Blizzard wants a 50/50 faction split in PvP rulesets
Horde and Alliance creation limits will be adjusted as regional populations change.
Players who currently want to join PvP rulesets might face a pretty frustrating situation.
Blizzard has set up severe restrictions when it comes ot the faction you are allowed to join on PvP or RP-PvP rulesets right now.
Their goal is to keep PvP servers as fair as possible, and this means not having too many players on one side compared to the other. Currently, some regions are around a 55/45% split between Horde and Alliance, and this is already the start of a problem.
Blizzard wants things to be more around 50/50.
Current Character Faction Restrictions
Right now, two restrictions are already in place when it comes to creating a character on a PvP ruleset:
North American PvP ruleset is restricted for Horde
EU Roleplay-PvP ruleset is restricted for Alliance
So as of right now, you cannot create a Horde PvP character on an NA server, and you cannot create an Alliance character on an EU RP-PvP server.
Yes, if you want to play with friends who already have a character on Alliance on the RP-PvP ruleset, you will either all have to swap faction and make new characters, or you will have to wait until it unlocks again.
As more players join the other faction, Blizzard will eventually move the restrictions around as well.
Why Is Blizzard Doing This?
The answer to that question is pretty simple.
Blizzard needs to keep things fair for everyone.
The restriction is only for the PvP ruleset. On a normal PvE ruleset, you can join any faction you want.
But for PvP, if you end up with one side at 70% and the other at only 30%, the big side can easily overrun the small one, just because they have more players.
PvP Faction Balance Updates - November 10
It’s vitally important that the PvP rulesets in WoW: Forever have balanced factions where both factions vie for supremacy, creating memories of epic victories and stunning defeats that we all remember for years to come. While even the most extreme case in a region is currently at roughly a 55/45 split, that is not as close as we want it to be.
To better set the stage for the neck-and-neck conflicts we all want, we’ve adjusted the character creation system to better recognize the overall state of faction balance in each region’s PvP rulesets, rather than what may feel like snapshots of points in time. Our goal is to bring things as close to a 50/50 faction balance as possible.
In the short term, that means that it will become increasingly difficult to create characters on the more populous faction in each region – currently Horde on North American PvP rulesets or Alliance in EU Roleplay-PvP. As everyone settles and shifts, these may flip to the other side. We recognize that while restrictions are in place, it can be frustrating to not be able to start playing a specific faction in that moment, but this is a necessary trade-off for the long-term health of the ruleset, especially early on when guilds are being established and rivalries developed.
World of Warcraft: Forever’s PvP is at its best when the Alliance and Horde are on equal footing, and we are dedicated to helping maintain that balance so that we can all witness battles at the epic scale that has made WoW Forever PvP so memorable thus far.
For more information about WoW Forever, check out our latest news.