playing the ladder is what most are looking for but the game itself is more challenging and enjoyable alone. the trading and the exp premade that feed some player like it happen on the first ladder kill the fun for everyone that want to compete. its so much easier to gear up with trade (especialy when some buy stuff online) and you can even avoid uber by just buying torch. the trade system is also a mess and we dont have any proper way to sell gear other then d2jsp wich wasnt even allowed back in the days. the game already lack end-game and playing online kill the fun even quicker.
we need a separate ladder for solo self found and solo self found hardcore like path of exile did. we need a way to make the game more challenging but still be able to play the season ladder. we need a way to play like we do in single player but, with ladder. the new terror zone is a perfect mechanic for this since we can farm lvl 99 alone easier now. ssf/ssfhc would be the next step to a more enjoyable game. i dont know how hard it would be to implant this but it would make the ladder equal for everyone. the /players command would probably be needed but i dont know if they can make it work for that.
actually better than playing online. still: ladder reset is a good way to get some FGs so for a week or two its not bad to participate in ladder mode. 
