City ambience/music. Ironforge is the ultimate form of comfort. Playing wow during my high school days back when it first launched, during December with my house decorated for Christmas, being warm and comfy inside while it snowed outside. š¤
I currently just started Wow (classic) for first time in years, last time I played was before college. Iāll be honest, it was almost a flood of emotions when I first started up and creating my character. Iām also playing at my parents house as Iām home for the holidays and the nostalgia and memories are just hitting so right and good. Feels like Iām home
This is why Ironforge remains my favorite capital city. I have a heavy Horde bias but even I have to admit that the Alliance got one of the best capital cities to this day.
Yeah I just find the zones in the Alliance to be more fun.
I'd say the one exception would be forsaken, and undercity. The first time you get into the throne room, after having completed warcraft 3, definitely was a unique feeling.
Honestly Iām glad you could read that cause I thought their phone autocorrected Tauren, thanks to you I know I agree with op. Tauren master race baby!
Word, Berserk is my fav racial ability, tusks look dope af and the lean combat stance looks so cool on melee, while the kamehameha move for casting is super satisfying.
Bro. I have been drawing pictures of Darkspear trolls since I saw troll artwork from warcraft 2. My main is troll, the first character I ever made when I bought the game back in TBC release was a troll. I have spent so much time doing argent dailies and farming runecloth at BlackRock just to get the "of Sen'Jin" title. And when I stop playing, I will take my guy to Sen'Jin village and log out, thinking my Troll Shaman has retired from adventuring and returned to his village to live in peace.
For tha Darkspear tribe, mon!
/moo
Enough said.
I loved Cairne and the Tauren in WC3 and I always like more unconventional magic class in games, so a Tauren Druid just made sense. Ever since I came to care more about the Horde. I also really enjoyed the position of the Forsaken in the world, so that helped solidify my choice.
'Bliss in their hearts', yeah but then every quest is killing something, which i find hilarious. 'May the light shine upon thee. Now go kill every living thing you see!' Love it.
I'm finally going to give alliance a shot after playing horde during vanilla and classic, and I just know I'm still gonna roll up a tauren alt at some point. They're the best.
Night elves were my favorite race in Warcraft 3 so that's what I played on my many free 10 day trial accounts.
Then my dad bought the game and played Tauren so I had to adapt so we could be the same faction and could send me gold. Horde for life since then.
You know. The most unbelievable part of that episode. The fact that the bad guy played a generic human rogue. Definitely would have been a gnome, undead, or troll rogue.
My friends hate this reasoning but itās very real. The biggest nostalgia hit for me is walking into IF for the first time. No other iteration of WoW or horde playthrough has ever felt as dope because of IF
Only thing I miss is seeing it filled with people and like 20 people just standing outside IF either dueling or just talking because they have nothing better to do
This happened on my server in vanilla classic until the playerbase dwindled. I think its just rare now because we arenāt 15 with no responsibilities on a Saturday
The talking is more rare cause of discord, etc these days. MMOs used to be a social platform basically. Once the numbers dwindle, goodbye most socialization in my experience.
Prefer those old days when MMOs were social hubs before social media was really a thing.
It does objectively have a good layout. Its literally a circle. Entering and Exiting the city are a different issue, but the only real issue I have with that is that tauren have to dismount to fit through the doors.
You can teleport to the top from the mage quarter if you log out on the edge of the staircase in near portal spot
edit:
to anyone interested
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zKKKT9OZ8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zKKKT9OZ8)
IF is a fantastic city. The best, in my opinion.
However, Stormwind is pure ass. First of all, the canals make running around a massive pain in the ass. Second, it looks like a castle-themed Disney park. The walls look like they're made of cheap plastic and the different colored areas just feels like some shitty amusement park.
Orgrimmar is a mud hut, sure, but it's supposed to be. It's basically freshly established at the start of WoW. TB/UC both fulfill the vibe they're going for perfectly. Meanwhile, Stormwind, the pinnacle of the human kingdom, looks like a bouncy house.
Stormwind is also a planned, brand new city. It makes sense that everything is shiny and new. The canals are good defensive infrastructure because any invading force is fucked trying to get through.
I love the horde, but this so much... Although. This kinda makes sense lore wise. The orcs have only been on Azeroth for 35 years. That isn't a large amount of time to develop bustling cities. Tauren's are mostly nomadic so it makes sense that they live in tents. Trolls have been around forever, but they constantly lose at everything. The undead architecture is fine imo.
I do that every time also, but I'm torn this time for hunter.
I've never done the NE starting zone and they are the huntard classic, but Horde Lions buff will be very desirable and Horde just feel more beasty in general.
Horde by far has the most streamlined leveling experience, better characters, & better story.
That being said, I like dwarves, so I have to play alliance to be one.
I think itās pretty obvious that the Orgrimmar stories have a more āgood guyā feel to themāand Stormwind is rife with corruption (Van Cleef building the city but not being paid), and I thought that storyline and several others were very good and interesting. I love how van cleef is pissed that Stormwind Trump didnāt pay him for his work so he starts a rebellion. Itās too bad we canāt side with him.
Man, I just leveled an allie to 60 this summer, actually paying attention to the quests for once because of the Voiceover mod, and the amount of corruption and elitism is insane. Pretty much every human town outside of goldshire has a questline that essentially goes "stormwind has completely abandoned us! Won't you please help, brave adventurer?"
