PTR: A Guide To Getting Started

I know there's plenty of guides to getting started when it comes to Public Test Realms (PTRs). However, I encountered an issue when I tried to access the PTR for Patch 5.4. yesterday - for which I couldn't find any obvious answers. Fortunately the boyfriend was able to have a think about it and we found a solution. In my quest for answers I noticed that the forums were indeed full of people encountering the same issue as me so I decided to compile a guide to the process in general and how I fixed my particular issue.


1. Downloading the PTR
Firstly, you can only download and play on the PTR when there is an open PTR. If there is then you need to log into your battle net account (i.e. eu.battle.net). Once on your account summary page you need to click 'download game clients' on the right hand side.



Account summary page and 'Download Game Clients' link.

This will take you to a new webpage where you can pick your OS and download the appropriate game client. The current PTR is a pretty big download so you may want to leave this going and do something else.



PTR Download.

2. Logging in and Error #107
Being a bit of a noob I launched the PTR thinking I'd be able to log in. Instead I was greeted by Error #107. I didn't think about taking a screenshot but the message was something along the lines of:

"Battle.net Error #107: There was a problem logging in with this account. You may not have a World of Warcraft game attached to your account, or you may be logging into a region different from the one you created the account in. If you continue having trouble, please contact Customer Support."

This is the point where I searched the forums to find very little help and the boyfriend stepped in with a vague memory of the first time he downloaded a PTR.

Logging back into my battle.net account summary there was no PTR listed in my game accounts. I'm assuming that this is what caused the error message - as far as battle.net was concerned I did not have the PTR attached to my account. Makes sense. I managed to solve this issue by copying over a character.

Can you see the PTR?

No PTR account listed? Click on your MoP Account.

3. Copying over a character

I clicked on 'World of Warcrafy: Mists of Pandaria' game (my accounts a little confusing as I have a trial account attached also). This takes you to the game management webpage where you can check out your subscription details etc. Scroll down and click the 'Additional Services' tab.

 

 

Here you will see options relating to the 'Arena Pass', 'Public Test Realm' and 'Blizzard eSports by ESL TV'. Clickong on the PTR link sends you to a page where you can view all of your characters and copying up to 4. You simply click on the charcter you'd like to transfer and follow the on-screen instructions.

Following this, when I returned to my account summary page the PTR was now appearing. When I attempted to log-in it went through first time no issue.

 

I hope this proves to be helpful to anyone else suffering from the dreaded Error #107 message! Happy PTR times!