Me and a childhood friend of mine have been playing together since I got a laptop when we were teenagers (and took turns to watch each other play before that).
Back then, when we lived 10 min apart, we would sit next to each other and play.
Then, when I moved for Uni, we fully migrated to ladder.
Then, when I had a child, we realized ladder does not work for us anymore. The resets just kills it when you have little time. We tried to set up tcp/IP over hamacho, but were having some problems. Right about then, the news of D2R broke.
What at first seemed like a hassle free solution for us, is looking more and more like a no-option.
No tcp/IP (and no mention about open bnet, likely) means we have to use battlenet, and as far as I have gathered ladder only is still ladder only on battlenet. (Only included in SP aswell.)
I may buy it later, but although the new graphics are tempting many of my initial reasons to buy it are gone.