Here's a quick PTR FAQ posted by Bashiok.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Q: How do I begin testing on the PTR?
A: When you start Diablo II change your Battle.net gateway to ?ClassicBeta?. When you log in the 1.13 patch will be applied to your game and you can begin testing the changes made in the patch. Since it's a new realm you'll need to create a new account.
Q: I don't see the ClassicBeta realm in my gateway list!
A: Log into one of the other gateways first, then back out and the classicbeta realm will appear.
Q: What if I want to play the normal game again?
A: Simply choose any of the other (non-PTR) gateways. Your game will be reverted to version 1.12 and you?ll be able to play on the live realms as normal.
Q: Where are my characters?
A: The PTR realm is separate from the live realms so your current characters aren?t carried over. You?ll need to create a new character to begin testing. But, cheats are enabled and you may use the following cheats by typing them into chat while in a game:
Gold # - Will provide the amount of gold specified
Level # - Will increase your level to the number specified
Waypoints 1 - Will activate all waypoints. You must still reach an act before that act?s waypoints will be unlocked with this cheat.
Q: What happens to my characters once the PTR testing period ends?
A: They remain on the PTR realm to be removed once the test ends. Characters on the PTR realm won?t transfer to the normal realms.
Q: How long with the PTR run for?
A: As long as we deem necessary to ensure the patch and changes are solid.
Q: Where can I give feedback and what kind of feedback do you want?
A: All 1.13 PTR feedback and bug reports should ONLY be posted in the Diablo II Test Realm Forum here: http://forums.battle.net/board.html?forumId=20601702&sid=3000
- All post should have a subject line that clearly describes the bug or feedback being given
- Use the search feature to ensure a thread doesn?t already exist before posting
- When reporting a bug include as much information as you can, including steps to reproduce it if possible
- Any non-constructive posts may be deleted and the poster?s privilege to post revoked
- This is a chance for you to ensure the 1.13 patch includes changes and balance tweaks that you think would lead to a better overall experience. Getting the information to us in a clear and logical way helps us understand your view and makes it easier for us to collect feedback for any potential updates to the 1.13 patch before release.
Q: What is the new "Mystery" mentioned in the patch notes?
A: It's related to the respec system implemented in the patch and can grant additional respecs beyond the three given for completing the Den of Evil quest in each difficulty. You'll have to play to find out how though.
Here's the new patch notes!
Patch 1.13
A new Mystery has been revealed!
- Players of Hell Difficulty Realm games are hereby warned once again,
that a series of new and challenging tests await you! The answer lies
within Diablo's Bosses, which span across the world from the Den of Evil
to the Throne of Destruction...
Major Bugs
- Fixed an item dupe bug.
- Video improvements for Intel Mac machines with OS 10.5 or greater.
Minor Bugs
- Uber Mephisto now checks for both Uber Baal and Uber Diablo to be killed before spawning summoned minions (Before he would only check for Uber Baal).
- The game will no longer stop and then restart the game music after the window loses and then regains focus.
- Fixed an issue where the game window would minimize when running in windowed mode when it lost focus.
- Fixed an issue where the game window wouldn't center properly when it was created.
Specific changes/improvements
- Respecialization is now possible! Completing the 'Den of Evil' quest will now additionally reward 1 free respec which can be saved. Players who have already completed this quest should receive 1 free respec in Hell difficulty.
- Increased the drop rate of high runes.
- Support for blit scaling in windowed mode. The game can now be maximized to the largest 4:3 resolution supported (hooray widescreen users).
- Some rare drop items now have an orange color. i.e. Runes and items required for Uber Tristam.
- Modified the gold bank limit to be a flat cap not bound by level.
- Nightmare/Hell WilloWisps champions/uniques have had their damage greatly reduced.
- Removed the requirements to create a hardcore character.
- Greatly reduced the explosion damage dealt by Fire Enchanted monsters.
- Uber Mephisto and Uber Baal's summoned minions no longer give experience.
- Removed Oblivion Knight's Iron Maiden curse.
- Hellfire Torch Firestorm proc rate has been reduced to 5%.
- Users can now toggle the display of text over the Health and Mana globes by clicking on the bottom area of each orb.
- Updated two Act 5 mercenary names to Klar and Tryneus.
- When creating a single player game, pressing the 'Enter' key now automatically creates a Hell difficulty game if possible.
- When creating a game, each difficulty button is now bound to a unique key: Normal 'R', Nightmare 'N', and Hell 'H'.
- The 'Enter Chat' Button in the battle.net waiting room is now bound to the 'Enter' key.
- Added the windows system buttons to the game window (MIN, MAX, CLOSE).
- Added new command line parameter '-nofixaspect' which allows users to not fix the aspect ratio to 4:3 when maximizing windowed mode. This lets the game 'stretch' to fill your monitor.
- Added support for '-sndbkg' command line switch. This enables sound in background.
- Added support for '-nosound', '-window', and '-windowed' command line options.
