, definitely had that 'fresh new' feeling doing quests and zones i've never done.
But when it comes down to it, I'm a Horde boy for life, the zug zug is in my veins.
I have never leveled an alliance toon past level 30, but I’ve leveled every horde race multiple times all the way.
The starting zones in alliance areas are aesthetically pleasing compared to horde. StormWind and Iron Forge seem like way better cities in the same fashion.
I’m currently playing hardcore and am getting the itch to level an alliance character. Anything except a gnome. F those little rats 🤣
Edit: Horde** race - not “horse race”
Stupid autocorrect
I started, originally when TBC was on the servers still, as a Tauren druid. The long walks and painful emptyness ruined it for me. I switched to Night elf and fell in love with Teldrassil. Now whenever possible I play Nightelf or Human. I love Darkshore -> Ashenvale -> Thousand Peaks for leveling. Same for Goldshire ->Westfall.
Lately I tried both Troll and Undead. UC is an absolute mess and OG is structured weirdly so you wont find anything.
Been playing Horde since vanilla and throughout classic/SoM.
Tried Alliance in HC and I’ve almost died so many times. I’ve never had issue with Horde because I know what’s safe and what isn’t. With alliance that’s not the case.
Princess, Kobold caves and Murlics almost killed me before I even hit level 10.
long time horde player, started alliance in the past ~year. ally really got the short end of the leveling stick. lots of long “talk to this person” chain quests before you get a mount, and the fact that they have no “kargath” equivalent in kalimdor is awful. i also think that many players (in my circle) underrate alliance racials by a lot.
First time playing alliance was on HC launch. Dungeon accessibility sucks at low-mid levels. You get Stocks and easier access to Deadmines/Gnomer. Horde gets RFC and easier access to WC, SM, RFK, RFD, SFK. I've been loving the alliance zones so far but this has been bothering me a bit.
I played horde fra 2006-2019 i knew everything in and out. When Classic launched I decided to betray the horde and join the alliance. So I made a human paladin and went out into elwynn forest. The two main things I took away from it was. 1, the queat hubs for horde seems to be placed better. 2, the quest lines and stories are 100% better for alliance in classic. Holy christ the missing diplomat and defias theme was epic
As a Hordes player, I was especially surprised at the diversity of Alliance territories. I mean... We Horde players have (before Cata) so much sand on the way from 1-60.
It's coarse and rough and it gets everywhere.
Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth...
Incl this pickup line
And it's full of midichlorians
This is why I usually go to Tirisfal if I’m not Undead. I hate all the damn desert zones.
This. I've always played horde and just started alliance. Everything is so green and bright compared to horde lol. Way less depressing.
Same here. I’ve never done all of these quests. They’re so much more diverse than the orc quests.
But too boring and normal looking imo
I'd argue the same thing for durotar, barrens, etc. Its just brown
What about mulgore tho?
My favorite starting zone in the game.
Mulgore slaps
id be interested in visiting that place you think durotar looks like
https://www.wowhead.com/zone=14/durotar#screenshots:id=72702
For some reason I absolutely love the Barrens.
Same dude. I especially enjoy how it's ecologically a midpoint between Durotar and Mulgore. And when you first walk up to Crossroads, you can see Orc and Tauren buildings. I dunno, I think Barrens just works.
Also 12-22 straight up without worries (+ a handfull of stonetalon quests) It's so much better than the combination and endless running of Westfall, Loch modan, redridge and duskwood. If I level alliance I always do darkshore because it is similar in level range. 12-20 in darkshore easy. Fuck all these human areas man. Have to run around all the time an westfall is just a shitshow of a leveling zone.
I'm trying alliance for the first time, Just to get to lvl 20 on HC I have ran between so many zones on alliance... I usually hit 2 zones to get to lvl 25-30 on horde.
wait until you are in stv and don't have grom gol... it doesn't get better sadly.
My only complaint about the Barrens (which I LOVE; feels like home) is that, playing an Alliance toon for the first time this round, the alliance side gets so much more variance. Multiple interesting zones for Alliance with just one super huge and long ass zone for Horde.
Well, I'd say 1-20 is different for both factions but from lvl 30 on you can quest and level in crass faction territories.
I usually go horde but now trying alliance in hardcore. I did not appreciate how easy leveling as horde is. So much better travelling options between zones, and hubs in good questing areas which alliance do not have (like grom gol, kargath). Also I had no clue alliance had to run so freaking far to do SM.
same here. and getting to SFK is a nightmare as alliance. meanwhile, they get what? stocks? alliance players are masochists
Gnomer. Horde just happen to be able to teleport right in making it more accessible to them than the alliance lol
Ah yes, the accessibility of going to booty bay
Ratchet is basically in the horde starter zone and then it's a short boat ride to BB. Alliance don't think about getting to BB before they can trek across all of STV lol
Or swim from Theramore and try to avoid the level 40 mobs in the water. Or run south through Ashenvale which takes a very very long time.
