GUIDE: How to Use the Tournament Realm

Have you signed up for the MDI, or The Great Push? Trying your hand at becoming a Master of the Arena in the AWC? Or are you maybe participating in one of many Community-run events such as the Mythic+ Charity Pro-Am or Keystone Builders?

If you’re participating in one of the many events that take place on the World of Warcraft Tournament Realm Servers, you’ll need to set up characters on those Servers in order to play. The process can be a little daunting, so we’ve got you covered with this extensive how-to guide on setting up TR characters, and what you might need to know for specific events, such as how to earn your Seasonal Esports in-game Banner!

Read on for step-by-step instructions in getting ready to participate on the Tournament Realms!

Table of Contents

Setting Up Your Characters

ACCESSING THE TOURNAMENT REALM

For Official WoW Esports events, you would have needed to sign up via the Raider.IO Tournament Platform. If you signed up properly, you should have received an email from the WoW Esports Admin team confirming that you have been granted access to the Tournament Realm for your event. For Community events, the process for being granted Tournament Realm will vary, so make sure you read the rules and details for those events. If you have been notified that TR access has been granted, but you do not see the Tournament Realm when you login to the game, you may need to refresh your Battle.net Client.

Open up World of Warcraft, and go to your Realm List. At the bottom right corner will be a tab that says Tournament. Select this, and select the appropriate Realm and Region - Arena Champions for PVP events, and Mythic Dungeons for PVE events. Once you are on the appropriate Realm, you can start creating Characters!

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CREATING YOUR CHARACTERS

NOTE: If you want to set up a class that has a level requirement, such as a Demon Hunter, or one of the many Allied Races, you will need to make another character first, and then those options will be unlocked.

Select the Create New Character button, and make whatever you choose! You are not limited on class or race, and you can make as many of the same class as you wish. Reminder that cross-faction play is available so your dungeon team can consist of both Alliance and Horde if you desire. Every character you create will be maximum level but otherwise fresh.

We recommend following the naming rules and conventions as laid out by Blizzard. This makes it easier to assign your dungeon runs or arena matches to a team (if you play with the team you signed up with) on any Leaderboards or Qualifiers. Your characters should all be named in convention with your BattleTag. For example, my BattleTag is Hulahoops, so my Tournament Realm characters are all named Hula____, such as Hulablades, Hulayaya, Hulashoots, etc.

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CHARACTER SET UP: GEAR

Your character will load into the Tournament Realm in Valdrakken with a basic set of gear, a starter talent build, and no professions. Setting up your character can be a daunting task, but it’s also incredibly fun! There are vendors throughout Valdrakken that will have everything you need to get set.



To gear your character, head on over to the Gear vendors, where you can get armor, weapons, trinkets and accessories. These vendors have the best possible gear available in the game at any given time, including all of the Revival Catalyst set and non-set items, so have fun making your character powerful!

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CHARACTER SET UP: SPECIAL VENDORS

When you make a new character, you zone in with 10,000 gold, but if you run out, you can head on over to the Paymaster for more. Additionally, this is where you’ll find specific trainers and vendors for Mage Portals, Death Knight Runeforging, the Beastmaster to get Hunter pets, the Guild Master, the General Goods vendor, and the Transmogrifier.





The General Goods vendor has some pretty useful items, including the Grand Expedition Yak and Town Scrolls, which are used to leave dungeons, as well as a Sack of Stolen Dragon Glyphs, which you can purchase to level your Dragon Riding.

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CHARACTER SET UP: CONSUMABLES & ENHANCEMENTS

Nestled in front of the Gear vendors are Grand Apothecary Alchataur and Veeno, the Consumables and Enhancement vendors, respectively. Here you will be able to load up on potions, food, runes, gems, enchants, tinkers, and armor kits.

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CHARACTER SET UP: PROFESSIONS

Lastly you will want to set up your Professions. The Blacksmithing trainer is located behind the Gear vendors, but the rest of the Profession vendors and trainers are directly across the way. Profession items like crafted gear and embellishments cannot be purchased from a vendor - you will need to skill up professions in order to make these items for your character.





NOTE: If your goal is simply to earn the Seasonal Banner in-game toy, you can probably get away with not worrying about professions. However, if you truly want to min-max your characters and group, here’s what you need to know:

Have each player on your team pick a profession based on the crafted gear and embellishments you wish to have. For example, you may want to have a Leatherworker or Jewelcrafter to craft specific items for themselves and other members of the team. You can send Crafting Orders to your teammates to have them craft items for the others.

