Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12)

Of someone who has played Horde exclusively for many years and decided to level a secret Alliance alt woo spooky, and also of someone leveling for the first time since November. It's also more or less my first time leveling Alliance. DISCLAIMER: I'm like level 24 with as many hours /played so my observations may not completely reflect reality.

- First one, and biggest/most obvious one, Alliance PvPers have much more of a "premade culture". You can't sit in a main city for 5 minutes on BG weekend without seeing someone spamming trade chat "LFM premade need x dps y heals, must have TS and FAPs". I've rarely (but not never) seen that on Horde, premades are usually run by a guild or a group of rankers who play together at the same time every day.

- Alliance complains about Horde being OP/ganking/existing just as much as Horde complains about Alliance being OP/ganking/existing.

- There is a lot more miscellaneous chatter in general (/1) chat on Alliance. Outside of shitposting in Barrens chat, that channel is used mainly for wpvp info, grouping, and whining about Vanilla on Horde.

- Leveling cooking is a lot easier on Alliance. It seems like every time I get to a new zone there's a quest that's basically "bring me 5 bear asses and I'll give you the recipe for boiled bear asses plus make you a few". It's usually a recipe that gives the well-fed buff and is made from stuff found on local mobs.

- There seems to be A LOT more people who are completely new, not just to Vanilla but to WoW in general and are leveling their first character. I don't know if this is a faction cultural difference or if they're just as common on Horde due to the recent influx of new players.

On cities:

- Ironforge is the best city ingame, with cool scenery, a nice BGM, and a convenient layout, and with the auction master, bank, mailboxes, anvils and forges all located pretty close to each other. A granite and iron reminder of why Dwarves are the master race.
- Stormwind is bland and shitty and everything looks the same, it's easy to accidentally run to the complete wrong end of town if you're not paying attention and using your map. (Undercity has this problem too but at least there if you get lost it's just a big circle)
- I haven't even been to Darnassus yet. I imagine the only people who bother going there are lowbie Night Elves. If it was an IRL location it would probably smell like wet animals and feces.

mozibake wrote:Ironforge is the best city ingame, with cool scenery, a nice BGM, and a convenient layout, and with the auction master, bank, mailboxes, anvils and forges all located pretty close to each other. A granite and iron reminder of why Dwarves are the master race.

Totaly agree with that. Horde cities are just not really nice to walk around in. If only they would have implemented the Alpha version of Ironforge, that was just epic, perhaps a bit to big but really cool!

As someone who has played a lot on both sides, I can +1 pretty much all of this.

Thunder Bluff has the best AH:Bank:Mailbox:Forge/Anvil ratio in the game, bar-fucking-none. And fishing? OH YEAH, AND FISHING.

mozibake wrote:.
- I haven't even been to Darnassus yet. I imagine the only people who bother going there are lowbie Night Elves. If it was an IRL location it would probably smell like wet animals and feces.

Kinda true. The only time I go there is to buy the frost sabres and do quests, like morrowgrain and such for the Darnassus reputation. Plus Staghelm is an asshole.

wait till u try ally 60 pug bgs o boy

mozibake wrote:- There seems to be A LOT more people who are completely new, not just to Vanilla but to WoW in general and are leveling their first character. I don't know if this is a faction cultural difference or if they're just as common on Horde due to the recent influx of new players.

This was true on retail as well. New people just tend to gravitate towards the perceived "good" side, with the Tolkien good races of humans, dwarfs, and elves. This was also the reason I enjoyed horde more in retail.

Darnassus is actually a cool looking city, imo. But after 5 minutes, you quickly realize why no one is ever there (awful layout, damn far from everything, etc.).

Jeddite wrote:Thunder Bluff has the best AH:Bank:Mailbox:Forge/Anvil ratio in the game, bar-fucking-none. And fishing? OH YEAH, AND FISHING.

Quoted for truth. Walk 2 feet in either direction and you are at the area that you need to be.

Uzephi wrote:

mozibake wrote:.
- I haven't even been to Darnassus yet. I imagine the only people who bother going there are lowbie Night Elves. If it was an IRL location it would probably smell like wet animals and feces.

darnassus just has the worst layout compared to every other city. The only city that beats it would be the exodar, but what can you expect from a ship that essentially crashed landed onto an island.