Diablo 3 beta patch 17 change-log detailed

Yesterday, Blizzard released Diablo 3 Beta Patch 17, a small update that contains a pretty big feature as well as some minor bug fixes.

The biggest feature was the implementation of Cross-game chat.  Diablo 3 beta participants can now keep in touch with their Real ID and Battletag friends, regardless of which Blizzard game is being played.

There are some restrictions however:

• You can only send BattleTag invites while logged into the Diablo III beta client
• You can only receive BattleTag invites while logged into the Diablo III beta client

Other bug fixes included in yesterday's patch include (via):

• Players should no longer be desynced from the server after watching or skipping a cut-scene
• Projectile spell effects should no longer be invisible when casting them
• The Auction House should no longer lag and generate ERROR_1 when attempting to switch currencies
• The Auction House should no longer display your amount of Beta Bucks as 0 unless you actually have 0 Beta Bucks

Diablo 3 is now less than a month away from its worldwide launch on May 15th.  Blizzard announced yesterday plans to shut down the beta servers on Tuesday, May 1st.  Leading up to launch, fans will only be able to create comments and forum posts on the official Diablo 3 community site if they ahve pre-ordered the game or have an active World of Warcraft or StarCraft II license attached to their Battle.net account.