Originally Posted by
traen
There are big differences between d2 and d3.
First of all class synergies.
Conviction aura, amplify damage, decrepify - doubled(and sometimes even tripled) the damage that monsters took from ALL party members.
Things like fanaticism, druid spirits etc, buffed your DPS, HP, armor, resistances, +skills, etc to enormous levels
Playing with a friend was fun because you were able to choose 2 classes with good synergy, doubling the performance of each of you individually.
Second one is experience.
You gained more experience/hour when played in party.
In d3? Synergy is not noticeable and playing solo gives you significantly more xp/hour because of game mechanics flaws making party gameplay not rewarding.
Basically d2 forced you to play in party, because on hell difficulty there were immune monsters which made hard for many classes specializing on particular builds to progress/farm solo. Also classes like sorceress were essential because they were able to quickly find a way in mazes like tal rasha tomb and open a portal for other players.
It's hard to say if its good or bad. Without proper carrot on stick most people will always prefer to play solo. So it's quite a hard decision - to make people do what they don't want to do to potentially improve their gameplay, or just let them get the type of gameplay they like - killing monsters solo and feeling that they are alone responsible for saving the world.
It's really not up to you and me to decide. Obviously there should be games with both types of gameplay.