WoW Classic: How to reserve your name

wow classic name reserve
(Image credit: Blizzard)

Before the official launch of WoW Classic later this month, Blizzard is allowing anyone with an active WoW subscription to reserve their names early. As of August 12, name reservation is live, and you can nab names for up to three characters.

Here's how to lock down the names you want.

WoW Classic name reservation: How it works

The process is pretty simple. Here's a quick rundown of how to get into WoW Classic and reserve your preferred name.

  1. Install WoW Classic (it's a little hidden)
  2. Choose your realm carefully
  3. Create a character and name it accordingly

1. You'll find WoW Classic in the Blizzard launcher, but not on the left-side bar where every other game is. It's within the launch page for vanilla WoW under this dropdown menu. Select it to launch or install WoW Classic.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

2. Once you're in, it's important that you choose the right WoW Classic server (Blizzard calls them realms). You have a choice between normal, PvP, and roleplaying servers. Reserving a name for one realm doesn't save it on another, so choose carefully. If you're playing with friends, decide on a server together.

3. If you're confident with your server choice, go ahead and create your character. You can't actually play the game yet, but it's a good opportunity to get matters settled so you can jump right into the circa-2006 goodness when August 26 rolls around. And the sooner you get in there, the more like you are to get the name you want. Hurry up and reserve Gingerspicefan99 before someone else does.

Via Reddit user Fjoora

Via Reddit user Fjoora (Image credit: Blizzard)

Here's the login screen once you've created a character and reserved a name. It's as simple as that. And remember, you can reserve up to three characters per account.

Blizzard also notes that all of your characters in a PvP server must be aligned with the same faction. That's a fair limitation. Otherwise, you could scope out PvP targets on your Horde character and then quickly switch to Alliance for an ambush.

Morgan Park
Staff Writer

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.