We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.
As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We’ll go into much more detail on all of this here at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward.
Related posts:
- Looking back at S7 and forward to S8, Coming Resilience Change, Duel Vid Next Week, Unmercey 8 on it’s Way
- 3.0 is live, Eviscerate 9 Additional Duels, New Spec Page Coming
- News Updates, More thoughts on 3.2
- Will Rogue Damage be nerfed too far? Blizzard Cryptic on the Arena Change
- 3.2 Patch Notes, Huge Resilience Change, Rogue Impressions
1st woot! i found this out today also..im real happy UD here i come! :p
Comment by Wizex — June 29, 2009 @ 11:20 pm
damnnnn wootzores fck yea man undead rogue time night elves suck
Comment by zavagebladez — June 29, 2009 @ 11:21 pm
^ my cousin ;p
Comment by Wizex — June 29, 2009 @ 11:22 pm
can we change to a different race but on the same faction, say from a blood elf to a undead?
Comment by frobroh — June 29, 2009 @ 11:26 pm
hmmh i dont think so bro proll if u just go to alliance den change back to undead lol i guess but would be waste of money
Comment by zavagebladez — June 29, 2009 @ 11:33 pm
UD spree of scrubs inc
Comment by Sulf — June 29, 2009 @ 11:52 pm
Yeah indeed, will there be any alliance players left when this goes live?
Comment by Lutz — June 30, 2009 @ 12:11 am
My reasoning is most will go to Human. Every man for himself is pure win. Along with perception
Comment by Pasinius — June 30, 2009 @ 12:19 am
omfg i think i’m going to make a human
Comment by noxan — June 30, 2009 @ 1:12 am
Imo Let the WORLD OF UNDEADCRAFT BEGIN
or Remove The Racials from Arena since the most Gamebreaking is Wotf especialy 3x undead Rmp :>
p.s that’s my Opinion
Comment by Desolator — June 30, 2009 @ 1:23 am
nah it will be Undeads since Wotf is Like Second Trinket without Gcd and there’s shitloads of Rmps so Its Super Usefull.
Comment by Desolator — June 30, 2009 @ 1:24 am
damn. i just leveled a human and now they tell me i can just race-change my furious blood elf rogue oO
Comment by Délilah — June 30, 2009 @ 1:51 am
This is the End of World of Warcraft.
Top alliance players will go horde because obviously there is more talent on every server.
And scrub horde players that cant keep up will switch to alliance to try to advance.
But Hopefully this brings a good change to world of warcraft and it doesn’t backfire.
Comment by X — June 30, 2009 @ 4:23 am
I coulden’t find this post at Worldofwarcraft.com, could you link where at Worldofwarcraft.com you found it?
Comment by Noxy — June 30, 2009 @ 4:29 am
LOL …. Ud will mostly take over… btw agree with the guy that said players that cant keep up changes there faction TBH iam looking forward to face some of the ally players on Agamaggan eu.
Comment by Reqz — June 30, 2009 @ 4:56 am
not too excited it will be the killer of many guilds lol
Comment by Jayfiddy — June 30, 2009 @ 5:15 am
this end. bliz think that what all they do, we also be loved this game. but it’s too much. I loved wow bcz it was another world. rememb what say Sten father in South Park lol x] “In real life I little clerk, but in Wow I defencer of a Azzeroth” lol
now wow go of from this way, and i miss for old time…
now i looking a privat serv 1.12 lol xD
sorry for bad english
Comment by Vitken — June 30, 2009 @ 6:15 am
Now its a matter of do i rather stay in my top five raiding guild or Go full pvp. Bad change and bad idea for blizzard this will for sure break raiding guilds as well as many arena teams
Comment by Niall — June 30, 2009 @ 6:51 am
lol !! able to change my BE xD
Comment by Aenea — June 30, 2009 @ 7:03 am
@X: You are incredibly stupid.
Comment by Yeah — June 30, 2009 @ 7:03 am
What.
The.
Fuck?
Comment by Faeyna (Kul Tiras/Arena Realm 1) — June 30, 2009 @ 7:32 am
The end
Comment by Plumpy — June 30, 2009 @ 8:01 am
You mean I can finally change my gay male BE to a straight male Undead? AWESOME!
Since racials are the defining reason for a race change, I wonder if they will now examine, change or build upon racials.
Comment by Feight — June 30, 2009 @ 8:29 am
This is just pure bullshit.
I can’t believe Blizzard have tacken aother step in fucking up the core game mechanics.
I grinded all the way up to level 80 with my night elf rogue and yeah i suppose at times i wished to be an undead because they look sick but I stuck at it and ended up likeing the class.
