WoW Petopia Community

I have been leveling my horde mage, and ran across some surprising differences between horde and alliance. For example I have barely done 1/2 the quests in Borean Tundra and am already 74 (Granted I am always in que for a random) Compared to my hunter which had 2 heirlooms with +10% xp she was in dragonblight by 73. I have also noticed that the faction specfic quests are harder on Horde side, and that the horde towns are located in difficult spots that you have to fight to get to in alot of cases. Personally I like that better then the ease of alliance since it is more true to the lore, and game itself.

Overall, seems like the Horde gets a more in-depth game. Maybe it's because I know more about the game now, but leveling my horde side hunter has been a richer experience.

Alliance is softer than the Horde side of things.

You go namby-pamby or you go hardcore.

I find the alliance much more loreful.

In my experience, both got about the same amount of lore in vanilla, perhaps leaning a bit towards alliance with the nelves. In TBC, however, Horde, with orcs and belves got more lore. Northrend is clearly alliance most of the time.

You find so? I find the whole Taunka and Forsaken story arcs to favour Horde...

Yeah, but alliance gets all the questlines regarding Arthas...

Well true he was a human prince.. If thats the case you would think TBC would be alliance because of how strongly Illidan specifically affects the alliance. I find some horde quests rather dull as to me..well..at least at low level they all follow amongst the same quest requirements. I've always liked alliance better....and though I have horde friends - I dont think I'll be anywhere but alliance. FOR THE ALLIANCE!!!


P.S - Vash the Stampede clearly supporting alliance for now and into eternity

I found myself becoming far more engrossed in the Horde questlines during my time playing the game. My boyfriend and I first started as Alliance (like many people) due to the friends we had who got us into WoW. Anyways, the moment we chose to go Horde I became instantly immersed in the rich stories and plots that seemed to permeate Horde-side lore. I think there's a stronger bond with the Horde races all being outcasts of sorts, bonding together out of necessity and as a means of survival. It was just a lot more compelling to me than the Alliance which overall seemed a bit stale. The Horde was refreshing and I was much more drawn in to their plight than anything else.

I've found it to be rather evenly mixed, myself. Different zones are tooled towards different people. Storm Peaks? Alliance! There's almost nothing for Horde there. Borean Tundra? Horde! The Taunka need to be saved. Dragonblight is a fairly good mix, leaning towards Alliance with the Arthas things. Icecrown is boring tooled towards both factions with the Argent Crusade about.

In vanilla WoW, both Horde and Alliance have their fun. I find the Ally ones fun, but only because I don't have all the quests memorized by now.

BC, Horde is the way to go for most of it. The orcs have the Mag'har to reunite with and the belves have Keal'Thalas to boo at. The Alliance have.. A bunch of angry commanders and some Broken Draenei.

I've been thinking and it has made me wonder if Blizz is going in this direction to lead up to a battle with all of the old gods. Since something cataclysmic like Deathwings re-emergence could potentially weaken/break the imprisonment the titans put on them. I say this since the Titans chose to imprison them instead of destroy them, because it would cause more harm to Azeroth then letting them live would. It could also mean that Blizz will bring the Titans back to Azeroth with the Naaru for a final battle royal with the Old Gods and Sargeras himself. I think the only reason he didn't show up in Outlands is because a broken piece of trash leftovers of a planet wasn't worth his time, and was probably more concerned with another planet. hmmm I wonder if they are getting ideas from Palladium. If the titans do get brought in it might mean that Dreanor could be remade and we'd have 2 whole worlds to play in.

Sargeras is currently pretty much nothing...

Saturo wrote:Yeah, but alliance gets all the questlines regarding Arthas...

I'll admit I haven't done everything on both sides, but isn't Icecrown pretty much the same for the two factions? That's the area I found was most deeply steeped in Lich King lore.

I also think Northrend is much more interesting than what can be reduced to Arthas. Yeah, everything you do is fall-out from Arthas' actions, but everything surrounding the Nerubians is super interesting, and both the Forsaken and Taunka story lines were just fantastic. I really found Dragonblight Horde-side to be more lore-interesting than Alliance-side.

Vephriel wrote:I think there's a stronger bond with the Horde races all being outcasts of sorts, bonding together out of necessity and as a means of survival. It was just a lot more compelling to me than the Alliance which overall seemed a bit stale. The Horde was refreshing and I was much more drawn in to their plight than anything else.

I totally agree with you there. Funny thing, I've been reading Dragonlance (on book 2 right now) and I find the stuffiness of some of the heroes' races to fit the alliance well. Thinking of themselves and their people before the good of the whole world, forging alliances because it benefits them... Definitely Horde has much more emotional bonds, I'd say - even if they don't trust each other. Story-wise, I'd expect a hero of the Horde to have a much more interesting background and path than a hero of the alliance. "How did you become a hero?" "Oh well, I went to Stormwind and enrolled in Hero-School. Duh."