Revised Skill balance for Player Character classes
Amazon
-Immolation Arrow - Increased radius of Explosion effect by 33% and Immolation effect by 50%.
-Immolation Arrow - Explosion effect damage increased by 20%.
-Immolation Arrow - Increased base duration by 33%.
Assassin
-Shadow Master - Increased resistance range per point from 5-80 to 5-90.
Barbarian
-Whirlwind - Reduced initial mana cost by 50%.
-Masteries - Changed critical strike chance from 0-25 to 0-35.
Paladin
-Blessed Hammer - No longer ignores resistances of undead and demons.
Druid
-Werebear - Damage bonus increased by 15% across all ranks.
-Werebear - Increased health by 25% and armor by 1% per point.
-Shockwave - Synergy from Maul adds 5% damage per point.
Necromancer
-Blood Golem - Removed negative shared life effect (player no longer loses life when golem takes damage).
-Corpse Explosion - Increased base damage dealt from 60% - 100% to 70% - 120% of corpses health.
-Poison Nova - Increased base damage by 15%.
Sorceress
-Firewall - Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Inferno and Blaze and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Blaze - Synergy receives 2% damage per point of Firewall and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Hydra - Increased base damage by 15% per rank.
-Hydra - Increased base speed of Hydra projectile.
-Hydra - Reduced cooldown by 25%.
-Lightning Mastery - Reduced overall effect by 15%.
I killed meph in hell and he drop the new key item required for the new event
It looks like a pile of magical dust named charged essence of hatred (i dont know what the exact term is ... its based on my translation)
Now we need to know how many will drop
2) To satisfy the player-base that has consistently questioned the release of the 1.13 patch, despite the numerous posts by the Community Manager on the reason for the delays, Blizzard opened the beta for 1.13 with what they've accomplished thus far.
3) This amalgamation of random fixes was completed by a small development team that has tirelessly worked on content spanning two legacy games. This development team could be used elsewhere, but Blizzard has its fans in mind, and thusly has worked to repolish the Diablo II game for its fanbase.
4) In this author's honest opinion, instead of complaining on how much Blizzard sucks, one should be thankful that Blizzard has not forgotten its Legacy titles like so many other companies have before it, and anticipate the upcoming changes that will inevitably occur. These initial changes are just the stepping stones for what will come.
It's all good Blizz....keep up the good work.
And if this is it for the patch? Then I'm cool with that too
1) Making resistance of players effect magic damages output (hammers,bone skills) like it used to pre .10. Lower resistance was a universally useful skill back then aswell. Plus guess what no 1-2 hit killing crappadins running around spamming hammers and praying to hit something either invisibly or just sitting there spamming around themselves. Uh and why doesn't slow missle effect hammers anymore?????????????????? Hammerdins are a joke make hammers not go invisible outside if nothing else so you can evade a 10-15k dmg hammer outside while youre wrecking other kids and ignoring the moron charging around looking stupid.
2) Uh...hacks wtf address them
3) Monsters and all pvm ingeneral in Diablo2 is a JOKE!! You dont need to make stuff weaker,nerfing curses etc.. You need to do what previous designers did in .08 by making the monsters insanely hard vs their previous state in preperation for the expansion. Pvm blows learn those words and do something about it make this game a challenge?????????!!!!!
4) Nerfing lightning? Wowowowowow if you want to work around cookie cutter builds etc..etc.. like you've been preaching why would you nerf lightning. How about doing a little something about fire,cold I dunno just a thought since theres 100 : 1 fire/cold sorc all using the same crap to the 1 light sorceress be it nova or lightning. Hydra is....blah its still fire based who gives a damn really and whirlwind boosts .....can you please hold my hand and help me make a cookie cutter again please????? Synergies were a connect the dots cookie cutter bs mistake and now you're just some what adding insult to injury. Its bad enough the crappiest kid on the game can now do damage to you because he pumped a synergy or two.
5) How about making polearms/spears worth a damn eh? Their useless player wise unless you're making a joke character looking to suck all the way to lvl 99. Runewords heavily favor axes, 2 handed weapons are disgustingly underpowered even a 50% increase to their base dmg would only level the field pvp wise between a single or dual wielding axe/sword barbarian. How about upping the base ias of a berserker axe by 5 speed to reduce how many runewords reach max ww ias bp even, that may or may not reduce how many cookie cutter bvc characters you see all day. Oh and I love how a tiny ass axe has the same range as a sword/other weapons as big as my character...real smooth.
6) No one gives a crap about respec of skills or stats, it should cost you experience or levels anyhow. I mean after all it was due to inexperience or all out suckage that you messed up that way in the first place. But oooooh no its ok we're here lil guy lets help you out no penalties just throw this skill here and this stat here...we've already givin you a tree that says x skill empowers x skill so there you go get JUST those. We wouldnt want you to actually feel obligated to learn something.
