Your pretty much on point my friend, after a few weeks the game comes to a stall. Its like you said ,if you dont have friends that play with you all the time, your done. Then the grind gets so time consuming , its not funny anymore. The hole setup of the game has to change , the endless grind for everything gets to everybody in the end. Grinding is ok when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, for me its the same as for you, its pretty dark out there. I dont have all the answers, but something has to change if they want me to buy D2. Their biggest problem, they can get you in but they cant get you to stay. Cheers and have fun with other games my friend.