Horde or Alliance in WoW Forever: How to Pick Your Faction

In WoW Forever, Horde or Alliance is mostly a choice of races, racials and people, not of classes. Both factions can now play all nine classes. Each side has five races, including its own version of the new Skyborne, and three of the six new race and class combinations.

Easy, then? Not quite. You will never group with the other side, some dungeons and reputations are fenced off by faction, and this character is supposed to sit at 60 for years. Give it ten minutes before character creation opens on October 27.

Quick answer: your friends decide first. Nobody to follow? The Horde has the Undead Paladin, the Orc Mage and the nastier PvP racials. The Alliance has the Dwarf Shaman, Gnome casters, the Human Hunter, and Hall of Thanes right under Ironforge.

Why the Faction Choice Weighs More in WoW Forever

Your faction in WoW Forever is close to permanent, because characters keep their level 60 and their gear for good and the two sides cannot play together.

A few rules make that stick:

• No cross-faction grouping. Blizzard confirmed it in the systems recap. Your dungeon group, your raid and your questing buddy all come from your side.
• Nothing gets wiped. The cap is 60, period. New zones and raids get added beside it, never above.
• Rulesets split players too. At launch you pick a region plus Normal, PvP or Roleplaying. You can't group across those either.
• Names are unique per region. Every name has two parts, and once someone takes it in your region, it is gone.

One rule works the other way. Legacy Points are shared across your account, and each character spends them in its own perk trees. A second character on the other faction is not a waste. It starts with whatever your first one earned.

Horde and Alliance Races and Classes

Each faction has four classic races plus one branch of the Skyborne, and every class is available on both sides.

Faction	Race	Can play	Cannot play
Horde	Orc	6 classes, now including Mage	Druid, Paladin, Priest
Horde	Tauren	4 classes	Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock
Horde	Troll	7 classes, now including Warlock	Druid, Paladin
Horde	Undead	6 classes, now including Paladin	Druid, Hunter, Shaman
Horde	Windshaper Skyborne	5 classes, Shaman among them	Mage, Paladin, Priest, Warlock
Alliance	Human	7 classes, now including Hunter	Druid, Shaman
Alliance	Dwarf	6 classes, now including Shaman	Druid, Mage, Warlock
Alliance	Gnome	5 classes, now including Priest	Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Shaman
Alliance	Night Elf	5 classes	Mage, Paladin, Shaman, Warlock
Alliance	High Order Skyborne	5 classes, Mage among them	Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Warlock

The six new combinations split evenly. The Horde gets the Orc Mage, the Troll Warlock and the Undead Paladin. The Alliance gets the Human Hunter, the Gnome Priest and the Dwarf Shaman.

The old split is gone. In the original game, Paladins were Alliance-only and Shamans were Horde-only, and that alone decided many players' faction. Now an Undead Paladin and a Dwarf Shaman are both on the table, so no class forces your hand. Druids are no longer limited to Tauren and Night Elves either, because both Skyborne branches can be Druids.

Racials That Can Decide It

Racials are where the factions really differ in WoW Forever, since every race now has four traits: two active abilities and two passives.

Blizzard reworked some of them to suit the new class options. The ones players argue about most:

Race	Racial worth knowing	Why players care
Undead	Will of the Forsaken	Breaks Charm, Fear and Sleep, a classic PvP pick
Orc	Blood Fury, Shatter Curse, Hardiness	Attack and spell power burst, curse immunity, shorter stuns
Troll	Berserking, Regeneration	Casting and attack speed burst, health regen that keeps going in combat
Tauren	War Stomp, Endurance	An area stun plus more health and hit
Human	Will to Survive, Perception	Removes stuns, spots stealthed enemies
Dwarf	Stoneform, Big Game Hunter	Immunity to bleeds, poisons and diseases, extra damage to Beasts
Gnome	Eureka!, Escape Artist, Expansive Mind	Cheaper, stronger next spells, root breaks, more mana, rage or energy
Night Elf	Elune's Light, Shadowmeld	A critical strike burst, stealth while standing still

The pattern is old but still true. The Horde list leans toward PvP control and raw burst. The Alliance list has Will to Survive against stuns, Stoneform against rogues and hunters, and Gnome traits that make casters very efficient. Numbers on these traits shifted during the beta, so check the tooltip in the character screen on October 27.

If your class is already decided, the race question is answered class by class in our WoW Forever best class guide.

Skyborne: The Race That Picks a Side

The Skyborne are the new WoW Forever race, and you choose their faction when you create the character: Windshapers join the Horde, the High Order joins the Alliance.

Both branches start on Zephras Isle, a new zone for levels 1–12, and share three traits: Walk on Air (a short glide downward), Wind Blessed (a little Haste) and Elemental Insight (more damage to Elementals). Each branch adds one of its own. Windshapers get Skysight, a run speed blessing. The High Order gets Read Leyline, which speeds up health and mana regeneration.

The class lists differ by one. Horde Windshapers can be Shamans and the Alliance High Order can be Mages. Druid, Hunter, Rogue and Warrior are open to both.

