Diablo 3 news » PTR Server Slam - We Need Your Help!

We’ve been monitoring server performance and identified some opportunities for improvements.

Our engineers have come up with some potential solutions that should smooth out gameplay in calculation-heavy environments. Some of these solutions are not the kind we want to deploy immediately to live servers via hotfix as they come with their fair share of risks—so we need your help!

Join us on Tuesday October 6th from 03:00 to 05:00 AM CEST to stress test a special 2.3.0 PTR that includes these optimizations. What do you need to do? The same thing we do every PTR: try to take over the world play your hearts out and push the limits!

We’re looking for players of all types to participate, but we especially encourage use of the following skills and items:

• Barbarian
  • Ground Stomp (Wrenching Smash)
  • Leap (Call of Arreat)
• Crusader
  • Condemn (Vacuum)
• Demon Hunter
  • Rain of Vengeance (Stampede)
• Monk
  • Cyclone Strike
• Witch Doctor
  • Piranhas (Piranhado)
• Wizard
  • Black Hole
• Other Items
  • Ess of Johan
  • The Grin Reaper

Other effects that knock up enemies, crowd control multiple targets, or gather up large amounts of monsters will also help us evaluate the effectiveness of these optimizations.

A few important notes:

• There is no new content included on this PTR
• Achievements currently do not function on the PTR; this is a known issue
• While you will be able to copy your existing characters, we will also be activating the 1000% Legendary Find buff to encourage participation and allow you to find some of the items that benefit the above skills
• As a reminder, any progress made on the PTR does not transfer over to your live account
• We will not be opening the PTR feedback or bug report forums, as manual feedback is not needed; we simply need you to play!
• Over the course of the PTR, server performance will be different than live. Sometimes it will be better, sometimes it may be worse—this is why we need your help testing!
• This PTR will only be available for a limited time, and we’d greatly appreciate all the help we can get in testing it quickly and with as many participants as possible!

We’re as eager to get back to a smooth sailing Sanctuary as you are, and we hope you have some time to help us out. If you need more information on how to participate on the PTR, visit our FAQ or see below for details.

• How to Participate
• PTR Character Copy

Thank you, nephalem, and we’ll see you in Sanctuary!

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HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

To participate in the public test, you must have a Diablo III game license attached your Battle.net account in good standing (i.e. it hasn't been suspended or banned). In addition, you will also need to download and install the Battle.net desktop app if you have not already done so.

Step 1: Create a PTR account. To create a PTR account, log in to Battle.net Account Management and double-click on your Diablo III game license; this will bring you to the game management page. On this page, click "Create a PTR account."

If you've participated in any previous Diablo III PTR (including the Reaper of Souls beta), the "Create PTR account" button may not appear. This is because you've already created a PTR account and can therefore skip this step.

Step 2: Once you have created a PTR account, installed the Battle.net desktop, and logged in with your Battle.net credentials, select "Diablo III" from the main menu on the left-hand side of the application.

Step 3: On the Diablo III screen, there is a drop-down menu right above the "Play" button (note that this may say "Install" if you do not have Diablo III currently installed). Select "PTR: Diablo III" from this drop-down menu before proceeding.

Step 4: You should now have the option to install and play the patch 2.3.0 PTR.

The 2.3.0 PTR is available in all supported languages, and accounts from all regions are eligible to participate.

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PTR CHARACTER COPY:

The option to copy your existing Diablo III characters from your live account to the PTR will be available and can be done directly through the PTR client. However, only one region per account can be copied at a time. So, if you choose to copy characters from your account in a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost.

Step 1: Log into the live game and then log out.

Step 2: Log into PTR client and create a level 1 character. After you're done, return to the main character screen.

Step 3: Click on the "PTR Copy" button located in the upper right-hand corner. (The PTR Copy button will not appear in-game until you have created a new level 1 character.)

Step 4: Select your region.

Step 5: Click "Copy." This will copy all characters on your account from the selected region.

Step 6: You will be disconnected from the PTR client.

Step 7: Log back in. Your copied characters will be available for play.

Please note that you can only copy characters from one gameplay region at a time. If you choose to copy characters from a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost. In addition, you can only copy characters over to your PTR account once every 24 hours. Attempting to copy characters before this cooldown is up will result in an error.

As this is a test server, please anticipate uneven game performance, and note that restarts and downtime may occur without warning.