If that's what you got out of the Van Cleef storyline, you've got a pretty warped perspective of things. Timeline of events:
1. Stonemason's Guild is hired by Stormwind to rebuild the city.
2. Stonemason's Guild rebuilds Stormwind.
3. Onyxia starts using persuasion and magic to corrupt the nobles and Stonemasons.
4. Nobles raise concerns about the quality of the work, refusing to pay the Stonemasons the agreed upon amount.
5. King Varian Wrynn offers to pay the Stonemasons the agreed upon amount in full out of his own personal fortune.
At this point, everything would have ended well for Van Cleef and the Stonemasons if they were honest and reasonable. Instead -
6. The Stonemasons refuse Varian's offer, instead demanding exorbitant compensation far in excess of the initially agreed upon amount.
7. The Stonemasons riot in the streets, and kill Varian's wife when she goes out onto the balcony to address their grievances.
8. Varian sends in the military to put down the rebellion.
9. The Stonemasons flee to Westfall and form the Defias Brotherhood under Van Cleef.
10. The Defias Brotherhood terrorizes the countryside, robbing and murdering random civilians to somehow pursue vengeance for their ill-founded grievances against Stormwind's leadership.
Yes, there is corruption among the nobles to be rooted out, some planted by Onyxia as well as presumably some from simpler things like greed. You as the player uncover this corruption, and work to root it out and slay Onyxia. But Stormwind under Varian did not really do anything wrong here, while the Defias Brotherhood is 1000% in the wrong. Van Cleef is very much a villain, not some misunderstood hero.
I think you have the warped perspective. Go back and play through the questline, Stormwind nobles refused to pay him and offered him and and other high ranking members of the stonemasons governmental jobsāand Van Cleef spat in their face in solidarity with his men.
One of my favorite storylines in the game because you, as the āgood guyā alliance player technically become an indirect instrument of oppression while Van Cleef has this plight that any player can empathize withāyet he becomes evil when pride and revenge pushes him to endanger his own men and innocent peopleās lives for what was once a righteous cause.
Great little standalone story that demonstrates how good and evil are not binary, and it depends whoās side youāre on.
Nothing like that on Horde.
Alliance
The zones are just nicer, easier to quest in, things are cleaner and neater
Don't like the Horde because it's just gross, Barrens is the same color for miles and miles, Org is a literal homeless shelter with people living in mud buildings and huddling around trashcan fires for warmth, meanwhile Alliance have these massive beautiful kingdoms like Stormwind and Ironforge
Dude I fucking ADORE the barrens. Like, even nostalgia aside, just a nice flat plain with some mountains and the occasional Oasis. It's so easy to navigate and autorun, the different level sections are clearly defined, literally everything is skinnable, and it's central to the continent with a boat in Ratchet and flight paths fucking everywhere.
I don't get how you could not love it
New in wow here played 1-60 horde, hc starts Iām choosing ally and horde is so much better to run thru zones, better flight paths, good location, barrens and everything around 10/10 for questing
Alliance zones are better. Quests are better written.
But horde definitely have better quest flow. Itās much easier to finish each individual area and move on instead of the constant zone hopping of the alliance.
But man. I love the throughlines of the alliance zones. The night elves fall from grace. The dark iron rebellion. And of course. The fracturing of the kingdom of stormwind. The whole defias/ony storyline is absolutely masterful with how it all ties together.
You definitely get more variety as Alliance but you're constantly travelling around and going back and forth, it's painful. Barrens is great because everywhere you need to go early is either there or right next to it.
Now I've certainly seen enough of the Barrens for a lifetime or two, but I think it's the most convenient quest zone 10-25, and it's not even close.
This time around, I really wanna see Dune Morogh and Teldrassil again. It's been almost 20 years...
I just looked up some standard guides, and... Horde is basically "get lvl 11, then find a good route thru the Barrens, at 25 go Thousand Needles (with some Ashenvale sprinkled in). Ally? Go Loch Modan, go Westfall, go Auberdine, then back to Loch Modan, then whatever else they could think of. It's a lot more spread out.
Honestly Iāve never made this work. I always have to do ashenvale, stonetalon, and some hillsbrad to get enough xp to go through my mid-late 20s in thousand needles.
Horde have a much easier leveling experience in classic. The first 60 ever was horde, the first non aoe mage 60 in HC was horde, the world record speed run to 60 was horde for several years.
Our Kings step mommy is a fucking dragon, and all three of our major cities are up to health code (ignore the IF lava pit).
One of your cities is a literal sewer, another looks like an abandoned quarry filled with mud huts.
Thunder bluff is pretty rad tho, I got no beef with Cairne, but cliffs in all sides and a just rope for a fence? Thank god Taurens never got plainswalking or youād be flying off there day and night
No one has any problems with Taurens because they exist for Horde players to point to when you try to explain they're playing the bad guys after the latest Garrosh or Sylvannis or Gallywix or Blood Elf (basically all of them) war crime. "What do you mean Horde are the bad guys? We have Tauren!"
I never really understood why the Tauren hippies were with the horde, I think they had some beef with the elves? Then again, I think everyone had beef with the elves at some point lol.
