People on US servers are beginning to ding 60 and while the first to cap was troll rogue, I noticed a somewhat disturbing trend - only 5 of the top 25 levellers were Horde characters.
Now, there are rumors around, about Alliance being easier to level. While that ma be true for some quests and up to level 20ish zones, the rest of the territory and instances are open to everyone. So there shouldn't be -that- much difference in levelling speed due to faction perks. The next likeliest factor to make Alliance so much more prominent in levelling race is there simply being much more Alliance players. That could seriously mess up the power balance on PvP servers. So I gathered up some statistics from all servers.
Disclaimer!
All the following data is based on a snapshot from Maxmeout website (http://www.maxmeout.com). This data is changing constantly, so the numbers below are probably not exactly the same by the time you are reading this post.
All the numbers below are based ONLY on top 25 characters on each server.
When looking at the class statistics, remember that these are not real % from total population, but merely % from people in top 25 on each server. Therefore, it may be that druids for example, simply just suck at gaining levels while rogues are really good at it. However, my own gut feeling is, that these numbers do reflect actual population distribution over classes closely.
The 25% / 75% faction distribution in favor of Alliance characters in global top 25 turned out to be better reflect the situation on PvE servers. On PvP servers, the actual top 25 population difference is "only" 13%.
Conclusion: if these numbers are anything to go by.. I think it unlikely that Blizzard will nerf shamen any time soon
Ottar
Now, there are rumors around, about Alliance being easier to level. While that ma be true for some quests and up to level 20ish zones, the rest of the territory and instances are open to everyone. So there shouldn't be -that- much difference in levelling speed due to faction perks. The next likeliest factor to make Alliance so much more prominent in levelling race is there simply being much more Alliance players. That could seriously mess up the power balance on PvP servers. So I gathered up some statistics from all servers.
Disclaimer!
All the following data is based on a snapshot from Maxmeout website (http://www.maxmeout.com). This data is changing constantly, so the numbers below are probably not exactly the same by the time you are reading this post.
All the numbers below are based ONLY on top 25 characters on each server.
Code:
Faction distribution
------------------------------
Total characters 2200 (88 servers)
Horde characters: 780 (35,5%)
Alliance characters: 1420 (64,5%)
Total characters on PvP servers: 1050 (42 servers)
Horde characters: 458 (43,6%)
Alliance characters: 592 (56,4%)
Total characters on PvE servers: 1150 (46 servers)
Horde characters: 322 (28%)
Alliance characters: 828 (72%)
Class distribution on PvP servers
------------------------------------
Druid 2,0%
Hunter 11,4%
Mage 13,6%
Paladin 12,3%
Priest 7,0%
Rogue 27,0%
Shaman 9,6%
Warlock 4,1%
Warrior 12,9%
Class distribution on PvE servers
------------------------------------
Druid 2,8%
Hunter 17,3%
Mage 12,3%
Paladin 15,9%
Priest 7,0%
Rogue 22,0%
Shaman 5,1%
Warlock 5,1%
Warrior 12,4%
When looking at the class statistics, remember that these are not real % from total population, but merely % from people in top 25 on each server. Therefore, it may be that druids for example, simply just suck at gaining levels while rogues are really good at it. However, my own gut feeling is, that these numbers do reflect actual population distribution over classes closely.
The 25% / 75% faction distribution in favor of Alliance characters in global top 25 turned out to be better reflect the situation on PvE servers. On PvP servers, the actual top 25 population difference is "only" 13%.
Conclusion: if these numbers are anything to go by.. I think it unlikely that Blizzard will nerf shamen any time soon
Ottar