Getting started in Diablo 3 (no, not an Android game this time)

I admit I was sort of "meh" about getting a copy of Diablo 3 with my year's subscription to Warcraft.  Warcraft does suit all my needs, and I'm not looking for other games.  But friends were playing it and so I decided to eventually try it out because it's a solo game and sometimes I want to fiddle with something while I'm writing something else.

But once I got into the game a little bit, I discovered that a) most of the info out there was the result of rewrites of the pre-release game (and two years old) and b) contained in threads in a discussion forum.  So you have to slog through page after page after page (after page) of comments just to find out what stats you should put on the Rogue who's following you around.

So -- I haven't played it up to the highest level, but here's the basics (this is just MY opinion.  Your mileage may vary):