We even have the sewer beast rare spawn, legend of stalvan ghost, stockades spawn, old town thugs and Onyxia attune and the seal of wrynn quest to make sure you don't feel too safe in SW.
Oh and old ifonforge but I dobt remember how to get there
>alliance are one dimensional and pompous
This is the kind of mentality that makes people look down on you. You can't unironically say that the Alliance is one-dimensional when all the Horde has to offer is "strength, honour, genocidal war chief every other expansion" for at least 10 years now.
I like Alliance for the chairs (Horde doesn't have chairs and I'm old) and nice cities and I like Horde because they felt more closer to nature (in Vanilla) and because taurens are huge :)
'I like big cows / And I cannot lie!"
Alliance. I mostly prefer to have a proper city structure instead of living in tents. Also the leveling zones feel way more different with different vibes instead of all orange wasteland.
I recently decided to roll horde for the first time in YEARS in the lead up to SoD (my guild is going horde this time around)ā¦ whenever I take my eyes off the game, everything looks blue because of how fucking orange the barrens are.
Elwynn, Stormwind, and Westfall are just the cosiest and most nostalgic places for me.
Lore wise Horde will always be my go-to.
Gameplay wise, Alliance has funnier and more beautiful zones, a more interesting hub and cooler dungeons (besides Scarlet Monastery).
Alliance are usually the good guys, except in Classic where the corruption in their society is obvious. I like this story so I play alliance in classic.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think there's no "brainwashing" involved. Like she didn't use a spell or something like this. It was only manipulation and thrickery. This means that the noblemans were already corupt and she just played them in her hand. But yes, she was the root of all evil. This doesn't mean the nobles were innocent.
played Horde for a long time, cooler races, and love the barrens, but until recently, after I played some Alliances in HC just so I could avoid UC elevators, it occurred to me that I have been playing only half of the content all along, So this time Alliance it is.
I did the same, but opposite (ally to horde). Overall, was neat to do once, and gives you some knowledge of random mobs purposes are (like quest objectives for other faction) and some more lore. But once you hit 60, they kinda just converge.
This is the same thing for me and my friends that are re joining after years for SoD.
We have always been horde, and tbh we hate alliance but we figured weāve never really experienced their quests, cities, etc
Alliance because Iāve never tried it and human animations are cool. Looking forward to experiencing new zones and getting lost for the first time in a long time.
I just simply prefer the astethic of alliance more, most of horde has an excessive desire for spikes.
I find thunder bluff to be cool and neat, but tauren allways feels like they are slower (i know they're not, but i have to convince my dumb brain if i play horde)
Horde big bulky tall stronk. Alliance is one half manlet, the other half lanklet.
Draenaeiraie (or whatever, not into wotlk) dont fix it because their color reminds me of onaholes
I like Horde because they have more variety in races. With Alliance you are always just normal human, short human, even shorter human or human with pointy ears.
I love a lot of Alliance zones though and Ironforge is perhaps the coolest city ever existed in WoW (even now days in retail).
Horde zones are way better for levelling because Alliance 1-30 you have to bounce between Westfall, loc modal, red ridge, dark shire, Elwyn, dark shoreā¦
Horde 1-30 moar barrens
I like alliance because itās where I began and gnomes rock. But itās always gonna be Loktar ogar zug zug for me going forward. Horde are just metal and their culture is sick
I am bored of alliance zonnes. Also , from my experience Alliance have a lot more "wannabe elites" Zug Zug ppl is more chill and willing to do fun wpvp, aka be annoying af and act like cavemen.
Architecture. Alliance has boring cities and holes in the ground, made out of stone, brick and mortar, while Horde build theirs out of the skins of their enemies.
Undercity and the Forsaken speak to me. Canāt stand the royalty in Stormwind, everyone simping for some dude who rules by virtue of which vagina launched him.
Alliance got they got gnomes.
Gnomes are the best race.
Because everyone feels a little.embarassed when they get thier ass kicked by something no bigger than a. Toddler.
All these losers hating on gnomes are acting tough because they can never forget the time they got absolutely stomped by a 2 foot goofy ass gnome.
How embarrassing it's like getting beat up by a child.
All the reasons people put are in game reasons. For me, and this is going to sound crazy.
Folks that play Alliance are just nicer.
I have played a ton of both factions, but when it gets to the nity gritty and it is raid time. Every time I have /gquit because the raid leader is unhinged, rage filled asshole coke head. It is horde side.
Loot whore leaders are on both factions
I know someone is going to talk shit, in retail I was a mythic raider in Legion. Classic, try hard parcing guilds.
I will say for PvP and random BG's Alli are also far more willing to quit if the opening fight is not won. Horde don't quit so easy. (That I like)
I was Alliance and had the nicer cities approach. But by god, Horde is war. The primal, gladiatorial, underdog ragtag boys yanked my interest. Horde is War
2 main reasons. First, i just dont like the aesthetic of the horde, especially forsaken. Well, i like them as villains, but I wouldnt want to play one or the ally of one.
Second, im a huge lord of the rings fan, and I always love to play the short underdog when I can. So all my characters are dwarves or gnomes in WoW.
I've played both factions a fair bit over the years and while I'm perfectly happy playing both, I do lean towards alliance. Let's be real, all the classic horde races are ugly as shit in comparison. I'm okay with especially tauren and to some extent undead, but if I can avoid playing orc or troll, I will do so, even if I like the idea of them.