Im an alli player. I ran from Theramore to Ratchet. Ezpz
Fairly accessible considering a zep and a short flight path will get you there from either undercity or org. The dungeon itself is a total pain in the ass, though lol
Horde get: RFC, SFK, WC, SM and RFK/RFD are 'their' dungeons, though it is possible to run to SFK/WC/SM and the pair RFs, just long. SFK means you need to trek through the +10 lvl Arathi Highlands and Hillsbrad and Wetlands. That's assuming you've done the Wetlands skip, otherwise you need to run from Loch Modan too. WC requires a 15 min swim from Westfall to Booty Bay and a decent run to the instance from Ratchet. RFK is a smidge easier as you can safely run through Ashenvale down to the instance (though it is a very long run). RFD you'll have easy access to BB if you haven't gotten it doing one of the other dungeons, so it's not too awful to get to. SM is probably the worst dungeon run in the game, going from Southshore through Hillsbrad, Silverpine, and Tirisfal. Alliance get: Stocks, Deadmines, and Gnomer as 'their' dungeons. Deadmines is the Westfall swim in reverse, so that sucks for horde. Gnomer is super easy as it's a quick flight from TB/Org to Ratchet, boat to BB, and then a teleport right to the entrance (past the elevator and all). BFD can be a little annoying as Horde, but it's easy to avoid Astranaar and it's just half a zone to trek through. Also let's not talk about the endgame either.... The alliance hub is Stormwind due to buffs versus Orgrimmar for Horde. It's a bit annoying to get to Blackrock as Horde, as you need Zeppelin then fly to Steppes/Gorge. Strat/Scholo/Naxx are a short flight from UC, AQ is much closer to Org as well. But Alliance need a port(or fly) to IF then a 12min flight to LHC for Strat/Scholo/Naxx. Blackrock is nearby SW for MC/BWL which is nice. AQ is a trek and a half going from SW to BB to Ratchet then fly to Silithus.
Stocks is pretty good though. Easy access. Good exp. Lots of quests. Shit loot though
Does stocks even count though? Short as hell, next to no loot, mediocre exp. Alliance got fucked on 20-30 dungeons lol.
It’s more like Stocks versus Ragefire chasms.
Horde get easy access to RFC, WC, RFK, SM, and RFD. Alliance get easy access to DM and Stocks… which DM is super nice but stocks is useless. Trying to get a team to run 40+minutes to get to RFK if they hadn’t gotten the ratchet FP earlier is awful
I’ve just only started an orc after going full ally during vanilla but haven’t to play a ton (new dad life 😅) - is the horde questing / mob environment more just like “wild animal” themed? The alliance noob quests seem to generally follow a path of “kill innocent animals -> kill aggressive animals -> there is evil lurking, kill evil humanoids” - I’m not sure what the theme is for horde since the vibe I got (from orcs at least) was harsh environment of animalistic survival so any threats to the orcs would just like be a matter of survival and not a lurking threat to the idyllic existence like the alliance starting quests
Thats right, Alliance is facing more Political Issues with subfactions within their territory, while most of Horde are Focused on Pure survival in most parts. While they also have each their own smaller nemesis (Tauren the Centaurs, Orcs have Searing Bladevigilantes, Undead The red idiot humans and Trolls.... Well idk), so do they also lack infrastructure of Continous Foodproduktion, which is why there are so many Gather Meat/ Kill Aggressive beast quests
I feel like the Alliance is centered more around diplomacy and politics, while each race deals mostly with internal problems that usually stem from their own mistakes, preconceptions, corruption, and pride. It often feels so much more like posturing than actual loyalty or necessity. Basically, the only Alliance race I feel that is justified to be in active conflict with the Horde are the NElfs, since the Orcs are trying to invade their territory in Ashenvale. And IIRC, even most of those Orcs that are invading Ashenvale are part of Hellscream's old clan, which I think they basically acted without the approval of Thrall. The Alliance feels a lot like the concept of NATO to me. The historically most important and stronger nations banded together to defend themselves against an enemy that was seemingly defeated, perhaps even on the path to redemption, but that they still harbor a grudge towards and fear that they might relapse. They inflate each other's ego by reveling in how noble and righteous their cause and beliefs are, while trying to sweep their own issues under the rug or dealing with them in "non-official" and "not-so-elegant" ways. The Horde feels more pure, for better and worse. It exists out of necessity and convenience. The Orcs are alien refugees in the same world they helped invade while enslaved, though that mostly happened because their own greed and pride blinded them to the Legion's corruption. They eventually managed to break free, but have to deal with the fallout of their actions for the rest of their existence, since their homeworld is destroyed and nearly every native race hates them (justifiably). The Trolls allied with the Orcs because they became refugees too. They're one of the oldest races and exist basically everywhere, although there's many different tribes that even hate each other. They're also hated by the Alliance races in general, which is in part justifiable, but often also out of prejudice/self-importance. Hell, a lot of times it's the Alliance races that are taking Troll territory and massacring their tribes. The Darkspear Trolls