Poll: Horde VS Alliance

[Vuljatar]

And how has Blizzard been Alliance biased? You realize there's a giant statue of an Orc outside their offices and that the lead developer as well as the man in charge of the story, Metzen is his name if I recall right, both play Horde exclusively right? That the company band is lvl70 Tauren, and that Thrall is basically WOW Jesus!

Having both sides at one point or another, I never really saw any imbalance. Not content-wise anyway.

Do you honestly think that the lead dev and lead writer for the biggest MMO in history only play half of the game? Frankly I'm sick of hearing that joke of a "rumor".

If you never saw an imbalance in-game, you never played before BC. I could list a million of them, but I'll just go ahead and list the most obvious two: Paladins and Priest racials.

Paladins are self explanatory. They are the reason 9 of the first 10 kills of any raid boss were by Alliance guilds. Every Alliance raid had 10% more of every stat and 20% less dps/healer threat than an equal Horde raid. Not to mention how OP they were in PvP with 3 uncounterable invincibility bubbles on separate cooldowns and stunlocking abilities equal to that of a rogue.

And then there's the Dwarf priest racial, Fear Ward, the ultimate easy-mode button that trivialized every encounter involving Fear as a major mechanic. With a 10 minute duration and 30 second cooldown, two priests could fear ward an entire 40 man raid--and one priest could (in most cases) ensure that the tank never got feared, ever. Unlike most other biases, this one got worse in BC when Draenei priests got Fear Ward (and a party-wide mana restore) and Blood Elf priests got... a spell that when they were melee'd, reduced the attacker's damage by 2 to 35. And, to add insult to injury, a spell that removed a beneficial magic effect from the caster to restore less mana than the Draenei ability restored to their whole damn party.

Of course, that was eventually rectified by the removal of all Priest racials, and Fear Ward becoming a baseline spell. And shockingly, when they were finally granting that obviously-OP ability to Horde players for the first time, they suddenly realized that it was OP and nerfed it to 1/20th of it's previous effectiveness.

 

[The Madman]

Do you honestly think that the lead dev and lead writer for the biggest MMO in history only play half of the game? Frankly I'm sick of hearing that joke of a "rumor".

etc etc, not gonna quote the whole thing for the sake of brevity.

Oh of course they don't only experience one half of the game. They're part of the development team, they dabble in everything. That doesn't change the simple fact they're self-proclaimed Horde fans.

As for the Paly rant, I can counter that with one simple word: FROSTSHOCK!

You played pre-BC apparently, you know that there was a time when Shaman were pvp GODS, wandering the landscape in search of Alliance flesh upon which to feed with impunity. And we mere mortals could do nothing but cower before these gods made flesh. The terror that was wrought upon those poor Alliance souls, the countless deaths and havok upon which the divine Shammies smote upon those whom dared defy them.

Twas a dark time indeed. Sure, Paly had their advantages. But do you realize how goddamned boring they were? Ret Paladin was a joke, a literal joke, and if you say otherwise then you clearly didn't play pre-BC because Paladins were good for one thing and one thing only: Buffs. They couldn't tank worth a damn, they couldn't pvp, and they didn't even make good healers. They sat in the back as out-of-combat rezzers that buffed the raid up between fights.

About the only thing they could do otherwise was the notorious Bubble-hearth. Remember that joke? How the instant a Paladin was faced in pvp, the first thing they did was bubble hearth? How one of their item sets, and I'm completely serious, had the bonus of reducing the hearth cooldown?

How things have changed. How things have changed indeed!

Can't really comment on the Priest bit however. Never played one, never got one past lvl 20. I can however counter that racial with the notorious: Will of the Forsaken.

That was so damned overpowered for the longest time it was comical. It really was. Sure its purposes were more suited toward pvp than pve, but that's not to say it wasn't extremely useful in both areas.

Frankly I found it all balanced out in the end. Horde had their advantages, and Alliance theirs. The difference and diversity between the two factions encouraging conflict between the two. Symptoms of the classic 'grass is always greener on the other side' condition, which honestly I think you've got a case of. And I say that in the nicest sense possible because that was the goal of the game. Problem is that if anything, Blizzard did their job too well or we wouldn't still be debating game stats from almost five years ago today.

 

[Vuljatar]

As for the Paly rant, I can counter that with one simple word: FROSTSHOCK!

