THE WOW FOREVER COLLECTION · DISPATCH · RESEARCH CHECKED NOVEMBER 13, 2026
Short answer: if you were waiting for the Horde lock on PvP to open so you could join friends, Blizzard is now telling you not to wait. On the November 12 podcast, Aggrend said the lock has been tightened because PvP reached the 55/45 Horde to Alliance split that Blizzard treats as its upper limit, and that "if you haven't made a Horde character, you're probably going to want to start making other arrangements at this point." He gave no reopening date. There are no faction or ruleset transfers in Forever, and Blizzard hasn't said it will add any.
What Aggrend said
The remarks open Episode 7 of the WoW Forever Podcast, before the lore discussion that fills the rest of it (our full recap is here). He was following up on Kaivax's faction balance post from November 10, which we covered in Blizzard's 55/45 statement. The key passage, from the video captions with filler words trimmed:
"We've kind of tightened it up a little bit. Unfortunately that means if you haven't made a Horde character, you're probably going to want to start making other arrangements at this point, because we kind of had to clamp that down."
He was specific that the locked side varies by region. On most regions it is Horde on PvP and Roleplay-PvP. On EU Roleplay-PvP it is Alliance.
He also explained the threshold, which the forum post hadn't. At a launch Blizzard normally allows "about a 10% delta" between factions so that as many people as possible can make the character they want. PvP has now reached that:
"We've kind of hit that 55/45 split from Horde to Alliance and that's the upper limit, and as a result we're going to need to tighten it back down."
So 55/45 is where Blizzard's tolerance ends, and the lock will stay tight until the ratio comes back inside it. He called faction balance "one of the most important things on a PvP server" and said the team is "super duper dedicated" to keeping it.
Level 1 alts don't count
Since launch week, players have accused each other of parking level 1 characters on the smaller faction to fool the lock into opening. Kaivax said on November 10 that trial accounts had no measurable effect. Aggrend went further and said the trick can't work at all:
"You can make a million level one characters and it's not really going to impact anything."
The ruleset balance looks at "characters over a certain amount of time actually playing the game". A character that is created and abandoned isn't in the number. That also answers the common suggestion that the lock should only count characters above level 10. By Blizzard's account it already ignores idle ones.
Zone balancing, and fewer players per zone
Two more things from the segment matter if you are already playing on PvP.
First, Blizzard has adjusted how its balancing works inside each zone, "so that it should feel a little bit more even at the zone level." This is new. When we wrote up the November 10 post, Blizzard had said nothing about balancing factions within a zone or layer, and per-layer balance was the top request in that thread. Aggrend didn't explain the mechanism and added the obvious caveat: you can still run into five of the other faction and lose.
Second, zone populations were cut across every ruleset, mostly in the level 25 to 45 range, with a bigger cut on PvP. That matches the hotfix from November 9. He described the tuning as "more of an art than a science" and said it will keep moving as the bulk of players levels up. In a month Blizzard may need to raise the cap in starter zones so they don't feel empty. If you bounced off a zone last weekend because every spawn was camped, it is worth another look.
The reaction
A US forum thread quoting the "other arrangements" line went up 20 minutes after the episode. By the morning of November 13 it had 867 replies and close to 5,900 views, the busiest new thread of the day. It splits roughly the way you would expect.
Locked-out Horde players are angry about the wording as much as the policy. Many bought game time to play with a guild or a friend group that got in during the first days, and "make other arrangements" reads to them as "play something else". Threads asking for refunds and announcing cancellations drew 133 and 78 replies. One player posted what they said was the support reply to their refund ticket, a standard message pointing to the automated refund page, where their six-month subscription did not appear as eligible. That is one player's account and I can't verify it. Blizzard has made no statement on refunds for this.
Alliance players on PvP, and a fair number of Horde already inside, want Blizzard to hold the line. A thread titled "Stick to your guns Blizzard" reached 106 replies, and a long post arguing that the lock protects Horde players too, by keeping them a ruleset with someone to fight, reached 157. One of the most liked early replies in the main thread put it bluntly: players all pick the same side for the advantage, and then complain about the result. Several Alliance players say their zones still don't feel like 55/45. One described being one of two Alliance in Searing Gorge on a layer with seven Horde. As we explained on Monday, a ruleset average and a single layer at one level range are different measurements.
On the EU forums, a thread asking when Horde PvP will reopen has 76 replies and no blue answer.
The request that comes up most on both sides is a one-way transfer: let split groups move a character to the smaller faction, or off PvP to another ruleset, without starting again. It was the first substantive reply in the podcast's own forum thread. Blizzard hasn't responded. Forever has no paid or free character moves of any kind right now, which our transfer explainer covers.
What to do if you are locked out
Aggrend's advice is blunt but it is the practical answer. Your options today:
| If you want | Then |
|---|---|
| To play with Horde friends on PvP | You can't unless the lock opens. Blizzard says not to plan on it. |
| World PvP now | Roll Alliance on PvP. Creation is open and that is the side Blizzard wants filled. |
| Horde above all | Roll Horde on Normal or Roleplay. You won't be able to group with friends on PvP. |
| To keep your whole group together | The group moves: everyone to Alliance on PvP, or everyone to another ruleset. |
The lock is on creating characters. Horde characters that already exist on PvP are unaffected, and a friend who is in can't get you in. Check the creation screen yourself before deciding, since the lock is set per region. If you do end up on a faction you hadn't planned for, the best race guide and racials page will save you some time, and the realms and rulesets explainer covers who can group with whom.
One caution on timing. Aggrend said he hopes the population "is allowed to level out over the next few days", and Kaivax wrote on November 10 that the locked side "may flip" as people settle. Neither is a promise that Horde reopens soon. The podcast returns next week with an episode on systems and PvP, which is the next obvious place for an update.
Sources: Blizzard, Turbo Nerds Lore-ing Out, Episode 7 of The WoW: Forever Podcast (YouTube, November 12, 2026; opening segment, quotes from the video captions); Kaivax, Blizzard forums, PvP Faction Balance Updates - November 10 (November 10, 2026; 1,086 replies when checked November 13); US forum threads Aggrend says "Start making other arrangements" for horde on PvP (November 12, 2026, 18:06 UTC; 867 replies and 5,868 views at 07:30 UTC November 13), Reply to the refund ticket on Horde PvP Lockout (November 12, 2026), Cancelled my sub - Can't play with my friends (November 12, 2026), Stick to your guns Blizzard (November 12, 2026), The Horde Lockout Isn't Punishment (November 12, 2026) and My personal experience tonight is Horde will be locked indefinitely (November 13, 2026); EU forums, When will Horde EU PvP open again? (76 replies when checked November 13, 2026); Kaivax, Blizzard forums, The WoW Forever Podcast: Episode 7 (November 12, 2026, including the transfer request in the replies).