Diablo II: Resurrected Public Test Realm Launches Tomorrow, Ladder Testing Coming Soon

It seems Diablo II: Resurrected is moving ahead on some long-promised features, as Blizzard has announced the game’s Public Test Realm (PTR) will launch tomorrow. Initially, the PTR will just be used to test new back-end server stuff, but Blizzard promises testing of update 2.4, which finally introduces Ladder Play, is “coming soon.”

Grab your weapons.

The #Diablo2Resurrected PTR arrives tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/B2wgrnfqWT

— Diablo (@Diablo) January 11, 2022

Diablo II: Resurrected PTR Schedule:

1/12 – Database/Server Update PTR
Coming Soon – 2.4 PTR

— Diablo (@Diablo) January 11, 2022

As mentioned, update 2.4 will include Ladder play (Diablo’s name for a competitive Realm where everybody’s progress is tracked and ranked), some changes to mercenaries, and a variety of tweaks to individual classes. You can get the lowdown on Ladders and mercenaries below, and the changes coming to various classes, right here.

Ladder Rank Play

Like Diablo II Classic, Diablo II: Resurrected will feature four different Ladder modes, including:

• Standard Ladder – The casual version of Ladder play that encompasses playing with four acts.
• Hardcore Ladder – The hardcore (only 1 life) version of Ladder play that includes four acts.
• Standard Expansion Ladder – The casual version of Ladder play that encompasses playing five acts, as it includes the “Lord of Destruction” expansion content.
• Hardcore Expansion Ladder – The hardcore (only 1 life) version of Ladder play that encompasses playing five acts, as it includes the “Lord of Destruction” expansion content.

For the first time, players will have the chance to unlock a host of new Rune Words in the Ladder system! To be clear, these Rune Words have never existed in the game before, and they will not be accessible in non-Ladder play like the previous set of Ladder-only Rune Words in the original Diablo II experience. At the end of a Ladder season, players who successfully made these Rune Words will have their Ladder characters be moved into a “non-Ladder” version of the game. Then at the beginning of the next Ladder season, players will make a new Ladder character and start all over again to earn new rewards.

Mercenary Changes & New Rune Words

We’ve seen a lot of feedback from the community around the subject of Mercenaries, and we are making improvements to Mercenaries in a variety of ways. Many players enjoy using the Desert Mercenary, and we want to give more reasons to use the other three mercenaries, so we are looking into improving their skills and stats to enhance their identity and fantasy.

New Horadric Cube Recipes, Set Item changes, and new Rune Words are also on the horizon! New Horadric Cube Recipes being implemented will allow for upgrading the item quality of Set Items to give more item build possibilities. Set Item changes will update underperforming Set Items, giving players more incentive to pursue Partial and Full set items that can complement the skill changes alluded above. Lastly, new Rune Words will be added to complement the Skill and Mercenary changes coming in the update.

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Diablo II: Resurrected is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Switch. Blizzard has not yet announced when update 2.4 with hit the PTR or release wide.

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