Diablo II Patch 1.13 Available For Testing

Blizzard has opened a public test realm for a new Diablo II patch. If it releases after the new year, it will have been a full decade since the game's release. There must have been at least two -- maybe as many as five -- weeks during that span where the game wasn't on the PC top ten sales list in some form.

Patch 1.13 gives plenty of reasons to risk repetitive stress injury in a mad dash for sweet, sweet loot. Among the highlights:

• Respecs! The Den of Evil quest now rewards players with a respec that can be saved. No more rerolling because you spent more than a single point in Magic Arrow.

• A new super-duper über boss to be found and killed. Blizzard isn't releasing details yet, but it's probably even more insane than Über Diablo/Mephisto/Baal.

• Various balancing changes, including the removal of the often instant death that is the Oblivion Knights' Iron Maiden curse.

• Scaling to any 4:3 resolution in windowed mode! Finally, we can forget that 800x600 ever existed.

I'm totally re-installing this when I get home tonight.