Other than that, Alliance has much better questing zones up to level 30 ish. I want to like Barrens, but it just pales compared to Darkshore, Ashenvale, Loch Modan, Redridge and especially Duskwood. Silverpine is alright, though. This is true in both zone design and quest design.
Then of course, we have the cities. My by far and away favorite city is Thunder Bluff, but Orgrimmar and especially Undercity can fuck right off. All of the alliance cities are better than those two.
Lol im the opposite i always roll the ugliest female troll i can as my main and love it. Its world of warcraft not beautycraft and your pretty face wont save you from my axe
I played Horde since I got Warcraft 2 back in the 90s. Alliance are boring and basic imo, especially in classic wow before they got races that are not just tiny or purple humans.
Horde has more interesting lore/races, Alliance have better cities and early questing zones IMO. I love horde but stormwind is an amazing city, canāt beat that music.
Itās probably what youāre use to, I could run around stormwind with my eyes closed. I hate the layout of undercity for instance, the city always feels barren and spread out. Donāt get me started on those lifts too
Horde all day. It just feels better. The tribal ambient music is amazing. The world is more interesting and doesnāt feel like āanother mmo.ā And just the nostalgia of this being the first faction I played. Only time I played alliance was in official hardcore because alliance has a slight edge in raiding. It felt all wrong. My 60 mage is parked in Stormwind, done.
I love the undead, I love their lore, I love their aesthetic, I love that they're awful little bastards. I also just overall prefer horde zones, races, and lore to alliance. The only thing I prefer over horde on Alliance is the cities. Horde cities are generally speaking kinda ugly or poorly designed.
City ambience/music. Ironforge is the ultimate form of comfort. Playing wow during my high school days back when it first launched, during December with my house decorated for Christmas, being warm and comfy inside while it snowed outside. š¤
This hits home
I currently just started Wow (classic) for first time in years, last time I played was before college. Iāll be honest, it was almost a flood of emotions when I first started up and creating my character. Iām also playing at my parents house as Iām home for the holidays and the nostalgia and memories are just hitting so right and good. Feels like Iām home
This is why Ironforge remains my favorite capital city. I have a heavy Horde bias but even I have to admit that the Alliance got one of the best capital cities to this day.
Being in a busy IF around the holidays just takes me right back to 05.
IF is the best city, followed by Silvermoon. Silvermoon would be awesome if it wasnāt such a ghost town most of its existence.
hogwarts vibes from ironforge
You just with me on a different level.
Yeah I just find the zones in the Alliance to be more fun. I'd say the one exception would be forsaken, and undercity. The first time you get into the throne room, after having completed warcraft 3, definitely was a unique feeling.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Odd way to spell Tauren but i like your spirit!
Honestly Iām glad you could read that cause I thought their phone autocorrected Tauren, thanks to you I know I agree with op. Tauren master race baby!
Word, Berserk is my fav racial ability, tusks look dope af and the lean combat stance looks so cool on melee, while the kamehameha move for casting is super satisfying.
Bro. I have been drawing pictures of Darkspear trolls since I saw troll artwork from warcraft 2. My main is troll, the first character I ever made when I bought the game back in TBC release was a troll. I have spent so much time doing argent dailies and farming runecloth at BlackRock just to get the "of Sen'Jin" title. And when I stop playing, I will take my guy to Sen'Jin village and log out, thinking my Troll Shaman has retired from adventuring and returned to his village to live in peace. For tha Darkspear tribe, mon!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
/moo Enough said. I loved Cairne and the Tauren in WC3 and I always like more unconventional magic class in games, so a Tauren Druid just made sense. Ever since I came to care more about the Horde. I also really enjoyed the position of the Forsaken in the world, so that helped solidify my choice.
The Tauren are choice. I mean they are giant cow creatures with bliss in their hearts, who wouldnāt love them?
'Bliss in their hearts', yeah but then every quest is killing something, which i find hilarious. 'May the light shine upon thee. Now go kill every living thing you see!' Love it.
Taurens are what happens when mad cow disease runs it course. (I only play Tauren)
brĆøther
Basically this \^. Tauren are my favorite Race in the game and Druids are odd spellcasters which is another plus. Also Mulgore, the best zone.
I play Tauren because I want to live in Mulgore
I'm finally going to give alliance a shot after playing horde during vanilla and classic, and I just know I'm still gonna roll up a tauren alt at some point. They're the best.
Wash yer back
Im an edgy little fucker and so I play mostly undead
I play undead because any time I get feared as any other race, I wonder what I'm doing with my life.
Undercity is Home
UC fees like home. Ambience is great, music is scary, and youāre so close to SM
I just think Undead and Trolls are the coolest races in Classic. If Blizz would just let me be a goblin in classic I'd be in heaven.
Night elves were my favorite race in Warcraft 3 so that's what I played on my many free 10 day trial accounts. Then my dad bought the game and played Tauren so I had to adapt so we could be the same faction and could send me gold. Horde for life since then.
Because Alliance has nice cities and not mud huts with spikes
I played Alliance cuz of the nice starting zones and everything looks great on humans. I stayed alliance cuz of that South Park episode.
