Patch Notes for 2.3 and its ETA on the PTR - World of Warcraft Realm History

Due to arrive within the next few hours according to Hortus:

We are currently prepping PTR for release to the public. We estimate that it will be available after 6PM Pacific time.

Until that time please delete the wowtest folder from within your World of Warcraft directory. Do not attempt to copy characters and do not attempt to download the client.

Patch notes will be posted shortly.

Source

Add to that the following:

I know everyone is going to ask these things so I'm going to post this once. New posts about these topics will be deleted.

There are No Pre-mades for 2.3

All previous PTR characters were wiped.

There are no equipment vendors (McWeaksauce Brothers) on the 2.3 PTR

There will only be TWO PTR servers, no PVP II

The PTR Authentication server was updated on Monday October 8th. If your account was not valid prior to the authentication update you will not be able to participate in the 2.3.x PTR phase. If your password was changed after October 8th then you may be able to use your old password on the PTR.

The new Guild Banks feature is currently turned off on the PTR, it will be activated later.

Source

2.3 Patch Notes have just been added:

Zul’Aman

Zul'Aman is a 10-player, level 70 outdoor instance located in the Ghostlands. Players will be able to confront six new bosses including the Forest Troll Warlord Zul'jin.

Guild Banks Introduced

The Guild Bank is a shared repository for an entire guild and will be accessible through new NPC’s called guild bankers. The Guild Bank will allow players with the appropriate permissions to store items and money for use by the rest of the guild. Permissions to withdraw and deposit money and items are controlled by the guild leader through the guild controls menu. The Guild Bank is divided up into separate tabs so that the guild leader may restrict access or group items into distinct categories.
- Up to 6 purchasable tabs each containing 98 item slots
- Permissions to view/deposit/withdraw per tab
- You may use your Guild Bank withdraw limits to pay for item repairs (now enabled on all merchants)
- Transaction logs of the last 50 actions in the bank viewable on a per tab basis

General

- Experience: The amount of experience needed to gain a level has been decreased between levels 20 and 60. In addition, the amount of experience granted by quests has been increased between levels 30 and 60.
- Expertise: We have added a new stat and associated rating called expertise and expertise rating. Expertise rating converts to expertise at the same rate that weapon skill rating formerly converted at. Each point of expertise reduces the chance for your attacks to be dodged or parried by 0.25%.
- Healing reduction effects will now affect all health drain spells and abilities (e.g. Mortal Strike will reduce health gained from Drain Life).
- Healing: Almost all items and enchantments that provide bonus healing now also provide a smaller number (approximately 1/3) of bonus spell damage. There are a few items and enchantments where this was not possible, such as random-stat items and Zul'Gurub enchantments, but this is now the case on virtually all other items.
- On Kill Effects: Items and abilities that trigger on killing an enemy will no longer trigger on using an ability that kills your pet.
- Weapon Skill: All items and abilities that granted weapon skill have been changed. In most cases, they were converted to expertise or expertise rating. Ranged attacks do not benefit from expertise, so ranged weapon skill has generally been replaced by critical strike bonuses or hit bonuses. In a few cases, talents have been changed to other effects to avoid granting players excessive amounts of expertise.
- A new flight path has been added to the Rebel Camp in northern Stranglethorn Vale.
- Flying units can see ground units and vice versa at any altitude.
- Players no longer gain the moving AOE radius bonus if they are jumping.
- Client spell cast requests are now sent to the server even if your player is already casting another spell. This eliminates the need for /stopcasting in macros to compensate for latency.
- Vendor Discounts: All vendors with an associate faction now give discounts at all levels above neutral.
Friendly: 5% discount
Honored: 10% discount
Revered: 15% discount
Exalted: 20% discount
- Quest givers who have available daily quests will have a blue exclamation point instead of a yellow one.
- Pets will try to get behind their targets when engaging in melee combat.

Racial Abilities

- Dwarf: Gun Specialization now increases chance to critically hit with Guns by 1% rather than increasing weapon skill.
- Gnome: Escape Artist cooldown increased to 1 min, 45 sec.
- Troll: Bow and Thrown Specialization now increases chance to critically hit with those weapons by 1% rather than increasing weapon skill.

PvP

- Battlegrounds
Daily quests have been added targeting a random battleground for that day. Look for Alliance Brigadier Generals and Horde Warbringers near your faction's battlemasters in all major capitals.
Dropping the Flag in a battleground will now result in a debuff that will not allow you to pick up the flag again for 3 seconds.
Druids who are shapeshifted when they receive the Resortation buff from battlegrounds will now correctly regenerate mana.
Players will now be able to cast spells for free in the Battleground before it begins.
Players will now be able to cast spells for free for a few seconds after being resurrected by a Spirit Guide in the Battleground.

Alterac Valley
Additional Warmasters no longer report for duty upon destroying an enemy tower. However, destroying an enemy tower still eliminates the associated opposing Warmaster.
All Warmasters are linked to each other and their respective Generals and can no longer be pulled individually.
Honor from capturing towers has been increased.
All Commanders and Lieutenants have left Alterac Valley in search for other battle opportunities.
Players will no longer be sent to their starting tunnels on death unless that team controls no graveyards in the battleground.
Many NPCs in Stormpike and Frostwolf holds are no longer elite
Bonus Honor in Alterac Valley is now only awarded during the battle for destroying enemy towers and slaying the enemy Captain. Upon conclusion of the battle, bonus honor is also awarded for intact towers, a surviving Captain, and for victory in the battle. The total bonus honor awarded should be similar to the previous total.
The Horde and Alliance now have a limited number of reinforcements available in the battle for Alterac Valley. The number of reinforcements available is reduced upon player death, loss of
towers, and death of Captain Galvangar or Belinda Stonehearth. In addition, all available reinforcements are lost upon the death of General Drek'Thar or Vanndar Stormpike. If a team is reduced to zero reinforcements, the opposing team wins the battle.
Towers and Graveyards in Alterac Valley are now captured in 4 minutes (down from 5).

Eye of the Storm
The points awarded from capturing the flag in Eye of the Storm is now increase based on the number of bases the capturing team owns.

Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm
Additional bonus honor is now awarded upon conclusion of the battle.

Read the entire patch notes log HERE.