#1 - Sept. 19, 2013, 9:08 p.m.
First, let me start with the intent of the system so everyone has a bit of context. The initial implementation of the Paragon system was meant to help provide players a form of end game progression. The primary end game progression is items; Diablo is all about finding awesome items, and using them to murder the hordes of evil. Sometimes, though, you may go for a while and not find a new exciting item, the primary goal of the Paragon system is provide you with some form of tangible benefit for killing lots of monsters even if you didn't find new items.
The initial system accomplishes what it set out to do, but unfortunately there comes a time when you have maxed out that progression and suddenly you start losing out on part of your reward for killing monsters (experience). The first change to the Paragon 2.0, removing the cap, is intended to ensure that, no matter how much or how little you play, you will always be earning that experience.
The next thing that we wanted to address with Paragon 2.0 is that, since Paragon experience was associated with a specific character, it had the unfortunate side-effect of making players feel more tied to a specific character than we wanted them to be. If you have a Paragon 50 Wizard it makes it that much harder to convince yourself to try a new character because some people would feel like they are "wasting experience," either on the Wizard or on the new character they wanted to try out. We want players to feel that they are being rewarded for their time investment, regardless of what character they are in the mood to play or experiment with. This is the primary reason we are changing Paragon levels to be account-wide instead of character specific. We want people who have invested time earning Paragon experience to be able to enjoy all the changes and new content the expansion introduces without having a sense of loss for "wasting Paragon levels" on a character, especially since the Crusader is so awesome I expect 200% of players to just re-roll ;)
Lastly, spendable points. Anyone who has played Diablo games in the past has some fond memories (or not, if you ever misclicked the wrong stat) of picking how they wanted to spend their points whenever they leveled. While giving players more character customization options isn't the core intent of the system, it did present itself as a good place to introduce the mechanic. Players already earn bonus stats, Magic Find, and Gold Find when they earn a Paragon level, but we thought giving players more options and letting them choose what they wanted their bonus to be was just better all around. When you gain a Paragon level in the new system, you will receive a Paragon point to spend. What category that point can be spent in is determined by what Paragon level you earn. Paragon level 1 gives you a point to spend in a Core Stat, Paragon 2 gives you a point in the Offensive category, 3 is Defensive, and 4 is Utility (Adventure). Each Paragon level past that follows the same pattern. At present all categories other than Core Stats (Str, Int, Dex, Vit) have a cap on the number of points that can be allocated to them, which also means there is a cap to the total number of points that 3 of the 4 categories can have. If you reach Paragon 800, you will have maxed the number of points that can be allocated to the Offensive, Defensive, and Utility categories and all future Paragon levels will grant you a point in the Core Stat category instead.
Hopefully this covers the majority of questions that people have. While I am incredibly busy working on the expansion at present, I'll do my best to answer whatever remaining questions people have about Paragon 2.0.