Once your whole team has acquired all the crafted gear and embellishments needed, we recommend every player swapping one profession to Engineering in order to access and use the Arclight Vital Correctors (the Battle-rez item).

To learn a profession, you will want to speak to Associate Professor Instructaur, train in the two professions you wish to learn, and then click on “I want to browse your goods”. This delightful Tauren sells you his brain. Purchase Professor Instructaur’s Brain and use the item, and it will give you max level in both professions as well as teach you all of the accompanying recipes. He also sells all of the materials you will need to craft items in the “Bottomless Bags”. Important note: you will only have the maximum skill points for crafting if you are standing next to Professor Instructaur!

Setting up your User Interface

USER INTERFACE: TRANSFER SETTINGS WITH MYSLOT

Your Tournament Realm characters are not considered to be on the same account, so your addons and WeakAuras will not automatically transfer over from your characters on live realms. Additionally, the “copy a profile” option available on many addons will not function as those profiles do not exist. Any addons you have downloaded should automatically populate on the Tournament Realm as long as they exist in the Interface folder under your Retail World of Warcraft client, but without any settings.

We recommend starting out with the addon Myslot. You will want to open this up on your character on a live realm by typing /myslot. Hit Export and it will copy the written data. Open the addon on your Tournament Realm character, paste the data into the window, and hit Import. This should copy over most of your settings for your addons as well as macros and keybindings. It is recommended to save the imported code as a profile, as sometimes the settings can reset when logging out of the character. It is not perfect, however, so you may need to make some additional tweaks and adjustments.

If some of your macros, keybindings, and settings don’t transfer correctly, you can open up your WTF folder (found in World of Warcraft > Retail > WTF), select the Account folder and the proper Account name, then the server of the character whose settings you wish to copy from live realms. Select the character, and then copy the SavedVariables folder. Go back to the server list in the Account folder and select the appropriate TR Realm folder, and paste the SavedVariables folder into it. It will ask you if you want to replace files, hit yes to all.

This should get you to a place where your Tournament Realm character has almost the same User Interface as your live character, but again you might need to do some additional tweaking.

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USER INTERFACE: USEFUL ADDONS (PVE)

For those of you who are not a big fan of using addons, but still want to make the process of setting up on the TR and/or acquiring your Seasonal Banner via the MDI or TGP as smooth as possible, we have compiled a list for you with some of the most useful addons and WeakAuras for playing Mythic+ dungeons.

RECOMMENDED = Recommended addons/WAs that will find use everywhere.
OPTIONAL = Optional addons/WAs that might improve gameplay quality of life.
SITUATIONAL = Situationally useful addons/WAs for those who want to min-max more. You definitely don’t need these to time +15s!

• Myslot: As already mentioned, this addon allows you to import your macros, hotkeys and a variety of other addon-settings from your main character(s). Chat command: /myslot
  
• Little Wigs: Similar to its big cousin, this addon is used to show timers and play warnings for boss-abilities, but in dungeons instead of raids. Chat command: /littlewigs
  
• Mythic Dungeon Tools (MDT): This addon allows you to plan your dungeon routes before starting the key, and you can share them with everybody in the group so you are all on the same page. Chat command: /mdt
  
• Details: Addon that allows you to keep track of all the damage and healing done in dungeons. Also useful for tracking deaths that occurred, and what people died to. Chat command: /details
  
• Custom Nameplates: Instead of using the Standard UI nameplates, many prefer using custom nameplates like Plater (/plater), Neatplates (/neatplates) or KuiNameplates (/knp), which allow for more customization and visual clarity
  
• OmniCD: This addon allows you to keep track of your entire party’s cooldowns, from DPS and defensive CDs, to their interrupts, crowd-control abilities, and their duration. Chat command: /omnicd
  
• Method Raid Tools: Many players use this as a more advanced tool, with features such as showing whether you have all consumables active whenever a readycheck is made, a combat-rez timer, the ability to create notes for cooldown management etc. Chat command: /mrt

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USER INTERFACE: USEFUL WEAKAURAS (PVE)

WeakAuras (WA) is an incredibly versatile and useful tool, that can help you pay more attention to specific mechanics, cooldowns or really anything you desire if you know how to code or find them. We have compiled a list of WeakAuras that will be useful in a Dungeon setting on the TR, or even when playing Mythic+ on the live servers! You can open the settings by typing /wa, where you can select and configure each Weakaura individually.

