What can I use a Feat of Strength for?

I heard that Diablo 3 closed beta players will be getting a Feat of Strength called "One of the Chosen" and a sigil that they can display on their banner.

I understand the sigil part, but I couldn't gather what exactly the Feat of Strength was. What does it do and can I use it for something useful?

Solution 1:

Feats of Strength show up in other Blizzard Battle.net 2.0 games. Both Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft Feature them.

Blizzard achievements are worth a certain number of points, which is displayed on your relevant battle.net profile, but Feats of Strength always are worth 0 points.

Feats of Strength are also not listed anywhere on the achievement list - it's not that they're hidden, but rather that the majority of them are one-time or limited-time events, and it is impossible to achieve them. (For instance, "Log on during WoW's 7th anniversary").

What this means, is that Blizzard has a way to acknowledge or commemorate players at certain times and events without affecting the number of earnable achievement points.

But don't take my word for it, this is straight from Blizzard CM Bashiok:

The distinction between a Feat of Strength and an Achievement is that an Achievement is something you can work to achieve, and a Feat of Strength is either limited due to an outside factor, or is just simply impossible to get any longer.

Things like attending BlizzCon, where only a few thousand people can attend, is a Feat of Strength.

Of course there are plenty of people who want each of the Feats of Strength, but the reason why they aren't Achievements, and don't provide Achievement points, is due to the limited-time, invite only, or simply impossible nature of obtaining them.

Original Source

Solution 2:

Feats of Strength do nothing. They are similar to achievements, but are tracked separately to indicate that they are distinct from achievements, and do not contribute to achievement totals.