Cross-Faction Play Guide for World of Warcraft
Cross-Faction instances break the faction divide by allowing friends from the opposite faction to play together. The following guide is dedicated to explaining cross-faction play, a new feature first introduced in Patch 9.2.5 and expanded upon in Patch 10.1.5.
How to Play with Players from the Opposite Faction in World of Warcraft?
You can directly invite members of the opposite faction to a party if you have a BattleTag or Real ID friendship, or if you are members of a cross-faction World of Warcraft Community.
Premade Groups in the Group Finder listings for Mythic Dungeons, raids, Legacy raids, or Rated Arenas / RBGs, and also Torghast, are open to applicants of both factions, but the group leader may choose to restrict the listing to the same-faction applicants if they so choose.
Once in a party, members of the opposite faction will remain unfriendly outside of instances, though they will be able to communicate through party and raid chat, as well as use /say and /yell within proximity of one another.
Upon entering a dungeon, raid, or rated PvP match, however, all members will be friendly and able to assist each other in combat, trade loot, earn shared achievements, and otherwise fully engage the same way members of the same faction do.
Guilds and Cross-Faction Play
Cross-Faction Guilds have been implemented in Patch 10.1. You can learn more about the system and its restrictions in our guide.
Cross-Faction Communities
Cross-faction Communities in the game work very similar to guilds.
Existing Communities can be converted to cross-faction Communities in the Settings.
Legacy Instances and Cross-Faction Play
The functionality of cross-faction instances will also apply to Legacy instances and is available at all levels. However, there will be some older instances that cross-faction parties cannot enter due to faction-specific components. They are:
- 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).
Cross-Realm Trading
You can trade items and gold directly to characters on other realms in your region. Previously this was limited to conjured items or eligible raid/dungeon loot.
Will Cross-Faction Play Work with War Mode?
You can group up and attack players of the opposite faction with War Mode enabled.
Cross-Faction Play and Open-World Content
In the open world, you must be in a physical group to understand the other faction, being members of a cross-faction Community will not suffice.
You can also complete World Quests cross-faction at maximum level, but you must both tag the mobs.
Cross-Faction Play and Leveling
Threads of Fate and Torghast leveling from Level 50-60 will work cross-faction.
Cross-Faction Play Restrictions
The cross-faction system comes with some restrictions that we outline in this paragraph:
- You cannot use the opposite faction's portals, multi-passenger mounts, or receive buffs when you are in a cross-faction group.
- The /invite name command works only if you are Battle.net / Real ID Friends with the other person or member of a cross-faction community.
- Random matchmade activities like Heroic dungeons, Arena Skirmishes, or Random Battlegrounds all remain single-faction.
- Raid Finder, Normal and Heroic Dungeons, Arena Skirmishes, and Random Battlegrounds are not cross-faction.
- You can summon members of the opposite faction to a dungeon, but you will need another member of your faction to do so.
- You cannot send mail to the other faction, with the exception mentioned above.
Changelog
- 07 Jul. 2023: Updated with cross-faction trading.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1 with cross-faction guilds.
- 01 Jun. 2022: Updated with cross-faction trading.
- 29 May 2022: Page added.
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