As if it isn’t bad enough that you can tranny change the sex of your toons you can now change faction.
This is all about maximiseing profits I already pay enough per month I don’t want to pay extra to have to change my game experience by changeing factions and therefore completely changeing who can join which guild (If this goes live expect all the high level guilds to radically change now being able to recruit the best players from both facions)
I can’t believe that they have actually reached the point where if you put enough money into it the game gives you extra possibilities.
What the fuck next legalised gold selling from Blizzard?
Comment by Wokattack — June 30, 2009 @ 8:51 am
I don’t know what to think of it =p
Comment by Babyfartzmageezacs — June 30, 2009 @ 8:59 am
UD rogues Inc
Comment by Kubane — June 30, 2009 @ 9:04 am
One way to balance the faction changes (the rumor seems to be that everyone will convert to Horde that PVPs), to give a server-wide buff for the opposing faction.
It’s sort of like Tenacity, but not focused on stats, but rather other things like honor/rep gains and faction discount amounts.
If you give people incentive to roll a certain faction because of server buffs that don’t really effect PVP directly, then perhaps the player base can level it out themselves.
Just an idea.
Comment by Himn — June 30, 2009 @ 9:20 am
bet they will let all reroll UD, and THEN they will finally disable racials in arenas xDD..
Comment by Laurelin — June 30, 2009 @ 9:33 am
Im sure am glad i rerolled from a 70 night elf rogue with 160 days played to an undead all the way to 80 for nothing lol.
Though this is very cool, I would have GREATLY appreciated it back when BC first released .
Comment by sarrik — June 30, 2009 @ 10:00 am
and youre an asshole, can we keep the comments constructive plz?
Comment by Bendickson — June 30, 2009 @ 10:08 am
Well, im a human rogue, and I cant really decide if i like UD racials more than human or not, though UD are totally badass, idt its worth ditching my kickass guild and my friends on alli side to go UD. I think the majority of people doing this will be casual players on alli who think theyll do better on horde side in bgs, but i think itll just give alli the advantage to lose some scrubs. Idk, ofcblizz is gonna charge 30 bucks or somethin for it, they are a business, but i think its a cool idea and itll be interesting to see how it plays out, though idt itlll happen for at least 6 mths to a year.
Comment by Bendickson — June 30, 2009 @ 10:18 am
give me tauren rogue
Comment by Vitken — June 30, 2009 @ 10:25 am
I personally, will be converting my undead rogue to a female dwarf, based mainly on the fact that i dont take this game as seriuosly as most and i think it would be hilarious, considering ive never seen one in my entire wow experience. Tired of all the cocky 12 year olds that roll horde anyways
.
Comment by Supercerial — June 30, 2009 @ 10:40 am
Nice Joke from Blizzard… :/
Comment by Anjes — June 30, 2009 @ 11:39 am
“but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm.”
Look it says a equivalent, does that mean that you can change into which ever race you want on the opposite faction, or youll have to switch to the one thats evuivalent to your race. human->orc NE->UD etc
Comment by Revan — June 30, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
Does anzone know sth about how this will effect PvP servers? would be quite interesting to know how they will come alonmg with the old “no other faction on PvP-realms!” rule………. if its just gonna wotk on PvE realms blizz will have to change their e-mail adress…….
Comment by Fire — June 30, 2009 @ 12:47 pm
Willing to bet they’re going to remove racials from arena a month after everyone switches. I’m staying NE, quickness is amazing and Meld adds a little something extra to keep things interesting.
Comment by Mobius — June 30, 2009 @ 1:06 pm
I can see this being the death of Alliance, if not the game entirely.
Comment by Scripted — June 30, 2009 @ 2:05 pm
Well, considering the fact that Blizzard’s intentions are not to bring an end to WoW, I think there will be serious restrictions to this option. I don’t know which though.
It is quite obvious that a great number of players, especially, I guess, rogues, warlocks, are going to roll Undead, and not only because of their racials, but just because they look perfect, they look good. When I’m transformed into a Human in the Caverns of time, I realize how it sucks to be a human rogue (crappy animations, daggers big like swords, crappy voice, etc.).
I hope that Blizzard is not going to change racials in order to attract people to crappy races (ie dwarves, draneis.. oh all alliance races in fact).
It is also true that in general their would be transfers from alliance to horde. Which means more noobs in the horde, like the BE phenomenon.
I have no idead how Blizzard can implement this option without breaking the game, but I’m sure they are well aware of what would be the result of this option without restrictions, so let’s not panic.
