WoW SoD: How to preload WoW Season of Discovery

Get ready for Season of Discovery!

WoW Classic Shaman riding a raptor mount in Tirisfal Glades
Screenshot by Dot Esports

If you’re like me, you need to have everything ready for the release of World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery. So, you’re probably wondering if you can preload Season of Discovery.

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Preloading in gaming terminology simply means downloading and preparing the game for playing ahead of its release so you can immediately start playing once it’s live. Season of Discovery goes live on Nov. 30 at 3pm CT, and I know you want to rush straight into Azeroth to avoid long queues and servers crashing. 

Here’s how you can preload WoW Classic Season of Discovery.

How can you preload WoW Classic Season of Discovery?

Unfortunately, it still isn’t clear if you can preload Season of Discovery at all. On Nov. 29, the day before the release of Season of Discovery, I had to download and update WoW Classic, but I can’t tell for sure if this is for Season of Discovery or an overall update for the game. Once I logged into the game to see if Season of Discovery was available, I didn’t see the seasonal realms.

List of NA seasonal realms
NA players can see seasonal realms while EU fans can’t. Screenshot by Dot Esports

It’s important to note that I’m on the EU servers and there Season of Discovery realms still aren’t up. NA players, on the other, hand can see seasonal realms, but they currently have meme names and are offline. So, this leads me to a conclusion that Season of Discovery is preloaded for the NA players, but not for the EU.

So, if it turns out this isn’t a preload, I assume you’ll have to download the game during the release. This shouldn’t take you long, especially given the fact that WoW Classic isn’t a big or demanding game. 

How can you preload your WoW Classic Season of Discovery characters?

A view of the town hall in Lakeshire, Redridge Mountains in World of Warcraft Classic
You can set up your Season of Discovery characters ahead of release. Screenshot by Dot Esports

While it still isn’t certain if you can preload the entire Season of Discovery, you can prepare your characters. This means you can set up your character settings, keybinds, macros, addons, and their settings. 

To set up your character the way you want it in Season of Discovery, follow these steps:

  1. Log into WoW Classic or Hardcore realms
  2. Create your character using the name you want to have on Season of Discovery
  3. Log out of the game
  4. Copy your character’s details from the following folder: “World of Warcraft\classic_era\WTF\Account\Accountnumber\Server\CharacterName”
  5. Create a new folder in Warcraft\classic_era\WTF\Account\Accountnumber\
  6. Paste character details into the new folder

It’s important to note that for this to work, you need to know the Season of Discovery realm you’re planning to play on and your character name. 

Author
Image of Izabela Tomakic
Izabela Tomakic
Staff writer and World of Warcraft lead
Staff Writer & World of Warcraft lead. Izabela has a long history with writing and games like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Fortnite, and The Sims. Before finding her home at Dot Esports in 2021, Izabela was an English teacher and a freelancer at Hotspawn, GGRecon, and Gameranx. In her free time, you’ll find her writing novels, wandering Azeroth, or inting on Summoner’s Rift.