Diablo 3 Vanilla (or Diablo 3 Classic) refers to the initial version of the game. Some players debate exactly which patches can be described as "D3v" since so many game features changed over time, but D3v clearly ended with Diablo 3 version 2 (D3v2) which went live in February 2014, shortly before the Reaper of Souls expansion pack was released.
There are countless differences in the game between D3v and D3v2, and many of the new features are listed on the D3v2 article. A quick list of some of the biggest changes:
- Auction House (shut down in D3v2).
- Item binding was very rare in D3v but is applied to all sets, legendaries, crafting materials, gems, and more in D3v2 and RoS.
- Massive changes to skills and passive skills created many more viable builds.
- Loot 2.0 reworked the entire itemization system.
- The entire crafting and gem upgrade system was overhauled in prices and utility.
- Paragon 2.0 added Paragon points and made Paragon levels account-wide.
- The overall combat system was tweaked to remove one-shot deaths and to create less-squishy characters.
The Reaper of Souls expansion pack is not the same thing as D3v2, though it incorporates many of the D3v2 system changes. RoS added many new features on top of D3v2 systems, including the Crusader, Adventure Mode, Nephalem Rifts, the Mystic and enchanting, higher level crafting recipes and legendary/set items, a higher level 70 cap, new skills and passive skills for the original classes from 61-70, and much more. See the Reaper of Souls article for details.
LegacyEdit
In retrospect, the Diablo 3 team, especially once they got into Reaper of souls, agreed with most fans that the vanilla version of the game wasn't very good, or at least had a lot of ways to improve. Their most public comments on vanilla came in a self-critical panel at Blizzcon 2014[1], in which the developers discussed the major changes they'd made to many of Diablo 3's original features, and why they felt these changes were big improvements. That panel was expanded in a presentation by Game Director Josh Mosqueira at GDC 2015.[2]