Yes, 2012, shortly after premiere. It was awesome.
When most were crying they can't kill wasps in Act 2, but I finished game with 15k dps monk. Rares were actually making truly unique builds, no two characters were the same. One rare drop could make you progress next 5 quests. You could look down on the crybabies spamming blizzard forums "baawwww game too hard blizz nerf pls". Auction House was actually fun and you had to work towards getting those good items, or maybe snipe them if someone fucked up. It was viable gold sink with its 15% tax.
It was fine until loot 1.5? Or at most 2.0, when making char was so effortless, game gets stale after 15 minutes. Now it's the worst it has ever been. Start new character, new season, after 3 hours you're clearing Torment X wearing full set. Bull-fucking-shit. Pro teams will do that in 1 hour.
I miss Diablo 3. RIP sweet prince, 2012-2013.