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WonderingSoul
12-11-09, 01:42 PM
Blizzard released a beta patch. You can only play it on the beta realm.

Here's a list of some of the things changed:

“We traveled for an eternity...” - Marius

Travel no longer my friends - the Diablo II 1.13 Public Test Realm is LIVE!

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.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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%.

joedymueller
12-11-09, 02:19 PM
if they have the "B" team working on WoW, I can't imagine what team is on this patch :D

ozzlo
12-11-09, 03:25 PM
that's a silly question :D

Mr. Chambers
12-11-09, 05:26 PM
OMFGWTFBBQ!!!11

(No but seriously I've been waiting for this patch to tide me over until D3).

Looks like I have to find my D2 disks again...

boarderjw
12-11-09, 05:48 PM
Nice. I'll have to check this out.

Marshmallow64
12-11-09, 06:26 PM
Wow still major updates to this game. Amazing. Still waiting on D3.....

Firey_chasm
12-14-09, 09:12 AM
this will tempt me to reinstall :) (when it hits main realms)

WonderingSoul
12-14-09, 09:21 AM
I gambled a Kira's Guardian :D

Tumnus
12-14-09, 09:26 AM
I gambled a Kira's Guardian :D

Don't tempt me...

Also, stats?

Krogen
12-14-09, 09:44 AM
Time to reinstall the game. :D

Omsion
12-14-09, 11:12 AM
Hydra buffs? :D

I'd always loved that skill back when I played even though it sucked.

shadin
12-14-09, 02:16 PM
A patch is great and all, but I've never managed to get D2 working properly since I changed over to a x64 OS a few years ago.

Krogen
12-14-09, 02:33 PM
A patch is great and all, but I've never managed to get D2 working properly since I changed over to a x64 OS a few years ago.

Installed it on Vista 64 and worked just fine for me.

I now have Windows 7 64, never tried to install it but haven't found a game yet that wouldn't work. (but then again, I don't play too many old ones...)

I think you should try again. ;)

WonderingSoul
12-14-09, 02:38 PM
If you guys have valid CD Keys you can make a www.battle.net account and register the keys. Once registered you can download an installer directly to install the game.

shadin
12-14-09, 04:36 PM
Installed it on Vista 64 and worked just fine for me.

I now have Windows 7 64, never tried to install it but haven't found a game yet that wouldn't work. (but then again, I don't play too many old ones...)

I think you should try again. ;)

Hmm, yeah, I'll give it another shot. I tried it on XP x64 and then the Win7 RC with no love. Third time's the charm, right?

Krogen
12-14-09, 04:48 PM
Hmm, yeah, I'll give it another shot. I tried it on XP x64 and then the Win7 RC with no love. Third time's the charm, right?

Did you try all modes? Direct3D, DirectDraw, or opengl (3dfx mode)? One of them should usually work if the default one doesn't. :-/

e6600
12-16-09, 04:37 PM
this is great
i can finally redo some of the skills on my 90+ chars

Dolk
12-16-09, 04:42 PM
Ok so I'm going to find my Nightmare chars again and play, if anyone is interested in joining up with me for some online DII 1.13 action hit me a PM. Lets plan some raids ;)

nightelph
12-16-09, 07:23 PM
A patch is great and all, but I've never managed to get D2 working properly since I changed over to a x64 OS a few years ago.

Download MS Virtual PC and load a 32bit version of XP or whatever. :)

AngelfireUk83
12-16-09, 07:28 PM
There still patching it lol I stopped playing about a year ago as I started to get bored still have my sorcess thou shes lv74 with kick ass items I was on HELL mode at quest 4 or 5 to save that old man.

Im waiting on D3 now.

Firey_chasm
12-17-09, 02:59 AM
*drool*
-Poison Nova - Increased base damage by 15%.

good luck standing against my poison nec now :D (poison nec my fav char by such a long way) - gotta bring him outta retirement if he isnt expired, maybe even push him up a few levels (only 90 atm)

theflash083
12-17-09, 07:49 AM
diablo 2 works on windows 7 64 bit for me?

Dolk
12-17-09, 02:35 PM
Use -w to open it in windowed mode and than it will work.

rumbl3
12-18-09, 08:07 AM
wow is the patch out now or still beta? I'm been playing lightly off and on waiting for the new patch. Guess it's time for me to come back and get another druid going on hardcore.


Any hardcore players? Seeing that you can start one now without beating the game is awesome also.

SunTzu69
12-21-09, 11:35 AM
I could completely get into this patch and really enjoy the D2 experience all over again. However, for me getting an update to the low resolution would be a must. Not getting any update to the graphics kills this patch for me, personally.

My eyes just can't get used to it on my widescreen monitor.

WonderingSoul
12-21-09, 12:12 PM
I could completely get into this patch and really enjoy the D2 experience all over again. However, for me getting an update to the low resolution would be a must. Not getting any update to the graphics kills this patch for me, personally.

My eyes just can't get used to it on my widescreen monitor.

I have the same issue. I just run the game in window mode.

SunTzu69
12-22-09, 06:40 AM
I have the same issue. I just run the game in window mode.

