World of Warcraft: Cross-Faction Play starts today (patch 9.2.5)

[Magnus]

This felt like it needed its own thread, because the inability to play with friends who'd changed factions has probably been a key barrier for returning players.

Once the patch is live this evening, Alliance and Horde players can group for most types of content.

Very excited about this. Yes, your Night Elf or Dwarf can group with your Zandalari and Orc buddies now for dungeons, raids and arenas, with some exceptions. (Cross-faction guilds are not coming with this patch, but are speculated for 10.0, especially since they were seemingly accidentally enabled in the test server for today's patch, lol)

Full details on patch 9.2.5, including other new features:

Shadowlands: 9.2.5 Content Update Is Now Live - WoW

Log in now to experience the Shadowlands 9.2.5 content update!

worldofwarcraft.com

Details on cross-faction play, including all the prerequisites, exceptions, etc.

Shadowlands: A Look at Cross-Faction Instances - WoW

Group up with members of the opposing faction in the Shadowlands 9.2.5 content update.

worldofwarcraft.com

Cross-faction instances will break the faction divide by allowing friends from the opposite faction to play together. It will also expand opportunities for players to pursue their favorite group content.

To invite members of the opposite faction to a party, players must have a BattleTag or Real ID friendship or be members of a cross-faction WoW Community.

Players will have the ability to find Premade Groups in the Group Finder for dungeons (Normal, Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+), raids, rated arena/RBGs, and also Torghast. However, the group leader may restrict the listing to same-faction applicants if they choose.

Once in a party, members of the opposite faction will remain unfriendly while outside of instances, though they will be able to communicate through party and raid chat, as well as use /say and /yell within proximity of one another.

Upon entering a dungeon, raid, or rated PvP match, however, all members will be friendly and able to assist each other in combat, trade loot, earn shared achievements, and otherwise fully engage the same way members of the same faction do.

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[Dest]

This is really cool, and I'm glad the WoW community is finally getting something I remember begging for when I was playing back during BC/WotLK.

Personally feel like it's too little too late though for the game as a whole, but maybe this will have more of an impact than I'm expecting.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

I'm SO FAR out of WoW right now that I'd never be able to come back without losing my mind, but I'm glad this is finally happening. The whole Horde/Alliance conflict has felt so forced for such a long time, with the writers constantly contriving the leaders into being big idiots just to keep them opposed with each other. Good to see it's finally (kind of) starting to change.

 

[Boksberger]

Don't think it goes far enough, but it's a good first start of tearing down the wall.

 

[Codosbuya]

Vulperas won't enter my raids >:(

 

[Rhaknar]

Vulperas won't enter my raids >:(

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your raids should be exclusively vulperas. and gnomes.

 

[Berordn]

Vulperas won't enter my raids >:(

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they don't want to hang out with you anyway

 

[Razmos]

Its shocking to me, I used to play the game a lot around Cataclysm time but i dont remember this being a thing. so you couldn't group up with people from the other faction for dungeon content and such? That's wild and stupid

 

[Saladin]

This is very good. Still won't make me return but great decision

This should've been implemented a long time ago

 

[Codosbuya]

your raids should be exclusively vulperas. and gnomes.

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Gnomes and Diaper Gnomes are welcome and even encouraged to come.

they don't want to hang out with you anyway

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Good. Let's keep it that way.

 

[Berordn]

Its shocking to me, I used to play the game a lot around Cataclysm time but i dont remember this being a thing. so you couldn't group up with people from the other faction for dungeon content and such? That's wild and stupid

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cataclysm was where they really started beating hard on the "faction conflict is the core of warcraft" drum, which was especially stupid because it was coming off the heels of WotLK where a major theme in the story was "we really have better stuff to be doing than fighting each other"

garrosh got elevated to central figure at that time and the story basically started revolving around him for about 6 years

 

[Razmos]

cataclysm was where they really started beating hard on the "faction conflict is the core of warcraft" drum, which was especially stupid because it was coming off the heels of WotLK where a major theme in the story was "we really have better stuff to be doing than fighting each other"

garrosh got elevated to central figure at that time and the story basically started revolving around him for about 6 years

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Seems rather foolish and not thinking of the future in case player levels dropped, imagine how much faster queues and such would be if they allowed cross faction matchmaking, no wonder people have been asking for this

 

[ErrorJustin]

Is there a lore justification for this or is it purely for out-of-game convenience / player QOL?

