I started the latest PTR and was looking forwards to seeing what the Soul Shards do.
Yet despite buying 30+ Bags Of Fortune, playing a Nephalem Rift, and playing a Greater Rift (lvl 90), I have yet to see a single Soul Shard or Ember.
I have seen other people open a single Bag Of Fortune and have ALL the Soul Shards drop, from EVERY bag, but I have not had ANY. Not one.
Also it seems like the PTR buffs aren’t active.
It seems like I am playing a NORMAL GAME instead of being on the PTR servers.
How can I try out the PTR stuff when there is no PTR stuff?
I mean, the SETS have been updated (the Impale Demon Hunter’s set 6-piece bonus is showing at 75,000% damage instead of 50,000%), but that’s it.
There are no PTR buff icons in the top right of the screen and I can’t get any Soul Shards or Embers at all.
What’s going wrong here?
You’re playing a non-Season Character.
Only Seasonal Characters get the “Seasonal” buffs, bonuses and rewards.
This is NOT a bug.
Thanks for the reply.
It would be great if you could update the PTR Character Copy details in the Diablo 3 PTR 2.7.2 Preview Blog (and future Blogs) to say that “Your copied characters will become non-seasonal, and you will need to create a new Seasonal character to test the new Seasonal Theme and it’s respective Items/Buffs.”
It didn’t state that my characters would all become non-Seasonal by default and that I would have to create a new Seasonal character (starting from level 1) to acquire and test the Soul Shards.
I followed the Diablo 3 PTR 2.7.2 Preview Blog’s “PTR Character Copy” instructions and started with what WAS a Seasonal character - and was confused when I didn’t get access to the new Soul Shards.
I now realise my mistake - due to following the PTR Character Copy instructions, and it not containing the step to “Create a new Seasonal character” or informing me that existing Seasonal characters become non-Seasonal after the copy is performed.
My thanks for correcting my mistake! 
the PTR is for the next season, which means, on that server, the current season ended, the game’s been patched to the next version, and the next season started. This season’s toons aren’t part of the next season. I suppose the PTR blog post could make this explicit, but regardless, that’s not what “PTR Character Copy” is for.
What “PTR Character Copy” is for, is to test the non-seasonal portion of the game on the PTR, with all your stuff from the live servers. I assume a lot of us use it to see how much paragon our ns toon will have as well. I know I do.
I hope this helps clear things up.
There have been close to a dozen of these reports since PTR started. Perhaps we need a sticky of “Not a bug!” like the normal Bug Report page.
Someone else in the PTR Feedback forum also suggested it needed to be made more explicit in the PTR notes which I also support. Just for clarity for new players wanting to help out.
well they should hang a banner there already!
"yes, you will have to start from scratch and level a new char for seasonal testing"
"no, your ptr progress and achievements will not transfer to live server"
i guess this would help a lot of people decide not to participate in testing.
It shouldn’t put them off. With the stupidly high magic find, plenty of legendaries fall even on Normal level. I levelled in quick smart time and had enough blood shards to get some bags from Djank Mi’em and whoooosh away you go!
I had the same problem. I started a seasonal character, and did not acquired any soul shards. I gave up at Gr 84. I decided to PTR copy, and to my surprise my ptr character, that I had created disappeared. All of the effort I put in, wasted. I would call that a bug. My husband also has the same problem. New PTR seasonal character over 700 paragon and not one soul shard.
PTR Copy behaviour is not a bug. PTR Copy overwrites everything on PTR with your live account details.
On PTR, if you’ve got a seasonal character, you should be able to purchase a bag of fortune from Djank Mi’em (giant goat dude):
They contain all this stuff:
( 
)
PTR Character Copy
However, only one region per account can be copied at a time. So, if you choose to copy characters from your account in a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost.
That also means “created PTR characters” as well.
Sorry for your loss. But, this is NOT a bug.
Did both of you do a PTR Copy? Did you Rebirth a Character as a Seasonal Character?
When you do a PTR Copy you’re copying your Characters from the current Season. (Season 24 at this time). The current PTR is for Season 25. So, your Season 24 Characters are automatically converted to non-Season for the PTR.
Screenshots of yours and your husband’s Characters would be very helpful.
This is my current PTR (Season 24, now non-Season) Character:
This is a PTR Seasonal Character I created. (I decided not to Rebirth):
Only Seasonal PTR Characters have access to Seasonal items and rewards.
Thanks for your reply . I do appreciate your feedback. unfortunately I did not have that experience. I did purchase many bags of fortune from the goat man and started a new seasonal character. I purposely chose the witch doctor because I wanted to learn the character. My season 24 is the Barb. my husband chose a different seasonal character also for the PTR thanks again.