The public test realms are live! Players can now try out some of the changes and additions coming in World of Warcraft's latest content patch: Drums of War. The highlights of this patch include cross-realm battlegrounds -- where for the first time in the history of World of Warcraft, you will be able to face off against players from other realms in the battlegrounds -- rogue talent improvements, and world player-vs.-players objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands. Read the Drums of War test realm patch notes to learn more.

Note: For this phase of testing, we would like players to focus on cross-realm battlegrounds. The world PvP objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands are still in development and will be patched during the testing process. For a list of current battlegroup designations click here.

Players who had an active account as of 12:01 AM PDT Tuesday, July 11 can participate in the test realms by creating a character, using a pre-made level 60 character, or copying their characters from existing realms to the test realms. To copy a character, visit our public test realm page. Pre-made character copies are available anytime during the testing period, while personal character transfers to the test realm are available from 3:00 AM to 3:00 PM PDT Monday through Friday. The test realm game client, which can be downloaded at the same page, is available for both PC and Mac.

Please be aware that the test realms are designed to allow us to test major content patches before they go public. Therefore, some changes may be introduced to the public test realms during the testing phase, before a patch goes live, and some changes may be introduced to the patch after the test realms have closed. To read more about the test realms, please review the Test Realm FAQ. We truly appreciate players taking the time to help us test the latest changes to the game; thank you all!