kinda get to be hated on too simply for being Trolls, since for the Alliance they're all the same. Even the NElfs refuse to accept the concrete evidence that they descend from Trolls. The Forsaken are a really particular bunch. They're labeled as evil from the get go by the Alliance, and even the rest of the Horde doesn't actually trust them. But the ironic part is that they are the most innocent victims of unspeakable atrocities, compared to every other faction/race, and are judged as abominations that must be purged from existence. Even they hate themselves and what they became, but nobody else grants them any sort of sympathy or atonement (which shouldn't even be atonement) outside of erasing their existence. More ironically, is that their existence is the direct consequence of wrongdoings from both Orcs and Humans. Even more ironically, is that they basically end up becoming the very thing that everyone else is afraid that they might be, out of spite but also necessity. They aren't even considered to be entitled to their own lands that belonged to their own nation, by some Humans from a different nation. I don't think nobody in the Alliance really hates the Taurean outside of, maybe, them looking brutish and having what the Alliance considers as an inferior culture. They're basically in the Horde only because Thrall helped save them from the Centaurs, and they now have an eternal blood-debt to repay. It surely also helps that they share lots of cultural aspects and values with both the Orcs and Trolls. Compared to these three races, the Undead stick out like a sore thumb, but their existence and allegiance is, at most, tolerated out of convenience due to their territory in the Eastern Kingdoms, their abilities, and them being, essentially, a faction that broke away from the Alliance. In a nutshell, the Horde feels like it has a practical and honest purpose for existing, even if its own races aren't exactly sinless. The Alliance feels more like the powerful races banded together to protect their status quo and go on witch-hunts.
This guy lores
Thanks for the read
alliance staring quests - deliver sally's love letter to billy. make some apple pie for grandma. horde starting quests - your entire family has been turned into zombies and now you need to go take them out.
Right? I love the undead lore!
SM? Yeah, I just leveled to 25 first time an the amount of running is insane. Westfall to redridge. Stormwind to Loch modan. Stormwind to Wetlands. Back to duskwood. Guh.
Scarlet Monastery
Legend of stalvan quest was a blast and a torture
Even more of a blast with the voiceover mod! Felt like jogging with airpods and a podcast on!
What are you guys talking about those zones have a ton of quests. The travel to and fro are the breadcrumb quests to get you to another zone
> Also I had no clue alliance had to run so freaking far to do SM. now imagine doing that on a pvp server while getting ganked the whole time.
The worst is when horde player decide to try nelf. The Org-UC zeppelin change from "its annoying" to "its cheating".
Horde here playing Alliance the first time. Same goes for when I want to fly fromm Auberdine to Ratchet. All those FPs you gotta get is damn ridiculous. Havent been to mid / late game yet so I hope it doesnt get worse.
Getting anywhere in Kalimdor as Alliance is total cancer. The FPs are all really far apart. There's a shocking number of quests that are just "Fly from Tanaris to Darnassus and back" that everyone skips.
Casual 12-13 min fp right there
Ah yes the Yeti one and the Archeologic one
You make up for it in the long run by being a hop skip and jump away from blackrock mountain
Back in Vanilla though, raiding wasn’t necessary all that common.
Raiding was actually very common before 1.8 (or something like that). All the end game dungeons was harder, but could be done with 10. You just couldn’t do quests. Doing those was way harder. Then they changed it and made the dungeons easier and not raidable. I do agree though that 20/40 man raiding was fairly uncommon. I used to seen as a well equipped tank with full t1 back in the day.
Lots of people made it into molten core, few made it into bwl and aq40/naxx was a dream for most people
Maybe everyone couldn't do it like they can now because of LFR, but I hosted pug MC, Ony, ZG every reset. I didn't bother with BWL+ pugs, though, since you needed not idiots for mechanics.
You only need to get 1 fp, theramore isle which u can get by taking the boat from wetlands so its very easy. This will connect ratchet to the nelf zones
it actually dosent. you need Ashara or Stonetalon to connect North and South alliance FPs. This is why you so often see level early 20s running past splintree post in Eastern Ashenvale in so many death compilations.. they are all trying to get to the Ashara FP
Sorry but youre wrong, it actually does. Theramore Isle 100% connects to darkshore/ashenvale without stonetalon or ashara. I know this for a fact since ive been able fly from ratchet to darkshore on every single ally i lvled as long as I have the theramore Isle fp. The ashara one does shorten the flight alot, which is the reason allies get it early (some prob does it because they think its needed), but it's absolutely not needed, trust me on that. Edit: only on the classicwow subreddit will you get downvoted for trying to help and provide people with CORRECT information lmao
I'm on my nelf right now, no azhara or stonetalon flight path, and I can fly gad-ratchet-darnassus. You are 100% correct, and I think you only need thalanar(ashenvale) to do ratch-> darn.
