Diablo® III Open Beta Weekend

We're pleased to announce the Diablo III open beta weekend, which offers open access to all players with a valid Battle.net account! Beginning this Friday everyone is invited to log in and help us put the game and servers through their paces in this three day stress test as we march toward the games release on May 15. You can begin downloading the Diablo III client right now.

From Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT you'll be able to log in, team up with friends, and play each of the five heroic classes to level 13 as you fight to save the world from the impending demonic invasion.

FAQ

What steps do I need to take?

• Log in or create a Battle.net account at http://www.battle.net
• Create your BattleTag™, which is required to play Diablo III (What is BattleTag?)
• Download the game client, install, and play between 12:01 p.m. PDT April 20 and 10:00 a.m. PDT April 23

I don't have a Battle.net account - can I still play?
Absolutely! Just visit http://www.battle.net to create a free Battle.net account. Next, download the client from https://us.battle.ne...nload/index.xml and install it. Create your BattleTag, and then log in to the game using your Battle.net account name (email address) and password to begin slaughtering the demonic hellspawn that dare stand in your way.

Are there any differences for stress test participants versus invited closed beta testers?
Stress test participants will only be able to access the beta between Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), and Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT. In addition, stress test participants will not have access to post in the beta forums and will not be provided Beta Bucks for use in testing the currency-based auction house.

Can all regions/countries participate?
Due to regional differences and features of the stress test client, Korean players will not be able to partake in the stress test weekend. However, beginning the week of April 23, we will be conducting a separate, invitation-only closed beta test that will give players in Korea a chance to try out the game, along with players in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

What if the service is down/laggy/disconnecting me?
It's very possible that players connecting to the stress test could experience issues with the service. While not ideal this is exactly why we're having a stress test. We want to catch and analyze as many bugs as possible during this stress test period, so that we can try to ensure a smooth launch on May 15.

I'm having an issue, how can I get help?
Due to the limited window of the stress test we encourage you to visit the Technical Support or Mac Technical Support forums if you're having any issues running the game, and checking the Known Issues list if you're running into a bug. As a stress test participant you will not be able to post in the beta forums.

What platforms and languages do you support?
For the stress test we're offering the client in English, French, and German for both Windows and Mac. At release the game will be fully localized into English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, European Spanish, Italian, Polish, Korean, and Traditional Chinese for Windows, and English, French and German for Mac.

I'm an invited closed beta tester, what happens after the stress test weekend ends?
As an invited closed beta tester you'll continue to have access until the beta ends on May 1.

Solo Players and Max level
There's a few key differences and features that should help you out:

• Level cap is 60, and is paced out to be something you hit around when you beat Hell difficulty. You can absolutely hit level 60 playing alone
• If you're struggling at some point you'll of course want to evaluate your gear, skill, rune, and passive selections to ensure you can't make any improvements or changes
• There's an awesome matchmaking system for co-op whereby you select what quest you want to play, hit a button, and we automatically match you with other people who are at the same point in the game. You can make some new friends from there, add them to your list, and begin to build a friends list of people you want to keep playing with

Inactive Characters Will Not be Deleted
We have no current plans or functionality to expire or delete "inactive" characters. There's actually no concept of an inactive character for Diablo III. Pick up and play whenever you want.

D2 doesn't even delete them anymore, any char flagged expired you can login and it re-enables them in D2 now, they stopped perma expiring them long ago.
(only if someone doesn't make a new character with the same name)

Diablo III Beta Patch 18 – v.0.11.0.9359
Released 4/19/12

Bug Fixes

For a full list of documented game and service bugs, please review the Known Issues sticky located in the Beta Bug Report forum.

• Friends lists from other Blizzard games should now appear properly in the Diablo III beta client

Also news regarding local timings on release day should be up by the end of the week.

Can I totally go back on what I said before?

Ok, not totally, but I think there's some distinction to be made for 'legitimate' ability to beat Inferno, in that, we expect there could be ways, potentially exploits, potentially clever but cheesy mechanics, that could maybe allow a player to complete Inferno fairly quickly. The bet stands as-is, but I think if it could be revised it would be "X time before it becomes farmable", meaning someone can legitimately kill the end boss over and over and over without needing to take advantage of an exploit, or loophole, or some other thing we don't intend to be possible.

Of course we'll try to address any such issue as quickly as possible, but it's feasible that the first Inferno clear will be through use of unintended means. Technically still valid per the wording of the bet, but I think most can agree would go against the spirit of it.

As we all anxiously await the release of Diablo III on May 15, we invite you to come enjoy one last hurrah in Diablo II as we reset the ladder the morning of May 2. We anticipate the realms could be down for up to six hours during the reset, and during that time all existing ladder characters will be converted to non-ladder. All characters and items being converted to non-ladder will remain intact, but once converted these characters will no longer have access to ladder content such as creating ladder-only rune words.

