Project Lore

What? So soon?! With the Lich King Hard Mode the only remaining unconquered content in Icecrown Citadel (well, for the guilds at the tip of the top, anyway), it may not be that big of a surprise.

Nonetheless, my ears perked up when I heard that WoW-Europe had recently activated their Patch Test Realm forum again, indicating that a new testing phase may be on the way.

Do keep in mind that, despite the curiosity of these events, there is no official indication that anything is about to happen. In fact, Wryxian emphasizes that the PTR is not currently live in one of his posts on the forum:

Thanks for your interest in helping to test upcoming content for us! However, the European public test realms are not currently live. 

"So this is why I can't log into the PTR?" 
Yes, this is why you are unable to log into the public test realms or may be experiencing other errors or difficulties that are related to the fact that there simply is no upcoming content currently being tested. 

"So you'll update this thread when they're live, right?" 
When a new public test phase for upcoming content arrives, stickied threads will be updated -- however it is possible that we may be unable to update the status of this thread straight away. Because of this, this thread might still state the public test realms are offline when they are not -- however this is likely to be only very temporary. 

Thank you again for your patience and support; we greatly appreciate your interest in helping us ensure an ongoing commitment to quality.

Of course, admitting such a thing could be equally as damning. Just because they aren't live at the moment doesn't mean they won't be in a few days, which does jive with Blizzard revealing what's in store for the community with 3.4 "in the coming weeks," including both future PvE and PvP content (Zul'Aman 2.0 plz).

There's really not much else to say at this point other than we'll keep our eye on the U.S. PTR realms for further confirmation and that this is NOT the Cataclysm or 4.0 beta, if it's anything at all.