WoW Forever Login and Character Creation Errors

Most errors on the WoW Forever character screen since the November 4 launch have nothing to do with your PC. "This ruleset is temporarily unavailable" is a server-side problem that clears on its own. "This faction is currently unavailable due to population imbalance" is Blizzard's faction balance on the PvP rulesets, working as intended. "Creation of that type of character is currently throttled" turned up mostly on Horde PvP, right next to the faction lock. Customer Support can't lift any of them for you.

The faction lock is the one that matters most right now. On November 10 Blizzard said it will become increasingly difficult to create characters on the more populous faction of each region's PvP rulesets, at the moment Horde on North American PvP and Alliance on European Roleplay-PvP. Waiting until 2 AM no longer gets everyone through.

Below you will find a quick table of every message, then what each of the three character screen errors means, how long it tends to last and what actually helped players, followed by the other login error codes seen since launch and a FAQ.

WoW Forever Login and Character Creation Errors at a Glance

The three messages look alike, but they have different causes. One is an outage, one is a deliberate limit, and one sits somewhere in between. The table sums up what each one means and what to do first.

This Ruleset Is Temporarily Unavailable

You see this one on the ruleset screen right after you log in or get through a queue, often with every ruleset greyed out: Normal, PvP, Roleplay and Roleplay-PvP alike. Blizzard Support lists it among the known WoW Forever character errors but hasn't explained the cause. Because it hits everyone at the same moment, it is a server problem, not something wrong with your account or your install.

It has shown up three times so far. During name reservation on October 27, on launch night on November 4, when players who got through a queue of about nine minutes found all rulesets greyed out, and again on November 9 after the emergency maintenance, when the ruleset screen read "This ruleset is currently unavailable" until the servers came back in the evening.

How Long the Ruleset Error Lasts

On launch night the wave died down after about two and a half hours, around 01:30 UTC on November 5. On November 9 it went away when the servers were back up, roughly an hour after the shutdown. Blizzard has given no duration, so treat it as minutes on a normal day and hours during an outage.

What to Do When All Rulesets Are Greyed Out

These steps come from players who got through. None of them changes anything on the server, they only make sure you are not stuck in a stale connection.

1. Click Cancel and log in again. You queue again, and the new queue can be longer: one player who backed out around place 400 came back around place 9,000. If the queue was long, wait a few minutes before you retry.
2. If only one ruleset is missing, pick a different ruleset first and then click Ruleset in the top bar to switch back.
3. Check the realm status page and the Customer Support forum before you reinstall anything. Scan and Repair doesn't fix a server-side error.

This Faction Is Currently Unavailable Due to Population Imbalance

Blizzard Support gives the full text as "This faction is currently unavailable on this realm due to population imbalance." In the game it usually says "ruleset" instead of "realm". It means you are trying to create a character on the dominant faction of a PvP ruleset. When one side is significantly ahead, character creation for that faction is temporarily restricted, the same approach Season of Discovery used. It is not a bug, and Customer Support has said it can't unlock it manually.

On November 10 Blizzard explained the current state. Even the most extreme region is at roughly a 55/45 split of the active logged-in population, which is not close enough. The creation system now looks at the overall faction balance of each region's PvP rulesets rather than at snapshots of single moments, with a 50/50 split as the goal. Blizzard also called the restriction "a necessary trade-off" for the long-term health of the ruleset while guilds and rivalries form.

Which Rulesets and Factions Are Locked

Only the rulesets with faction-based PvP have the balance lock. On the same rulesets, your account can also have only one faction, which is a separate, permanent rule.

As of November 10, Blizzard names Horde on the North American PvP rulesets and Alliance on European Roleplay-PvP as the restricted sides and says these may flip as players settle. European players also reported Horde locks on EU PvP from October 28 through November 9, which Blizzard's post doesn't mention.