This ladder reset, like all those before it, creates a clean slate where all ladder characters begin at level 1 with no previous items to help them. To participate, simply wait until the Diablo II realms return to service on May 2, log in to Battle.net, and tick the “Ladder Character” checkbox when creating a new character. You can track ladder character leveling progress by clicking on the Ladder button from the main Diablo II in-game Battle.net interface.

Of course if you haven’t yet tried Diablo II you can find the Battle Chest at any fine PC game retail store, as well as our online Blizzard Store. You can alternatively purchase digital copies of Diablo II and the Lord of Destruction expansion, which you can begin downloading and playing immediately.

For more information on ladder characters please visit the Arreat Summit.

Diablo III Beta Patch 17 – v.0.11.0.9327
Released 4/17/12

General

• All characters have been wiped. Items, gold, auctions, achievements, followers, and artisans have also been wiped, and Beta Bucks have been reset to 50.
• Cross-game chat is available! Beta participants can now keep in touch with their Real ID and BattleTag friends, no matter which Blizzard game they're playing.
• Please note that some restrictions do apply for BattleTag chat:
• You can only send BattleTag invites while logged into the Diablo III beta client
• You can only receive BattleTag invites while logged into the Diablo III beta client

Bug Fixes

For a full list of documented game and service bugs, please review the Known Issues sticky located in the Beta Bug Report forum.

• Players should no longer be desynced from the server after watching or skipping a cut-scene
• Projectile spell effects should no longer be invisible when casting them
• The Auction House should no longer lag and generate ERROR_1 when attempting to switch currencies
• The Auction House should no longer display your amount of Beta Bucks as 0 unless you actually have 0 Beta Bucks

We're currently in the process of preparing the next beta patch for release. As part of this patch, we'll be wiping all characters. Items, auctions, artisans, followers, and friends lists will also be wiped, and your Beta Buck balance will be reset to 50.

While we do not have a precise ETA for when Beta Patch 17 will go live, we expect downtime to deploy the patch to be minimal. Please stay tuned to this thread for updates.

We'd like to thank everyone who has participated in the Diablo III beta. You've done an admirable job of testing, and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback you provided during this critical phase of development.

In preparation for the launch of Diablo III on Tuesday, May 15, the beta servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, May 1. At that time, all beta accounts and character information will be reset. Leading up to Diablo's May 15 launch date, players will only be able to create comments and forum posts on the official Diablo III community site if they have pre-purchased Diablo III or have a StarCraft II or an active World of Warcraft game license attached to their Battle.net account. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to stay tuned to this website for exciting news and updates regarding the upcoming release.

Thank you again for your participation, and we'll see you soon on Battle.net!

It let's me in the game all right, but it's in slow motion and not at all fun to have such low frame rates even with all of the settings turned down.
Bear in mind that the beta has its own FPS issues simply because it's a beta; Diablo III won't be optimized until release. My custom-built gaming system can't play the beta smoothly either, but it will be fine on release. Blizzard betas are genuine betas, unlike the glorified demos that some companies refer to as a "beta".

Still, it is no consolation for those with newer laptops with the intel 4 series chipset, which isn't supported. Why?
Speaking honestly, the Intel 4 series is equivalent in power to the Geforce 5200FX which came out in 2003. My sympathies for having one. It's performance was so poor that the backlash from it spurred Intel to finally get serious about designing a somewhat decent onboard video option, and that led us to the Intel HD series. The HD series still isn't as good as a real video card, but at least you can usually count on most games to be playable.

The SK only drops yellow on your first kill of him per character.
That is incorrect.The possibility of a boss (or anything, really) dropping magic gear or rare gear when you kill him remains intact on kills subsequent to your first. The probability may change, but it does not change to a probability of zero.

To be clear: On your first kill of a boss in normal difficulty, you are guaranteed a random rare and a class rare, as well as some blues and other stuff. All other kills on all difficulties result in standard drop probabilities. You have a decent chance of getting a rare or two every time you kill a boss.

If they do drop 1/100 later that is probably fine, or better than fine, but why not just make that the "rate" earlier?
I don't know what the drop rates of magic and rare gear from barrels are, but I hope they're way less likely than 1/100.
... because you only need to see that yellow helm flying out of a broken barrel once to change how you see the game forever.

In preparation for the upcoming launch of Diablo® III, we’ve updated the Battle.net® Terms of Use to cover some key changes that will be occurring prior to the game’s release.

New Battle.net Balance Limits and Security Requirements: With the upcoming release of Diablo III’s currency-based auction house, account security will become more important than ever; we are making a few changes to ensure that players who wish to use the auction house have a safe and worry-free experience. Beginning prior to the launch of Diablo III, in order to carry a Battle.net Balance greater than $100 USD (or equivalent), players will be required to attach a Battle.net Authenticator or Battle.net Mobile Authenticator to their Battle.net account. In addition, we will be instituting a Battle.net Balance maximum limit of $250 USD (or equivalent). We’ll go into more detail about the different options for making purchases in the currency-based auction house prior to launch.

