The Honorable Faction: Classification and Division Essay Concerning WoW Factions

In the game of World of Warcraft, the factions of the Alliance and the Horde rule the world. These two factions are at war with each other, and a player of either faction will do anything to destroy a player of the opposing faction. Each faction is composed of its own races, and each race has its own special abilities, appearance, and classes to choose from. There are many other differences between the two factions. For one, instances and player versus player content tend to vary amongst either the Alliance or the Horde. Also, the Alliance races of choice tend to be much more appealing than the available races of the Horde. Although the Alliance is severely outnumbered by the Horde, the instances and player versus player content make the Alliance a much more appealing faction for any player to select.

There are instances beginning at low levels for either of the two factions, however the instances that are geared towards the Alliance players tend to be much more player-operated and fulfilling. The Alliance has instances such as "The Stockades", "The Deadmines", and "Gnomeregan". The Stockades is an instance placed right in the most popular city for the Alliance, which is Stormwind. The Stockades is a very interesting and fun instance for any new Alliance player, since it's easily accessible and is usually quite easy to make a group for. Gnomeregan is an instance set near Ironforge, another very popular Alliance city. Gnomeregan is extremely user-oriented and allows for the user to engage in many actions that change the instance as you grind through, making the entire process quite fulfilling. The Deadmines instance is similar, in that the players are entitled to engage in many different actions which set the environment of the instance. All of the instances as a whole make the Alliance an indefinitely favorable faction for players who enjoy forming groups and running instances.

Not only are the instances entertaining in the Alliance, but the races are what truly make the Alliance so favorable. The Alliance faction is composed of five races: Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Night Elves, and Draenei. Each race is able to choose its own class, and different races have different classes to choose from. Each race also has their own racial abilities, and with racial abilities like "Every man for himself", races such as humans can far overpower a race of the Horde faction. Other racial abilities, such as "Gift of the Naaru" make the Draenei race favorable for fighting off the Horde, so that you can heal while in combat. Undoubtedly, the Night Elf "Shadowmeld" is another one of the single best racial abilities in the game, it is extremely beneficial to have the ability to hide from the Horde as any class, even while in combat. The Alliance races are powerful, as well as desirable for almost all types of players.

Even though the Alliance has many races that are great for player versus player battles, the Horde still does outnumber the Alliance, and by exceptional ratios on some realms. However, this is what makes player versus player truly fun while playing as the Alliance. To be outnumbered is an advantage, if you're a player who likes to take down other players and have fun. Being outnumbered means having more of the opposite faction to run into and battle with, which is inevitably a plus for most players of the Alliance. There is nothing more fulfilling for a player than to raid an enemy town, and have a constant flow of Horde players to battle against and kill. The player versus player content is much more favorable for the Alliance faction because players tend to see more, and are able to get into more battles when they need to.

In comparison, the Horde has very different instances, races, and player versus player content. The Horde has playable instances such as "Shadowfang Keep", "Ragefire Chasm", and "Scarlet Monastery". Shadowfang Keep is an instance with almost no player interactions throughout the entire battle, and the battles tend to be quite repetitive and boring. Ragefire Chasm is even more tedious, as the battles are the same, respectively, and the bosses are the same battle in every situation. Scarlet Monastery can sometimes spark a small amount of interest, as there are a few bosses that actually require an interesting fight. However, there are no player interactions in any of the three instances, which ultimately makes Horde instances in general quite trivial.

Not only are the Horde instances quite repetitive and boring, but the races tend to be all very similar, and the racial abilities are nothing in comparison to some of the Alliance abilities. The troll race has the ability to use "bloodlust" which is one of the only useful abilities in player versus player combat that any of the Horde races can receive. This ability increases the attack speed and thus allows the player to output more damage. The Tauren race does receive the racial advantage of having a 5% health increase, above all other players. However, the racial abilities that the Alliance can receive far outweigh the racial abilities of the Horde races.

Although the races in the Horde are quite underpowered in comparison to the Alliance, there are more players, and thus the Horde tends to win in player versus player battles. However, the battles are extremely boring for any given player in the Horde, because you are at the hands of all of your team mates, which usually happens to be quite large. As Horde, you are going to encounter fewer Alliance characters, simply because there are fewer Alliance characters than Horde characters on any given realm. For this reason, any single player would favor the Alliance, since almost any player would prefer to be able to kill more of their enemies on a more frequent basis.

Both factions of the World of Warcraft have their own special perks, however the Alliance is the favorable faction because of the increased frequencies of player versus player contact as well as the instances and races. The Alliance has improved racial abilities over the Horde, and the Alliance also has much more interesting instances that make overall play more exciting and less tedious. The ability to run into more Horde players more frequently is a major advantage for any Alliance player, because the benefits of being able to kill players of the opposing faction frequently are tremendous. If one is to be a truly honorable player, they shall play an Alliance character.