Info
A Public Test Realm (PTR) is a special server used for testing upcoming content. Similar to an open beta The Hearthstone beta was the beta test phase in the development of Hearthstone, following the alpha test. The beta test began in its closed phase in the Americas region on Aug. 16th 2013, and in test, a PTR helps to test for bugs, gather feedback and fine-tune game balance.
Hearthstone The Hearthstone icon Hearthstone (formerly known as Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft 1] 2]) is a free-to-play digital collectible card game from Blizzard Entertainment. It was first announced in a presentation by Rob Pardo at the does not currently use a PTR, but evidence first noted in 2016 suggests that one may be planned for the future.
In Hearthstone
While commonly used for Blizzard games such as World of Warcraft World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Blizzard Entertainment. The game was first released Nov. 2004, and has since seen six expansions: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of , Heroes of the Storm Heroes of the Storm, colloquially referred to as Heroes or HotS, is a "hero brawler" game created by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released Jun. 2, 2015. Heroes of the Storm featuresSpecial attraction characters from across several , and Overwatch, Hearthstone has traditionally not used a PTR, with the developers instead choosing to focus on internal testing - both among the development team and among the wider pool of other Blizzard staff - to explore and refine their ideas. The developers have previously stated that one reason was that a PTR would require making each new set of cards available to players for at least a month prior to their actual release, causing content to age more rapidly and the new meta "The metagame is the mix of different decks that players bring onto the ladder, that you can expect to see. If you know what decks players are bringing, your deck can be especially good against to be "solved" sooner, possibly even before release.
In mid-Jul. 2016, evidence of a Hearthstone PTR began to appear. On Jul. 19 Hearthpwn.com noticed a new build that included encrypted data for a PTR. Reports surfaced a few days later of an option during the card pack code redemption process, which allowed players to select a "Public Test Realm (PTR)" as the target server for their card pack, alongside the regional Hearthstone is divided into four geographical regions: Americas, Europe, Asia and China. Each country Hearthstone is available to play in is assigned to one of these regions. Each player by default uses their Battle.net account Americas, Europe and Asia servers.
Given the developers` stance regarding PTRs, internal testing and wanting to avoid spoiling cards in advance, it is possible the PTR may be intended exclusively for testing new features or changes to the client, in order to avoid bugs and server difficulties when the content goes live.