Global Play: When Diablo III presales began, we mentioned as part of the purchase process that Diablo III players would be able to choose to play on game servers based in the Americas, Europe, or Asia, regardless of what region they were connecting from or which language-version of the game they purchased (with certain restrictions). As you’ll see in the updated TOU, the name for this functionality is “Global Play,” and we’ll be providing more information about exactly how it works, including the restrictions noted above, prior to Diablo III’s launch.

Stay tuned to diablo3.com for further details on the currency-based auction house and Global Play in the coming weeks.

When we introduced BattleTag nicknames, many of you created one to try the feature in the Diablo III beta test or simply establish your new identity in anticipation of Diablo III’s release.
Today, we’re releasing an update that will give everyone one opportunity to change their BattleTag nickname for free. If you picked a nickname you’re not happy with, don’t worry — you can pick a new one. Even if you haven’t created your BattleTag identifier yet, you’ll still get one free BattleTag change to use after it’s been created (similar to the way character name changes for StarCraft II worked).
As we announced previously, BattleTag nicknames will be required in order to play Diablo III, and in the future, they’ll be used in a variety of ways across all of Battle.net. To set or change your BattleTag, simply log in to Battle.net account management, head to the Account > Summary page, and look for the Create or Change option. BattleTags aren’t unique, so you can pick any name you like as long as it adheres to the BattleTag Naming Policy.
Here’s what you can expect from BattleTags when Diablo III launches:

• Your BattleTag will serve as your public identity when chatting, grouping, or interacting with other players in Diablo III.
• Once two players agree to become BattleTag friends, you’ll automatically be able to see and interact with each of the Diablo III characters your friend plays automatically – no need to add multiple character names to your friends list individually.
• Prior to the game’s release, your presence on the Diablo III forums will be connected to your BattleTag, rather than any one specific character in the game. You’ll transcend boundaries!

Our long-term plans include adding the ability for BattleTag friends to participate in cross-game chat (in StarCraft II, Diablo III, and World of Warcraft, and future Blizzard Entertainment games), as well as offer other features similar to what’s currently available via Real ID. More cool additions to BattleTag are on the horizon, but we’re not quite ready to talk about those yet.
We’ll continue to keep you up to date on our plans for BattleTag nicknames as more info becomes available. For more details, check out the BattleTag FAQ.

We’re in the process of sending out 275,000 Diablo III beta invites to our opt-in testers. As it’ll take us a while to notify all the lucky invitees, we recommend heading to your Battle.net Account Management and seeing if you’ve received a Diablo III beta license. If you have, you’re good to go! Download the beta client and use your Battle.net account and password to log in once it’s installed. While you’re logged into your Account Management page though, don’t forget to create your BattleTag. You can choose this permanent account-wide nickname by clicking on the BattleTag “Create one now” link on the left side of your main Battle.net Account page. Choose wisely as there’s no current ability to change it. A BattleTag is required to play Diablo III, and so whether you get into beta or not you should pick one while you’re there.

Keep in mind that with such a large amount of invites for our test hardware we fully expect a strong possibility of stress test issues, such as an inability to log in, disconnections, and potential lag/latency. We’ll also be testing our queuing system ,which you may see when attempting to enter a game.

Thank you for your continued help, feedback, and patience as we approach the May 15 release.

It's interesting to think about, for sure. There's certainly a separation for most people in that obtaining currency outside of the game, and obtaining items worth currency within the game are exclusive concepts. That if you're playing the game and obtaining items, they are of a higher value than having a job and being paid for it. Which is kind of strange as real world currency is by far more widely valuable and usable than an in-game item. Obviously there's an exchange rate of sorts that will be worked out by players to match the two, but I think it's interesting that conceptually someone who works to obtain currency in their job and buy an item is perceived of as less than someone who was able to obtain it by playing the game. Logically it's backwards as a real world job is not the fun and enjoyment of playing a video game, but that gets turned around within the context of wanting to compare skill and aptitude.

I still think drop chance puts so much randomization into someone's acquisition of items that there's no true test of aptitude to be had, just luck and time. What's to say working to earn money to buy an item is easier than launching the game and getting that same item on your first kill? Also, I love my job, but it's still not as awesome as just playing Diablo III.

I don't even know how someone can attempt to place value on the way someone obtained their items, at what cost, in what Act and difficulty was it found, what their magic find was, are they more skilled than me, are they using a 'cheesy build' etc. There's too many variables that throw off comparison of 'skill' before currency even enters the picture.


I like the way this all makes sense inside my brain.