Bashiok has delivered good hints on when to expect the upcoming Diablo II patch 1.13 and something else you would love to participate in.  There is no release date, but he confirmed players will be able to test patch 1.13 to offer feedback on all the features and to report bugs—which means the final patch release will be more much clean and stable thanks to players participating in the Public Test Realm. We do get a hint of when patch 1.13 will go live.  Blizzard will announce a Diablo II ladder reset two weeks in advance, which heralds the release of the patch on live realms.

Blizzard Quote:
Bashiok: So yeah, we’re still working on the patch. It’s coming along really well. We’re getting there. I can’t give an estimate or date, we’re expecting there to be a good amount of testing required due to the types of changes being made. We want to take our time and put out a solid patch, and that means we don’t have a release date right now.

Some exciting news – and it also may be some comfort – due to the types of changes we’re making we will be offering the Diablo II 1.13 patch for testing and feedback on a test realm before its release. We’ll have more information about how you’ll be able to help test it in the coming weeks.