wow Mythic+ Horde Players Want to Be Alliance but Can't?

[Starym 3,800]

 

We have some hot data from the folks over at Raider.io (and yours truly) as they've dug around the Battle for Azeroth Season 4 statistics and come up with a very interesting bit of information.

As we all know the Horde population is prevalent on most servers and in the game in general, and this is also visible in the analysis of the number of the overall Mythic+ runs in BfA Season 4 for live servers, with the red team having done 62% of all the runs. However, on the Tournament Realm things are VERY different, with the Alliance claiming a crazy 93% of all runs! An important thing to note here is that these are ALL the runs from the season, not just the ones using the Raider.io addon.

So most top-players would rather play Alliance in Mythic+, and since metas are usually/basically always created based on the top players' strategies, it would appear the live server M+ Horde dominance is mostly due to the fact players have to be Horde in order to both find others to play M+ with and to properly gear up via raids.

Raider.io go into much more detail on the stats and their relevance, especially covering exactly why Tournament Realm players pick Alliance over Horde (aka mostly for Shadowmeld), so definitely head on over there and read the whole thing, as it's a very fascinating look into faction (im)balance.

Based on that, it seems Blizzard really need to take a look at the oft-talked about cross-faction grouping or, at the very least, some very serious revisions of the power of certain racial abilities.

Disclaimer: the Raider.io article was written by me, Starym.

[Teufel 331]

I mean, Arcane Torrent got nerfhammered - rightfully so - why can't Shadowmeld.

Dwarven races' actives are strong in certain situations and for certain roles, but those don't feel remotely as opressive.

[Starym 3,800]

19 minutes ago, Teufel said:

I mean, Arcane Torrent got nerfhammered - rightfully so - why can't Shadowmeld.

Dwarven races' actives are strong in certain situations and for certain roles, but those don't feel remotely as opressive.

I think it might tbh, especially if it remains as dominant in SL.

[Environment 28]

Nerfing shadowmeld will be the nail in the alliance coffin though, they need to look at why so many people are horde over alliance, and fix that imbalance

 

[Mugendai 48]

13 minutes ago, Environment said:

Nerfing shadowmeld will be the nail in the alliance coffin though, they need to look at why so many people are horde over alliance, and fix that imbalance

 

Well it's easy, alliance races are ugly, horde races are cool

[DasBigHippo 14]

57 minutes ago, Mugendai said:

Well it's easy, alliance races are ugly, horde races are cool

Man, Horde players really are all children if they think like this.

[Teufel 331]

8 hours ago, DasBigHippo said:

Man, Horde players really are all children if they think like this.

More like most Alliance races are too similar to one another. Horde is just a lot more diverse, so you have broader audience.

Edited October 9, 2020 by Teufel

[DasBigHippo 14]

3 minutes ago, Teufel said:

More like most Alliance races are too similar to one another. Horde is just a lot more diverse.

Dude literally said one thing was ugly, one thing was cool. That argument can't get much more childish. Plus how can one say Alliance races are ugly when Horde get Goblins, the ugliest things in the entire game.

[Starym 3,800]

1 hour ago, DasBigHippo said:

Dude literally said one thing was ugly, one thing was cool. That argument can't get much more childish. Plus how can one say Alliance races are ugly when Horde get Goblins, the ugliest things in the entire game.

So what you're saying is that you disagree with his assessment, not that saying something is cool and choosing it is bad (because seriously are you sure that's what you wanted to say? Most people choose because of that.)

But it isn't just that, at it's because the majority is Horde and you want to raid/play with friends and they're Horde so gg.

[Lawrenz 105]

This Problem seems unsolvable... I would love to see a cross-symetry in the racial abilities, like warhammer online had in class design. Everything the one faction had was in some combination as well part of the other faction. WoW could implement it this way just for the racial combinations.

Let's say nightelves have shadowmeld. Give "stealth-kit" to goblins for example.

Boom, Horde has the same ability, still fitting to a race.

Bloodelves have arcane torrent. Give draenai "glimpse of the naaru" or something to them, that resembles the same effect.

Do that for each and every racial, but cross combined, so not that Goblins f. e. have a copy of the other racials as well, but its distributed in different places.

I would really prefer this, than the everlasting debate of: "this racial is op" or "to many players play this faction becuase that racial"... meh

[Bobbis 208]

Starym, buddy, cmere a sec. 

DONT BE TOUCHIN OUR SHADOWMELD

Nelfs lost a lot recently, you may remember something about a tree and an old orc for example. We don't need further butchering by nerfing the main benefit to being a homeless hottie. 

Sincerely, a nelf main since TBC.

 

Really though, it's an interesting connundrum, and would be interesting to see the race breakdown (likely 95+ nelf ofcourse) which would only prove the point that meld is OP for M+. However before whacking out the nerfhammer, it'd be worth looking at WF races (where horde smash everything), and Arena tournament to see if this remains the case. It appears to be an outlier, that's useful in any scenario compared to others that are more niche/situational. Perhaps an increased CD would help balance it, similar to potions?

[Teufel 331]

8 hours ago, DasBigHippo said:

Dude literally said one thing was ugly, one thing was cool. That argument can't get much more childish. Plus how can one say Alliance races are ugly when Horde get Goblins, the ugliest things in the entire game.

Taste is subjective and Goblins do have pleasant and well executed animations and carry the most of the comedy value in the game for an additional appealto play one, so there is just as much childishness to your 'argument' here. 

[Starym 3,800]

9 hours ago, Bobbis said:

Starym, buddy, cmere a sec. 

DONT BE TOUCHIN OUR SHADOWMELD

Nelfs lost a lot recently, you may remember something about a tree and an old orc for example. We don't need further butchering by nerfing the main benefit to being a homeless hottie. 

Sincerely, a nelf main since TBC.

 

Really though, it's an interesting connundrum, and would be interesting to see the race breakdown (likely 95+ nelf ofcourse) which would only prove the point that meld is OP for M+. However before whacking out the nerfhammer, it'd be worth looking at WF races (where horde smash everything), and Arena tournament to see if this remains the case. It appears to be an outlier, that's useful in any scenario compared to others that are more niche/situational. Perhaps an increased CD would help balance it, similar to potions?

I'm sorry! But I just hate Night Elves am objective and in no way biased!

About the balance, yea this is M+ only obv, other activities have other biases etc.

[Ragingwolf 310]

It is possible that Shadow Meld getting a nerf into following suit with what happen to Arcane Torrent.  But comparing and have played both Factions there is a bit of an imbalance.  Alliance forces have a better alternative for Racial Passives compared to Horde forces but lack diversity with xmog options to go along with body build types imo.  Some people also prefer how a specific Race does animation from casting to auto attacking compared to others.    Aesthetic appeal will tend to out win most scenarios given in an mmo.