I know that customer support doesn’t lift name availability manually anymore, but I wanted to at least verify that the name I’m trying to claim is actually taken. It’s not an invalid name, as other characters from other servers also have the name, just not on the server I’m attempting to create it on. The character doesn’t show up on the website search database, nor is the character addable is a friend in-game. Is it possible to at least get validation that the character exists, and as a result the name may be lifted at the time of Shadowlands launch, or if the character does not exist or has been inactive for a sufficient amount of time, is it at all possible to get help here to lift the name early? Thanks for any help or clarification.
Characters under level 10 don’t show on the Armory. It could be a bank alt.
If it’s on the restricted list, characters on the Armory with that name could just be waiting to use a forced name change, or just haven’t been online for reporting.
Can I also not add characters under level 10 to my friends list? I’ve tried on alliance and horde to just add Chub to friends, and the player cannot be found in both instances.
It’s possible the character has been inactive long enough not to appear in-game or on the armory, but not yet long enough to be released. It’s also possible the name was disallowed at some point; this would prevent the name from being used from that point forward, but existing players would have been grandfathered in.
The SFA’s here, to my knowledge aren’t able to “free up” a name, as that is handled by an automatic system.
As for inactive characters, it’s not about the characters themselves, but the account the characters belong to. The account needs to be inactive for the past 2 expansions before the names become available to others.
And as Praetorian said, it may very well be on the Unavailable list due to its’ slang terminology.
The other way a name is not available or showing on the Armory is if the character is created but not logged in to yet. You would not be able to add one of those characters to your Friends List.
I almost guarantee that name is on the no no list. Like as much as I could without actually seeing the list I would feel comfortable making that guarantee.
The name itself may not be available due to a character service lock. Different things can lock a name to a battle net account for varying lengths of time.
The “verification” is to try and create a new character with that name. If the game allows it, then go for it. If it doesn’t, then choose a different name.
There are a myriad of reasons why the game won’t allow you to use a certain name, and not all of them have to do with it already being taken by someone else.
I would almost guarantee that this name is on a restricted list, so that no new character can be created with it.
Just to provide a bit of an update, the name cannot be added to either friend’s list because the character does not belong to the Alliance or the Horde yet.