How Long the Faction Lock Lasts

Blizzard has not given a timeline. Before November 10 the lock flipped on and off: some players got their Horde character within minutes, others were still locked out four days after launch. Because the system now judges the overall balance instead of single moments, expect the lock on the bigger faction to hold longer and more steadily until the other side catches up. That is our reading of the announcement, not a Blizzard promise.

What to Do If Your Faction Is Locked

Nothing below is guaranteed. These are the steps that worked for players during name reservation and launch week.

• Try again later. That is Blizzard's own advice. Off-peak hours used to help before November 10, but don't count on a night shift anymore.
• Don't spam the Create button. Players who clicked nonstop ran into the throttled message on top. Leaving 15 to 45 seconds between tries, or retrying every few minutes, worked better.
• Restart the client instead of retrying from the same session. Several players got through right after closing and reopening the game.
• Park your name on Normal. A full name is unique across all rulesets in your region, so a character on Normal holds it. Once your faction opens on PvP, delete that character and create the PvP one at a quiet hour: anyone can take the name in the second it is free.
• Roll the other faction or another ruleset if you want to play today. On Normal and Roleplay both factions are always open.
• Don't open a ticket for it. Customer Support can't lift the lock, and it can't restore or delete WoW Forever characters below level 10.

Settling region, ruleset and faction with your friends before anyone clicks Create saves most of this trouble, as our WoW Forever PvP or PvE ruleset guide explains, together with what you can't change later.

"You Cannot Have Both a Horde and an Alliance Character" With No Alliance Left

Since November 5, some players on European PvP who deleted their Alliance characters from name reservation get "You cannot have both a Horde and an Alliance character on the same PvP realm" when they try Horde. Blizzard said this is probably the wrong message for the faction lock and that it is investigating. Two things helped some players:

• Switch to another ruleset and then back to PvP. Blizzard suggested this first.
• Create a new Alliance character on PvP and delete it again. After that, one player got the normal population imbalance message instead, which then cleared like any faction lock. It didn't work for everyone.

Creation of That Type of Character Is Currently Throttled

Blizzard Support lists this message next to the faction one but doesn't explain it, and the same text has existed in Classic Era and Anniversary for a long time. In WoW Forever, the reports on launch night came almost all from Horde PvP, for example players trying to make an Undead Warlock or a Tauren while a friend on the same ruleset got through minutes earlier. For many of them the message later turned into the population imbalance one, so most players read it as another sign that the faction is full. It also appears after many creation attempts in a row.

Players waited anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. What helped them:

• Stop clicking Finish for a few minutes, then try again once.
• Restart the client before the next attempt.
• Switch to another ruleset with the Ruleset button and back to PvP. On launch night this let some players create their Horde character, while others got "No realms are currently available" or the faction message instead.
• If the message keeps coming back on Horde PvP, treat it as a faction lock and use the steps above.

WoW Forever Leveling Help

We take care of the boring stuff while you enjoy the best WoW Forever has to offer!

Buy Now

4.9

Other WoW Forever Login Errors and How to Fix Them

The other errors seen since launch are mostly about the account you log in with or about the servers being under load. The table lists the ones players actually hit, with what Blizzard Support and the players who fixed them recommend.

Login errors are only part of the first week. Our WoW Forever launch checklist covers queues, layering, the extra backpack slots and what to set up before you play.

How to Check If WoW Forever Is Down

The official World of Warcraft realm status page has a tab for Forever. Players reported that it showed the servers as up during the November 9 outage, so if the page looks fine but you can't get in, check the newest threads on the Customer Support forum. If dozens of players post the same error in the last few minutes, it is on Blizzard's side and only waiting helps.

WoW Forever Quick Start Bundle

Level 60, mount and gold ready for launch day!

Buy Now

4.9

More WoW Forever Guides for Your First Days

Once you are past the character screen, these guides help with the next steps: the full first-week checklist, how the rulesets and the faction lock compare, how names and layers work and what the PvP ruleset changes in the open world.

WoW Forever Login Errors FAQ

These are the questions players asked most often on the forums and on Reddit since launch.