Oof, it really killed it for me, especially because I hadn't read up on it before so I didn't know they had made the change. During that time they still hadn't gotten the system down either so I was running on Hard Mode and got Normal level drops that were below my current level. I understand why it's up there near the top on everyone's list, but just from a personal preference standpoint I enjoyed D1 Year 1 the most. I think we were more powerful, had better guns/armor and once you hit endgame you knew what level your drop would be. There were problems like forever 29 and all that, but it seemed to just fit with what I was looking for more back then.
They haven't lost the magic, but they do seem to be going farther away instead of closer. The kf generation isn't helping. I say generation like this is genx vs millennial, but that's how it feels to me.
People that have been around since day 1 usually point to the first raids as their faves, but people who started later tend to pick kf. Kf purple say it's just the feels, but Those feels are probably why they prefer kf.
You had to raid to hit max, which was technically meaningless. I rarely hit max before the new year or season until how. D2 y2 w hit it in a month or two, so that's gong the wrong way.
The new raids you can't carry people, so i feel that's the wrong way too. The guys before kf who were maxlight wanted to carry new guys through to help us get cool gear/hit max. That was cool.
I think we need to get them to work on their recipe. A dash of difficulty, plus a smidgen of being able to carry, a healthy side of lore, etc. I think the game is great stool of course, but follow one got to the spores isn't as cool as teaching sometime to run sword. Definitely not as cool as their first time beating it while ruining sword.