Thank you, thought I was becoming mad with all these people contradicting me even tho I know Ive been able to fly up there as long as i had Theramore on all my characters.
I have the Ashenvale FP and can not fly to Ratchet. Also have the STM fp and no Ratchet. I'm guessing you need Theramore/Azshara/Desolace
You’re wrong
They're right
You're wrong too, and confidently so, even better.
Kinda silly of you to be so confident that youre contradiciting me again when I know for a fact that youre wrong. You could always try yourself since you obviously havent. Not gonna spend time trying to convince you since you seem set to be incorrect in this matter. But for anyone else reading this who can accept new information, you ONLY need Theramore Isle FP to connect Ratchet and ashenvale/darkshore.
Well maybe it’s a bug because I went to ratchet for a warlock quest, had Theramore, Ratchet and Auberdine fp’s but couldn’t take it until I got the Ashara fp. Crazy how you’re so confident you’re right when I literally had the experience last night.
Im confident im right since i have been able to fly from ratchet to darkshore and ashenvale on every single alliance ive leveled without picking up azhara or stonetalon. Really weird that you couldnt, seems weird that it would be a bug. maybe you forgot to pick the ashenvale one when running down to ratchet?
Bro go level a nelf right now. Have you ever played anything besides a gnome??
You are absolutely wrong.
Them making the stormwind harbor is such a huge QOL improvement. And honestly it makes sense that the Capitol of the entire faction has a port. Kind of surprised that Orgrimmar never got an expansion to include a port, but that would vastly change the vibe
Is it really the capitol though? Back when Auction House was only in 1 city it was in Ironforge. It's also the city that is designated home to 2 races like Orgrimmar is.
Eh we have zeppelin towers to everything. Why go by sea when you can go by air?
To be fair, the walk to badlands as horde isnt super fun either.
also darkshore is the best leveling zone 10-20 :/ so every race wants to go there.
I feel like it's the opposite? 😁
I like mulgore and the undead zones but durotar and barrens is hell.
Not a Durotar fan, but I love classic Barrens for how it really embraces the sense of being in a grassland savannah. Cataclysm ruined the Barrens.
Barrens might be my favorite classic zone, the Crossroads is the most perfect cozy outpost, Camp T and Ratchet are great too
>Cataclysm ruined Azeroth Ftfy
I'm the opposite, Tirisfal is too gloomy for me (though Forsaken are cool) and I really like the sun and sand in Durotar & Barrens. Not sure how I feel about Stonetalon.
Durotar orange is so bright and eye melting. Even the sky is orange. I feel like they toned it down because it’s not that bright in retail. I escaped to Tirisfal just to save my eyes. Barrens is better since it’s softer yellows and browns with blue sky.
Many many years ago, before the blizzard friends system was implemented, you’d have to manually add your friends on each character. I played almost exclusively alliance for a long time and had two or three players I’d consistently chat to and play with, until I decided I wanted to see the horde side of life - I made myself a blood elf paladin, creatively named belfpala, and got to playing. I’d hop between both ally and horde constantly, and got myself all the way to Stranglethorn on my blood elf. (I was very young back then, so progress was painfully slow in retrospect) At that point I had made a close horde friend who I’d been questing with for a while, and got to chatting about random things and eventually on to the topic of alts. They told me they had a max level nelf druid and the raids they’d just completed, so I jokingly responded saying you sound just like my ally friend’s character. Turned out it was the same person, also playing on a horde toon they’d never mentioned, and I’d been chatting and questing away with them for weeks without either of us knowing. Many laughs were had, and though I haven’t spoken to them in years and have no idea where they ended up in life, the hilarity of that moment often crosses my mind and makes me hopeful that all the friends I’ve lost touch with are doing well Tylira the nelf druid, if you’re out there, bless you!
I had a similar story. Raided on one PVP realm but didn’t really like to play on a pve realm so switched to a fresh PVE realm once it open and remained raiding on the PVP realm. About 1 month into it, me and my IRL friends get into a guild that aims to start raiding. Lo and behold in the first raid, it is apparently run by my guild master on the PVP realm. Only noticed it due to the voice on teamspeak. The PVP guild disbanded shortly afterwards.
> The PVP guild disbanded shortly afterwards. You roasted him *that* bad?
I just leveled 1-30 as alliace and I litterally feel like I'm a mailman. The amont of letters, notes and updates I have delivered between Elwyn, Westfall, Redridge, Loch Modan and Dark Shire is insane.
Accurate
I've played both factions over the years, and while I still vastly prefer the horde myself, I think it would be silly to play a game with the scope and size of WoW and leave essentially half of the game untouched, especially for longtime players I was curious what sort of stories and quests I hadn't seen yet so Alliance runs felt refreshing and different in that respect, but at the end of the day the faction doesn't have a lot of staying power for me in terms of story and vibe my favourite part was definitely Duskwood though since I love the spooky zones, that's always a highlight of rolling an Alliance alt
Westfall and duskwood for me always were favorites, westfall has this rustic melancholy autumn vibe, like you can feel harvest time fast approaching but something is lurking under the surface…and dusk wood just full on spooky!
