Diablo 2 Resurrected PTR patch 2.5 introduces a new experimental feature called Terror Zones to spice up the Diablo 2 leveling process. The journey to level 99 is a core part of the experience for players of the classic RPG game, and Blizzard says that it hopes Terror Zones will provide an alternative to the currently popular methods of farming. In addition, the latest patch also implements additional gameplay changes, bug fixes, and quality of life improvements to help polish one of the best fantasy games of all time.
Terror Zones are an experimental feature added with PTR patch 2.5 that players can choose to enable when starting a game. When turned on, specific zones will be terrorised by the armies of the Burning Hells every hour, creating a deadly zone populated with monsters at least two levels higher than your current (or their original level). The experience received from and loot dropped by killing a terrorised monster will be based on its new level.
Blizzard says that it wants to offer Terror Zones as “an alternative to repeatedly farming Baal, Diablo, or Nihlathak.” In addition, the patch notes from Blizzard say that it wants “the journey to level 99 to be accessible to a larger population of players, full of variety, and, most importantly, challenging. Players will be informed of currently terrorised areas when joining a game with Terror Zones enabled courtesy of a message in the chat box.
To indicate that a player has arrived in a Terror Zone, there is on-screen text and messaging, in-game text shown on the auto-map, a special audio cue, and unique iconography that will appear next to the names of terrorised monsters. Blizzard says that it hopes this feature will “inject additional fun into Diablo II: Resurrected” and adds that “to ensure Terror Zones provide an experience that best serves our players, we will need your assistance and urge you to provide any feedback you may have.
How to join the Diablo 2 Resurrected PTR
Diablo 2 Resurrected PTR patch 2.5 goes live on August 25 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST. If you want to participate but are not currently opted into the Diablo 2 Resurrected PTR, you can do so via the drop-down menu above the ‘Play’ button on your Battle.net desktop app while looking at Diablo II: Resurrected. There, you should see the option to install ‘PTR: Diablo II: Resurrected.’
Diablo 2 Resurrected PTR 2.5 patch notes
New experimental feature: Terror Zones
Here are the level details for each monster type per difficulty:
Normal
- Base: +2 levels up to level 45
- Champion: +4 levels up to level 47
- Unique: +5 levels up to level 48
Nightmare
- Base: +2 levels up to level 71
- Champion: +4 levels up to level 73
- Unique: +5 levels up to level 74
Hell
- Base: +2 levels up to level 96
- Champion: +4 levels up to level 98
- Unique: +5 levels up to level 99
The base player level used for the above calculations are taken from the creator of the game. If the host leaves the game, a new player will be selected for the base.
Gameplay and Quality of Life changes
- Added additional warning text to the mercenary confirmation prompt if your previous mercenary still has items equipped.
- Damage value for the Paladin’s Thorns aura is now present on the character menu.
- Dead Finger Mages now reset correctly to their original state when revived by Necromancers.
- Fixed an issue where casting delays could desync at very high ping.
- Fixed an issue where monster unique mods were triggering from another unique mod’s trigger. For example, monsters that were both lightning and fire enchanted created an explosion every time they were put into hit recovery (Ex: repeatedly hit by Warcry).
- Fixed a rare issue where item names on the ground would erratically flicker and shift while pathing around them.
- Fixed an issue where players and monsters were able to walk through doors that visually looked closed.
- Fixed an issue where certain Rune Words could not be repaired in the same game session they were created.
- Fixed an issue where loading a character on a console that was created on PC was causing texture and lighting issues on console.
- Fixed an issue that would occur when binding a skill to a multi-key binding (Ex: Ctrl + X, Alt + X) the action bound to the first key became unbound from that key.
- Fixed an issue where the game name and password were not properly updating and displaying in-game when toggling the setting for showing it.
- Fixed an issue where updates to stats, skills, or quests were displaying when no updates were available.
- Fixed an issue where hardcore character names were not displaying in red text on the character list.
- Fixed an issue with the Legacy Graphics gamble refresh icon containing graphical artifacts and corruption.
- Fixed an issue where single and dual-wielding basic attacks with Claw weapons could have inconsistent attack speeds.
- Fixed an issue where flags associated with previous characters (Ladder, Hardcore, and Classic) would persist for newly created characters in the Legacy Graphics Character Creation Screen.
- Fixed an issue where the “buy” button legend in the vendor window would not display on the first weapons tab.
- Fixed an issue where certain VFX were causing graphical corruption when fighting Uber Diablo.
- Fixed an issue where Iron Golems could lose the aura granted by the item they were created with when the Golem was frozen.
- Chosen game settings now persist in lobby game creation and filtering rather than being reset.
- Fixed an issue where Iron Golems created in a previous game would disappear instead of teleporting to you.
- Fixed an issue where performing a weapon swap during a trade would sometimes freeze the game.
- Fixed an issue where visuals effects granted by set bonuses would sometimes toggle on and off.
- Fixed an issue where environmental screen-space VFX were not playing.
- Fixed an issue where Iron Golems summoned through a charge of the skill (Ex: granted by Metalgrid) would disappear when performing an inventory update.