I last played WoW maybe 2-3 expansions ago but I am *so* over the Horde vs. Alliance faction war stuff. It's long past time for WoW and Warcraft Lore in general to move past it for good.

 

[Saladin]

Is there a lore justification for this or is it purely for out-of-game convenience / player QOL?

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Nah, Alliance players got screwed if I remember correctly thats all

 

[Hippopuncher12]

This is a good start, but they just need to rip the bandaid off completely at this point and make it for everything. World pvp being the one thing that would need some kind of adjustment.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

cataclysm was where they really started beating hard on the "faction conflict is the core of warcraft" drum, which was especially stupid because it was coming off the heels of WotLK where a major theme in the story was "we really have better stuff to be doing than fighting each other"

garrosh got elevated to central figure at that time and the story basically started revolving around him for about 6 years

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Yup. Garrosh becoming the "main character" of WoW and the game leaning HARD into "WE GOTTA FIGHT EACH OTHER" due to bullshit like Putress, Sylvanas and Jaina (and Varian's general idiocy) is what lost me with WoW. We had so many examples of the Horde and Alliance actually getting results when they worked together and then the story bent over backwards to constantly force them back into conflict even despite the continued existence of the Argent Dawn/Crusade. It got exhausting very quickly.

 

[Richietto]

Bout time.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Is there a lore justification for this or is it purely for out-of-game convenience / player QOL?

I last played WoW maybe 2-3 expansions ago but I am *so* over the Horde vs. Alliance faction war stuff. It's long past time for WoW and Warcraft Lore in general to move past it for good.

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It's because the Horde has a such larger number of players than Alliance, it was just something that needed to happen. However, lorewise it should make sense as well, the factions come together to beat some intergalactic world ending threat and then 2 months later want to kill each other again. It's pretty stupid since it keeps happening over and over.

 

[Jolkien]

Way too late but still a good change.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

It's because the Horde has a such larger number of players than Alliance, it was just something that needed to happen. However, lorewise it should make sense as well, the factions come together to beat some intergalactic world ending threat and then 2 months later want to kill each other again. It's pretty stupid since it keeps happening over and over.

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And it's (almost) always because one NPC goes rogue and kills a bunch of innocent people and then their faction gets blamed for it.

 

[Magnus]

It's because the Horde has a such larger number of players than Alliance, it was just something that needed to happen. However, lorewise it should make sense as well, the factions come together to beat some intergalactic world ending threat and then 2 months later want to kill each other again. It's pretty stupid since it keeps happening over and over.

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What's kind of funny is that it mirrors real world politics were stupid and senseless conflicts actually do emerge repeatedly over minor incidents.

I'm not defending it though, it's disappointing writing

 

[Karlinel]

Vulperas won't enter my raids >:(

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That's a strange anti-cool bias you got there, chief!

 

[OrangeNova]

I love the list of dungeons that can't be run... It all makes sense, but really they should just default the instance type to the party leader's faction when entered.

 

[Sectorseven]

World of PeaceCraft

 

[Hippopuncher12]

What's kind of funny is that it mirrors real world politics were stupid and senseless conflicts actually do emerge repeatedly over minor incidents.

I'm not defending it though, it's disappointing writing

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Oh for sure, in the real world we would get invaded by Aliens, every Country would come together to beat them. Then we would go right back to wanting to destroy each other. Blizzard writers having the ability to make sure that doesn't happen and still do it though might actually be worse lol. Real world governments are never going to change so that is what it is.

 

[vahlorie]

I understand Blizzard's hesitance to go all in on cross-faction because the faction conflict has been a big part of Warcraft since the beginning, but at this point it absolutely feels arbitrary, and even harmful to the health of the game with how lop-sided that conflict has become in terms of player population and endgame progression.