You played pre-BC apparently, you know that there was a time when Shaman were pvp GODS, wandering the landscape in search of Alliance flesh upon which to feed with impunity. And we mere mortals could do nothing but cower before these gods made flesh. The terror that was wrought upon those poor Alliance souls, the countless deaths and havok upon which the divine Shammies smote upon those whom dared defy them.

What about Frost Shock, exactly?

It did a good job of keeping the Rogues and Warriors and Paladins who would tear the Shaman apart in 5 seconds out of melee range--as long as Intercept/Sprint/Vanish/Blind/Repentance/Hammer of Justice/Blessing of Freedom were on cooldown, and as long as the Shaman wasn't caught unawares, because they were after all the only class in the entire game without any CC whatsoever.

Shamans had one thing going for them: Burst damage. They had no CC and they had no survivability--they didn't even have any escape tools until BC! Every other melee class (except feral Druids, I suppose) tore Shamans apart.

Twas a dark time indeed. Sure, Paly had their advantages. But do you realize how goddamned boring they were? Ret Paladin was a joke, a literal joke, and if you say otherwise then you clearly didn't play pre-BC because Paladins were good for one thing and one thing only: Buffs. They couldn't tank worth a damn, they couldn't pvp, and they didn't even make good healers. They sat in the back as out-of-combat rezzers that buffed the raid up between fights.

About the only thing they could do otherwise was the notorious Bubble-hearth. Remember that joke? How the instant a Paladin was faced in pvp, the first thing they did was bubble hearth? How one of their item sets, and I'm completely serious, had the bonus of reducing the hearth cooldown?

Couldn't PvP? You must not have known anyone who tried. I'll admit, effortlessly killing anyone every 60 seconds was pretty boring. Still OP, though. Ret Paladins had burst damage surpassed only by Arcane Mages or Shamans who got a one-in-a-hundred triple-crit. And a Ret Paladin could do it all while the target was stunned by the longest duration, easiest to use non-breaking CC in the game. A Ret Paladin with a raid weapon could easily stunlock any non-tank of comparable gear to death. The only thing that could save you was the pvp trinket--if your class' trinket even removed stuns--but oh wait, it's got 5 times the cooldown of Hammer of Justice.

Can't really comment on the Priest bit however. Never played one, never got one past lvl 20. I can however counter that racial with the notorious: Will of the Forsaken.

That was so damned overpowered for the longest time it was comical. It really was. Sure its purposes were more suited toward pvp than pve, but that's not to say it wasn't extremely useful in both areas.

Breaking one fear every 2 minutes isn't half as good as being immune to 4 fears in that same time frame.

It was a good racial, but OP? Hardly. And, of course, in PvE Will of the Forsaken did not make any significant impact in any boss fight.

 

[The Madman]

What about Frost Shock, exactly?

....I'm sorry to do this but... are you sure you honestly played the original World of Warcraft?

Do I honestly need to look up every reference to how overpowered Shaman were in PVP, or how boring Paladins were to play?

*sigh*

Spoiler: Buncha old Youtube clips

Wowiki Entry Which includes the lines: Previously, Frost Shock was considered the "I win button" of Shamans... With a ridiculous combination of high-damage, an instant cast, an eight-second effect, and a six-second cooldown, it would be foolish not to constantly Frost Shock other players or mobs until a win occurs. Once they are within melee range, drop an Earthbind Totem against melee mobs/players (or grounding for casters) and hack away for an easy win.

There's even an Urban Dictionary entry for it!

Which isn't to say Paladins didn't have their advantages as well. Melee classes with 2h weapons were ridiculously overpowered in PVP. White damage alone for any class wielding the right weapons would annihilate anything not in plate with crits of over 1000, which at a time when most players only had around 3000hp, if even, was a damn lot. Of course Warriors benefited from this the most, spawning the whole 'Arcanite Reaper HOOOO' joke, but Paladins and Shammy both also enjoyed benefits as well. That's even mentioned in one of the Youtube videos I linked.

Frankly it was a crappy time to play a resto druid... which is what I did.

This gave me a laugh:


Ah WOW humor. You amuse me!

 

[Vuljatar]

Ridiculous. A bunch of crybabies turning their QQ into a meme doesn't change the facts.

Frost Shock had diminishing returns (and, as I recall, no other snare did) and shared a cooldown with the Shaman's sole interrupt. Also, if we're talking about Enhancement Shamans here (and we seem to be) it did fairly low damage. It was the only way for a Shaman to ever chase someone down (and only if they were within 20 yards to start), and the only way for a Shaman to ever get distance from someone (and only if they hadn't already snared or CC'd the Shaman).

