UPDATA: Looks like you’ll have a bit longer to wait. This message just came in from Blizzard: “We have encountered some delays and the maintenance has been extended for all realms. We currently expect all realms to be playable by approximately 2:00pm PDT.”
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“Additional instances cannot be launched, please try again later.”
If you’ve logged into World of Warcraft at some point in the last few months chances are you’ve seen that line a lot. It’s been affecting the WoW community pretty heavily as many players have been furiously posting on the Official Forums, trying to get an answer as to when this problem was going to be resolved and threatening to quit if it wasn’t fixed soon.
Blizzard posted in this thread that they were aware of the problem and knew how to fix it, but that it was going to take time to upgrade all of the servers. So, Blizzard opted to take down groups of realms for extended maintenance to upgrade their servers. The first round of realms were upgraded on August 14th with another batch of realms getting the upgrade on August 26th. Today, another batch of realms have been taken down for extended maintenance and players on the following realms should soon be saying goodbye to instance problem.
If your realm is on this list expect your server to be down 11:59am PDT, and for the rest of us WoW should be back up and running by 11:00am PDT.
Agamaggan
Aggramar
Alexstrasza
Alleria
Argent Dawn
Arthas
Azgalor
Azshara
Baelgun
Balnazzar
Blackhand
Bleeding Hollow
Bloodhoof
Burning Blade
Burning Legion
Cho’gall
Dark Iron
Destromath
Dethecus
Detheroc
Drakkari
Durotan
Earthen Ring
Elune
Emerald Dream
Eonar
Eredar
Garona
Gilneas
Gorefiend
Gorgonnash
Greymane
Gul’dan
Hellscream
Illidan
Kael’thas
Kalecgos
Kargath
Kirin Tor
Laughing Skull
Lightninghoof
Lightning’s Blade
Llane
Lothar
Madoran
Maelstrom
Magtheridon
Malfurion
Malygos
Mannoroth
Medivh
Moonrunner
Nazjatar
Quel’Thalas
Ragnaros
Ravencrest
Sargeras
Shadowmoon
Shattered Hand
Skullcrusher
Spinebreaker
Staghelm
Stormrage
Stormreaver
Thunderhorn
Thunderlord
Trollbane
Twisting Nether
Ursin
Warsong
Whisperwind
Wildhammer
Zul’jin
To be fair, the “Additional Instances” Issue hasn’t effected EVERYONE as bad as some really High-Pop Realms. In the past few months, I’ve only twice had it pop up, and only a minute or two of waiting has cleared it up for me
It was bad for me on Garona, almost to the point of not being able to do any instance runs at all. Leaving there for lower pop server has helped a ton. Have yet to see that message once since I made the move.
From the looks of things, they’re -really- working on getting these upgrades going. They just posted a new list of realms that’ll be going down for a four-hour maintenance today.