One practical detail. The Skyborne come with the Skyborne Heroic Pack and the bigger editions, not with the base game. Players who want a Skyborne at 60 without the 1–12 island and the climb after it often look at Skyborne leveling as a start.

Content That Belongs to One Faction

Most WoW Forever content is shared, but a handful of dungeons, reputations and rewards exist in a Horde version and an Alliance version.

• Starter dungeons. Hall of Thanes (levels 13–18, under Ironforge) is an Alliance dungeon. Ruins of Lordaeron (15–20, above Undercity) is the Horde one. The other faction can enter only by getting through an enemy capital.
• Trading companies. The Alliance works with the Azeroth Commerce Authority from its camp at Three Corners in Redridge. The Horde has Durotar Supply and Logistics outside the Crossroads in The Barrens. Both pay in Merchant's Favor for supply crates.
• Darkspear Islands reputations. The new 15v15 battleground off the Kalimdor coast has two factions: the Theramore Expeditionary Force for the Alliance and the Darkspear Raiders for the Horde. Their rewards run from trinkets at Friendly up to weapons at Revered.
• PvP ranks. Both sides climb the same 14 ranks, but the titles differ. The top rank reads Grand Marshal on the Alliance and High Warlord on the Horde.
• The Paladin charger. The level 60 class mount quest exists on both sides, and Forsaken Paladins get their own skeletal mount, the Forsaken Charger.

Horde vs Alliance for PvP

For PvP in WoW Forever, the faction matters less for queues than it once did, because Blizzard plans faction balance systems similar to those in Season of Discovery.

Queues aside, racials and ruleset are what count. Roll on a PvP ruleset and you'll bump into the enemy faction outside every town. That's where Will of the Forsaken or a well-timed Will to Survive earns its keep. Battlegrounds are the same for both: Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley, plus the new Darkspear Islands. Same reworked honor, same weekly rank cap, same weekly season tasks.

How to Choose: Horde or Alliance

Write down the one thing you won't give up in WoW Forever, then see which faction has it. That usually settles it.

Your must-have	Faction
To play an Undead Paladin, Orc Mage or Troll Warlock	Horde
To play a Dwarf Shaman, Gnome Priest or Human Hunter	Alliance
A Skyborne Shaman	Horde (Windshapers)
A Skyborne Mage	Alliance (High Order)
Strong open-world PvP racials	Horde, mostly for Undead and Orc
Efficient casters	Alliance, for Gnome traits
A Tauren or a Night Elf Druid	The faction of that race
To play with people you know	Their faction, every time

The last row beats every other one. Without cross-faction groups, a friend on the other side is someone you only ever meet in a battleground.

Before Launch: Names and the First Days

Character creation and early name reservation open on October 27, and WoW Forever launches on November 4, 2026.

Early name reservation runs until November 3 and comes with any upgrade pack. You can create and customise up to three characters in that window, and names go first come, first served. If you are torn between factions, that is the moment to claim a name on each side.

The first week is a race to level. If you want your main ready for the content that opens later, the WoW Forever leveling boost page lists every way to get there. A smaller head start, such as the WoW Forever Starter Pack, can also be ordered now, and work starts on launch day.

FAQ

Horde or Alliance in WoW Forever, which one should I roll?

Roll wherever your friends or guild roll. Horde and Alliance can't group in WoW Forever, so splitting up means never playing together. Choosing solo? Horde for an Undead Paladin, an Orc Mage or tougher PvP racials. Alliance for a Dwarf Shaman, a Gnome caster or a Human Hunter.

Can Horde and Alliance play together in WoW Forever?

No, and Blizzard said so directly in its systems recap. In WoW Forever you run dungeons and raids with your own faction only. The other side shows up as an enemy: in contested zones, on a PvP ruleset, in battlegrounds.

Can Alliance be Shamans and Horde be Paladins now?

Yes. WoW Forever adds the Dwarf Shaman for the Alliance and the Undead Paladin for the Horde, so both factions can play all nine classes. Skyborne can also be Shamans on the Horde side.

Which faction can play Skyborne?

Both factions can play Skyborne in WoW Forever. The side is set on the character creation screen. Windshapers go Horde and unlock Shaman. The High Order goes Alliance and unlocks Mage.

Which WoW Forever dungeons belong to one faction?

Hall of Thanes under Ironforge is the Alliance dungeon for levels 13–18, and Ruins of Lordaeron above Undercity is the Horde dungeon for levels 15–20. The other faction can enter either one only after getting through an enemy capital.

Is Horde or Alliance better for PvP in WoW Forever?

Neither side has a built-in edge in WoW Forever PvP, and Blizzard plans faction balance systems like those in Season of Discovery. Racials make the difference: Will of the Forsaken and Hardiness on the Horde, Will to Survive and Stoneform on the Alliance.

When can I create my WoW Forever character?

Character creation and early name reservation open on October 27, 2026, for players with an upgrade pack, with up to three characters per account. Everyone can play from the launch on November 4, 2026.