In an achievement that few could have predicted when faction balancing was announced for World of Warcraft: Season of Discovery, the developers have managed to achieve a perfect ratio between Alliance and Horde on some servers.
Season of Discovery opened the door to experimentation for both the developer and players. For the latter, new abilities, class roles and activities have paved the way for entirely new stories within the world of Vanilla Azeroth.
On Blizzard’s side, there has been plenty of changes, with some more successful than others. Before the full release of Season of Discovery, the developer announced they would be actively faction balancing on PvP servers when the game launched.
Though this was initially met with some skepticism from the player base, new data suggests that the team behind the game has been hugely successful.
Most Season of Discovery PvP servers are balanced at 50/50
In a recent post on Twitter/X, Senior Game Producer Tom Ellis shared data for PvP realms in all of the major regions in which the game operates.
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Season 2 dropping on Thursday, a quick look at the PvP realms in US and EU for faction balance… Aaaah, ok that feels good.Things that could be improved? For sure! The balance at max level and the balance between people who *actually* engage in PvP is going to be different.… pic.twitter.com/mUHtQsZZ0B
— Tom Ellis (@FwoiblesWoW) February 6, 2024
On all but two of the servers, faction numbers are perfectly balanced, marking a huge success for the developer and a possible blueprint for WoW releases moving forward.
There are a few caveats that Ellis notes in his analysis of the Season of Discovery PvP servers. First is the number of players enjoying the game at max level. Second, there will be some variance in PvP activities as some of those who play on PvP servers don’t actively engage in PvP activities.
Though they have achieved their targets, Blizzard doesn’t intend to reopen servers like Living Flame to new characters just yet. Ellis said: “Aside from a couple of the specific language realms the SoD realms are still popping off so any movement between realms now is dangerous, things are great and we don’t want to start some re-roll avalanche.”
With Phase Two set to launch on February 8, the servers are likely to come alive again. Given how successful the balancing has been, PvP is likely to become a hotbed of fun, particularly in the new Stranglethorn Vale activity.