Shamans were "overpowered" in PvP when they got one-in-a-thousand WF triple crits, or when their opponent's abilities were all on cooldown. Again, Shamans had NO CC, NO way to ever catch up to someone 21 or more yards away, and NO way to escape from anyone who had snared them. They also had no defensive cooldowns or panic buttons, or indeed any defensive abilities at all. In a PvP situation a Shaman would be locked down and killed by any competent player before the Shaman could do more than one Frost Shock, due to their complete lack of CC and survivability.

Paladins on the other hand had about an equal chance of 2-shotting someone (thanks to Seal of Command), but they also had plate armor, the best CC in the game (plus another, longer range CC for chasing), movement impairing effect immunity on a very short cooldown, and the best defensive ability in the game--times 3.

 

[Con Carne]

Which ever side you're having the most fun with.

 

[DrMetal]

in general, playing both allience and horde, i found horde being in *general* more helpful, understanding and welcoming - there are exceptions thou... prime exaple of such things - my friend is a newb and is leveling a prot pally.. .He has no problem - people point out whenever and what he needs and so on.. I was leveling a nelf DK (wanted to see Wrath gate from allience side) and most epople were just awfull (leveling in dungeons as tank - so i have quests availible if i wanna look what was happening) in general... The worst example was A runner mob - running into a pack with hunter pet following. Healer casted a spell and i see everything agroed on him, so i run in, put DnD down and hit bloodboil. We still wiped - there were in total 3 packs on me, not too much survivability as 64 DK. People start shouting that tank is a nooob and blah blah balh, when i point out that it was hunter pet agroed and i was just saving healer from being wtf pwned, i got vote kicked. And in general, i mostly stuck to the horde side, but a lot of my friends been playing allience since vanilla, and a few months ago they came back as horde, ad do say that it's much better...

I Think main difference is the type of people who would paly one or another - i cannt imagine some dooche bag rolling a tauren, orc or for that matter a troll when they can be human paladin... Like Wrathgate events revield to me - Allience is full of Self-Important doochbags as their leaders, and so self-important doochbags are ones choosing allience *in general*... Belfs are bad...

 

[Kajt]

I prefer the Horde, even though I don't have a single Horde character.

(it was on wildhammer,which is PvE)

This server is just... eww.

 

[Zeema]

Alliance Have nicer looking cities

but

Horde has Cool Races to pick from

 

[The Madman]

Ridiculous. A bunch of crybabies turning their QQ into a meme doesn't change the facts.

I provided evidence to back up my words, despite of what you think of it, where's your evidence so I can casually dismiss it like you did mine?

Regardless I just think this is a base case of 'The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side' syndrome. It's obvious I could link more videos, more articles, more memories and remembrance but you'd simply dismiss those as well which means this 'debate' is pointless.

All I can do now is say it as I remember it, but you're even less likely to consider that.

I say Tomato, you say Alliancefavoritism. It's obvious there will be no agreements. I'm gone before this turns into a flame war.

And despite all the arguing, nice to see another 'ye olden days' wow player. Almost makes me wanna renew my account, but I'll continue to wait till Cataclysm for that methinks. I liked the old rivalry between Alliance and Horde. When last I was playing though there wasn't much rivalry left, what with faction balance, reduced importance on racials, faction transfers, cross-server battlegrounds and the like. Horde used to be the cool underdogs, now, well, now they're mostly populated by Blood Elves (Played by ex-Alliance) and outnumber the Alliance on most pvp servers as a result.

It's all wrong! Ah well, still a damn fun game even if I don't play it like I once did... or at all really.

 

[DrMetal]

Can't really comment on the Priest bit however. Never played one, never got one past lvl 20. I can however counter that racial with the notorious: Will of the Forsaken.

That was so damned overpowered for the longest time it was comical. It really was. Sure its purposes were more suited toward pvp than pve, but that's not to say it wasn't extremely useful in both areas.

Breaking one fear every 2 minutes isn't half as good as being immune to 4 fears in that same time frame.

It was a good racial, but OP? Hardly. And, of course, in PvE Will of the Forsaken did not make any significant impact in any boss fight.

