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%.
Dupes are the only reason the economy is trash.
There wont be any abundance once the ladder resets.
They make your first couple of runs through the game hell. Once you get a good item base they aren't much of a problem but it's still broken.:rolleyes:
That doesn't sound extremely broken to you?:confused:
An instakill challenge isn't fun at all.:mad:
Maybe they will nerf it more, the patch is still in testing.:thumbsup:
Any other company would have stopped patching and balancing 3-5 years ago. Most companies do not put legacy teams on games that are 10 years old. Not only that but Blizzard has a sequel in the works and they are still improving D2.
Plus being disappointed about a patch that is still in public testing is lame. Its not even final yet.
Blizzard makes no money (maybe from that ad banner) from battle.net play and a new patch isn't attracting a whole lot of people to purchase the game. And those who do are only paying $20.
I guess what I'm saying is, if you want more content, wait for D3.
How many companies have games that are standing after 10 years and still have a very large fan base? Letting the game rot would be a horrible business move, especially when it still in the run for it's genre.
Of course there is a sequel in the makes, and what about people that don't know about Diablo? They are probably gonna get Diablo 1 and 2 and find out about it, so let's not patch the game and leave it broken so it hurts Diablo 3 sales...great idea.
It's public testing the changes they made, they never said they were gonna add anything else. They are testing these changes to make sure they are good then that is it. This is the patch. Just checking to see if it all works. I doubt they will make any major changes to what is already done.
AHAH lolll.... I cannot say all why... I just show a few example...
Static field is the best skill, yes but you need only 1 point. (unbalanced)
Poison dagger is bad, especially because you need to hit the target before, and attack rating are bugged...
inner sight are bad because it's not % only stats (end-game is craps)
sanctuary you said only 1 point (unbalanced)
fist of the heavens triggered when you don't want (if you put it on the left click(if you want aura with))
I listed that, because few are useless, few need only 1 point to pwn and few are bugged...
Runes are very poor... runewords are overpowered..
Seems like the displeasure is spreading through...
Good that Bashiok responded the way he did, had he tried to defend the horrible patch it would of made Blizzard look worse.
haha I almost peed my pants! Thank you for the laugh.
Bashiok's response has made me curious...I was expecting him to go into super mega turtle defensive mode. I'm interested to see how things unfold.
Actually, that is false. Baishok has already implied that these are just preliminary changes to test. This was to satisfy everyone who has complained in one form or fashion about the length of time between the initial post about 1.13 and now.
Just imagine how long that will take.
Seriously, people are taking this for granted. Blizzard is updating legacy content... that's like Westwood (EA) updating Command and Conquer Red Alert 2. We should be honored that Blizzard is thinking of us and wants to make an outdated game still fun after all of these years.
Don't bite the hand that feeds.
It's not that funny. In order to see // participate in the Beta, the client software must be updated to reflect the changes of the previous patches that the Beta utilizes. Otherwise incorrect information would be transferred, and your game would crash.
Just sayin'
^^^^ This.
They weren't game balancing patches, nor were they game enhancing. They were (mostly) bug fixes // hotfixes.
You are correct.
I believe so.
Blizzard: [Professor Farnsworth] Good news, everyone! [/Professor Farnsworth] We're going to create a new patch for Diablo II! It's going to be super awesome!
Fans: HORAY!
Blizzard: Hey, go ahead and make a big list of things you want to see in the new patch on this thread on our forums! We'll look at it and take your suggestions to heart!
Fans: HORAY!!!!
Blizzard: Cool, well, it's April now and it should be out really soon! A few weeks at the most!
Fans: HORAY!!!!!
-Months go by-
Blizzard: Bad news, everyone. Other games are getting patched now, so we're delaying Diablo's. But don't worry because it's going to be super awesome and worth the wait!
Fans: Horay!
-Months go by-
Blizzard: It'll be here eventually! Still going to be super awesome!
Fans: Horay.
-Patch releases out of nowhere at almost the end of the year, almost 8 months after it was originally supposed to be released-
Blizzard: We've finally released the patch! It has almost nothing that most of you wanted, but it's still super cool!
Fans: ..... ASS!
Not one new weapon, armor, quest, item of lore, rune, runeword or affix (AFAIK).
It makes me sad to realize that the change that I am the most excited for involves the pretty new colors for existing item names (admittedly, this is actually kind of nice). Hopefully this changes and is only temporary, but I won't hold my breath. Make me wrong, Blizzard. PLEASE.
</troll>
Not only that, they have a small dev team working on this... and they just released what they've gotten done so far with the insinuation that more will come.
So, before freaking out and bashing Blizzard... be thankful that you have some updates rather than none.
lolwut?
Are you bloody serious? Go out and buy the game again? Blizzard made its money off of Diablo II a long time ago. They make their money off of WoW now, and oh boy do they. They don't care if you spend $20-$40 USD on the game.... they want to appease the fans.
*flameshield*
So they did what you whiners made them... release the beta early. Now, you ungrateful wretches are complaining that the patch isn't good enough? Their small dev team has been tirelessly working on Warcraft III's security issues... issues that supersede Diablo's content and balancing issues. You screamed, you whined, you complained, and Blizzard caved and gave you a beta for what they have thus far.... and what do you do?
You scream, whine, and complain. You outta be ashamed of yourselves.
*flameshield*
I'm thinkin' somebody found out way too early that Santa was real, and hated him.
Let me explain this from a different perspective.
I'm a GnR fan. We had to wait 15 years for an album, and didn't hear a damned thing for....well...almost 15 years. There was confidentiality agreements, lawsuits, lawsuits against fans, fighting, bickering, anger...
Now, I'm also a Diablo fan. We've gotten updates, input, we're beta testing the game right now, and the company has a rep out there (Bashiok) answering all our questions, as best he can, almost daily.
Yeah, I'm thinkin they're doing it for the fans.