14 DAY TRIAL // Diablo III fans might have received some crushing news when they found out that Blizzard wouldn't be releasing the game anytime in the next year, but that doesn't mean that the entire franchise has been abandoned. Over nine years since its been released, the hack-and-slash RPG is about to receive another patch and, as such, the game has received a brand-new Public Test Realm where players can work out the kinks in the system. The 1.13 PTR is already up and running, so anyone willing to give Blizzard a hand in testing the patch, or just wanting to fiddle around with the new changes, is able to start right away.
Getting on the PTR is as simple as killing the first mob on regular. All you have to do is change the Battle.net gateway to “ClassicBeta” when you log in and create a new account and characters, as the 1.13 patch will be automatically applied. If you don't see the classicbeta gateway, then choose a random one and then back up to the gateway selection and it should be there now. Since this is a brand-new realm, you won't have an active account or any of your old characters, and, even if you have to start from scratch, it doesn't mean that you need to grind your way back to the top all over again.
As a test realm, the one huge difference is that cheats are enabled on the server, so you can just jump to the end and fiddle around with all the high-level stuff right off the bat. But be warned, the characters will never leave the beta realm, so don't expect to wreak havoc with them on any proper realms. The activated cheats on the realm are :
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.
The patch has a whole lot of new updates, but, besides the class-balance ones, the are a lot of core changes as well. An item dupe bug has been fixed, respecialization has been enabled and a whole bunch of interface and command parameter additions have been made. The list is rather long, but definitely worth browsing through to see what to expect from the new mold for Diablo II. The official patch notes with the complete set of changes can be found here.