Faction Imbalance - Horde PVP Ques are Going to Get Even Shorter

[jpark]

For those who don't have experience on this:

The typical wait time for a level 60 alliance player for battlegrounds such as AV is about 1 hour 10 minutes minimum at peak play times - worse at off times.

The typical wait time for a level 60 Horde player for AV at peak play times is about 30 seconds.

The implied population differential between these two player groups is staggering.  Alliance is much more numerous than Horde and it does affect gameplay.

Prediction:  The expansion will make this worse be attracting even more players to the Alliance side.

They have added elves to the Horde side.  Bad move, since most folks play horde because they hate elves (& gnomes).  Folks that have any inclination to play elves are already on the alliance side.  Adding elves to the horde side I just don't see attracting any players.  However, the alliance side is gaining a cool avatar with the Dreani - which adds a large avatar to the alliance race roster (and also stands erect).

Subjective call - but I think we will see more guys playing alliance than ever with the expansion.  Certainly the pvp Ques are not going to improve.

Ergo - Horde will contine to rock  :-D

[Fabricated]

I'd play horde if everything about playing horde outside of PVP didn't suck.

[Jayce]

For those who don't have experience on this:

The typical wait time for a level 60 alliance player for battlegrounds such as AV is about 1 hour 10 minutes minimum at peak play times - worse at off times.

The typical wait time for a level 60 Horde player for AV at peak play times is about 30 seconds.

That very much depends on whether you are on a PvP or PvE server.  Your "battlegroup" may matter too now that we are cross-server.

I'm on Sargeras, launch PvP server, Alliance side. My waits are about 4 min for AV (been playing that exclusively last week or so).

Somewhere in this forum I have a post where I linked a very telling graph from PlayOn, showing that Horde/Alliance balance is too close to call on PvP servers, but PvE servers it's something like 1:3 or more.  I'll edit it in if I can dig it up.

[Merusk]

Yeah, that's been my experience as well, Jayce.  Prior to x-server BGs my AV waits were 2-3 hours on weekends, and 'forget about it' on weekdays.  AB? Only on AB weekends.  Short queues for WS were 1-2 hours on weekdays.

Now?  WSG I can pop in about 1-2 mins  (insta on WSG Weekends)  AV is a 15-20 min wait and AB is anywhere from 3-10 mins depending on the day/ time.   Alleria's battle group simply rocks for quick PvP fun.

As for Horde vs Elves, we rolled Alliance because the wife wanted to be a NE.  We're going to have horde 'alts' because she wants to play a BE.  We've tried dabbling with Tauren (the only race she found tolerable after 3-5 mins) but... well, what Fabricated said;   Hordeplay sucks.

[Kail]

Prediction:  The expansion will make this worse be attracting even more players to the Alliance side.

They have added elves to the Horde side.  Bad move, since most folks play horde because they hate elves (& gnomes).  Folks that have any inclination to play elves are already on the alliance side.  Adding elves to the horde side I just don't see attracting any players.  However, the alliance side is gaining a cool avatar with the Dreani - which adds a large avatar to the alliance race roster (and also stands erect).

Subjective call - but I think we will see more guys playing alliance than ever with the expansion.  Certainly the pvp Ques are not going to improve.

Ergo - Horde will contine to rock  :-D

I'd like this to be true (especially with the new PvP armor sets hopefully being attainable without having to grind up to Champion or whatever), but I'm skeptical.

Yes, there is currently (on my server, anyway) a lot of hate on the Horde for the Blood Elves.  But making the Horde appealing to people who have already rolled Horde is not going to fix the faction imbalance; that's why (I assume) they added a Horde-ish race to the Alliance and an Alliance-ish race to the Horde.  All other things being equal, as both factions are becoming less distinct, there's less reason for players to chose one over the other, and things should (theoretically) move a bit towards a 50/50 split.

Though that depens on three things, as far as I can see:

1) How many new people pick up the game. 

2) How many current players decide to roll alts rather than just levelling their main to 70 and chasing the new shiny

3) How many current players who DO roll alts will feel comfortable switching factions (can't mail cross-faction alts money or twink items, lack of familiarity with levelling zones and quests, etc.)

[jpark]

For those who don't have experience on this:

The typical wait time for a level 60 alliance player for battlegrounds such as AV is about 1 hour 10 minutes minimum at peak play times - worse at off times.

The typical wait time for a level 60 Horde player for AV at peak play times is about 30 seconds.

That very much depends on whether you are on a PvP or PvE server. 

My comments are based on PVE servers queing for BG.  Interesting that pvp servers are different.

[Arrrgh]

Last night in battle group 5 alliance side there were 12 queues with a 6 minute average wait to get into AV.

But I generally play in the 29 twink wars. Average time there is usually less than a minute.

[lamaros]

PvE players complaining about BGs?

Whatever.

PvP BGs are fine.

[caladein]

PvP servers have little to no population imbalance (for active 60s, it's around 1.2:1 Alliance to Horde) so pre-Cross Server BGs, the queues were relatively even on both sides. With cross-realm battlegrounds, Alliance on PvP servers saw their queue times shoot up, and Horde saw their queues go to nearly nothing.

Cyclone's Alliance side queues are about... 15-20mins baseline. Shadowburn's Horde queues: less then 2 minutes almost around the clock.

[Teleku]

Alliance queues on my server went from 1-3 hours for anything, to 2-10 minutes for anything after the cross server patch.  This, along with the ability to multi-queue, means that I pretty much spend absolutly no time outside of BGs if I want to go PvP for awhile．　　Awsome patch, now I can actually go PvP with something other than my Shaman.