- Fixed an issue where Iron Golems created by a charged skill would not save between games.
- Fixed an issue where players on console and controller would sometimes get the red-flash indicator for health loss while performing an inventory update.
- Fixed an issue where the Horadric Cube could not be quick-dropped if there were items in it when playing on console or with a controller.
- Fixed an issue where similar items weren’t grouping together when auto-populating into the belt while using a controller.
- Fixed various issues when quick-moving a belt with items in the additional belt slots it provides while using a controller.
- Fixed an issue where you sometimes couldn’t quick-equip an item that has its requirement met by another equipped item.
- Fixed an issue where an item with requirement reductions would sometimes still show as requirements not met when equipped on a mercenary.
- Fixed a desync with mana values when the consumption and regeneration of mana happened in a short frame window.
- Fixed an issue where Quick Cast would sometimes restore the previous skill to the wrong mouse button.
- Act V Dual-Wielding mercenaries now accurately animates two attack swings instead of one.
- Fixed an issue where there were no corresponding Suicide Minion versions of the three guest Minion variants. These guest Minions will no longer visually transform into a skeleton and continuously stack explosion damage when whipped by Nihlathak or an Overseer.
- Fixed an issue where Fist of the Heavens could unintentionally be used when it was bound on controller or assigned to left click on M+KB.
- Fixed an issue where pets summoned by “chance to cast” skills on items would disappear after performing an inventory update.
- Fixed an issue where Ravens summoned by charged skills would disappear after a few seconds.
- Necromancer: Difficulty penalties for life drain now apply to the Blood Golem’s attacks.
- Necromancer: Fixed an issue where Blood Golem was not correctly stealing life from a PvP opponent.
Localisation changes
- Updated gender pronoun strings that referred to the player from “his / her” to the neutral counterpart “their.”
- Added a prefix for online Uber Diablo messages received in offline games.
- Added localization translations for the automap tooltip.
- Fixed an issue where the maximum gold in-game text for Polish, Russian, Mexican Spanish, and Portuguese languages were exceeding their bounds in the UI.
- Fixed a variety of equipped skill names that were exceeding their bounds in the UI for the Russian and Polish languages.
- Removed unnecessary spacing between tabs on PC in the quest log, waypoints, and player stash UI screens when playing with a controller while using the large font option.
- Changed the date formatting for Japan to be displayed as Year / Month / Day.
- Fixed a typo in the Japanese translations for quick equip and unequip to mercenary tooltip.
PC-specific fixes
- Added functionality to revoke and undo friend rejection so it’s no longer a permanent rejection.
- Fixed an issue where the “/friends list” chat command was being truncated after 256 characters.
- Removed the ability to bind the Print Screen key.
- Fixed an issue where if the players opened chat after dying with Legacy Graphics active, all controls stopped functioning.
- Fixed an issue if a linked item in chat exceeded one line, the item was unable to be selected and shown.
- Fixed an issue where if a player entered the lobby, then entered a game, the difficulty selection would be blank upon returning to the lobby.
- Removed the scroll bar and buttons from the autosuggest menu for chat commands.
- Fixed an issue where if a skill was bound, then the key was removed from the skill binding, the unbound skill would still display without a binding.
- Improved the scrolling on the ladder season, ladder type, and class drop-down in the ladder tab in the online lobby.
- Fixed a tooltip that incorrectly stated “Show game name and password” to correctly state “Show game name.”
- Fixed an issue where the latency indicator visual in the lobby was off center.
- Fixed an issue where if the player activates controller mode while in the lobby, the latency indicator visual would disappear.
- Skills can now always be set to the left or right slots, regardless of if you meet the requirements to use them.
- Fixed an issue where rings were always quick-equipped to the right-hand slot, even if the left-hand slot was open.
- M+KB can now quick-equip and quick-unequip items to and from their character and mercenary.
- Fixed an issue where dragging an item onto a mercenary’s portrait was not swapping their currently equipped item.
- Text-to-speech now uses Voice (installed on Windows) which corresponds to the voice language selected (Set in Battle.net launcher).
- Text-to-speech option reads out all chat commands regardless of channel.
- Text-to-speech, when reading an item link, will now only read the item text instead of including various numbers and letters.
Stability improvements
- Fixed a crash on PC that occurred when resizing the client window while in the lobby.
- Improved game join and game create backend request for a smoother player experience.
- Various game stability improvements.
You can read the patch notes in full on the Blizzard website, including a complete list of all the zones that can become terrorised. Blizzard emphasises that because this is an experimental test, “changes to the behaviours of Terror Zones may occur based on learnings from testing and player feedback” over the course of the PTR duration.
Meanwhile in Blizzard’s other ARPG games, the Diablo 3 season 27 release date is upon us. The Diablo Immortal Fractured Plane event added with the August 17 Diablo Immortal patch has proven popular with fans. Blizzard has also addressed the topic of Diablo 4 microtransactions as part of a recent preview in the run-up to the Diablo 4 release date, which is still a way off yet.