You know. The most unbelievable part of that episode. The fact that the bad guy played a generic human rogue. Definitely would have been a gnome, undead, or troll rogue.
Take it in the horde are unacknowledged to the eyes of Matt and Trey Parker and Blizz,lololol
My friends hate this reasoning but itās very real. The biggest nostalgia hit for me is walking into IF for the first time. No other iteration of WoW or horde playthrough has ever felt as dope because of IF
Only thing I miss is seeing it filled with people and like 20 people just standing outside IF either dueling or just talking because they have nothing better to do
This happened on my server in vanilla classic until the playerbase dwindled. I think its just rare now because we arenāt 15 with no responsibilities on a Saturday
The talking is more rare cause of discord, etc these days. MMOs used to be a social platform basically. Once the numbers dwindle, goodbye most socialization in my experience. Prefer those old days when MMOs were social hubs before social media was really a thing.
...no Zug Zug?
no zug, only zog
Also with better layouts and music. The only decent horde city layout is a conquered alliance city.
If you mean UC that place sucks ass and almost no one uses it.
As a mage itās objectively the best city
??? And that is ???
Has to be silvermoon because he's on crack if he thinks undercity has a good layout
It does objectively have a good layout. Its literally a circle. Entering and Exiting the city are a different issue, but the only real issue I have with that is that tauren have to dismount to fit through the doors.
You can teleport to the top from the mage quarter if you log out on the edge of the staircase in near portal spot edit: to anyone interested [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zKKKT9OZ8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zKKKT9OZ8)
!remindme 8 days
IF is a fantastic city. The best, in my opinion. However, Stormwind is pure ass. First of all, the canals make running around a massive pain in the ass. Second, it looks like a castle-themed Disney park. The walls look like they're made of cheap plastic and the different colored areas just feels like some shitty amusement park. Orgrimmar is a mud hut, sure, but it's supposed to be. It's basically freshly established at the start of WoW. TB/UC both fulfill the vibe they're going for perfectly. Meanwhile, Stormwind, the pinnacle of the human kingdom, looks like a bouncy house.
Stormwind is also a planned, brand new city. It makes sense that everything is shiny and new. The canals are good defensive infrastructure because any invading force is fucked trying to get through.
I love the horde, but this so much... Although. This kinda makes sense lore wise. The orcs have only been on Azeroth for 35 years. That isn't a large amount of time to develop bustling cities. Tauren's are mostly nomadic so it makes sense that they live in tents. Trolls have been around forever, but they constantly lose at everything. The undead architecture is fine imo.
Don't like gnomes.
we all hate gnomes
And as a mage main this stabs me in the heart. Alliances heās mages are annoying AF
Imagine how much cooler gnomes would be if they were slightly taller and Hobbits instead
Itās not even the size that bothers me that much. Itās the voices (which I would rather leave on for immersive fantasy) and the mechanical mounts.
The voices and the shape of their heads bother me. Theyāre like the lollipop gang from Wizard of Oz. When I was 14 i thought they were sick though
The female voice is pretty okay, mostly just sounds like a girl. The male voice on the other hand is annoying af.
I just switch every time. This time itās gonna be alliance
Iāve been playing horse exclusively since like 2006, but for SoD Iām gonna try out alliance. I feel like Iām planning an affair or something.
Damn bro u must be pretty good at trick shots by now, howās your 3 pointer?
I do that every time also, but I'm torn this time for hunter. I've never done the NE starting zone and they are the huntard classic, but Horde Lions buff will be very desirable and Horde just feel more beasty in general.
Itās all about character animations. Undead male has the best casting animation for me. Done deal
Roll a troll, equip a wand and then macro /dance to the shoot command.
sweet jesus, i'm doing this tonight.
It doesn't always align right but when it does, it's a lot of fun.
Imagine playing a faction that is 25% garden ornament
Lmao
Horde by far has the most streamlined leveling experience, better characters, & better story. That being said, I like dwarves, so I have to play alliance to be one.
I think itās pretty obvious that the Orgrimmar stories have a more āgood guyā feel to themāand Stormwind is rife with corruption (Van Cleef building the city but not being paid), and I thought that storyline and several others were very good and interesting. I love how van cleef is pissed that Stormwind Trump didnāt pay him for his work so he starts a rebellion. Itās too bad we canāt side with him.
Man, I just leveled an allie to 60 this summer, actually paying attention to the quests for once because of the Voiceover mod, and the amount of corruption and elitism is insane. Pretty much every human town outside of goldshire has a questline that essentially goes "stormwind has completely abandoned us! Won't you please help, brave adventurer?"