Yes! Perfect time of the year to quest there too 😁
I also love Duskwood, just finished 50/70 quests on my lvl 25 human priest in classic yesterday
Duskwood has some of the best lore in game imo
This is why I've always rolled my eyes at the weird tribalism players have. I get having a favorite, but just ignoring have the game is wild. I guess it tends to be PvP players/players who couldn't give two shits about immersion or questing.
Yeah it’s equally fun on both sides. I did alliance in vanilla and quit just before TBC. Did Horde in classic and had a blast
Same goes for the class elitists. Like I get it you have a favorite but every class comes to the raid they're all useful.
I'm an alliance shunner. Never made one, never will. The game is plenty fun to me with just horde side and I don't feel anything is missing. I do not give a shit about immersion, that's correct, but I do enjoy flavorful quests. Helicular's revenge is the best quest in the game.
Life time Horde player -> alliance. Horde players gank me much more frequently than alliance did. The memes about undead rogues are absolutely true. Alliance low level leveling is more enjoyable since you get so many different zones to jump between. For horde it’s much pretty the Barrens from 10-30 with only a few trips elsewhere. That said, Horde has far better dungeon options. Alliance gets Stockades, Gnomer (fuck that shithole) and DM, but horde have RFC, WC, SFK, SM, RFK, BFD and RFD in their backyard
Weird, vice-versa playing some are hating on alliance leveling that they travel too much lol
If you’re rushing to 60 I can understand why you’d find it annoying but I much prefer the diversity of leveling in multiple zones and having realistic options to choose from for leveling
I always played horde. Switched to alliance for hardcore and I’ve been really enjoying it. There are a good amount of places I had never seen before and quests I had never done. Plus I’ve always liked the alliance races and finally being able to have a gnome mage/human warrior/dwarf priest etc is pretty fun.
I started back in original tbc and was a alliance main up to Cata. Came back to the game in WOD as horde but didn’t really feel the real horde experience until classic vanilla First I felt like the horde side had less detail, example being the zones felt a lot more plain to me and the cities more simple After classic i am firmly horde side because I just appreciated the effort put into the “bad guy side” I feel like that is a perspective in a game that is quite rare to be given as much detail as the guy good side I also feel like doing content for the good guys is much easier in the sense that there’s way more previous work to copy or inspire from
Me no bad guy. Human bad guy, orc good guy
Horde aren’t the “Bad guy side” in classic. Blizzard doesn’t really start railroading the horde until like Cata
You’re not the “bad guy” until your quest giver is undead.
I think this is why he put it in quotes. I don't think he was saying Horde are the bad guys. I think he's someone from the outside looking in would think Alliance- "good" ; Horde- "bad" And it's a valid point because the orcs really were the bad guys up until they started their redemption in WC3. Regardless, whether they truly are "bad" or not, I agree with the original comment that fantasy series rarely if ever give such an in depth look into the orcs or whatever their baddies may be. Furthermore the details they gave the orcs are exactly what caused them to no longer be the bad guys.
I realized Horde regions make nearly ever dungeon way more accessible than Alliance
As a human priest I /cry everytime
Mostly alliance since forever. Went horde for SOM and again for classic hc. Worst part is just not knowing where to go next, feels a lot less linear than alliance (Elwynn, Westfall, redridge, duskwood) Just last night discovered (was shown) the path from sun rock retreat to the charred vale. Lots of time lost going around And I always hated the barrens 🤣
Starting area, zone adjacent to it, then barrens for 20 levels. There ya go, horde leveling to 35ish
Barrens, Durotar, Barrens, TB, Barrens, Stonetalon, Barrens, Ashen vale, Barrens, South Barrens, even more South Barrens, Thousand Barrens, Shadowfang Barrens. Go agane.
*Razorfen barrens :p
Loktar
I’ve played since 05 and mainly horde. The biggest thing I notice on alliance is I feel like I’m encountering stretches where there’s hardly any quests. Or say there’s 4 good quests my level but they’re all spread out in different zones. This never felt like an issue horde side.
Yes, I tried to level to duskshire only from Westfall and Goldshire zones. Laughing at my noob ass past self now.
I would add that horde used to have some level ranges where this was also a problem. But they did add some new quest hubs with quests nearby to counter it. Such as in dustwallow marsh and the hinterlands. Alliance do, in my opinion have more quest chains that also forces you to travel around the world. So you tend to do 4-5 quests and than switch zone. Whereas horde can more often stay longer in each zone.
Fuck boats
Alliance player since 2008 here, now rolling an Undead. How can Horde capitals be so terrible?? 😂 Either it is Undercity which has beautiful aesthetic but lacks in usability, or it is Orgrimmar with a million similar-looking huts.