I also hope that Akrios is not going to roll a gnome or dwarf rogue
That would KILL the Eviscerate series 
Comment by baruch — June 30, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
1. transfer rogue to cho’gall.
2. race change to UD.
3. pvp with akrios and all the pros.
4. profit.
rofl.
Comment by omegatrigun — June 30, 2009 @ 3:03 pm
Hmm, I am not sure if I would want this. My Rogue is a Night Elf with a very useful Shadowmeld racial, but I love the Undead look and WotF.
The only problem I have with this is the overflow of people all changing to one race on a server. Especially since Horde already dominate Cho’gall presently, finding World PvP as Horde would be even more difficult.
I’m gonna have to think about whether or not I want to do this; Undead are great for Rogues…but I feel I would lose the “uniqueness” of being Night Elf.
Comment by Evolas — June 30, 2009 @ 3:14 pm
by equivilant character, they mean equivilant gear, achievements etc, not race, or they would have said race. Im assuming youll be able to change to any race available to your class. So anything but tauren or draenei for us rogues.
Comment by Bendickson — June 30, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
Akrios I am eager to hear your opinion on this change
Comment by Evolas — June 30, 2009 @ 3:17 pm
This is great! finally i can get an 80 murloc whitout having to actually lvl it.
Comment by izalion — June 30, 2009 @ 3:30 pm
is it april 1st already?
Seriously can’t wait to see how much blizz charges for this – like someone said maximize profits – is this the best they can do?
tj
Comment by tj — June 30, 2009 @ 4:03 pm
To all the people whinning about Alliance going Ud and such, you rlly have no idea …
Alliance has insane racials and to me better than horde, i rather have 2 ap+use/proc trinkets and perception passive than Wotf every 2 mins in 3’s specially knowning we are kinda “dummies” in arenas that last long more than 5 minutes. Cannibalize much? dont think so.
Shadowmeld is very powerful if well used too.
and the same goes for the dwarf/gnome racials
I play Ud rogue and will roll to human if my arena mates want to, no doubt.
Comment by Spaintard — June 30, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
Blizzard is utterly terrible. Why would they ever consider implementing a service that allows you to change your race across factions? Just because a few fucking morons who are to lazy to reroll a new race wanted that change added doesn’t fucking mean you add the single most stupid service to the game.
Absolute bullshit. Blizzard has been ruining this game ever since they released Wrath. I’m pretty sure it’s not going to get any better, either, they’re eventually going to make these game changing ideas live and completely break everything.
At this point and time in WoW’s life, all we can do is wait. I wouldn’t be surprised if something this stupid was added in the game; after all, they did add Wrath of the Lich King.
Comment by Blizzard, the epitome of failure — June 30, 2009 @ 7:43 pm
It just occurred to me…when you change your faction…does that mean your mounts change to…what? How about reputation? Achievements? Seems like there are so many variables to handle with this new thing!
Comment by Evolas — June 30, 2009 @ 8:16 pm
This just in, you can now reroll tauren and draenei rogue for only $70
its so clear theyre just doing this for the money they dont give a shit if we can play with our friends or not. they used the tranny sex change as a test, a bunch of dumbasses bought it, now theyre gunna make 10x as much money doing this charging an excessively large amount of money for it.
Inc over 9000 12 yr old alliance xferring to UD and blizz counting their cash
Comment by Insolus — June 30, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
i agree remove racials from arena
Comment by Kalamity — June 30, 2009 @ 10:27 pm
… and whats wrong with dwarf rogues ?
I think the game will reach it’s all time low when this kicks in…
Comment by Ironklad — June 30, 2009 @ 10:31 pm
Faction change, race change… lol. This must be a joke… a sad joke… I just wanted to fell “the old magic of playing wow”(1.8 – 1.11) once again. Blizzard is breaking off one of the most important features of the game.
Comment by jsandman — June 30, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
I never really saw a problem with the whole gender change thing tbh, UD female front flips are win, but this imo is taking it a bit to far.
Comment by Geezeblizz — June 30, 2009 @ 11:28 pm
lol no lie this is almost as stupid as the figure pets….who the hell would want a figure of there pet? lol they do anything for money.
