In WoW Burning Crusade Classic there is currently a big problem with the balance between Horde and Alliance. Because the Horde is so popular, Blizzard has even experimented with a new system in PvP. However, no solution seems to really satisfy the players.
What is going on? On many PvP servers of Burning Crusade Classic, there are currently more players who have a character in the Horde than players representing the Alliance. Currently, 61% of all characters are Horde and only 39% are Alliance (via Ironforge.pro).
This results in a noticeable imbalance in PvP and sometimes long wait times in the Battlegrounds.
Although this problem already existed in 2007 with the release of The Burning Crusade, at that time the players were not as focused on maximizing their builds as they are today.
Blizzard itself has already tried a new measure that temporarily allows Horde players to also compete against other Horde players in Battlegrounds. While this reduced the waiting times, it has led to concerns that even fewer players might want to play an Alliance character.
Both factions suffer from the imbalance
Why is there a problem at all? Behind the balance problems of Horde and Alliance are two points:
- On the one hand, the Horde offers more diverse races for many. With Orcs, Undead, Blood Elves, Trolls, and Tauren, there is something for almost every type of player.
- On the other hand, there are special racial abilities that are simply stronger with the Horde. The Undead, for example, have the ability to avoid abilities like Sleep or Fear for 5 seconds. This makes them a strong PvP race.
Even in WoW Classic, there was a slight imbalance. Back then, about 53% played a character in the Horde. However, PvP took place mainly in the open world or in large Battlegrounds.
However, due to the new PvP arenas for 2v2 or 3v3 that Burning Crusade Classic has introduced, players want to get the most out of their characters. And that especially makes the Undead so popular.
In the WoW Classic subreddit, the topic of faction balance dominates the threads. 13 of the 25 posts with the most upvotes in the last week revolved around this topic (via reddit).
No solution is really effective: The imbalance, however, means that both factions ultimately lose:
- If a server is dominated by Horde players, they gank the few Alliance players even more often.
- The latter lose interest and transfer to a server with more Alliance players or directly switch to the Horde.
- This, however, leads to fewer and fewer players being available for dungeons, raids, and other content.
- A downward spiral begins for Alliance players, and therefore Horde players lack opponents in the open world and an enemy to focus on.
This also does not change with Blizzard’s latest update. Because especially when Horde players can compete against other Horde players in Battlegrounds in the future, there is even less reason to start a character in the Alliance.
The user Viaroka visualized the problem in reddit with an interesting picture:
The only real solution would probably be an intervention in the racial abilities so that Horde players no longer have an advantage. But that would be going too far for many Classic fans.
For Blizzard, it is currently almost impossible to solve the problems with faction balance.
What do you think about the imbalance between Horde and Alliance? Are you personally affected by the problem? And do you see a solution for it?
Aside from the balance issues, WoW Burning Crusade Classic is a good and interesting MMORPG. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus explains to you why getting started is worthwhile:
