I remember it was the same when I was still playing d2, which was pre 1.10. But I usually didnt join public games too much, there was a duel ladder which u could signup for and special games with passwords were made for so there would be no lamers and stuff like that, if u were lame ppl gave ur name to the admins and u would be kicked from teh tournament, that was nice pvp. However this was on Europe and I dont know if they got those things on US servers.