There was always a rigid wall in world of warcraft between Alliance and Horde players — you can only cooperate with people on your side. Blizzard is ready to (partially) remove this barrier. Like Polygon explain, Wow9.2.5 update will allow Cross-faction dungeon crawls, raids, and ranked PvP matches. You won’t be cut off from your friends just because they chose the ‘wrong’ allegiance to their characters.
You’ll have the option to directly invite people from an opposing faction or join pre-built groups in the Group Finder listings for a certain type of event. However, party leaders can limit instances to players of the same faction. And don’t expect to live in harmony with rivals outside of these controlled circumstances. Guilds, matchmaking based events, and the normal world will behave as usual, so you’ll still need to be on guard most of the time.
The feature is available regardless of level, although there are some old cases where groups of multiple factions cannot enter, such as Battle of Dazar’alor, Trial of the Crusader, and Icecrown Citadel. They will need to be “reworked” to eliminate single-faction elements, Blizzard said.
There is no release date for the 9.2.5 update at this stage. It’s a long-requested update, and it’s timely in a post-Battle for Azeroth environment where the Alliance and Horde have reached a delicate truce. Whether or not this increases the player count is another story. defect grades Blizzard’s total monthly active base dropped by 20 million between 2017 and 2021, and Wow probably played a big role in that fall. Shoot an ongoing sexual harassment and cross-faction scandal Wow it may have a limited effect, even if it satisfies the hopes of many subscribers.
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