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%.
Agreed. And not even just that, where's the lore? The bite? I know we weren't promised anything as that or anything ground breaking, but with a CONTENT patch I'd like to be able to look at the patch notes and see CONTENT. All I see is bug fixes and this mystery bullshit they're jerkin' us around with. Like someone said before, where's ANYTHING the fans suggested? They made a big deal about how they're taking opinions and thoughts from fans and all that wonderful jazz but bring nothing to the table.
Way to blow your load early, Blizz.
They do have a test realm up right now. What do you think that's for? Why can't they let the players do most of the work for them, then program in the new numbers...
I doubt it's that easy to make all the changes you suggested, new difficulty, 150-200 lvl, items etc.. Thats like making a new expansion.
Who the hell knows. None of us are game programmers.
And if they added the Cow Level as a quest - pseduo-new content
It really shouldn't be that hard. They should be able to change some numbers, allowing for higher levels, and copy/paste for new difficulties, while changing more numbers. And for new rune words and crafting, more copy and paste kinda stuff, then indicate the new stats on them, and runes to be used, stuff that's already mostly coded into the game. Even crafting should be fairly easy to add.
This is of course assuming that the game was coded with some sense that it may be changed. A smart programmer would make it easy to read, understand, and easily upgradeable. There should be 1 and 99 indicating 1 as minimum level and 99 as maximum, change the 99 to 200, and done. The level ip should be pre-programmed as +5 stats, +1 skill, +whatever else. And skills are already maxed at 20. There are plenty enough skills to last through 200 levels. Only problem I see is new item stats for higher difficulties. Even there, it's just copy, paste, upgrade, rename, done. Or it should be if the game was programmed properly.
Anyways, it can't possibly be too hard to add more levels. Unless they programmed each level specifically as it's own thing, which would be..retarded. Even then, it's just a matter of copy, paste, update, copy, paste, update...
How long it took to make 1.10? We got some new content, synergies, runewords etc in that patch and the team building it was most likely a lot bigger at that time.
How long it took to make 1.13? Even now, I wish they just reverted to 1.09.
Like I said before, test realm. Why do they have that up, if not for balancing? Is it really a preview realm?
And still, I ponder the question of why the test realm is up. There doesn't seem to be anything to balance, or even test. Not yet anyways... *fingers crossed*
Really? That's pretty interesting stuff you got there.
Guess you guys should do it since it seems to be so easy.
I was hoping they would add some content(optional bosses, etc) across difficulties instead of limiting them to hell mode. I would have also liked to see the occurrence of hell immunes greatly decreased. Sadly, none of the changes they made seem to have any significant change to single player aside from altering a few builds.
:diablo:
ummm its people like you that make the game suck... all you want is to make the game as easy as it possibly can be... the game is already incredibly easy as is.. Hell is the only semi-difficult one which makes it fun.
Where did Stoaster get that Diablo smiley?
Update: We have a Diablo smiley!!!!!:diablo::diablo::diablo:
This popped into my head; Does the heroes insignia thingy do anything now?
Anything less than that is bullshit.
Blizzard gotta add some changes until the PTR is over.
Edit: @Umpa: You mean the standard of heros? I dont think it does anything. It has been confirmed before that the SOH is only an item you can show people to prove that you did UT.
There aren't any.
That is all
You will know when it is final as the Ladder Reset will coincide with it.