This comes up often enough in World of Warcraft that it deserves a straight answer rather than a thread to scroll through.

Short answer

The direct answer is above the fold; the reasoning underneath is there for when the direct answer does not fit your situation.

  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.
  • Check which version any conflicting advice was written for.
  • Write down what you changed, so you can undo exactly one thing if it goes sideways.

Twenty years of expansions mean half the advice online describes a version that no longer exists. It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does. The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here.

The practical answer

None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests. Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of World of Warcraft. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

What to do instead

Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time.

  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.
  • Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.
  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Note the exception cases — they are specific rather than vague.
  • Read the whole sequence once before doing the first step.

When the usual advice fails

Everything below is framed around the current state of World of Warcraft rather than a launch-week impression. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration.

Worth knowing alongside this

Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. World of Warcraft is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts.

Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

Why it works this way

If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later.

Where people go wrong

  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.
  • Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.
  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.
  • Rushing the last step, which is usually the one with the actual requirement in it.

WoW FAQ

What is the short answer?

It is the paragraph near the top. Everything after it exists for the cases where that paragraph does not quite fit.

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

Why do other guides describe this differently?

Most were written for an earlier version and never revisited. Compare the steps against what your build actually shows.

Does this change between platforms?

The behaviour does not. Where menu paths or prompts differ, that is noted above.

Come back to the caveats list if it does not work first time — the answer is almost always in there.