Blizzard Entertainment deployed Patch 7.3 (Build 24473) in the PTR servers. When you login into the game, you will get a new quest onscreen titled The Hand of Fate, which sends you to Orgrimmar or Stormwind to board a ship that takes you to the Exodar. From there, you take a portal to the new draenei starship Vindicaar to travel to Argus.

Several heroes travel along: Velen, Khadgar, Illidan, Arator the Redeemer, Vereesa Windrunner, Aethas Sunreaver, Lady Liadrin, and some Class Hall leaders. Curiously, Silgryn (Nightborne) assists the assault team in Argus.

In Argus, you meet Turalyon early on, and try to advance through Legion forces to reach Alleria and other survivors of the Army of Light.

Note: So far I have submitted three bugs:

Bug 1: At some point Turalyon offers two available quests: Threat Reduction and Prisoners No More. Make sure to pick both quests and complete them together. If you complete Threat Reduction, but didn’t pick Prisoners No More — then you can’t pick it afterwards, and when you return to the original spot where Turalyon offered the quest he is no longer there. When you go back to Seat of Annihilation — he despawned there too. So effectively, game broken. You can’t continue through Argus. This will be fixed soon.

Bug 2: Clicking the flightpath at Destiny Point will crash the game, and you won’t be able to login again. Each time you login thereafter the client will crash.

Bug 3: Getting anywhere near the bridge to Shattered Fields causes a client crash. You won’t be able to login afterwards with instant crash.

“Sometimes the hand of fate must be forced…”

Welcome to the Patch 7.3 Public Test Realm! After the events on the Broken Shore and inside the Tomb of Sargeras raid (no spoilers!), it’s time to take the fight directly to the Legion’s home world of Argus. We’re really excited about this update, and are looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback as we head into public testing.

Most (but not all) of the new stuff in 7.3 takes place on Argus—and as you might expect, this is hostile territory. Demons patrol every crag of Argus’s shattered surface, and sometimes it seems as if the planet itself is out to get you. This will be a very story-driven update, but we’re also designing areas with sandbox elements intended to be enjoyed even after you complete the main quest, with gameplay and challenges on the planet’s surface reminiscent of past endgame areas such as the Molten Front, the Isle of Thunder, and the Timeless Isle.

One of the first things you’ll encounter to help you navigate the Legion’s home turf is the Vindicaar: a vessel that will serve as your mobile base of operations—and one of your few safe havens—on Argus. Aside from giving you direct access to a number of 7.3’s new features, the Vindicaar will also be your primary method of transport behind enemy lines. Argus is a no-fly zone, similar to the Isle of Thunder, so to help make sure it’s still easy to get around, the Vindicaar will give you access to an extensive network of teleportation hubs (similar to flight paths, but without the travel time).

There are three main areas to explore on the planet, the first of which is available for testing on the PTR today!

Also in this first build are the first couple of chapters of the 7.3 storyline, and some new and improved casting animations for Restoration Druids, Elemental and Restoration Shaman, Discipline and Holy Priests, and all three Mage specializations (and yes, that includes Arcane Missiles). As with previous patches, player feedback is very important to us as we work to update these animations, so we’re really looking forward to hearing what you think.

(Note: Shadow Priest animation updates are also on the way for 7.3, but aren’t working yet in this build. In fact, some spells are likely to have no animations at all right now. That’s only temporary while we finish getting the new animations ready for PTR testing.)

Other major content that’s contained in Patch 7.3 but not yet complete in this build includes:

  • Further chapters of the Argus storyline, including many cinematic story moments
  • New World Quests
  • Professions updates, including epic gems
  • The Netherlight Crucible, which allows you to upgrade your Artifact to unlock a new way to customize your Relics
  • New dungeon: Seat of the Triumvirate
  • New raid: Antorus, the Burning Throne (though as with other Legion raids, it won’t be released immediately with 7.3)
  • Invasion Points, a new type of replayable content that let you fight the Legion on multiple different worlds
  • Several other improvements and updates to existing features

    • As the PTR process continues, we’ll provide updates with each build on what’s new. Thanks, and happy testing!