1) You'll get pretty big power spikes (and some power drops) at WT3 (sacred) and WT4 (ancestral) gear jumps. One at 50(?) when you unlock paragon board and get

1) You'll get pretty big power spikes (and some power drops) at WT3 (sacred) and WT4 (ancestral) gear jumps. One at 50(?) when you unlock paragon board and get to spend a bunch of points. Then your biggest power spike when you get item power 925 weapons (you could do this really fast from world bosses in season 2 but it's a bit slower in season 3). Then, yes, gradual power increases from other gear/glyphs/paragon and potential big power spikes from uber uniques (but rough to farm). 2) Once you beat the main story/campaign you never do the campaign or side quests again, even during seasons with new characters. Same for renown. Non-expert players hit WT4 in a day or two at season start... as long as they're playing one of the set of viable builds per class. And once you're in WT4 you can effectively pick how hard you want the content to be. In comparison, the expert players hit level 100 in a day or two. If you play D2 "as the game is presented" you'll have a bad time too, eventually. It's very easy to make non-viable builds in most dungeon crawl ARPG. If you really want to have fun, unless you specifically have fun developing good builds, then my biggest suggestion is to play a meta build. Season 2 ball lightning sorc was super fun. It had the full "build struggles" -> "build is now online" -> "build is *zooming*" experience. Yes, it was overpowered (at least until AoZ) and broke the servers during world bosses. The game definitely has problems but each season has been an improvement as well, even if an individual season mechanic isn't the greatest. In comparison, I think a game like Path of Exile is a much more interesting dungeon crawl ARPG but I think Path of Exile is also exhausting to play unless one makes it their main long-term game.