Name reservations for World of Warcraft: Forever went live in Europe and North America on October 27, hours after Blizzard held the feature back over technical difficulties. Wowhead's running timeline has EU reservable from 12:40pm PDT and NA from about 1:05pm. Right as NA opened, Blizzard posted a separate notice aimed at one group only — Oceanic players connecting to Australian servers — because a bug in character-creation order locks the Roleplay rulesets away, with a fix "urgent" but undated.

From a delay to a grayed-out launch, then live

The original schedule, per the site's earlier announcement, was 6pm CET for Europe (10am PDT) and 1pm PDT for North America. What actually happened, per Wowhead's updates (all times PDT):

  • Ahead of the window, Blizzard announced via a Battle.net launcher notification that reservations were delayed by technical difficulties, with no timeline attached.
  • 11:20am: the launcher banner changed, and players who made it into character creation found every ruleset grayed out — no names could be saved. These were player reports, not official wording.
  • 12:40pm: EU reservations confirmed live; NA's scheduled time was about 20 minutes out.
  • 1:05pm: NA players could log in and reserve, but many hit queues and were instantly disconnected.
  • 2:30pm: Wowhead reported "most of the issues have been resolved for players disconnecting," though players in both regions still reported missing rulesets.

The Oceanic bug: RP characters first, Normal or PvP second

"Attention Oceanic players connecting to Australian-based servers!" Blizzard's notice opens. Due to a bug, those players must create any characters on Roleplay or Roleplay-PvP rulesets before creating on Normal or PvP. Get the order wrong — a Normal or PvP character first — and "the Roleplay and Roleplay-PvP rulesets will no longer be available for subsequent characters." One mistake and later characters never see RP again.

Blizzard scopes the damage narrowly: the issue "should only be present for players in the Oceanic region who are connecting to Australian servers, and we're working on a fix for it urgently." No ETA for that fix was given.

The ordering trap matters more than it sounds, because the early-reservation cap is shared: an account gets three reserved names total, across all rulesets. Spend slots on Normal or PvP first and the RP rulesets are gone along with the slots.

What's known, what isn't

Known: reservations are live in EU and NA, the window runs through November 3, and Forever launches November 4. Korea and Taiwan follow on October 28 at 7am local time per the original schedule. Eligibility (Skyborne Heroic Pack, Skyborne Epic Pack, Warcraft Forever Collection) and the three-character shared cap are unchanged.

Not announced:

  • When the Oceanic fix will land
  • Whether accounts already locked out of RP rulesets get any remedy — deleting characters to reset availability is not mentioned
  • How the "missing rulesets" reports from EU and NA players square with Blizzard's Oceanic-only framing; Blizzard has not responded to those reports

What to do now

  • EU and NA players with an eligible pre-purchase: reservations are open through November 3. Early queues and disconnects were largely settled by the 2:30pm update.
  • Oceanic players on Australian servers: create RP or RP-PvP characters first, Normal or PvP second. If you have any doubt about the order, wait for the fix before spending Normal/PvP slots — whether backfilled RP creation becomes possible after the fix is up to Blizzard's announcement.
  • Korea and Taiwan: 7am local time on October 28. Have the client installed and the Forever version selected before the window opens.

Full setup steps are in the site's reservation guide, and the regional schedule is in the original announcement. Blizzard's notices are carried on Wowhead: the Oceanic announcement and the delay-and-live coverage.