I also think its pretty subjective to say even a majority of players are playing horde because they `dont like elves`.  Everybody I know is playing horde because either:  1.)  They like playing team evil on what ever game they play 2.)  Felt faction balance wasnt fair, so they switched over  3.)  Liked the racial abilities on horde better 4.)  Wanted shorter queue times.  Beyond the elf bashing which is standard trash talk, nobody I know actually picked sides based on the physical races that make up a faction.  Also, half my former alliance guild was talking of rolling Blood Elf alts for the racial abilities alone.  To be fair, the other half is planning on rollling alliance shamans now, heh. 

[lamaros]

Alliance queues on my server went from 1-3 hours for anything, to 2-10 minutes for anything after the cross server patch.  This, along with the ability to multi-queue, means that I pretty much spend absolutly no time outside of BGs if I want to go PvP for awhile．　　Awsome patch, now I can actually go PvP with something other than my Shaman.

I also think its pretty subjective to say even a majority of players are playing horde because they `dont like elves`.  Everybody I know is playing horde because either:  1.)  They like playing team evil on what ever game they play 2.)  Felt faction balance wasnt fair, so they switched over  3.)  Liked the racial abilities on horde better 4.)  Wanted shorter queue times.  Beyond the elf bashing which is standard trash talk, nobody I know actually picked sides based on the physical races that make up a faction.  Also, half my former alliance guild was talking of rolling Blood Elf alts for the racial abilities alone.  To be fair, the other half is planning on rollling alliance shamans now, heh. 

I picked horde because I don't like the way elves or humans look and because friends played Horde.

I could play gnome or dwarf, but Human males are just awful looking, as do night elves.

I think Orc males are the best looking race/gender in the game and love playing one.

Reason 1 might apply to UD, but Tauren and to a lesser extent Orcs and Trolls are not evil.

[Simond]

My comments are based on PVE servers queing for BG.  Interesting that pvp servers are different.

Quite a lot of people on PvP servers picked Horde for two reasons - 1) Racial abilities that were good in PvP (WotF, Warstomp, stun resist, etc) & 2) It was a lot easier to be an adequate PvP shaman than an adequate PvP paladin.

(Plus the possible "We want to be killers so we're going for the 'evil' team thing).l

On the PvE servers, people went for Alliance for the opposite reasons (nice PvE racials, PvE paladin > PvE shaman, 'go go good team!').

[Endie]

...How many current players who DO roll alts will feel comfortable switching factions (can't mail cross-faction alts money or twink items...

If you're interested, you can always get around this by using the cross-faction auction house: just post a grey item from your twinkee toon at 20 gold or whatever, then buy it from your twinker character.  The AH fees for doing that are a little fierce, but not quite prohibitive.

[Ironwood]

Some guy was doing this during 'normal' hours and I picked up 3 Travellers backpacks from him for 1s.

Idiot.

Beware of this method.

[Driakos]

...How many current players who DO roll alts will feel comfortable switching factions (can't mail cross-faction alts money or twink items...

If you're interested, you can always get around this by using the cross-faction auction house: just post a grey item from your twinkee toon at 20 gold or whatever, then buy it from your twinker character.  The AH fees for doing that are a little fierce, but not quite prohibitive.

You need two accounts now (at least in BC).  You'll get the message "You cannot bid on your own auctions!" even though you are on a different character.  So use friends!

[Morfiend]

That very much depends on whether you are on a PvP or PvE server.  Your "battlegroup" may matter too now that we are cross-server.

It has nothing to do with weather your on PVP or PVE, it has everything to do with the balance of your Battlegroup, and "Shadowburn" the battlegroup you and I are in is one of the most balanced ones, so short queue times on both sides.

[Threash]

PvE players complaining about BGs?

Whatever.

PvP BGs are fine.

pvp bgs where fine till cross server bgs started and pve servers get to steal all our horde :P

[Fordel]

Some guy was doing this during 'normal' hours and I picked up 3 Travellers backpacks from him for 1s.

Idiot.

Beware of this method.

Which is why you would only transfer money across. If someone else decides to buy up my [Broken Tooth] for 20gp... /shrug :)



In the Nightfall Battlegroup, I haven't seen a wait time longer then 10mins for alliance, and that is only during really offpeak hours. I can get into AB/WSG/AV at will. I'm not sure if it's because we have less Alliance PvPing or more Horde, maybe both.

[jpark]

I have used Tanaris Ah to transfer stuff across factions - including materials.

When the horde asks me were I got my very rare dark iron sword - may answer is that a paladin made it for me  :-D

[AcidCat]

The typical wait time for a level 60 alliance player for battlegrounds such as AV is about 1 hour 10 minutes minimum at peak play times - worse at off times.

Hmmm. Well thankfully not for my battlegroup. I play Alliance on Steamwheedle Cartel (RP PvE) and I have never waited more than 5 minutes for AV... or AB or WSG for that matter. And I've been doing a ton of AV for the last 1-2 months.

So, your mileage may vary.

[caladein]

That very much depends on whether you are on a PvP or PvE server.  Your "battlegroup" may matter too now that we are cross-server.

It has nothing to do with weather your on PVP or PVE, it has everything to do with the balance of your Battlegroup, and "Shadowburn" the battlegroup you and I are in is one of the most balanced ones, so short queue times on both sides.

Ah, good to know. And /wave.

[Endie]

Some guy was doing this during 'normal' hours and I picked up 3 Travellers backpacks from him for 1s.

Idiot.

Beware of this method.

Yeah, but with the "posting a grey item at 20 gold" method the worst thing that can happen is that someone gives you 20 gold and you're down a pair of knitted trousers.

[Ironwood]

You're quite right and my post coming right under yours with little explanation didn't help matters :

I'm talking about transferring useful items using the Ntl AH.  Sorry, I think you're gray item idea is really good and workable, I wasn't really clear.