Comment by Revan — June 30, 2009 @ 11:52 pm
“This being the death of the alliance,”
Dunno for sure tbh….. alot of pvp’ers will roll alliance due to the insane racials they got.. im playing a Undead rogue myself so getting the opener on other horde its mostly luck.. concidering everyone spamms that 1 precious macro… but the alliance.. the stealth detection from a human and the stealth lvl of a nelf are killing in arena’s cause mostly the opener means everything to a rogue in arena, this all combined with a free trinket and a some kinda second vanish i must say that alliance is at that point way more attractive…. same goes for mages… a gnome mage is better then an undead or any other race from the horde if you’d ask me.. and as priest its imo still the best to be a dwarf..
about animations… i think everyone can just modeledit… its something fairly easy and beside that… You get rather bored/common with the undead animations after a few years too ^_^
But ye.. i do have to say i hope blizzard will get this idea of track… i see it as a way to get more money and not do add anything to the game… same thing they’re doing with all classes getting close to eachother… soon everyone can tank or raid heal.. alot of classes are getting the same buffs… feral and warr now got the 5 % crit .. all pala’s got kings and way more classes got replenishment etc. etc., this is something i regret..
Comment by Glupo — July 1, 2009 @ 12:42 am
this is pure bullshit, blizz making wow easier day after day and changing everything to make everything easier witch is wrong… the game aint nothing like it used to be in vanilla witch sucks balls!
Comment by lólressMi — July 1, 2009 @ 12:50 am
so is there a 1.12 private server or something
post here kk
Comment by rokzilla — July 1, 2009 @ 1:02 am
I quit just before WOTLK came out so I dont know if this is still relevant but I’d think it would be since its been going on since the games inception.
maybe this ‘race swap’ idea will even out the playing field in the minds of those who think that BGs are dominated by the Horde. who knows what the hell will happen now with the influx of…talent…to both sides lol. now everyone can enjoy the bitching and moaning regardless of race.
(was a human rogue FYI and I’d probably flirt with the idea of swiching but would most likely have stayed put [but who knows amirite])
Comment by butch cassidy — July 1, 2009 @ 2:09 am
i think being allowed to change race within ur faction would help, eg from Orc to UD and Gnome to Human. Glupo could you please leave a link of a site that explains how to model edit, would be greatly appreciated mate
Comment by Choose — July 1, 2009 @ 3:12 am
Well… first, PVE->PVP, then Char remodeling… this shocked me.
I thought there were rules that Blizz wouldn’t change.
But I was wrong.
The newest shock, Race Change, shocked me again.
Now, I wait till you pay a bunch of bucks to get a *insert highest getting level* Char with full epic Equip (of course the 25 instance loot)
Don’t forget the reputation, all maxed out to exalted (also it wouldn’t work normally, example the Scryers and the Aldor or the Oracles and Frenzyheart Tribe).
Maybe with buying a char, you get exalted to the other Fraction so that you can enter Stormwind as a Horde Member without getting attacked.
Mounts… don’t forget the TCG Mounts, all Mounts which were available like the Zul’aman Bear etc. This takes effect in pets too.
And of course you get every title, also the PVP titles!!!
And of course you get max gold and every professions in one char!
As long as Blizzard gets money, they would do anything!
Maybe you pay 25$ and you get a aura which kills all enemies in your surrounding?
Comment by Dante — July 1, 2009 @ 4:50 am
wooow you guys are exaggerating a lot here, theyre not giving away free shit, theyre just allowing further recustomization at later levels. Now if they were to level your prof to 450 for a fee then that would be cause for concern. All this will cause is an ‘influx of talent’ to both sides by those grass-is-greener players. This really isnt nearly as horrible an idea as some people think.
Comment by Bendickson — July 1, 2009 @ 9:57 am
This is COMPLETELY Off-topic but! i think everyone wants an answer for this one!
Akrios its been Awhile since u said ir Working on Eviscerate X but We can’t Wait for it? When u think it’ll be Completed ?! could u make a Trailer atleast 1 min Showing us some Awesome action that would Revive the Rogue inside me and maybe make me comeback to wow ?
P.s Yes u Shoudln’t Rush i’am just askin
Comment by Desolator — July 1, 2009 @ 10:23 am
Gonna have to agree with Desolater above. At least a trailer man!
But in relevance to the topic I think it’s a great oppurtunity. Maybe not so much for cho’gall all the alliance might just transfer over to horde side and fuck the server even more
Comment by Fortitudelol — July 1, 2009 @ 12:02 pm
oh god.. all the crappy ally kids are gonna be begging their parents for credit cards to transfer over to the winning side… Goddamn, its gonna be a sad day for horde when we have kids telling us how to play bgs =.=*
Comment by hey — July 1, 2009 @ 5:04 pm
But do that mean i can change from gnome to elf ? xD
Comment by omg — July 1, 2009 @ 6:43 pm
was up den dog man “hey” ill own u yo in BG anyday ur gonna be asking me for help
Comment by zavagebladez — July 1, 2009 @ 11:05 pm
HUMAN OR UD IS THA QUESTION.