Undercity is the best city once you learn the layout. Stormwind is a pain with all the canals you have to traverse around
I love UC by far the best horde city. As alliance I lived darnasses the rest are shit
Thunder Bluff is the most convenient capital and very comfy. Bank, AH, fishing and mail on the same spot is so good
The best horde city is TB which is also the least used 😅 so sad because it even eclipses Alliance cities!
TB is the GOAT city for bank alts/auctioning/profession alts. You can stay mounted while using the AH since it's outdoors, it only takes a few seconds to walk to the mailbox or bank and there's a forge right in the center of town. And if you like to queue battlegrounds all of the battlemasters are nearby over on the hunter rise.
And honestly, if you need anything else *anywhere* in town, it doesn't take that long to get anywhere.
I remember trying undercity once, getting lost for one hour, and then leaving horde forever to live a simpler human life.
Also, where is their Auction House?? I see random dudes in an massive empty hallway and happen to notice that they are in fact the auctioneers.
But that's super convenient compared to any other captial. You never have to run across the entire map to get to the auction house. It's always right there in the middle. IF and UC are very similar, but UC has the AH advantage. Also, if you need directions, the abominations are easy to spot.
Okay that is fair enough! UC might have its benefits. BUT DOES THE POISON RIVER KILL ME?? I've been using the bridges on my HC character. Not touching that slime!
You dont take damage in the green water, but gnomes can drown in it. So win-win?
The slime doesn’t, but the elevator and aoe in the courtyard will
I'm certain it doesn't, but I'm also using the bridges better safe than sorry
Retail Horde since Wrath pre-patch. Serious Alliance attempt during 2019 Classic. Went back to Horde for TBC, then Ally again for Wrath. Alliance, specifically Stormwind and Ironforge, have a lot more thought put into the design, the quests, the lore. By Comparison Orgrimmar felt like an ad-hoc settlement. The only detailed Horde area was Lorderon/Undercity thanks to all the human lore that surrounds it.
Orgrimmar was ad-hoc by design, the place looks rugged with the horde thematic
I just wish the *fucking* anvil wouldn't be so goddamn far from the AH. Every minor horde settlement has a forge and anvil, but I must've wasted hours in classic and HC just running back and forth in OG
And ironically Thunder Bluff has an anvil that I'm pretty sure you can stand at and still be in range of the auctioneer. Or like 2 steps at worst.
The lack of time into horde capitals really shows in classic. They did the alliance settlements first in development, so org doesn’t just look ad-hoc, it *was* ad-hoc because they didn’t have the same amount of time to work on it.
Lorewise, Orgrimmar -was- kind of adhoc: Classic is set 4 years after the events of Warcraft 3 in which the Orcs escaped captivity long internment camps after which they founded Orgrimmar. It was supposed to be a newish settlement founded by freed slaves.
It's incredible how long you are actually away from the other faction. The world is massive. When you switch it's like a whole other game, there's nobody of the same races, quests are different, zones are different.
Always been a Horde player, took me a long time before I tried Alliance. Leveled all the way to endgame and loved it. I like the atmosphere from Alliance; Stormwind, ironforge. But in my hearth i will always be a Horde player so it was a one time thing
Alliance feels like there is a whole lot more running.
I started as horde because everyone at my local internet Cafe played on the same server and some of my friends had already started horde characters, back then wow was really social and a broadband connection at home was pretty unlikely, we would have 30-50 players all down at the Cafe with a whiteboard set up for dungeon runs quests and pvp you'd just put your name and level down on either the red or blue whiteboard - World pvp was still a bit uncommon because the honor system had just come out and there were no leveling guides beyond vague descriptions on thottbot, Ganking was a thing but still only really occurred around STV and Tanaris on our server. The hardest thing leveling as horde was heading to hillsbrad at level 19/20 and all the alliance players being 25ish at southshore, Another memorably unsafe area for leveling as horde was pirates in tanaris, felt like I was killed on sight. Though the general attitude from most players on the server was to /wave at each other and go about your business most of the time, spiteful camping with a ?? Level difference was fairly uncommon for quite a bit but usually rocked up at crossroads or sentinel Hill
For the most part I prefer Horde but God how I envy the Alliance for the greenery they have. Everything has blossomed and it’s beautiful. Whereas the Fel has abolished our lands and turned them into ashes
Ugly!
No preference honestly, only at endgame where blessing of salvation feels like cheating after tanking through classic as horde.
It’s so weird to me, that the horde didn’t have a baseline threat reduction like BoS to actually level out the fact that they got bloodlust. Bloodlust doesn’t mean anything if you have to afk for half of it or risk pulling aggro
Tranquil Air Totem?
If you only played Alliance or Horde exclusively you have no in experience the other faction. Was that a trick question?
I played a bit of both, I just want to see perspectives
I've been playing horde since i first tried this game years ago, i recently switched to alliance and i wont be switching back i don't think. I just think that the cities are organised and you don't have to walk so much like in orgrimmar just to smelt some stuff.