 

[Deleted member 23094]

I remember back in 2004/2005 when applying to join an Alliance guild on a PVP server it had a section to declare how much you hated the Horde. I still remember my first ever encounter with real Horde players, them slinking around in the dark behind some trees at the boundary to a village I was questing in. It felt like spotting a mythical and grotesque creature. Vile things, I'd have nothing to do with them.

But then it wasn't long before I felt that actually, their animations and such were just more interesting than those of the Alliance races, so I switched sides and never went back.

 

[carlsojo]

Have played every Warcraft game ever made and all of WoW and its expansions, so I've always felt Horde vs Alliance has been the core part of the game's DNA. I don't really know how to feel about this change yet but I'm trying to keep an open mind.

 

[Sulik2]

Wait we are 18 years in and this wasn't already a feature?

 

[Jolkien]

Have played every Warcraft game ever made and all of WoW and its expansions, so I've always felt Horde vs Alliance has been the core part of the game's DNA. I don't really know how to feel about this change yet but I'm trying to keep an open mind.

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It hasn't been for the longest time. Both faction kept cooperating for huge cosmic threat. It hasn't been about Alliance vs Horde for a long time. Even in Battle for Azeroth the whole A v H happens with the mission table and pretty much none with the expansion story.

 

[Saladin]

Wait we are 18 years in and this wasn't already a feature?

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No they had to wait for one of the factions to get screwed. Which is Alliance

 

[Deleted member 24540]

This is fantastic news as someone who plays alliance and only engages with randoms in PvE content (guilds = schedules). If you want to run m+ you basically need to be online during specific times (evening) and days (more likely to find a group during weekend) which sucks for me because I want to spam it whenever I happen to be online but can't due to low activity.

As a night elf resto druid I feel like hordes would welcome me on their team xD. I hope there isn't the perception still floating around as in the past that only kids or low-skilled people play alliance lol.

 

[Lashley]

Fucking finally.

Not sure I'll return until the next xpac though.

 

[Sectorseven]

Nah, Alliance players got screwed if I remember correctly thats all

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What happened to the alliance? I remember Horde being the less desirable faction because their ratial abilities were worse for raiding and their transportation system was less convenient. Their major hubs were also harder to navigate.

 

[Saladin]

What happened to the alliance? I remember Horde being the less desirable faction because their ratial abilities were worse for raiding and their transportation system was less convenient. Their major hubs were also harder to navigate.

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The Horde are WAY bigger than Alliance. So the Alliance had a tough time getting matched together

This where the cross-faction comes and saves the day. All my characters are Horde so I never struggled

 

[Berordn]

What happened to the alliance? I remember Horde being the less desirable faction because their ratial abilities were worse for raiding and their transportation system was less convenient. Their major hubs were also harder to navigate.

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alliance definitely did not get screwed so i'm not sure where that's coming from, but ever since they revamped the racials around Wrath, horde has been far and away the better choice for PvE

we're talking like, about 1% advantage in some cases, but that's enough to push the high end to the horde side and it doesn't take long for everyone else to follow them, because that's where the money and the community is

 

[Buff Beefbroth]

Ten billion years after I stopped playing WoW, they finally implement this half measure approach.

 

[Rokam]

alliance definitely did not get screwed so i'm not sure where that's coming from, but ever since they revamped the racials around Wrath, horde has been far and away the better choice for PvE

we're talking like, about 1% advantage in some cases, but that's enough to push the high end to the horde side and it doesn't take long for everyone else to follow them, because that's where the money and the community is

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Goblin Rocket Jump probably should have been removed at some point.

 

[Grain Silo]

What happened to the alliance? I remember Horde being the less desirable faction because their ratial abilities were worse for raiding and their transportation system was less convenient. Their major hubs were also harder to navigate.

