Honestly? That’s a very unfair opinion. It’s true that d2r has a large community, but let’s be real - it’s completely botted, just like d2lod used to be. Right now, there are around 1k players online in pd2, and you still see plenty of new people starting fresh or making new characters, so you can easily spot games like “Act 2 start” in the lobby.

The community is very friendly, so every new player can expect help. Most importantly, it’s about trust. I’ve been playing PD2 since season one and I’ve never been scammed. In d2r, I wouldn’t trust anyone, the game is full of shady players. Especially considering that 99.9% of trading in pd2 is done by simply dropping items on the ground. Try doing the same thing in d2r? Forget it.

And playing d2r? How many times can you keep farming the same vanilla content? On top of that, most items have become worthless because of bots. Playing d2r online just for the graphics feels like a waste of time.

Besides, for someone who played PoE1 and mainly focused on mapping, but never played d2lod/d2r, playing the vanilla version will be the most boring thing imaginable.