Balmung hasn't been shut down to new character creation... before patch 7.1, that is. I made a new character there during that time (I transferred my main not too long ago and wanted to have a backup in case congestion got in the way of visiting friends)

However, I noticed recently (since the most recent patch) that Balmung is *always* closed, even to DC travel. Doesn't seem to matter if it's active hours (Like 4-8PM CST) or inactive hours (even as late/early as 4AM CST), it seems to always be "congested". It's a little annoying for me bc I can't go visit past friends on my main that I switched to Primal, so it's been helpful that I have my "backup"

I just don't understand why it's congested even to DC travel. Surely Balmung is not overly congested at early morning hours 24/7? Then again, maybe it is since a new Ultimate just released and maybe people need to get through that a bit before DC travel goes back to normal, IDK

Back to original point though, not sure if you're looking to transfer/create a character, but you can track which servers are currently accepting new characters/transfers by looking up the server status online on the Lodestone. If it says congested, that means you're out of luck until the next patch, where it *may* open to new characters/server transfers. Big emphasis on may, bc Balmung has always been a more difficult server to make characters on since FFXIV skyrocketed in popularity. I remember when a lot of servers on Crystal, Primal and Aether used to have preferred status and everything, seems like a thing of a past at this point with so many NA data centers going congested all the time