Given the recent announcement that some of the Solstice Armor, and non-raid catalysts (Telesto and Sleeper) are going to require prestige raid completions I wanted to offer my own explanation as to why the thought of raiding in D2 is such a turn off to many, even for many of us who were avid raiders in D1. Just my thoughts below, but interested in why everyone else enjoys or doesn't enjoy raiding in D2 in its current state. From my observations whether or not you enjoy raiding in D2 seems to come down to two main factors. 1) Do you enjoy the heavier emphasis on mechanics over D1 raids including the new death mechanics such as revive tokens and wipe timer? 2) Do you have a regular group you play with or do you rely on LFG? Because of the heavier emphasis on mechanics and death penalties there aren't as many "easy" roles in D2 raids compared to D1 raids. In D1 raids you could bring in newer or less experienced players and assign them some easier tasks such as add control in most encounters, and on normal mode it was usually OK if they died once or twice without it being too much of a problem. This kept a relatively low barrier to entry for new players and offered more experienced players an opportunity to teach new players without either of them feeling like they were dragging the team down, or being dragged down respectively. D2 normal mode raids are much less forgiving since most encounters require players to have a full understanding of the complete mechanics, and because if they die (which is bound to happen to new players) it often means the entire team needs to wipe and do it again. The friendly Learn-As-You-Go process of D1 raids is gone. Bringing along lesser skilled players, or even experienced players whom you've just met and haven't developed that intuitive shorthand communication you get with a regular group means that you need to be prepared for significantly more wipes than D1 raids. The effect of these changes has manifested in a few noticeable ways. 1) Having a regular raid team is much more of a prerequisite for being successful in D2 raids compared to D1 raids. There's no substitute for developing consistent strategies and shorthand communication, and though this was true in D1 raids as well, flawless communication and coordination wasn't as much of a prerequisite for most encounters due to more forgiving mechanics and lack of wipe-on-death penalties. 2) We've seen increasingly rigid experience requirements for LFG participation even for normal difficulty raids. For the aforementioned reasons bringing along less experienced players is now almost guaranteed to add significant time and frustration to your runs, so you can't really blame players for not wanting to go through that tedious and repetitive learning process with new players every time they raid. So who can blame them? 3) Solo players who were once comfortable with using LFG to find raid groups have been turned off by the more rigid systems, greater emphasis on experience, communication, and steeper LFG requirements. Again, who can blame them since no one likes feeling like they're holding the rest of the team back, or being berated by more experienced players who are frustrated at having to wipe every time someone makes a small mistake. TL;DR - Because D2 raids have more rigid encounter mechanics coupled with wipe-on-death mechanics it makes learning raids a more tedious process than D1, and makes taking newer or less experienced players through raids more difficult and less enjoyable for all. Because if this we're seeing steeper LFG experience requirements than D1, fewer experienced players willing to help new players, and fewer average players interested in raiding in general.