Summary
- World of Warcraft Classic consolidates Realms on September 19, closing all but 2 to new players for Season of Discovery stability.
- Character moves to specified PvE/PvP "megaservers" will be facilitated, with limited name reclaimation.
- Season of Discovery offers new content such as class-altering Runes and challenges to iconic encounters.
World of Warcraft Classic has officially revealed the plans for its massive Realm consolidation in Season of Discovery Realm that will take place on September 19. With all but two Realms for this World of Warcraft game mode closing to new players, this should be the final time Season of Discovery fans have to move their characters until the end of the experiment.
Season of Discovery is World of Warcraft Classic’s most recent experimental game mode in which players can find class-altering Runes, challenge new versions of iconic WoW encounters, and even explore never-before-seen dungeons. As it has gone on, WoW Classic Season of Discovery has had to consolidate its Realms a number of times to keep the servers healthy. Recently, World of Warcraft announced it would be doing so one final time, with the intention of having a single PvE and PvP “megaserver” in each region.
Now, World of Warcraft has revealed when these plans will be set in motion. On September 17, Wild Growth will become the main PvE server, and Crusader’s Strike – or Living Flame for EU players – will become the main PvP server. Characters on all other servers will have access to Free Character Moves to the WoW Classic Season of Discovery megaserver that matches their original Realm. Players will be allowed to remain on their original Realms, but the servers will be locked to new accounts, with only those with characters already on the server able to create additional toons.
WoW Classic Season of Discovery Realm Consolidation Schedule
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September 12
- Character creation on destination Realms – Wild Growth (US and EU), Crusader Strike (US), and Living Flame (EU) – is temporarily disabled.
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September 17
- All Realms except for destination Realms are locked to new players.
- Free Character Moves to destination Realms become available for all characters on other Realms.
- Names of characters inactive since July 11 can be claimed by new or transferring characters.
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September 19
- Character creation on destination Realms is reopened.
To facilitate this transition, character creation on the Crusader’s Strike, Living Flame, and both US and EU Wild Growth have been disabled. This is to prevent players from claiming names ahead of the consolidation so transfer characters will have a better chance at keeping their existing ones. Character creation on these servers will re-open on September 19, a couple of days after transfers begin.
In addition, World of Warcraft will be using the Name Reclamation feature with this move, allowing both transfers and new characters to take names of toons from accounts that haven’t logged into the game since July 11 – the start of WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 4. Fans who haven’t played since then, but who wish to keep their names, will want to make sure they log in to Vanilla World of Warcraft before the merger.
Hopefully, this is the last time Season of Discovery players will have to worry about transferring their characters until World of Warcraft brings the experiment to a close. That said, Phase 5 of WoW Classic Season of Discovery starts on September 26 – the week after the Realm consolidation – so fans still have plenty of time before they have to worry about that.
