Big news today in the form of a post from the official blog.

A short wile ago, there was a blog/forum post regarding Magic Find, gear swapping and associated issues and what to do about it all.

Now, in preparation for the big changes coming in patch 1.0.4, comes news of the Paragon System, which promises to be a path to variously progressing your level 60 character whilst also addressing gear swapping and being an alternative to on-gear Magic Find.

From the blog:

• After you hit level 60, any further experience you earn from killing monsters will begin to count toward Paragon levels
• There are 100 Paragon levels
• Every Paragon level will reward you with:

• Core stats such as Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Vitality in amounts similar to what you’d gain from a normal level
• 3% Magic Find and 3% Gold Find

• In addition, a distinctive increasingly-impressive border will surround your character portrait in the in-game party frame to denote your Paragon progression, with a new frame earned after every ten levels. Your Paragon level will also be visible to other players wherever your normal level is shown.

Big and distinctive changes as you can see – and getting to Paragon 100 will be a major time investment; “The time to reach the upper Paragon levels approximates the long-term time investment required to get a level 99 character in Diablo II.”