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It's entirely a player base problem. I don't know all the ins and outs of what originally tipped the balance, but horde has had the player base for hardcore endgame content for years, and it's steadily become a negative spiral as new alliance players seeking to progress through content were forced to switch factions or fall behind/have few to play with, while even though alliance has clear and out better racials (shadowmeld is busted) there's been negative incentive for anyone Horde to switch except for the odd mythic+ and/or arena competition and the like (and they'd just switch back horde afterwards anyway)

When you consider this on top of the fact WoW isn't exactly a bugeoningly growing game anymore, it's a problem that's almost impossible to fix without just eradicating barriers to cross-faction play entirely.

 

[Bengraven]

Honestly at this point while I would never say to let them fully integrate like orcs hanging out in Stormwind, story wise they should just make it a Cold War again and just make the Burning Legion into the "actual enemy". Just let Sargeras start recruiting big bads to openly send towards Azeroth and use the Legion title to basically be The Burning Legion of Supervillains. Then you'll have your constant ongoing wae.

 

[Berordn]

Honestly at this point while I would never say to let them fully integrate like orcs hanging out in Stormwind, story wise they should just make it a Cold War again and just make the Burning Legion into the "actual enemy". Just let Sargeras start recruiting big bads to openly send towards Azeroth and use the Legion title to basically be The Burning Legion of Supervillains. Then you'll have your constant ongoing wae.

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this is basically what they've been building up to, except rather than sargeras (who is currently being "dealt with"), it's the void lords (who ended up being behind the whole situation with the burning legion (and therefore the jailer) in the first place)

it's not good but if you're playing warcraft for the lore in 2022, you might be beyond help

 

[Bengraven]

this is basically what they've been building up to, except rather than sargeras (who is currently being "dealt with"), it's the void lords (who ended up being behind the whole situation with the burning legion (and therefore the jailer) in the first place)

it's not good but if you're playing warcraft for the lore in 2022, you might be beyond help

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Sad but true.

God I remember poring over Wowwiki to read the extensive back stories of people and areas way back in 2007. Ate so good.

 

[Daingurse]

Haven't played WoW in a long time, but that sounds interesting aesthetically for party compositions.

 

[FLEABttn]

What happened to the alliance? I remember Horde being the less desirable faction because their ratial abilities were worse for raiding and their transportation system was less convenient. Their major hubs were also harder to navigate.

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When this was true, the raiding scene as well as the theorycraft scene was a shadow of what it is now. The game has since been incredibly min-maxed and became a self perpetuating cycle since, even after more or less equalizing the initial gap that caused it (years later).

Ultimately this is a good change but it needs to be significantly more encompassing in 10.0. There is 0 gameplay reason for there not to be cross faction guilds.

 

[Alpheus]

That's pretty awesome WoW players got what they asked for, and going by what I've heard about one faction's numbers being really low, I'm glad the Devs didn't have their head up their ass and decided to implement this measure to help alleviate that

 

[Rhaknar]

I love the list of dungeons that can't be run... It all makes sense, but really they should just default the instance type to the party leader's faction when entered.

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there's a dungeon limit?

actually something that just occured to me, can you even trade between factions? because you can't until now, and if you still can't, then you can't trade some piece of gear you might not need to your friend

 

[Berordn]

there's a dungeon limit?

actually something that just occured to me, can you even trade between factions? because you can't until now, and if you still can't, then you can't trade some piece of gear you might not need to your friend

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you'll be allowed to trade stuff as long as you're in a cross-faction party, but once you leave everything resets to unfriendly

 

[Rhaknar]

you'll be allowed to trade stuff as long as you're in a cross-faction party, but once you leave everything resets to unfriendly

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ok good

 

[OrangeNova]

there's a dungeon limit?

actually something that just occured to me, can you even trade between factions? because you can't until now, and if you still can't, then you can't trade some piece of gear you might not need to your friend

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The limit on dungeons are only dungeons that have specific content depending on your faction(Trial of the Crusader, Ice Crown Citadel, Baradin Hold, Darazalor. Mostly old raids with that.

 

[carlsojo]

grumble grumble maintenance extended 2 hours

Not surprised with how much is going into this patch.

Wonder if the rumor of the allied race was true