Cross-Faction Gameplay Is Coming to World of Warcraft

A fantasy-themed artwork featuring a group of warriors, including a knight with glowing armor, a green-skinned orc with a hood, and a troll with a mohawk. Various weapons and ornate armor details are visible. Dark, mystical background.

Blizzard has announced in a dev blog that World of Warcraft will be getting cross-faction gameplay in patch 9.2.5, making it possible for Alliance and Horde players to group up for raids, dungeons, and rated PVP.

“For years now, many players have questioned whether the rules restricting communication and cooperation between Alliance and Horde need to be so absolute. The faction divide could keep close friends from playing together, or cause players to feel that their faction leaves them with far fewer opportunities to pursue their favorite group content. But these downsides have long been justified in order to preserve a central element of the Warcraft universe—it all began with a game titled, ‘Warcraft: Orcs & Humans,’ right?

But, to quote a one-time Warchief of the Horde, ‘Times change.’”

Group and raid leaders will still have the option to restrict groups to either the Horde or Alliance and guilds will still only be available to one faction.

Players will be able to directly invite members of the opposite faction to a party if you have a BattleTag or Real ID friendship, or if you are members of a cross-faction WoW Community.

Premade Groups in the Group Finder listings for Mythic dungeons, raids, or rated arena/RBGs will be open to applicants of both factions, though the group leader may choose to restrict the listing to same-faction applicants if they so choose.

Guilds will remain single-faction, and random matchmade activities like Heroic dungeons, Skirmishes, or Random Battlegrounds will all remain same-faction (both because there is less faction-driven pressure around random groups, and to avoid compromising the opt-in nature of the feature by randomly placing a queuing orc in a group with a night elf).

Guidelines for the new system

Read the full update on the official WoW site.

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