AKRIHOES TO REPLY.
Comment by Wizex — July 1, 2009 @ 11:08 pm
[QUOTE] But do that mean i can change from gnome to elf ? xD [QUOTE]
lol
@topic:
A Undead Army is Coming ;X
Comment by Nydjer — July 2, 2009 @ 3:23 am
I smoke weed all day, that’s all i do. I dont give a FUCK!
Comment by fgt — July 2, 2009 @ 7:51 am
^^ lol fgt come over to pro’gall and join the most pro bowl smokers from
Actually I encourage everyone to come over and join we don’t even give a fuck if you smoke or not xD
Comment by Ktz — July 2, 2009 @ 10:31 pm
I would love playing with a Arakkoa Shadow Priest or Mage… maybe they could open other races before releasing faction changing…
Comment by jsandman — July 2, 2009 @ 11:03 pm
or even other factions like skettis…
Comment by jsandman — July 2, 2009 @ 11:07 pm
Soooo true…
Comment by Délilah — July 3, 2009 @ 1:26 am
pretty much what i thought, shadowmeld + imp stealth for NE / 2 dps trinkets & perception for Humans are far better than WotF imo
thats why i just rerolled human :X
Comment by Délilah — July 3, 2009 @ 1:37 am
hey akrioss, talking about tier 8 set 4, rapture can now crit.
I’m currently using initiative, instead of serrated blades, and I find it better personally, do you think, getting serrated blades, instead of initiative, plus the set 4 tier 8, will help more against plate?
Comment by lolwut — July 3, 2009 @ 12:44 pm
and blood spatter
Comment by lolwut — July 3, 2009 @ 12:48 pm
Its mostly only good against warriors. easy 2k rapture criticals but very unreliable
Comment by lolwut — July 3, 2009 @ 12:50 pm
anyone else tested, sorry for the re re reply
Comment by lolwut — July 3, 2009 @ 12:50 pm
It’s been updated with a few requirements/restrictions. Namely, you cant use this to change your race to anything. You have to select a race of the other faction that your class can be, AND if you decide to change back to your original faction you can only choose your original race. So no switching from Troll to Undead or Dwarf to Human and what-not.
Comment by kyoujin — July 3, 2009 @ 2:28 pm
also ich rauche auch nur ganja den ganzen tag
Comment by dicke eier — July 4, 2009 @ 11:30 am
seems its hopeless that the game well back 2 normal :S
Comment by Zarakï — July 4, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
not sure if this will happen or not but i will bet that once race changes are implemented that cho’gall will see a huge amount of new undead rogues who want to be on the same server as akrioss, unmercy, buddhist and all the other amazing rogues from that server.
Comment by Riva — July 6, 2009 @ 6:18 am
Sigh, i’ll switch to ally because horde is just gonna be full of even more dicks.. Looks like all the smart people who are horde will do the same imo.
Comment by Yuwun — July 6, 2009 @ 6:22 am
Ive seen many many many opinions on this subject, but id really like to hear Akrios’ take on it:
Who has the better rogue racials? Human or UD?
Comment by Bendickson — July 6, 2009 @ 1:38 pm
Human. Definatly. There’s only.. Two classes? That the wotf helps against. Whereas, another dps trinket is realiable against any class at all, plus it also gives a boost to overall damage, so you’ll might have that extra “kick” which brings down the enemy.
I know I’ll definatly change my UD rogue to a human.. even though I’ll miss the animations.
Comment by Zeani — July 7, 2009 @ 12:32 am
Wotf breaks a warr’s, priest’s, or lock’s fear, a lock’s seduce, and a hunter’s wyvern sting.
That little extra kick a dps trink gives you isn’t going to help if you get chain cc’d. I’ve seen plenty of times in rogue vids where wotf saved their but, and if they didn’t have it, they would have been caught in a full fear and probably lost.
I’d much rather have more cc escapes.
Comment by omegatrigun — July 9, 2009 @ 2:19 pm
I’m an orc rogue, and I’m proud of it
Maybe undead is the best in arena, but seriously, have you ever reeeaally thought about how many undead rogues there really is? Its amazing. And Blizzard is introducing a faction change service? What is wrong with people nowadays? Its like horde and alliance are becoming more and more tight. I say fuck that shit, I still remember the days where a _horde_ shammy could kick the shit out of a alliance paladin with a 2h WF crit. I mean, really? Am I the only one with this opinion? Really?
Nyhm quote, from one of his songs “We are about to experience a death knight spree” – Imagine that with undead instead. Its gonna be fucking HELL!
Comment by Diema — July 17, 2009 @ 6:33 pm