http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30920
--- Comment #3 from Robert winehq@uukgoblin.net 2012-06-21 05:56:54 CDT --- I haven't tried with earlier versions, from what I gather versions below 1.5.6 require some special patching and I'm not sure what patching that is. If there's still a guide to the patching somewhere, I'll try to follow it if you point me at it.
Other people report similar freezes, see comments below under the title "echo 0 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope system freeze".
I've been primarily running the game with:
setarch i386 -3 -L -B -R wine ./Diablo\ III.exe -launch
but also tried without setarch, and freezes were identical. So with or without setarch, it keeps freezing.
I do not have pulseaudio installed.