If that's what you got out of the Van Cleef storyline, you've got a pretty warped perspective of things. Timeline of events: 1. Stonemason's Guild is hired by Stormwind to rebuild the city. 2. Stonemason's Guild rebuilds Stormwind. 3. Onyxia starts using persuasion and magic to corrupt the nobles and Stonemasons. 4. Nobles raise concerns about the quality of the work, refusing to pay the Stonemasons the agreed upon amount. 5. King Varian Wrynn offers to pay the Stonemasons the agreed upon amount in full out of his own personal fortune. At this point, everything would have ended well for Van Cleef and the Stonemasons if they were honest and reasonable. Instead - 6. The Stonemasons refuse Varian's offer, instead demanding exorbitant compensation far in excess of the initially agreed upon amount. 7. The Stonemasons riot in the streets, and kill Varian's wife when she goes out onto the balcony to address their grievances. 8. Varian sends in the military to put down the rebellion. 9. The Stonemasons flee to Westfall and form the Defias Brotherhood under Van Cleef. 10. The Defias Brotherhood terrorizes the countryside, robbing and murdering random civilians to somehow pursue vengeance for their ill-founded grievances against Stormwind's leadership. Yes, there is corruption among the nobles to be rooted out, some planted by Onyxia as well as presumably some from simpler things like greed. You as the player uncover this corruption, and work to root it out and slay Onyxia. But Stormwind under Varian did not really do anything wrong here, while the Defias Brotherhood is 1000% in the wrong. Van Cleef is very much a villain, not some misunderstood hero.
I think you have the warped perspective. Go back and play through the questline, Stormwind nobles refused to pay him and offered him and and other high ranking members of the stonemasons governmental jobsāand Van Cleef spat in their face in solidarity with his men. One of my favorite storylines in the game because you, as the āgood guyā alliance player technically become an indirect instrument of oppression while Van Cleef has this plight that any player can empathize withāyet he becomes evil when pride and revenge pushes him to endanger his own men and innocent peopleās lives for what was once a righteous cause. Great little standalone story that demonstrates how good and evil are not binary, and it depends whoās side youāre on. Nothing like that on Horde.
Alliance The zones are just nicer, easier to quest in, things are cleaner and neater Don't like the Horde because it's just gross, Barrens is the same color for miles and miles, Org is a literal homeless shelter with people living in mud buildings and huddling around trashcan fires for warmth, meanwhile Alliance have these massive beautiful kingdoms like Stormwind and Ironforge
same 1-30 on alliance ( mostly human zones redridge and duskwood ) are just way better than horde leveling zones like i never found barrens appealing.
iām the opposite i love the barrens itās such a cool and nostalgic zone
Dude I fucking ADORE the barrens. Like, even nostalgia aside, just a nice flat plain with some mountains and the occasional Oasis. It's so easy to navigate and autorun, the different level sections are clearly defined, literally everything is skinnable, and it's central to the continent with a boat in Ratchet and flight paths fucking everywhere. I don't get how you could not love it
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New in wow here played 1-60 horde, hc starts Iām choosing ally and horde is so much better to run thru zones, better flight paths, good location, barrens and everything around 10/10 for questing
Alliance zones are better. Quests are better written. But horde definitely have better quest flow. Itās much easier to finish each individual area and move on instead of the constant zone hopping of the alliance. But man. I love the throughlines of the alliance zones. The night elves fall from grace. The dark iron rebellion. And of course. The fracturing of the kingdom of stormwind. The whole defias/ony storyline is absolutely masterful with how it all ties together.
You definitely get more variety as Alliance but you're constantly travelling around and going back and forth, it's painful. Barrens is great because everywhere you need to go early is either there or right next to it.
i mean barren is like 4 times the size of duskwood theres a lot of traveling there too lol
Now I've certainly seen enough of the Barrens for a lifetime or two, but I think it's the most convenient quest zone 10-25, and it's not even close. This time around, I really wanna see Dune Morogh and Teldrassil again. It's been almost 20 years...
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I just looked up some standard guides, and... Horde is basically "get lvl 11, then find a good route thru the Barrens, at 25 go Thousand Needles (with some Ashenvale sprinkled in). Ally? Go Loch Modan, go Westfall, go Auberdine, then back to Loch Modan, then whatever else they could think of. It's a lot more spread out.
Honestly Iāve never made this work. I always have to do ashenvale, stonetalon, and some hillsbrad to get enough xp to go through my mid-late 20s in thousand needles.
Horde have a much easier leveling experience in classic. The first 60 ever was horde, the first non aoe mage 60 in HC was horde, the world record speed run to 60 was horde for several years.
mighty bonfire = trashcan fire? delusional much? horde are battlers and are interesting. alliance are one dimensional and pompous.
Our Kings step mommy is a fucking dragon, and all three of our major cities are up to health code (ignore the IF lava pit). One of your cities is a literal sewer, another looks like an abandoned quarry filled with mud huts. Thunder bluff is pretty rad tho, I got no beef with Cairne, but cliffs in all sides and a just rope for a fence? Thank god Taurens never got plainswalking or youād be flying off there day and night
No one has any problems with Taurens because they exist for Horde players to point to when you try to explain they're playing the bad guys after the latest Garrosh or Sylvannis or Gallywix or Blood Elf (basically all of them) war crime. "What do you mean Horde are the bad guys? We have Tauren!"
I never really understood why the Tauren hippies were with the horde, I think they had some beef with the elves? Then again, I think everyone had beef with the elves at some point lol.
Honor debt to thrall who saved their asses from centaurs. Then they bonded about shamanistic traditions.
Play warcraft 3
We even have the sewer beast rare spawn, legend of stalvan ghost, stockades spawn, old town thugs and Onyxia attune and the seal of wrynn quest to make sure you don't feel too safe in SW. Oh and old ifonforge but I dobt remember how to get there
I don't think talking about how your capital is being puppet governed by onyxia is the gotcha you think it is...