7) How about charges on enigma? Or adding a slight cast delay to teleport? I don't know but some people may actually want to make a speeder barbarian or r/wing melee character/mage again. The r/w boost on the armor is perfect so are all the other mods but all its there for is the teleport/str bonus to 99% of the players. Want to talk cookie cutter again???? Teleporting, base stated,crap flying around the game all day long. Yea thats me too I'll admit it, but id much rather see all the potentially effective builds that cant even be concidered at the moment because everyone can teleport. Delay it or charge it, end of story. Make it something you have to think about doing to escape or be smart about using. Not just another skill to spam.
You know what, disregard all the intelligent things Ive pointed out, thats only some of whats wrong with this game in the first place. Re roll this game back to .09 or even further back then that and quit messing with it. This patch blows, nothing has been addressed. This game started out rather balanced with a few skills being on the weaker side when it was first released...a few changes back then could of been the end all of bs patchs such as this one but no.
This is where i stand completely, i wouldn't be suprised to see more changes, but personally im happy with the current ones. However, (like most the rest of us,) id like the peace of mind of getting confirmation of the extinction of the TPPK. Even w/o it im pretty elated at this point.
Static only gets bosses down to about half and then casting it does like nothing. I do think it should be less effective at lower levels, as opposed to a smaller range. I think the range needs to be increased and the effects lowered. I mean, it's so counter-intuitive. Why should static be so small-ranged? Sorceresses are ranged characters. It just boggles my mind -.-'
And yet... it really was only about two and a half months of work because of the Warcraft III security breach.... oh wait... lets throw out that because it doesn't fit your point.
Agreed. Probably one of the better points made in this thread. I don't think all this anticipation and excitement for the 1.13 patch was created by us, the fans, and us alone. Blizz definitely made it feel like this was going to be something big and bigger than what it turned out so be (so far).
I haven't been this excited for a patch of any kind that I can remember; and it wasn't just because I decided 1.13 was my favorite number.
What about barbs? You don't see speeder Lance barbs anymore cause they are outdated. It's almost impossible to survive with a 2 hander barb out there in duels now cause everyone caters to the Zerker and a have a shield with some insane defense so the 2 hander barb ends up obsolete. Grief is better suited to PvP then a BOTD pole arm ever will be so why would someone choose a weaker 2 handed weapon and lose a shield?
I had to do a double take on it..and it was on the hellforge on NM...so yeah..I'm likin this patch more and more..hah
Nightmare huh? Yeah, that's why this patch sucks.
It also sucks because that's the only thing of benefit it seems; higher drop rates. Woopty-fuckin'-doo.
All the more reason to play with me! C'mon, I must be a fun-loving guy, right?
OMG NO MORE IM IN CHAOS!!!! Now hardcores can roll a zealer or ww barb without being screwed over
Anyways, I like the new windowed modes. Fullscreen (4:3) window that doesnt lose focus if you missclick outside the window, almost got killed many times in HC because of that
Lol first you say that dupe wasn't a big problem and that dupe fix doesn't do much good to the game. Then you say that there is a huge abundance in runes, you didn't figure why was it so? Maybe cause of duping? Oh yea!
Raising rune drop rate doesn't make the worth less because if they fixed duping they will be many times more rare than now. Duping makes runes worth less not increasing drop rates by 3x. As someone said "In 1.13 finding zod will only take you 200 years instead of 800", in 1.12 you can get zod quite easy sinsce they are duped so much.
The wisps huge damage is based on a bug in the game that they probably fixed now and it's ok to fix bugs. Same thing with the fire ench bug.
Howabout playing the game like it should be.. no rush, no leech instead of whining about blizzard removing a huge exploit in the game?
Eh? No threat. This doesn't make CS any easier for non melee. There are a lot of stuff in CS that can kill anyone (conv infector etc at least in classic). Iron Maiden was only pain in the ass for melee characters. And made it really hard for melee classes to compete in high levels because they couldn't really clear the place at all, or many times slower than casters.
Iron maiden was still ok pre-LOD and pre 1.10, I don't understand why they changed the reflection amount. After 1.10 1 hit can kill you which isn't really fun if your character is built to only hit with normal melee damage. Back pre 1.09 you could do whirls in CS when you were a bit careful and didn't go all out on big crowds. Short whirls and leap attack mages first was fun and exciting. Even if you got IM you probably lost about ? hp which was fine. Now you die pretty much instantly.
How about you do that exact method for oh...I don't know 13 years total? Let me know how fun it is to rerun a very boring PvM game since it's so easy multiple times buddy. They didn't fix anything yet again waste of man power. Now instead of instant level 90's we have level 90's in a few days...congrats Blizzard you wasted yet again more man power on something that wasn't breaking the game nearly as bad as multiple other shit.
Chaos is a joke without IM. What's there to fear? Amp damage? How much life you got...1000? Oh no that lower res inferno those lords do on you are deadly! Chaos is a joke and can easily be run by any class, even melee could do it before if they were smart. They should of just modified the % of damage instead of removing it totally cause now Chaos is just as I said a joke. There is no threat unless you are bad and get taken out in PvM in a game where they essentially build your character up as a god.