1000 Hell Countess Runs

1000 Hell Countess Runs (most of them done online P1, non-terrorized)


1. Rune drops (ranked after character level requirement)

El: 50
Eld: 38
Tir: 118
Nef: 75
Eth: 162
Ith: 103
Tal: 214
Ral: 159
Ort: 218
Thul: 153
Amn: 147
Sol: 97
Shael: 106
Dol: 65 (almost 22 Hel)
Hel: 62
Io: 44
Lum: 28
Ko: 19
Fal: 24
Lem: 12
Pul: 12
Um: 13
Mal: 6
Ist: 6
Gul, Vex, Ohm, Lo: 0
( Sur: 1, dropped from a champion or unique in Tower level 4, not from The Countess herself)



2. Rune drops (ranked after drops)

Ort: 218 (more than 1 Tal in 5 runs)
Tal: 214 (more than 1 Ort in 5 runs)
Eth: 162 (roughly 1 Eth in 6 runs)
Ral: 159 (more than 1 Ral in 7 runs)
Thul: 153 (2 Thul in 15 runs)
Amn: 147 (2 Amn in 15 runs)
Tir: 118 (1 Tir in 9 runs)
Shael: 106 (1 Shael in less than 10 runs)
Ith: 103 (1 Ith in less than 10 runs)
Sol: 97 (1 Sol in a little over 10 runs)
Nef: 75 (1 Nef in about 13 runs)
Dol: 65 (1 Dol in about 15 runs)
Hel: 62 (1 Hel in about 16 runs)
El: 50 (1 El in 20 runs)
Io: 44 (1 Io in about 23 runs)
Eld: 38 (1 Eld in about 26 runs)
Lum: 28 (1 Lum in about 36 runs)
Fal: 24 (1 Fal in about 42 runs)
Um: 13 (1 Um in 77 runs)
Lem: 12 (1 Lem in about 83 runs)
Pul: 12 (1 Pul in about 83 runs)
Mal: 6 (1 Mal in about 167 runs)
Ist: 6 (1 Ist in about 167 runs)
( Sur: 1)
Gul, Vex, Ohm, Lo: 0



3. Key of Terror:

- 78 in total (7.8% chance to drop a Key per run, 1 Key in 12.8 runs, slightly better than the given chance of 7.4%, 1 Key in 13.6 runs)

- only one double Key drop, no triple Key drop

- Luckiest Key streak: 4 keys in just 7 runs.

- Luckiest 20 runs: 5 keys

- Unluckiest Key streak: 86 runs without any Key (run 866 – run 952)



4. Ten takeaways (numbered but in no specific order)

1. The most common runes are not the lowest runes ( El, Eld, Nef, whoever claims that is just a noob) but the “middle low” runes Ort, Tal, Ral, Thul, Amn and the “low low” rune Tir. This corresponds to the normal drop rates of these runes in the other areas of the game, I guess.

2. It is very fast to farm all runes until Hel/ Io from The Countess.

3. The distribution of the Key drops is total RNG. I once had 86 runs without a Key (There is only a 0.14% chance of getting such an unlucky streak.) But I once also got 4 keys in 7 runs. That’s a chance of 0.0103%! If I look at my luckiest 20 runs, I got 5 keys (0.096%). I expected the keys to be more “evenly” distributed but over 1000 runs, the Key drops even out and are pretty close to the given average that has been known for many years (7.4 % per run).

4. I did not get anything higher than Ist from The Countess or her minions but I got a very lucky Sur drop on the way to The Countess. Because of this single experience, you might say that killing at least the unique and champion packs that pass your way makes sense. I have killed a lot of them, but not all of them, by far and I would not make detours for killing them. That being said, Hell Countess is NOT a good spot to farm high runes, especially if you tele directly to her and do not kill anything along the way and if the Sur drop had not happened, I might advise to just ignore everything apart from The Countess. So, the two goals of Hell Countess runs are: Getting 1. lots of runes (low and mid) and 2. keys.

5. When I did most of the runs, Hel runes were quite valuable. I got 62 of them and 65 Dol (almost 22 Hel after cubing). Back then, you could sell 35 Hel for 1 Jah. So, the higher the Hel (and Ral, Sol, Nef, El, Eld) value is, the more lucrative it is to farm Hell Countess.

6. More than 95% of the runs were done online. When farming Hell Countess online, the map is hidden, so you might have to tele around a bit until you find the Tower. Black Marsh is full of shrines. I encountered lots of Gem Shrines, so you should always have lots of Flawless Amethyst at hand.

7. Most runs were done with Sorcs of level 90+. If the Tower is not terrorized, there is hardly any experience to be gained there for a 90+ char. So don’t do these runs for the experience (5 min of TZ farming will give you more EXP than 1 hour of Hell Countess farming).

8. I do not remember any truly good drops apart from the runes. Obviously, lots of flawless gems, charms etc. but nothing was godly. However, maybe there were some items in the range of Pul- Ist, but I did not keep track of them since I was focused on the runes and keys.

9. When you do the runs online, you must Teleport A LOT. So a Sorc or Barb with the highest or second-highest FCR-breakpoint is highly recommended, even if you Sacrifice kill-speed a bit, because the monsters are fairly weak and you do not kill a lot apart from champion/unique packs and The Countess and her minions, of course. One run took me 2 mins on average, that’s about 33 hours in total.

10. RotW has introduced rune stash tabs. This has both positive and negative consequences for Hell Countess runs. Positive, obviously, is that you now have much more space to store away all these runes. And storing them can be done with just only shift-click. Negative is that the value of basically all low runes has dropped because many more of them get picked up and stored away (and eventually sold). I made many, many Ist runes selling all these El, Eld, Nef, Tal, Ral, Sol, but these times are gone now.

I guess, I found out nothing new, but it was fun (and also a little bit tedious) and maybe my data and interpretations help somebody.



5. Value of the runes and keys that dropped

El: about 3 Ist
Eld: about 2 Ist
Tir: cubed into Nef, almost 3 Ist
Nef: more than 3 Ist
Eth: only picked up a few, made about 2 Ist
Ith: did not pick them up
Tal: cubed into about 70 Ral
Ral: 159 Ral and 70 Ral from Tal-cubing accounted for about 2 Jah (28 Ist)
Ort+ Thul+ Amn: Only picked some up for rerolling Spirits and Insights, no profit made
Sol: about 5 Ist
Shael: did not pick them up
Dol: cubed into 22 Hel
Hel: 62 plus 22 Hel from cubing: more than 2 Jah (roughly 30 Ist)
Io: sold a few on ladder, about 1 Ist
Lum, Ko, Fal: picked them up but did not sell them, some I dropped in free games, some I used for upgrade recipes
Lem and Pul: about 5 Ist
Um: about 6 Ist
Mal+ Ist: about 12 Ist (most of the time the value of Mal was equal to the value of Ist)
( Sur: 5-6 Ist)

Keys: Ist per 3 keys, so about 26 Ist


In total: if I counted correctly about 100 Ist from the runes (with the Sur) and about 26 Ist from the keys, so roughly 126 Ist or 9 Jah.

Total time investment: with sorting and trading: about 40 hours (in the course of two years).

Most lucrative drops: Ral, Hel and keys!

Ist per hour: 3.1 (which is a very good average I guess!).

BUT! With RotW the value of runes has dropped. If I did another 1000 runs in maybe 36 hours (sorting and storing is quicker now), I would only expect about 40 Ist from the runes but still about 25 Ist from the keys. 65 Ist in 36 hours would be 1.8 Ist per hour, still not bad.

So I think running Hell countess (very fast!) is still lucrative but nowhere near as good as it was before RotW.

Congrats to the 1000 runs, these are some interesting stats.

mikelessar wrote: 3 months ago

10. RotW has introduced rune stash tabs. This has both positive and negative consequences for Hell Countess runs. Positive, obviously, is that you now have much more space to store away all these runes. And storing them can be done with just only shift-click. Negative is that the value of basically all low runes has dropped because many more of them get picked up and stored away (and eventually sold). I made many, many Ist runes selling all these El, Eld, Nef, Tal, Ral, Sol, but these times are gone now.

I guess, I found out nothing new, but it was fun (and also a little bit tedious) and maybe my data and interpretations help somebody.

Same issue with Gold. Before ROTW I was selling 2,500,000 Gold for Ist and now since you can store much more Gold in your stash they want 15,900,000 Gold for 1 Ist, that's a 84% value loss :/

This looks like a lot of Wealth in small runes.
CN server prices can be different from international, but trend overall is same.
140 Ral can be traded for an Ohm.
recently I sold several sets of Insight runes+ Hel which go up to Mal per 5 sets due to high demand in RoTW
Can be 5 to 10 sets per Mal.
On ladder Cure and Hustle sets are also in demand.
Spirit sets can be traded as well or reroll Monarch and sell 35FCR ones.

1000 runs is a dedication. Thank you for sharing results. Much appreciated.

mikelessar wrote: 3 months ago

3. The distribution of the Key drop is total RNG. I once had 86 runs without a Key (There is only a 0.14% chance of getting such an unlucky streak. But I once also got 4 keys in 7 runs. That’s a chance of 0.0103%! If I look at my luckiest 20 runs, I got 5 keys (0.096%). I expected the keys to be more “evenly” distributed but over 1000 runs, the Key drops even out and are pretty close to the given average that has been known for many years (7.4 % per run).

I’m going to quote this and link this thread every time someone claims Key drops have changed or that Key drops are being manipulated by Blizzard. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

Imo hell countess (or any countess) is only "worth" the farming early on. Very early on. Mid game, perhaps still some runes needed, but endgame absolutely worthless time sink. You might get decent drops from mobs on the way to the tower lvl 5 & countess if the area is terrorized.

Bisu wrote: 3 months ago

Is it still possible to correct the title at this point?

I was shocked initially seeing so many rune drops, then I read the first line and found my calm again. =)

Try editing the first post? I dont know if its possible but thats where it is if it is.
EDIT: Nvm youre not @OP as the OP can do it if I am not completely wrong

Nice stats of rune & Key drops over 1000 runs, epic time investment & dedication.

very interesting read.

Bisu wrote: 3 months ago

Is it still possible to correct the title at this point?

I was shocked initially seeing so many rune drops, then I read the first line and found my calm again. =)

Ooops, I forgot a 0 in the title.
I can edit my post but not the title, I guess.
@ShadowHeart
Could you fix this, please.

mikelessar wrote: 3 months ago

Ooops, I forgot a 0 in the title.
I can edit my post but not the title, I guess.
@ShadowHeart
Could you fix this, please.

Fixed

Semirotta wrote: 3 months ago

Imo hell countess (or any countess) is only "worth" the farming early on. Very early on. Mid game, perhaps still some runes needed, but endgame absolutely worthless time sink. You might get decent drops from mobs on the way to the tower lvl 5 & countess if the area is terrorized.

I'd like to disagree.
First: keys are always I'm demand
8* countless keys can be accounted as a set : trade 1:1 for A2 keys and 2:3 for A5 keys. One set of keys is a solid Vex (or Ohm if you catch the right buyer). Other runes are nice to sell too. 80 keys: =10* Vex with pessimistic approach.
At the beginning, when you are weak, 1 or 2 keys can be traded for a Druid torch. Or are tradeable for other gear you need.
To farm countless you just need Sorc with teleporting. And a merc / crappy sunder charm if you are fire-cold Sorc. Other stuff you get on the way to countless is a bonus.
May be you can do same good with farming pit for same amount of time. But you need to be lucky (stack MF) there.
For me countless is content I do quite often.

dionisy_cn wrote: 3 months ago

Semirotta wrote: 3 months ago

Imo hell countess (or any countess) is only "worth" the farming early on. Very early on. Mid game, perhaps still some runes needed, but endgame absolutely worthless time sink. You might get decent drops from mobs on the way to the tower lvl 5 & countess if the area is terrorized.

I'd like to disagree.
First: keys are always I'm demand
8* countless keys can be accounted as a set : trade 1:1 for A2 keys and 2:3 for A5 keys. One set of keys is a solid Vex (or Ohm if you catch the right buyer). Other runes are nice to sell too. 80 keys: =10* Vex with pessimistic approach.
At the beginning, when you are weak, 1 or 2 keys can be traded for a Druid torch. Or are tradeable for other gear you need.
To farm countless you just need Sorc with teleporting. And a merc / crappy sunder charm if you are fire-cold Sorc. Other stuff you get on the way to countless is a bonus.
May be you can do same good with farming pit for same amount of time. But you need to be lucky (stack MF) there.
For me countless is content I do quite often.

Sure if you have the luck to get the keys, completely forgot about the Key part because of my own terrible luck with them so I dont exactly farm them.

Bisu wrote: 3 months ago

Is it still possible to correct the title at this point?

I was shocked initially seeing so many rune drops, then I read the first line and found my calm again. =)

Speaking about the title. I arrived here when it was already fixed (I assume it was 100 runs, wasn't it )
But I read the title and some of the first post and I saw something about keys and Tower level 5 and I was like... what tower in a Moo Moo Farm?
I read again and I saw that is about 1000 Hell Countess not 1000 Hell Cows. Dumb me

And ontopic: I also found a Sur from the mobs near The Countess when I farmed her a lot to get runes to cube them for my Infinity's second Ber.

Fun fact: if you cube everything starting from Lem, you will get 1x Ohm, Vex, Gul and a Mal.

ipatrishkov wrote: 3 months ago

Fun fact: if you cube everything starting from Lem, you will get 1x Ohm, Vex, Gul and a Mal.

If you stop at 15 Ist you can probably trade them for like Lo+ Ber without much issue. Of course sum of the individual Lem Pul Um and Mal are technically worth even more than that but it would be too annoying to trade your way up from there

I have been farming keys offline and been pleasantly surprised by how much more frequently they drop at /players7. This data here definitely looks more like what I'm used to when farming online solo.

justinman114 wrote: 3 months ago

I have been farming keys offline and been pleasantly surprised by how much more frequently they drop at /players7. This data here definitely looks more like what I'm used to when farming online solo.

It is quite common to jump into someone else's Chaos run game to farm Countess or Summoner online . P2 is better than solo.
If you make your own game online call it accordingly and someone can jump in to farm Chaos Sanctuary or whatever other zones increasing your chances to get keys as well.
It is nice when folks are killing any Mobs around waypoint or next to entrance of the tower. This way you can avoid wasting time looking for a level 5 while Countess is long gone.

dionisy_cn wrote: 3 months ago

justinman114 wrote: 3 months ago

I have been farming keys offline and been pleasantly surprised by how much more frequently they drop at /players7. This data here definitely looks more like what I'm used to when farming online solo.

It is quite common to jump into someone else's Chaos run game to farm Countess or Summoner online . P2 is better than solo.
If you make your own game online call it accordingly and someone can jump in to farm Chaos Sanctuary or whatever other zones increasing your chances to get keys as well.
It is nice when folks are killing any Mobs around waypoint or next to entrance of the tower. This way you can avoid wasting time looking for a level 5 while Countess is long gone.

Not a bad idea, but I feel like it's hard to be consistent doing this as you are jumping to random games rather than just starting your own. Also, you would want at least P3 to affect the drop chances, breakpoints are every other level. Doing this every once in a while is great but when I really need to farm keys for a while I'd rather just do it mindlessly xD

I think I should add a little about the value of the runes I farmed.

El: about 3 Ist
Eld: about 2 Ist
Tir: cubed into Nef, almost 3 Ist
Nef: more than 3 Ist
Eth: only picked up a few, made about 2 Ist
Ith: did not pick them up
Tal: cubed into about 70 Ral
Ral: 159 Ral and 70 Ral from Tal-cubing accounted for about 2 Jah (28 Ist)
Ort+ Thul+ Amn: Only picked some up for rerolling Spirits and Insights, no profit made
Sol: about 5 Ist
Shael: did not pick them up
Dol: cubed into 22 Hel
Hel: 62 plus 22 Hel from cubing: more than 2 Jah (roughly 30 Ist)
Io: sold a few on ladder, about 1 Ist
Lum, Ko, Fal: picked them up but did not sell them, some I dropped in free games, some I used for upgrade recipes
Lem and Pul: about 5 Ist
Um: about 6 Ist
Mal+ Ist: about 12 Ist (most of the time the value of Mal was equal to the value of Ist)
( Sur: 5-6 Ist)

Keys: Ist per 3 keys, so about 26 Ist


In total: if I counted correctly about 100 Ist from the runes (with the Sur) and about 26 Ist from the keys, so roughly 126 Ist or 9 Jah.

Total time investment: with sorting and trading: about 40 hours (in the course of two years).

Most lucrative drops: Ral, Hel and keys!

Ist per hour: 3.1 (which is a very good average I guess!).

BUT! With RotW the value of runes has dropped. If I did another 1000 runs in maybe 36 hours (sorting and storing is quicker now), I would only expect about 40 Ist from the runes but still about 25 Ist from the keys. 65 Ist in 36 hours would be 1.8 Ist per hour, still not bad.

So I think running Hell countess (very fast!) is still lucrative but nowhere near as good as it was before RotW.