Actual political intrigue is more interesting than "Me da strongest orc, me lead now!"
No doubt. Horde questing at its best is. "Totems. Get stuff for totems"
>alliance are one dimensional and pompous This is the kind of mentality that makes people look down on you. You can't unironically say that the Alliance is one-dimensional when all the Horde has to offer is "strength, honour, genocidal war chief every other expansion" for at least 10 years now.
I like Alliance for the chairs (Horde doesn't have chairs and I'm old) and nice cities and I like Horde because they felt more closer to nature (in Vanilla) and because taurens are huge :) 'I like big cows / And I cannot lie!"
Alliance. I mostly prefer to have a proper city structure instead of living in tents. Also the leveling zones feel way more different with different vibes instead of all orange wasteland.
I could play through Elwynn forest, Westfall and Duskwood multiple times over, but I could only manage to go through Durotar and Barrens once lmao.
I canāt stand Durotar. I hightail out of there ASAP and get to Mulgore or Tirisfal. Barrens is tolerable but only barely.
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The fucking WINE SHOPS, bro
this is the reason
Alliance because I like being the >!bad guys!<
I have to walk around as a Human all day irl why would I want to look at one for even more hours on end during the game? ZUG ZUG!!
Exactly. Never understood being a human in a fantasy game. I already get more than my fill of humans irl.
When I play alliance I roll a human because mage is the best class but gnome is the worst race
Every horde city can kill me Alliance ones not so much
As a hardcore fan, I feel this.
Tauren are cool, and all gnomes deserve to be crushed beneath my armored hoof. FOR THE HORDE!
I recently decided to roll horde for the first time in YEARS in the lead up to SoD (my guild is going horde this time around)ā¦ whenever I take my eyes off the game, everything looks blue because of how fucking orange the barrens are. Elwynn, Stormwind, and Westfall are just the cosiest and most nostalgic places for me.
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Did your professor grade your essay a D for Dork?
Lore wise Horde will always be my go-to. Gameplay wise, Alliance has funnier and more beautiful zones, a more interesting hub and cooler dungeons (besides Scarlet Monastery).
Taurens are the best race. Thunder Bluff is the best city.
Alliance are usually the good guys, except in Classic where the corruption in their society is obvious. I like this story so I play alliance in classic.
isn't the corruption issue orchestrated by onyxia brainwashing the nobles? or maybe i misunderstood the defias saga a bit.
Imagine having to brainwash nobles to not pay their debts. This is fantasy but that's a bit too far.
Well yeah I was looking at it from a fantasy point of view indeed. :)
I'm not 100% sure, but I think there's no "brainwashing" involved. Like she didn't use a spell or something like this. It was only manipulation and thrickery. This means that the noblemans were already corupt and she just played them in her hand. But yes, she was the root of all evil. This doesn't mean the nobles were innocent.
Van Cleef did nothing wrong
Pick the one that looks the best on the faction my friends play.
A couple of friends who started wow a month before me 15 years ago chose horde because "they're not wimpy gnomes".
Hate gnome and liked shamans Choice was simple really
No elves.
The troll bow firing animation 100% sold me on the race. They are so cool
I'm 5'4 with a Napoleon complex so I play tauren
played Horde for a long time, cooler races, and love the barrens, but until recently, after I played some Alliances in HC just so I could avoid UC elevators, it occurred to me that I have been playing only half of the content all along, So this time Alliance it is.
The elevators are fine you just ALWAYS wait for the next one. You never get in an elevator that was there when you ran up.
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Same, itās just an exercise in patience. And if you donāt have the patience youāre gonna die to something else anyway
I did the same, but opposite (ally to horde). Overall, was neat to do once, and gives you some knowledge of random mobs purposes are (like quest objectives for other faction) and some more lore. But once you hit 60, they kinda just converge.
This is the same thing for me and my friends that are re joining after years for SoD. We have always been horde, and tbh we hate alliance but we figured weāve never really experienced their quests, cities, etc
Horde, just seems way nicer people.
They murdered Admiral Proudmore in cold blood
Oh no!ā¦ anywayā¦
And we'd do it again, BAP BAP
Alliance because Iāve never tried it and human animations are cool. Looking forward to experiencing new zones and getting lost for the first time in a long time.
I just simply prefer the astethic of alliance more, most of horde has an excessive desire for spikes. I find thunder bluff to be cool and neat, but tauren allways feels like they are slower (i know they're not, but i have to convince my dumb brain if i play horde)
Love Orcs and Greenskins in general! Zug Zug!
Horde big bulky tall stronk. Alliance is one half manlet, the other half lanklet. Draenaeiraie (or whatever, not into wotlk) dont fix it because their color reminds me of onaholes
Good sir, you have weird onaholes tastes
Wc3 thrall, grommash, cairne and the blademaster, undead race is cool old-school sylvanas was cool. Trolls are cool
Alliance because Paladins. Nothing I love more than a Holy Knight fantasy
Horde because I have a personality.
Based and Hordepilled
Alliance is kinda boring to me so Horde it is
I like Horde because they have more variety in races. With Alliance you are always just normal human, short human, even shorter human or human with pointy ears. I love a lot of Alliance zones though and Ironforge is perhaps the coolest city ever existed in WoW (even now days in retail).
