A Paragon to your kind

So, with patch 1.0.4 being just another day or two away, Blizzard decided to up the ante with just another tiny bit of extra stuff for the next Diablo 3 patch. The Paragon System.

It's funny this got listed today because by damn I just posted about Replayability yesterday. Lo and behold Blizzard releases the Paragon system! In essence it allows you to level an existing level 60 character to level 100 - but not under the same xp bar. Basically you remain level 60, but your paragon level will start to raise from zero to 100 after reaching level 60 and you're still farming and killing.

Now, aside the obvious "omg I am better than you" E-Peen effect what does this give you? Why would you want to spend an insane amount of time trying to reach this "new" level 100? Well I'll tell you why, since you're still reading this.

* Each paragon level adds +3% Magic find and +3% gold find. (Capping at +300, +300%)
* Each paragon level adds extra stats such as Strength, Dexterity, Vitality and/or Intelligence just like you were still normally leveling. (That's pretty useful)
* Each 10th level gives you a new ingame character portrait. (As seen below)

Aside the Paragon System they're also making Nephalem Valor give +15% xp per stack, up to 75% total. The time it'll take to reach level 100 is said to compare much like leveling from 1 to 99 back in Diablo 2. Meaning, quite a while. Whether they included a max stack of Nephalem Valor in that is anyone's guess though.

What else is 1.0.4 bringing you might wonder? Well, If you hadn't heard about it elsewhere yet, here's a short list of info for those of you too lazy to look it up:
*  Enrage timers from champion packs is gone. (Bosses still enrage though, sadly)
* Various buffs to legendary and set items. (Newly dropped items ONLY)
* Magic and gold find will be capped at 300% (Thus a max level paragon will be able to drop that extra MF% na GF% set). Sucks if you just bought one, great if you didn't have time to collect one yet.
* Your Magic Find is your own - it will no longer be avaraged across the whole paty.
* Immune minions on champions (same with uniques obviously) - it'll be gone and stay that way! Rejoice!
* Fearing, Fire chains and Shielding on champions is getting nerfed, by how much is unclear.
* Various class skill buffs (and a few nerfs). For a few more details see: Barbarian, Wizard, Monk, Demon Hunter, Witch Doctor. It's too much to list here.
* Magic and Rare item drop rate from regular monsters is being increased by 300% ! That's right 300%, because saying it once is not enough. That means FOUR times as many blue and yellow items from regular monsters. Legendary items are unaffected... booh...
* Normal monsters on Inferno will gain 5-10% health, making them a slightly better challenge - to offset the increased item drop quality.
* Champions and Unique monsters on Inferno will have their health nerfed by 10-25%, to make them less ridiculously hard.
* Three extra search fields for the auction house. Meaning you can search for more pre/suffixes.
* Auction house columns sortable.
* Auctions can be cancelled at any time, as long as you don't have any active bids on the item yet.

So, get ready and be prepared to spend a lot more time on your main character.

PS: A cookie for the person who knows what the topic title refers to. (Chocolate chip even)