Public Test Realm
 World of Warcraft: Public Test Realm | |
| Developer(s) |
Blizzard Entertainment Team 2 |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS |
| Latest release | See Public client builds |
A Public Test Realm (or PTR, test server, and test realm) is a special server where upcoming features are tested for the next upcoming patch. There are separate PTR servers for each flavor, and each has one or more realms.
You can make a character on the test realm from a copy of one of your characters on a normal realm or from a premade. Whether there will be premade or not will be clearly announced. Players on test realms should not be surprised by character wipes, item wipes, or frequent downtime to make changes or apply patches, so don't get too attached to your character on these servers.
Accessing the public test realm
If there are no PTR accounts available currently, a PTR account can be created by visiting the "Games & Subscriptions" section of the Battle.net Account Overview at account.battle.net/games. Scroll down to the bottom and click the link "Create PTR Account" under the "Starter Editions & Public Test Regions" section of the website.
The Battle.net desktop app will now have a dropdown menu for World of Warcraft (if it wasn't already present), allowing to select multiple PTRs from retail to Classic. Simply select the one you want, download the client and begin playing.
Copy Character will be available to copy a character from the live servers to jump right into testing on the server, however leveling realms tend to not have this available. While playing, the Bug Reporter is available to provide feedback or report bugs for the dev team.
There is a plethora of content used strictly for testing, such as the appearance of the many Flaskataur NPCs providing vending services and many other things.
Games
Blizzard uses the PTR for most of their games but it is used more frequently for World of Warcraft:
- Retail (aka the 2004 World of Warcraft release with the latest expansions), has two available PTRs.
- Classic Era (e.g. World of Warcraft: Classic and Hardcore)
- Classic progression realms (e.g. Cataclysm Classic)
The following games use it on occasion:
- Warcraft III
- Diablo II: Resurrected
- Diablo III
- Diablo IV
The following games no longer use it as development has stopped or just no longer use it:
- StarCraft
- Overwatch, no longer used since Overwatch 2
- StarCraft II
- Heroes of the Storm
Trivia
- In Heroes of the Storm, any purchases made were still accessible but the level and other progress are separate and were periodically reset.
- For Overwatch, it was called the Public Test Region.[1]
- There was also a Tournament Test Realm (TTR) to prepare for the Arena Competition.
Gallery
PTR logo during The Burning Crusade.
Banner from the original website.
Banner from the original website, sometime around patch 3.3.0.
See also
References
- ^ Overwatch Public Test Region Now Available. Blizzard Entertainment (2016-06-21). Archived from the original on 2022-12-25.
External links
- Test realm FAQ
- Latest official Test realm patch notes
- Test realm character copy page