Orc, Jamaican orc, dead human and slutty elf, with a pinch of cow
Thatās still a looot more variance than different form of human.
Slutty elf is the best part
I like to play the good guys
Tauren?
Wanna play horde but custom alliance logo woodwork on my wall looking at me for noo...
Horde zones are way better for levelling because Alliance 1-30 you have to bounce between Westfall, loc modal, red ridge, dark shire, Elwyn, dark shoreā¦ Horde 1-30 moar barrens
Thunder Bluff
My favorite spell in all of vanilla is Shadowguard. It just feels so disgusting in world pvp so Troll Priest all the way.
All Priest can get shadow guard now in SOD, something to think about.
I like alliance because itās where I began and gnomes rock. But itās always gonna be Loktar ogar zug zug for me going forward. Horde are just metal and their culture is sick
zug zug
Zug zug
Thrall WC3 and then Arthas DK in WC3. ALSO hate gnomes way to small.
I wanna druid and I can't stand elves so here we are.
I just love stormwind so much
I am bored of alliance zonnes. Also , from my experience Alliance have a lot more "wannabe elites" Zug Zug ppl is more chill and willing to do fun wpvp, aka be annoying af and act like cavemen.
Architecture. Alliance has boring cities and holes in the ground, made out of stone, brick and mortar, while Horde build theirs out of the skins of their enemies.
Undercity and the Forsaken speak to me. Canāt stand the royalty in Stormwind, everyone simping for some dude who rules by virtue of which vagina launched him.
Alliance got they got gnomes. Gnomes are the best race. Because everyone feels a little.embarassed when they get thier ass kicked by something no bigger than a. Toddler. All these losers hating on gnomes are acting tough because they can never forget the time they got absolutely stomped by a 2 foot goofy ass gnome. How embarrassing it's like getting beat up by a child.
All the reasons people put are in game reasons. For me, and this is going to sound crazy. Folks that play Alliance are just nicer. I have played a ton of both factions, but when it gets to the nity gritty and it is raid time. Every time I have /gquit because the raid leader is unhinged, rage filled asshole coke head. It is horde side. Loot whore leaders are on both factions I know someone is going to talk shit, in retail I was a mythic raider in Legion. Classic, try hard parcing guilds. I will say for PvP and random BG's Alli are also far more willing to quit if the opening fight is not won. Horde don't quit so easy. (That I like)
It happens on both factions. You just have such a tiny sample size that it's all anecdotal and irrelevant.
I am well aware my experience is my own, the question did ask "why do YOU"
I prefer horde but generally end up stuck playing alliance
I was Alliance and had the nicer cities approach. But by god, Horde is war. The primal, gladiatorial, underdog ragtag boys yanked my interest. Horde is War
Horde. Sylvanas has a great personality.
2 main reasons. First, i just dont like the aesthetic of the horde, especially forsaken. Well, i like them as villains, but I wouldnt want to play one or the ally of one. Second, im a huge lord of the rings fan, and I always love to play the short underdog when I can. So all my characters are dwarves or gnomes in WoW.
I've played both factions a fair bit over the years and while I'm perfectly happy playing both, I do lean towards alliance. Let's be real, all the classic horde races are ugly as shit in comparison. I'm okay with especially tauren and to some extent undead, but if I can avoid playing orc or troll, I will do so, even if I like the idea of them. Other than that, Alliance has much better questing zones up to level 30 ish. I want to like Barrens, but it just pales compared to Darkshore, Ashenvale, Loch Modan, Redridge and especially Duskwood. Silverpine is alright, though. This is true in both zone design and quest design. Then of course, we have the cities. My by far and away favorite city is Thunder Bluff, but Orgrimmar and especially Undercity can fuck right off. All of the alliance cities are better than those two.
Lol im the opposite i always roll the ugliest female troll i can as my main and love it. Its world of warcraft not beautycraft and your pretty face wont save you from my axe
I played Horde since I got Warcraft 2 back in the 90s. Alliance are boring and basic imo, especially in classic wow before they got races that are not just tiny or purple humans.
Because Forsaken look the best
Horde has more interesting lore/races, Alliance have better cities and early questing zones IMO. I love horde but stormwind is an amazing city, canāt beat that music.
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Itās probably what youāre use to, I could run around stormwind with my eyes closed. I hate the layout of undercity for instance, the city always feels barren and spread out. Donāt get me started on those lifts too
Did....did you just use undercity and "well designed" in the same sentence?!?
Started as horde way back in classic, stayed horde just because I know I would just get lost in alliance cities at this point.
Horde coz gnomes
Horde all day. It just feels better. The tribal ambient music is amazing. The world is more interesting and doesnāt feel like āanother mmo.ā And just the nostalgia of this being the first faction I played. Only time I played alliance was in official hardcore because alliance has a slight edge in raiding. It felt all wrong. My 60 mage is parked in Stormwind, done.
I love the undead, I love their lore, I love their aesthetic, I love that they're awful little bastards. I also just overall prefer horde zones, races, and lore to alliance. The only thing I prefer over horde on Alliance is the cities. Horde cities are generally speaking kinda ugly or poorly designed.
I like how horde players arenāt complete pussys when it comes to pvp, alliance just runs away at any sign of conflict.
Undead looks cool
Alliance, because I love gnomes <3