Blizzard has rolled out its “Loot 2.0” patch for Diablo III to all servers, which has changed the game so completely it almost seems like a new game. A sequel to itself, if you will.

That’s because Blizzard has overhauled every single significant system in the game, largely to pave the way for the upcoming expansion, Reaper of Souls that comes out on the 25th of March but also to address a lot of the criticisms levelled at the game since its 2012 launch. It also prepares the game for the total removal of the in-game gold and real-money Auction Houses on March 18.

In doing this, Blizzard has essentially re-crafted the mechanics that made the old game what it was, and of course that means if you were playing a certain character in a specific way, you’ll need to re-think your build after installing patch 2.0.1.

The patch notes are incredibly long, detailing every single change made, but for those of you not too keen on sifting through it all, here are some of the highlights:

• The Loot 2.0 System ensures that drops are now more relevant to your character. Barbarians will get mostly strength-boosting drops, Wizards intelligence, and so forth.
• The drop rate and stats of Legendary items have been improved.
• No more Inferno, Hell and Nightmare difficulty settings. They have been replaced by Normal, Hard, Expert, Master and Torment, and the Torment difficulty can be further tweaked with another six options.
• Clans and Communities are two new social features that make it easier for groups to play together.
• The Paragon levelling system no long has a level cap, Paragon levels apply account-wide (rather than per-character) and characters don’t earn static bonuses when they hit new Paragon levels anymore.
• Players will find Pools of Reflection throughout the game, which boost experience earned by 25%, and the effect stacks if more than one is collected (up to 10).
• Many bosses have had their mechanics revised
• Every character class has been overhauled, with tweaks to every single one of their abilities. In some cases this revision breaks established builds, though, and new ones will need to be formulated.
• Gold can no longer be traded, a move that essentially ends any hopes of gold-farming for profit (sorry, China).

If you haven’t played Diablo III for a while, now’s the time to fire it back up and see if the changes made have affected your opinion of the game.