wow-cross-faction-instances

For the Horde-Alliance? WoW cross faction instances have arrived, bridging the gap between long-time enemies.

After nearly two decades, the Alliance and Horde have buried the hatchet. Or at least, started to swing it at a common enemy. With the advent of WoW patch 9.2.5 comes the long-awaited ability for cross-faction friends to join hands and skip merrily into peril. Doesn't it just warm the cockles of your heart?

To be fair, it has taken a veritable cavalcade of mutual enemies for the warring parties to finally form a coalition. From the Burning Legion to The Jailer himself, a tenuously unified front against a world-ending threat has been par for the course for literal years. Yet it has taken this long for the Alliance and Horde to turn around and say "can't we all just get along?"

Cross-faction functionality isn't entirely new in WoW, of course. Warlords of Draenor sought to rectify the population imbalance by introducing Mercenary Mode, which allowed players to engage in PvP regardless of faction.

But WoW cross-faction instances have been practically nonexistent until now - which, after all we've been through together, kind of makes sense. Although that said, it's only during instances where enemies become frenemies, as the beef continues outside. Baby steps, we guess.

WoW cross-faction instances can be tackled together with friends from any faction by being part of a cross-faction WoW community or through a Battle Tag or Real ID friendship. Players can enable cross-faction groups (or live in the past and stick to same-faction only) via the Group Finder.

Once inside an instance, players from all factions will be friendly and targetable, with the ability to assist in combat, trade loot, earn shared achievements and share in the joy and wonder of friendship.

Though as we mentioned, a full-on alliance this new feature is not, and there are in fact omissions to the instances that cater for cross-faction functionality. These include:

• Trial of the Champion
• Trial of the Crusader
• Vault of Archavon
• Icecrown Citadel
• Baradin Hold
• Siege of Boralus
• Battle of Dazar'alor
• Darkmaul Citadel (Exile's Reach dungeon)

But at least after all this time, we can come together in appreciating how far we've come. For the Hordiance!