Nearly 20 years after the initial launch of World of Warcraft, the most successful MMORPG in gaming history, and shortly after Blizzard started allowing both factions to group together for dungeons and PvP, players will now be able to create and join cross-faction guilds.
The ability to be a part of the same guild on the Horde as your buddy on Alliance and vice-versa is be released as part of Dragonflight Patch 10.1, Embers of Neltharion, which will introduce UI improvements, new story content, a new zone, and a new raid.
Blizzard has expressed interest in creating cross-faction guilds as a feature in the past. When the company first announced the support of cross-faction for instanced content during the release of Shadowlands Patch 9.2.5, fans immediately began asking about the same idea for guilds. Yet, at the time, Blizzard stated that certain technical hurdles would need to be overcome to allow for the feature.
For those who wanted to maintain their faction pride and remain with those on one side or the other, WoW game director Ion Hazzikostas stressed the importance of keeping the feature opt-in only.
Regardless of the decision you make as a player, this signals a new era for WoW, continuously defined less by the rivalry between the main opposing factions and a greater emphasis on coming together to take on bigger threats. This theme is quite prevalent in Dragonflight’s canon, which places an emphasis on explorers who are working together to uncover the mysteries of the Dragon Isles.
At the moment, there are still certain activities that members of the Horde and Alliance cannot group together to complete, such as open-world quests and matchmade content.
Patch 10.1 for Dragonflight is set to release in the summer after significant testing is finished on the public test realm (PTR). This update brings players into the Zaralek Carvern zone underneath the continent of the Dragon Isles where they will team up with the Niffen, a race of moles, and race to search Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible, a secret laboratory belonging to Neltharion.