I tried that and it did help. Other things that made it better are a high res hack that you can use off battle.net, and there is a driver kit that emulates the voodoo cards for future generation video cards (I forget the name but it's fairly easy to find - GlideXL perhaps?).

If I could use those on Battle.net I think we would have a winner. Blizzard does not allow the higher res patch because it increases field of view and gives an unfair advantage. I don't mind that if I'm just doing non-battle.net dungeons, LAN, etc. Still makes it more enjoyable.

Krogen
12-22-09, 11:03 AM
It's not just that higher resolution gives unfair advantage. I think they would have already enabled that, but the game originally was developed with <800x600 resolution in mind, and anything much higher brakes the game. The AI trigger is set to something around 1000 pixels, if you would go with a higher resolution you would find that the NPCs would be just standing there. Knowing that you could avoid them altogether or aggro smaller packs.

sulretal
12-22-09, 06:51 PM
Now, if only they would fix the imbalanced Blademaster on Wc3 TFT ... :)

SunTzu69
12-22-09, 08:07 PM
It's not just that higher resolution gives unfair advantage. I think they would have already enabled that, but the game originally was developed with <800x600 resolution in mind, and anything much higher brakes the game. The AI trigger is set to something around 1000 pixels, if you would go with a higher resolution you would find that the NPCs would be just standing there. Knowing that you could avoid them altogether or aggro smaller packs.

Yes, that is accurate. Over LAN, I still prefer to play like that with friends, but over B.NET it is not permissible.

In any event, hats off to one of the best titles ever. I am looking forward to D3 and I really envy those that can still fully enjoy D2. It is a fantastic game.

updawg
12-22-09, 11:45 PM
The reason why they don't increase the game resolution is the same reason they had to axe the increased stash size planned for this patch. It takes up to much bandwidth and the servers can't handle it. The servers would have to send more information about the surrounding area then it already does and their old hard ware can't handle it.

Also they need to reduce hammer damage, stop the TPPK hack for hard core players, and either some how eliminate botting or just remove enigma altogether.

The skill trees need to be rebalanced as well, a fire elemental druid is out of the question. Assassin martial arts skills need buffing as well as ice/fire on amazons.

They also need to remove the respec aspect from being farmed from act bosses. This would totally cripple dueling. Someone can max a certain skill cast it (like Battle Orders, Venom, Energy Shield) - then respec while still having the skill and max just attack skills. They need to limit the respec to the den quest on each difficulty only.

If they somehow are able to incorporate all this into this patch it will make this the best game ever made... next to starcraft.

Evilsizer
12-23-09, 12:58 AM
Did you try all modes? Direct3D, DirectDraw, or opengl (3dfx mode)? One of them should usually work if the default one doesn't. :-/

Well just to be clear, 3DFX mode is Glide, not OpenGL. there are OpenGL wrappers to use the Glide API. D2 is suppose to run the best on DD and Glide modes. though with todays HW, D3D shouldn't be a issue anymore.

Zenoth
12-26-09, 07:52 AM
The reason why they don't increase the game resolution is the same reason they had to axe the increased stash size planned for this patch. It takes up to much bandwidth and the servers can't handle it. The servers would have to send more information about the surrounding area then it already does and their old hard ware can't handle it.

Also they need to reduce hammer damage, stop the TPPK hack for hard core players, and either some how eliminate botting or just remove enigma altogether.

The skill trees need to be rebalanced as well, a fire elemental druid is out of the question. Assassin martial arts skills need buffing as well as ice/fire on amazons.

They also need to remove the respec aspect from being farmed from act bosses. This would totally cripple dueling. Someone can max a certain skill cast it (like Battle Orders, Venom, Energy Shield) - then respec while still having the skill and max just attack skills. They need to limit the respec to the den quest on each difficulty only.

If they somehow are able to incorporate all this into this patch it will make this the best game ever made... next to starcraft.

Originally D2 was only 640x480, it's the expansion pack, Lord of Destruction that introduced the 800x600 resolution. If back then when LoD was released they managed to double the resolution without crashing the entirety of Battle.net with the technologies available at that time then why not today? We need at least 1024x768, that would be a bare minimum. But why not really, or are they still running today with the same hardware that they had back in 2001?! Because, really, to be honest I wouldn't believe that Blizzard the almighty wouldn't be able to come up with a way to let run D2 at least at some higher resolution than 800x600 in 2010.

If there really is no feasible way to technically achieve such a thing for a ten years-old game then I am honestly speechless.

RoC1909
12-26-09, 02:39 PM
If there really is no feasible way to technically achieve such a thing for a ten years-old game then I am honestly speechless.

You have to remember one thing though, the cash cow called World of Warcraft is what's on Blizzards mind. A game that has over 10+ million paid accounts at 15 bucks a month! What's strange is that Blizzard announced the game in Sept 2001 and released it in Nov 2004. It took ONLY three years to make that HUGE game (most likely a few more years but you get my point)? And yet it has taken over 10 years to come out with a TRUE sequel to TWO games that sold millions (Starcraft & Diablo 2)?? As for the fact that Diablo 2 only had one expansion and WoW is going on three? Or is it four?

While I love Blizzard games, their release schedule is worse than 3DRealms and the Duke Nukem disaster.