There will be [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-on-skills-party-help-and-beta-confirmation/] a Diablo III Beta Test, conducted shortly before the game's release. When that will be and what form the beta will take is yet unknown, and given Blizzard's "when it's done" motto, there will not be any more information about this issue until 2011, at the soonest.