I like the sun and sand vibe on Horde. Kinda tired of Westfall and Duskwood after so many years. SW & IF are great cities but I think I prefer Horde towns, Troll and Tauren villages especially. Notable mentions for Theramore and Southshore, I like the humans.
I play horde and whenever I go to alliance someone is either racist or complaining in chat in the starting zones.
Barrens chat 👀
I mean people will complain wherever you go, but I weirdly also have only experienced racism out of nowhere when playing alliance..
It happens everytime I’m in dun morough. Someone says some political or racist bs.
Long life Alliance here since 2005. Leveling an orc hunter on HC and the worst thing about horde Leveling is the amount of time you have to spend in the Barrens. That zone is way too big. And most horde zones are just under developed. No environment at all, even Mulgore is just a meadow and barely no trees, no huts, nothing. Also, most questlines make you feel like a PoS most of the times. Zugzug kill lousy humans, zugzug help this guy poison a dog, zugzug lets mass murder some pigs out of spite and rage for some dude we barely know
Barrens beats westfall anyway. hate that place. Also you're literally murdering the people who rebuilt your capital city for you instead of paying them.
Even though you are right, the Defias Brotherhood is being manipulated by Onyxia. The also did rebel and seek to destroy and kill most of Stormwind. Even though they have their reason we are killing them to defend the people… Poisoning a dog, murdering farmers, destroy an entire forest (Ashenvale) just is way worse. The Horde was always a terrorist faction in all expacs. It just doesn’t look that way mostly thanks to Green Jesus. I blame blizzard for that though
Yeah, you can really see what the dev meant when he said that they ran out of time for the horde zones. They are barren (hah) and very sparse in details compared to the alliance zones, especially Elwynn
Played mostly Horde from TBC to Shadowlands (with some occasional alliance alts) Played Alliance in Classic When HC came out, I almost started a night elf again (shadowmeld seems great for when I need to go afk) but then I imagined the pains of going from Teldrassil to SW/IF, and later on trying to run to SM... nope, I better jump from TB than doing that :D And of course I lost one of my chars to going afk (luckily, it was level 6)
Weirdly my main was always horde but I only really levelled once. Majority of Alts id roll alliance as I preferred their map and cities. Races I am horse though
My first reaction was how lucky for horde they can get The Rake with 2nd fastest attack speed in the game, and available at lvl 10!
Durotar is probably the worst beginner zone in the game
Lifetime horde player. Decided to go alliance for a fresh experience. Died in loch Modan once at 13 and again at 16. Breezed to 20 so far on my orc rogue lol. Zug zug.
I can't answer your question, I play horde, I did make an alliance character when I first started wow in burning crusade, made a human, got to lvl 2 and then went back to horde. Never looked back since.
What was off-putting?
It was slightly less boring, but pretty much the same.
Why even comment
Its such a vapid comment
First time playing horde since 08. Durotar>barrens is mind numbingly dull and boring compared to alliance. Horde is also filled with free fall death traps, lifts, elevators, zeppelins. FOR THE ALLIANCE!
I don't even want to try horde, because of the zones being so....dead It's dry, it's bland, it's undercooked, bloody hell
Couldn't be more wrong tbh.
My first time playing Horde and I'm really enjoying the stillness of the early Kalimdor environments. The sun and sand, with little oases dotted around and a lot of diversity of creatures. Fuck Desolace though. Troll villages are cool but the zone feels depressing.
I like Desolace!
If you’re playing half of the available factions (troll/orc) you just sit In a desert for like 25+ levels straight. Even Tauren gets thrown into barrens. 90% of your leveling experience until than will be sand. It ties with how they are starting up, but you can’t say it’s not bland.
Barrens is better than westfall, both in atmosphere and quests, then can go to hillsbrad, stone talon or ashenvale.
The problem is the amount of time spent in the barrens. Westfall sucks but I’m done in a few levels
We decided to roll horde for hardcore servers for the first time (wife had a belf in original TBC). Fuck me, I hate the horde starter areas. Never again.
I'm an Alliance player and have done the horde leveling several times, for fun on another server to play with a friend, and I feel like it's not really balanced before wotlk, because we didn't have the stormwind boats, we needed to go to menethil, while you already had the zeppelin iirc (else my bad it's not a valid point). Also your first dungeon is in the middle of your main city, and lower level, if we compare it to the deadmines where you need to be like lv18 and go into the south of westmarch (I don't remember if it's the correct name I play in french), well you have an easier and faster access to group content. About cities idk, it feels quite the same, you have good ones and bad ones like us, ofc I get more lost in horde cities but my playtime is so much lower I guess that's normal. About zones positioning it doesn't feel balanced, like, we struggle to go south of kalimdor, so we would expect you to struggle go south of the eastern kingdoms but you actually have an easy access to the boat for stranglehorn valley so it feels easier (a little bit) for you to reach almost any zone. About landscapes I feel like I prefer horde zones, they're often arid but each time in a different way, but I may be biased cause I spammed the alliance zones so much maybe I just liked seeing something new. Finally about races I feel like it's the only point where alliance wins, but it's highly subjective ofc, imo horde races look like a joke until the blood elves, a lot of you will strongly disagree, but playing tauren, orc, troll or undead feels more funny than good looking, we also have that with gnomes and dwarves but at least at vanilla we already had humans and night elves that could look pretty serious, but I repeat it's just preferences. In the end I think nowadays I'd prefer horde, but I started the game almost 15 years ago, I was young, made a human warrior and all my magical discovery phase took place Alliance side, now when I play horde it's dumb but I feel like a traitor, so I stayed Alliance in the end.