Will of the forsaken was insignificant until tBC, for simple purpose of that for good first part of vanilla forsaken were considered undead... All anti-undead (shackles, holy wrath ect) spells worked against them.. .Hence the sleevles t-shirt we as horde get in AV =D

 

[procyonlotor]

Frost Shock had diminishing returns (and, as I recall, no other snare did) and shared a cooldown with the Shaman's sole interrupt. Also, if we're talking about Enhancement Shamans here (and we seem to be) it did fairly low damage. It was the only way for a Shaman to ever chase someone down (and only if they were within 20 yards to start), and the only way for a Shaman to ever get distance from someone (and only if they hadn't already snared or CC'd the Shaman).

Shamans were "overpowered" in PvP when they got one-in-a-thousand WF triple crits, or when their opponent's abilities were all on cooldown. Again, Shamans had NO CC, NO way to ever catch up to someone 21 or more yards away, and NO way to escape from anyone who had snared them. They also had no defensive cooldowns or panic buttons, or indeed any defensive abilities at all. In a PvP situation a Shaman would be locked down and killed by any competent player before the Shaman could do more than one Frost Shock, due to their complete lack of CC and survivability.

Paladins on the other hand had about an equal chance of 2-shotting someone (thanks to Seal of Command), but they also had plate armor, the best CC in the game (plus another, longer range CC for chasing), movement impairing effect immunity on a very short cooldown, and the best defensive ability in the game--times 3.

Having a shaman myself I can confirm that properly specced and geared pallies will be able to as much as two shot a shaman. You have to be really good and really lucky to kill rettadins much a less a holy. They have insane survivability and pretty much the only thing to do is either burst them down and force them to use lay on hands or just try to kite them and wait till they run out of mana. And then still kite them. Even if you're enhancement (and, let's be honest with ourselves here, shaman brethren, nobody should want an enhancement shaman in their face).

 

[poet_lawreate]

My main is Alliance but I have a Horde alt. There seems to be the exact same amount of morons to good players on either faction. I just picked Night Elf because I was new to the game and liked the look of the female elves. I RP with a mature Nelf guild who are all amazingly skilled and literate, so I don't think the idea that all Alliance players are kids is quite true. I do probably prefer playing an attractive 'hero' character where all the NPCs and the scenery is attractive too (my god, Night Elf architecture) rather than where it's all red and orange and fangs and horns and open wounds. I don't think that's a childish view, just a differing aesthetic one.

 

[UPRC]

Alliance, strictly because of the story and such. Both sides have made pretty terrible and morally unacceptable decisions, but the Alliance is slightly better in my eyes.

 

[Fallen-Angel Risen-Demon]

Honestly, though, I've found that a lot of Horde players seem to have this arrogant "OH MAN ALLIANCE IS FULL OF 12-YEAR-OLDS" mentality. It's a superiority complex.

Allaince do seem to moan more though... when I was allaince.
Now I'm a lvl 62 Orc DK...
I can't go on much
[sub] my mum hogs it [/sub]

 

[Marowit]

Hey Everyone. I have been playing an alliance paladin for 2 years, i'm in a nice guild but i dont raid and im getting really bored. i have the epic mounts, the pvp gear, the profs, the titles but im really bored. I rolled a hunter the other day on the horde side and im having a great time so far (im level 48) but i feel guilty about ditching the alliance. I just want an honest answer, i love both sides and i cant choose so can you please just tell me which side i should be playing?

If you've been playing the same faction for 2 years, and have gotten bored you are a normal person. You missed out on what, 1/2 of the game, maybe a little less, 1/3 of the game. Sure you can say it's the same thing, but there are different story lines/races/etc...

I know I switch back and forth between sides (I've been playing since launch) every year or so, and find it makes the game a lot more fun.

Consequently I did not vote in the pole, since I was horde for all of vanilla, alliance for all of TBC, and now am back on the horde side 8)

 

[CapnRaccoon]

S'all about Alliance bro 8D
Paladin Human too, hellz yea =D

Nah but seriously I just love Alliance Lore and Paladins - And Belf are a bit...Uh..Well.
K, so they're a bit too camp for my tastes.
Nothing against Horde, I got a few Alts on horde.

 

[Mcupobob]

Not sure anyone has posted this yet


I play Hord I find that the groups are usually better when I'm using dungeon finder, but I've recently swich to alliance to play with my friends.

 

[Cylos Treh]

Best example of the difference between Ally and Horde, I had a character on each and went into the main city trade chat...
Horde;
"Something obcene and weird, Discuss" (Thats an actual quote...)
Ally;
"UR MOM!"
"LOL"
"LOL"
"ROFLMFAO"

I rest my case.