The end of “War” in World of Warcraft? From today, the Horde and Alliance are united and can play together in guilds.
Long requested by many and feared by some – now the day has come. With Patch 10.1 Ember of Neltharion, Blizzard has changed the guild system in World of Warcraft. Gone are the days when guilds could only accept members of one faction. From now on, guild members can be “mixed” and belong to either the Horde or the Alliance.
How do “Cross-Faction” guilds work? There have been only minor changes to the actual guilds. A guild still technically belongs to either the Horde or the Alliance – this is due to the affiliation of the guild master who creates the guild.
However, guilds have been expanded to include the function of being able to accept members of the other faction.
You can watch the trailer for the new patch here:
Who can be invited to the guild? You cannot just invite random players from the other faction into your guild. Instead, one of these two prerequisites must be met:
- You must be in a shared in-game community with that person.
- You and the person must have a Battle.net friendship.
Blizzard justifies this restriction by stating that they want to avoid players “accidentally” ending up in a guild of the other faction and suddenly wondering why all the others are Orcs and Trolls.
The feature is mainly there to strengthen existing friendships and make it easier to play together.
However, these restrictions do not pose a real hurdle (nor should they), as one can quickly join a shared community even without exchanging more private information – such as Battle.net IDs.
What do Cross-Faction guilds bring? The guilds mainly allow friends and acquaintances to share a guild chat, regardless of what side they play on. Additionally, features like “guild repair” or a shared guild bank can be used by both sides. This enhances the feeling of belonging and allows for more activities with friends – even if it’s just chatting a bit in the chat.
What don’t these guilds bring? The interaction in the open world hasn’t changed for the Cross-Faction guilds either. In war mode, players of the same guild remain hostile to each other, and group play in the open world is not possible or only very restricted.
The Horde and Alliance still have different quests in many cases, and the city guards of Horde or Alliance cities couldn’t care less what guild name you have above your character – they will still clobber you if you want to visit the “wrong” cities.
What do you think of the Cross-Faction feature of the guilds? Finally a good and right step? Or a clear misstep?
Right now you can snag a very special toy – but you have very little time.
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!