Loot 2.0 Patch Test Coming 'Soon'
The Public Test Realm will be opening soon for Diablo III patch 2.0.1

Patch 2.0.1 Coming to the PTR
The Loot 2.0 Patch is technically called patch 2.0.1. There were multiple Blizzard Blue discussions about that patch arriving soon on the test realm. When it does arrive, all Diablo III players will get to test out the Paragon 2.0 system, Loot 2.0, and the many skill changes and other features.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
Just give us a new content, May be new uber challenge or SOMETHING until RoS. because not having fun as much as I used to. but I will not call it quit yet. nope. nope nope.
We're going to launch our Public Test Region with patch 2.0.1 soon, and that will have some of the class changes, Paragon 2.0, Loot 2.0, and more. You can test that out when it goes live, and leave us feedback if you want. There's a little more information about the PTR in this blog if you want to look through it.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
According to Devs and their description, a WD is more of a ranged attacker, and should not be limited to a cloud of bats 8 yrds wide for example to clear the highest content in the game.
I'd say that Reaper of Souls will help build diversity for Witch Doctors on every difficulty level. For example, getting close to your enemies to hit them with Cloud of Bats is a lot riskier when you subtract Life Steal from the equation, and will likely influence the player's decision to use that spell. Also, when you consider some of the updates made in Reaper of Souls (like the loss of Life Steal, damage buffs to other skills, and new Legendary affixes), then it starts to look like Witch Doctors will have a greater variety of viable skill choices.
We plan to launch our patch 2.0.1 Public Test Region soon, and it will include class changes and balancing. Keep an eye out for the PTR to test the class changes out for yourself, and you can read a little more about it in this blog if you're interested. We'll be keeping a close eye on things as Reaper of Souls progresses, so be sure to leave us your feedback.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
Grimiku has now posted twice in a short period of time mentioning this. I know it's Blizzard but this got my hopes up that it could be sometime this week...maybe even within the next 24 hours. I'll probably be kicking myself for getting so excited =/
I don't have a date to offer you for either the Closed Beta for Reaper of Souls (if you haven't opted-in yet, you can do so here), or the upcoming PTR for Patch 2.0.1, so you'll have to wait a little longer yet. But hang in there, because the weeks and months ahead are going to be awesome.
Archery Passive & One-Hand Crossbows

The Demon Hunter passive skill Archery is being changed in the upcoming patch, and now includes a bonus when dual-wielding One-Handed Crossbows. Grimiku clarified how it works: when using the passive, a Demon Hunter dual-wielding 1-Hand Crossbows receives the extra bonus of 1 extra Hatred, each time a regular Hatred Generator skill is used. This is a change to make it more worthwhile for Demon Hunters to dual-wield and forgo using a quiver. As seen in the Popular Demon Hunter Weapons charts, currently very few top Demon Hunters dual-wield Hand Crossbows.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
Archery passive - the 1 Hatred for dual wielding, is that per second or per shot.
ty
Narull already said this was per shot, but I wanted to clarify a bit more since the tooltip is a little vague. The Archery passive bonus for using the 2nd Hand Crossbow gives the Demon Hunter an additional 1 Hatred per shot with Hungering Arrow, Entangling Shot, Bola Shot, Grenades, and Evasive Fire. In other words, the additional Hatred bonus only works with the five generators.
No Combo Pack for 'Reaper of Souls'
The upcoming Diablo III expansion will be an entirely separate purchase on release, for the PC/Mac versions of the game. This is different from Diablo III on the PS4: Ultimate Evil Edition, which will contain both the base version of the game the expansion.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
So its going to be my first time trying out diablo 3
will i have to purchase diablo 3 and reapers of soul when its out or will i be able to purchase reapers of soul as a stand alone when its released
Dread,
RoS is an expansion, not a new game so will require D3 Vanilla in order to play. If you are interested, keep an eye out for sales. If you just want to try out the game, you can grab the starter edition or you can wait for the PTR to come out at the end of December.
If you haven't had a chance to try out Diablo III yet, I'd definitely encourage you to try out the Starter Edition, which is available on both PC and Mac, or the free demos available on the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 versions of the game. :)
As MissCheetah said, you will need to own the base version of Diablo III prior to utilizing the additional features and Crusader class offered in its expansion, Reaper of Souls.
If you haven't had a chance to try out Diablo III yet, I'd definitely encourage you to try out the Starter Edition, which is available on both PC and Mac, or the free demos available on the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 versions of the game. :)
sorry just to clarify - if a new player wants to play the expansion, without owning the original game, he would have to buy BOTH the original AND the expansion?
Blizz is not going to have an all in one pack that contains everything?
If or when such a pack becomes available, we would certainly let you know, but to date, we haven't announced a bundle which includes both Diablo III as well as the upcoming expansion.The newest Blizzard blue posts are always available right away in our Blue Post Tracker or in the RSS feed.