Are there any planes to purge the names of unused characters? I’ve been trying to get a certain name on my realm for years and can’t find any info on the character that has it…it doesn’t show up when searching the armory here or anyplace else, which leads me to believe they’ve been inactive for quite a long time.
Would it be possible to open up certain names that haven’t been used for an extremely long time so that active players could use them?
As far as I’m aware they don’t do this any more.
I think they let people use names if the owner of the account has not subbed for 2 expansions or more.
Makes sense. I guess I’ll have to see if it shakes loose come Dragonflight.
‘All the character names in a Battle.net account automatically become available after the Battle.net account remained inactive for two expansions.’
Re: https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/288423
Sorry no dates included.
They still release names, but don’t announce when it happens. But even if the character is inactive, if the account has game time in the last two expansions, it will not be released.
If I remember correctly, the Legion and BFA name releases took place during the X.2 patch. WoD’s name release took place during the selfie patch, don’t remember if that was considered X.2 patch.
Shadowlands switched things ip by doing the name release during the prepatch. Dragonflight might also do a name release during the prepatch.
Oh good then I can finally get my sis name.
Please do one soon. People hoard names on big realms “just in case”, which is fine, their $15 a month allows that, but the problem is they quit WoW and don’t delete those names.
Why not try…being original. There are only so many ways to spell Legolas, as I am sure you found out.
Go on. Try it.
Anyone else snort-laugh that someone with two special characters in their name said this? They tried twice to get “Silverleaf” and couldn’t because obviously two people already have it.
And there’s also the 1 post count which means they’re not brave enough to be spicy on their usual GD toon.
Leguhliss
Laygolus
Lehgoolase
IMO keep going through the servers until you find one dead enough. Love, Rita, Cat, Gem, Elmo, etc. 0 special characters
i made the original name of what i use 17yrs ago and have yet to come across someone using a similar version… yet i can never get my name on servers we move to, including my latest home of 2 expansions.
i demand satisfaction!! =]
I think that they should free up inactive names more frequently.
My account has been active since Jan 2007, yet I had a character name reserved for a few years waiting for the right class to come along, and logged in one day to see they gave it to someone else and forced a name change on me. Big middle finger to blizz for that.
The name I had before I transfered to Stormrage (and then ZJ) was taken on both so I came up with Abe instead, but I frequently look at the holder of my name. They’re level 41 with still old ilvl system (ilvl 141 for a lvl 41 is impossible)
I just bide my time. Just hoping they stopped playing on any toon, unable to verify if they have a main currently playing or active account whatsoever.
Le sigh.
Blizzard doesn’t take names from people with an active account.
How long ago did you last use that character?
They’ve changed the rules on names a few times.
I think the current system has been in place since wod or legion.
I know in the past you used to be able to put in a ticket to request a name be freed if it wasn’t being used, and if the gm agreed with you it was inactive, they would free it up.
I did that all the time and I was told I could not have a name from anyone with a sub on their account, even back in the day.
The name was reserved on Fizzcrank when it first came online. Not sure when I lost it however.