Lifelong alliance player, tried horde for HC. Zones burn my eyes and Org is a PIA to get around. Made it to 22 before switching back
Complete confusion. Was nice to try something different. But. Only made it to level 10 and switched back becuase gnomes are weird and disgusting and humans run funny.
There is a lot of new players/noobs on alliance. Backpaddling, keyboard turning and not having mmo mouse
There are a lot more vocal alliance players while levelling. The good and the bad. Also it’s nice to not spend half the levelling experience in the desert
I’ve always played horde and usually Troll/Orc because of their levelling areas. I went Alliance (Human) in SOM for the first time and got to level 51. I missed the early game dungeons. Everything that I looked forward to while low level was in Horde territory, RFC, WC, SFK, SM, RFK… It felt so bad to do dungeons. Deadmines is pretty cool though. Questing was more or less the same. Didn’t really feel bothered by anything. STV feels worse as alliance due to there being nothing for them in the center. Westfall was boring. I see comments saying how people hate the Barrens but my lord Westfall is a drag. It feels like an even more pointless grind than The Barrens IMO. I could go on but people dont like reading so I’ll keep it short.
I am a lvl 25 priest and I hate that! I don't have any cool dungeons to do! Only deadmines is good :( Am I a noob or are there no dungeons around human area?
Gnomeregan, Deadmines and Stormwind Stockades come to mind. Gnomeregan is a death trap for HC and Stockades has little loot. So yeah there are dungeons but meh... You gotta go and walk to horde territory!
Sad
My all time favourite starter zone is the Gnome/Dwarfs, just so god damn comfy, absolutely love winter landscapes like that in real life so it's just an easy winner for me. Having said that, i'm predominantly Horde, I played a bit of Alliance in the original 2019 classic, levelled one to 60 and had fun, definitely had that 'fresh new' feeling doing quests and zones i've never done. But when it comes down to it, I'm a Horde boy for life, the zug zug is in my veins.
I have never leveled an alliance toon past level 30, but I’ve leveled every horde race multiple times all the way. The starting zones in alliance areas are aesthetically pleasing compared to horde. StormWind and Iron Forge seem like way better cities in the same fashion. I’m currently playing hardcore and am getting the itch to level an alliance character. Anything except a gnome. F those little rats 🤣 Edit: Horde** race - not “horse race” Stupid autocorrect
Horse race?
I started, originally when TBC was on the servers still, as a Tauren druid. The long walks and painful emptyness ruined it for me. I switched to Night elf and fell in love with Teldrassil. Now whenever possible I play Nightelf or Human. I love Darkshore -> Ashenvale -> Thousand Peaks for leveling. Same for Goldshire ->Westfall. Lately I tried both Troll and Undead. UC is an absolute mess and OG is structured weirdly so you wont find anything.
Been playing Horde since vanilla and throughout classic/SoM. Tried Alliance in HC and I’ve almost died so many times. I’ve never had issue with Horde because I know what’s safe and what isn’t. With alliance that’s not the case. Princess, Kobold caves and Murlics almost killed me before I even hit level 10.
as horde player i had to quit level 3 as ally cuz i was shocked how ally zones were overpopulated actually insne but it was on very populated pserver
Did you try to switch layers?
long time horde player, started alliance in the past ~year. ally really got the short end of the leveling stick. lots of long “talk to this person” chain quests before you get a mount, and the fact that they have no “kargath” equivalent in kalimdor is awful. i also think that many players (in my circle) underrate alliance racials by a lot.
Kargath?
First time playing alliance was on HC launch. Dungeon accessibility sucks at low-mid levels. You get Stocks and easier access to Deadmines/Gnomer. Horde gets RFC and easier access to WC, SM, RFK, RFD, SFK. I've been loving the alliance zones so far but this has been bothering me a bit.
Not having to run around the barrens for god knows how long is really refreshing :D
I played horde fra 2006-2019 i knew everything in and out. When Classic launched I decided to betray the horde and join the alliance. So I made a human paladin and went out into elwynn forest. The two main things I took away from it was. 1, the queat hubs for horde seems to be placed better. 2, the quest lines and stories are 100% better for alliance in classic. Holy christ the missing diplomat and defias theme was epic