Sarayana wrote:

Vephriel wrote:I think there's a stronger bond with the Horde races all being outcasts of sorts, bonding together out of necessity and as a means of survival. It was just a lot more compelling to me than the Alliance which overall seemed a bit stale. The Horde was refreshing and I was much more drawn in to their plight than anything else.

I totally agree with you there. Funny thing, I've been reading Dragonlance (on book 2 right now) and I find the stuffiness of some of the heroes' races to fit the alliance well. Thinking of themselves and their people before the good of the whole world, forging alliances because it benefits them... Definitely Horde has much more emotional bonds, I'd say - even if they don't trust each other. Story-wise, I'd expect a hero of the Horde to have a much more interesting background and path than a hero of the alliance. "How did you become a hero?" "Oh well, I went to Stormwind and enrolled in Hero-School. Duh."

That's an excellent point Sarayana, it illustrates my own thoughts really well. I love the fact that there is so much unrest within the Horde factions themselves. I'm not saying there isn't any dispute within the Alliance of course, because obviously there is, but at face value I can't get over the stereotypical flavors of the Alliance and I think the charm of the Horde is the unique and different facets. It just really appealed to me. ^^

I somewhat agree with you there since they may have "Emotional" bonds but the alliance havent bonded soley because of that reason - I love my alliance and the way they do things I mean they are kind and good IMO - I'm sorry I'm only a real fan of tauren and trolls on horde side - Tauren are the most mellow and friendliest race which is why I like them. The alliance heroes dont all become heroes just like that they too had their real trials. With Garrosh ruling the horde soon enough IMO the whole trust and emotional bonding thing will change for the worst. Alliance must be good for something especially since the WoW movies hero is a young human paladin and his trials from what I've heard/read as the basic plot. I LOVE alliance and detest them being put down as "lesser" than the horde even if thats not what it directly says I seem to always get this horde are better vibe.

I wasn't insinuating that the Horde are better, just stating my own personal tastes on the two factions. Just as you said the Horde seemed dull to you, I find the Alliance dull to me. x)

Aye didnt say you were guess it just gets me heated since I have people going "EW your alliance" ALL the time and then theres "Why do you play alliance, dont you know they suck?" - I mean to some people I guess MY preference and likes dont matter - I carry a strong opinion that its my game I play with what side I want. Its like at times I'm automatically wrong because I dont play horde?

To be fair, Nevar, I'm Alliance. I wholeheartedly love playing Alliance and have a hard time leveling Horde characters.

I wasn't trying to say Alliance is "dull" or anything of the sort, what I'm trying to illustrate is that ... hmm... I guess both factions are allies of convenience, really, but Alliance seems to be more calculating in that than Horde. I could be wrong, I'm not really strong on lore, I just have what I've soaked up in-game.

Let me put it differently. I imagine the Alliance settling on becoming allies during a war meeting or diplomatic mission. I see Horde becoming allies on the battle field as the Tauren, for example, are joined by the orcs in their fight against the whatchamacallems. Kolkar.

I suppose that *does* make Alliance look more dull, but I don't think they are. I just find their bond is more calculated. And really, the whole "civilised" sense of the Alliance, even though it's often misleading, does give me the sense that I'm playing someone who's being groomed to do heroic deeds, where it's easier to play my Horde characters as people who sort of happen upon those heroic deeds. That's what I meant by the Stormwind Hero-School. Does that make sense?

All that being said, I don't particularly love one faction over another, I love certain races. I really like the trolls and tauren, and Alliance side I prefer the draenei and dwarves. Humans and gnomes never get past the low levels, and night elves... well, I leveled two, but only because I wanted druids and didn't have another option Alliance-side. So I guess I should reword my initial statement to say that I wholeheartedly love playing certain races.

Anyway! Enough rambling, I hope some of that made sense.

Aye makes perfect sense because trolls and tauren are my favorite horde side races. I love night elves and draenei - I love gnomes but cant play one because I feel to tiny (Dosent admit her very tiny height IRL) - Dwarves bring the party - HoweverI cant wait for worgen I love what they are..a bit less uncivilized...yet still true to their values that and I mean night elves bringing em into the alliance is just awesome

I'm definitely not someone who would chastise a person for choosing a certain faction one way or the other. Unfortunately I know a lot of people like that exist, but in the end it's best to ignore them and remember why you love your faction and take pride in that yourself.

That's why I always like explaining my own reasoning behind my love of the faction I play. I know it's not shared by everyone, and I don't expect everyone to agree with me. But I feel that at least presenting my feelings of it does more to illustrate my thoughts than just screaming some baseless pride cry.

I'll admit I enjoy the friendly rivalry though. Much like opposing sports teams, it's fun to have two sides of something to feel strongly about. I'll join in with some 'For the Horde' every now and then, but all in good fun. As for those who take it too far and too seriously, well....again, best ignored. xD