Hardcore and Heralds

The game has totally changed for hardcore players since the new Warlock edition. Before the changes you could basically lay back a bit in endgame content and breeze through

Terror zones. These times are definitely gone. The game now needs your full attention, otherwise Death is certain imo.

Today I caught myself for the first time not wanting to play TZ Worldstone Keep so I skipped it. You never know what kind of heralds you will get there, and now they spawn quite suddenly near you.

Sometimes I am not really in the mood for heralds but I have gotten used to playing

Terror zones. Playing non terrorized zones is not an option for me but I will test it again in order to get some statues.

Just a few few minutes ago a tier 3

Herald spawned in the snake tempel level 2. I barely made it out of there alive with my

Cleave Warlock and had to use all of my rejuvenation potions in my

Belt.

I have not died yet, but it is getting closer and I have a feeling it is only a matter of time until a

Herald will be the end for one of my characters...

While obviously more impactful for HC, I'd say that for most builds (and most certainly anything with

Teleport), heralds are still easy enough to avoid if you don't want to engage them. Or if you want to just create a gap to engage from a distance.

After all, the indicator is decently visible and the sound unmissable, followed by plenty of time to get out. Though the golden ball on the PTR was far more visible than the storm we get now. And it gave you a better indication of exactly which spot the

Herald is spawning in.

From a non-HC perspective, the spawning is far superior now. No random exploration, some warning but no excessive wait and possibly most importantly, no randos chain-teleporting to steal the ire you procced, finally making it more multiplayer-friendly again.
Though it is admittedly kinda funny seeing just how many deaths you get now in shard runs as noone seems to know what they should be looking at/getting away from yet. ^^

Plus heralds did get nerfed pretty hard to make up for it I guess.

DKBam wrote: 2 weeks ago

and now they spawn quite suddenly near you.

I noticed that a while ago while running TZ

Lost City,

Valley of Snakes,

Claw Viper Temple,

Ancient Tunnels. I was in the

Ancient Tunnels and received an ire warning, and then just like that it went straight to the "hunting you" warning, and then an entire mob with a

Herald materialized out of thin air almost right on top of me in a cul-de-sac area where there was nothing before.

DKBam wrote: 2 weeks ago

The game has totally changed for hardcore players since the new Warlock edition. Before the changes you could basically lay back a bit in endgame content and breeze through

Terror zones. These times are definitely gone. The game now needs your full attention, otherwise Death is certain imo.

Today I caught myself for the first time not wanting to play TZ Worldstone Keep so I skipped it. You never know what kind of heralds you will get there, and now they spawn quite suddenly near you.

Sometimes I am not really in the mood for heralds but I have gotten used to playing

Terror zones. Playing non terrorized zones is not an option for me but I will test it again in order to get some statues.

Just a few few minutes ago a tier 3

Herald spawned in the snake tempel level 2. I barely made it out of there alive with my

Cleave Warlock and had to use all of my rejuvenation potions in my

Belt.

I have not died yet, but it is getting closer and I have a feeling it is only a matter of time until a

Herald will be the end for one of my characters...

Heralds have indeed been severely nerfed, but I guess it's a matter of ability combinations. But if you're merely out for statues, that shouldn't require TZ farming.

Blizzard wrote:

Colossal Ancient Statues now drop from non-Terrorized act bosses at a reduced rate.

Heralds are tough for some builds. But if that happens just move to other pack of Mobs. Rerolling

Terror zones (to avoid Cursed or mana burn) is other option. If you are Warlock with pets, you can hurl your demons over the wall and re cast them until everything is dead.