Suggestion: Fire up a STF and test out a build before you spec your main. Since you're a veteran coming back after a decent hiatus tweaks have been done all over the place, so things may not be as you remember it. Most of the big changes have been mentioned already, but you can (and should) look at the patch notes to get a feel for what's changed item balance wise.
Since animations have been tweaked quite a bit (not across the board, but pretty close) it's probably a good idea to get a feel for cRPG on a STF. That will also grant you a sense of what the NA meta is comprised of and allow you to decide on a build accordingly.