RECOMMENDED = Recommended WeakAuras that will find use everywhere.
OPTIONAL = Optional WeakAuras that might improve gameplay quality of life.
SITUATIONAL = Situationally useful WeakAuras for those who want to min-max more. You definitely don’t need these to time +15s!

• Causese’s Dungeon WeakAuras: A variety of different WAs that warn you of dangerous abilities or debuffs by Causese.
  
• Mythic+ Auto Marker: You can set up this Weakaura to help you mark enemies with icons like the Skull, Triangle, Moon etc. This can help immensely with assigning interrupts or CCs.
  
• Targeted Spells: Mainly used by healers, this WA helps keep track of any spells enemies cast on a random player. This includes dispellable debuffs or high-damage spells, so you will always be prepared for who will be the target of these.

Seasonal Esports Banner: AWC

There are two opportunities to earn the Seasonal Esports Banner by way of participation in the Official World of Warcraft Esports program: AWC and MDI / TGP.


In order to earn the Seasonal Esports Banner via participation in the Arena World Championship, you will need to sign up with a team via the Raider.IO Tournament Platform. Once your team has been registered and approved, you’ll have access to the Tournament Realm.

Signups for the AWC are based on each individual Cup, and to earn the Seasonal Banner you will need to participate in the Qualifiers for at least one Cup in the Season. After your team of 3 or 4 people has signed up and been approved, you will be provided with a schedule of games during your Qualifier day. In order to earn the Banner, your team will need to check-in and fully compete (no forfeiting) in every one of your Qualifier matches.

As the AWC Qualifiers are double-elimination, each team will have to play a minimum of 2 best-of-5 series. You will earn the Banner as long as you complete every match, win or lose. Keep in mind that unlike the MDI / TGP, the Seasonal Banner is considered a Team reward, not individual. This means that if you have a 4th player on your team, they will also earn the Banner, even if they did not participate in any of the Qualifier matches.

The Banner will show up in your in-game toy inventory automatically within approximately 30 days of the end of the Qualifiers. Congratulations on your new toy!

You definitely do not need to fret about playing the "Meta" composition for your team to earn the Seasonal Esports Banner, but the Tournament Realm does offer you the unique opportunity to try out any class or spec you want – you simply create another character and set it up. If you want to try your hand at one of the classes or specs that is currently being used at the top of the PVP ladders, give it a go!

Seasonal Esports Banner: MDI / TGP

To earn the Seasonal Esports Banner via participation in the MDI or TGP, you must complete each of the two Time Trial (MDI) or Proving Grounds (TGP) Dungeons in time at a Keystone level of +15 or higher. This is an individual reward, so you can do this with any group of people on the Tournament Realm - you are not required to run this with the individuals you initially registered with. Keep in mind, however, that you do need a full team of 5 players to sign up on the Raider.IO Tournament Platform to acquire access to the TR in the first place.

Reminder that you will need to talk to the Turnip NPC to get your Keystones once the Time Trials or Proving Grounds have officially begun. Once you have those and your team is ready, head on over to the Dungeon Teleporter to get sent directly to each of the dungeons - you don’t need to fly there. Run your dungeons in time, and have fun!

The Banner will show up in your in-game toy inventory automatically within approximately 30 days of the end of the Time Trials or Proving Grounds. Your dungeon runs may or may not show up on the TT or PG Leaderboards on Raider.IO, but rest assured that as long as you completed both dungeons in time at level +15 or higher, you have earned yourself a fancy new toy.

While we cannot stress enough that you do not need to worry about playing the “perfect” class to earn yourself your Seasonal Esports Banner, the Tournament Realm also offers you the unique opportunity to try out any class or spec you want – you simply create another character and set it up. If you want to try your hand at one of the classes or specs that is currently being favored by some of the high-key pushing players, go for it!

Make sure to check out the Time Trials or Proving Grounds Leaderboards on Raider.IO to keep tabs on who will be qualifying for the Official Tournaments, and keep your eyes on the Raider.IO Twitter for top-notch MDI / TGP content and coverage!

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