How did you find your most useful runes?

This may be a weird topic but I'm just curious about the stories behind everyone else's high runes. What dropped? How did it drop? Of course, trading takes a huge part is one's rune collection too since they are so hard to drop, but sometimes even that is a story in itself.

For example, my highest rune drop so far is an

Um from

The Countess which is nothing very interesting, but I still got my hands on Heart of the Oak. How? Here's the story:
I got very lucky and found a

Griffon's Eye in a random 8 players Diablo run where I was just trying to get some experience and levels. It didn't drop from a unique or a boss, just a lone monster who had been left behind by the group and that I decided to finish off before joining them, however it rolled very meh stats. After a lot of time trying to sell it I finally got an

Ohm for it. Prior to D2R I was a big noob when it comes to Diablo 2 knowledge (im sure im not the only one who got enlightened playing d2 in a more modern era where so much resource is easily available) and I had never made a really high runeword before, plus I had managed to gather an

Ist and a

Mal after trading a couple rare uniques so it all made sense: I was going to create my first Call To Arms.
I quickly learned why most people prefer to trade for one rather than make it after I saw the roll: 2/1/4, i.e. the lowest possible rolls for the most important skills... I tried to use it but the 50 seconds buff requiring to swap and recast so often just for +200 life was just not doing it for me, I listed it on the trading market and exchanged it for a

Vex. Having NOT learned my lesson, I decided to use it to make Heart of the Oak myself rather than exchange the

Vex for a middle of the pack version of it, and luckily it rolled slightly above the middle point.

So essentially, a low Griffon became a decent HotO, but before that became the most disappointing runeword of my Diablo career. Whenever I look at that item I can't help but laugh at how a random unique drop in a lobby game became a whole series of trading, failures and successes and eventually became this very item slotted in my hammerdin's equipment. It reminds me of the crazy trading sidequest in many Zelda games where you start by trading a pebble and eventually obtain the Master Sword or some legendary item.

So, do you have any interesting story to tell? I would love to hear it!

The other day I was farming keys when I saw an

Ort rune dropped while I was teleporting around. After I finished my

Key run and got back to my stash, I realized that I needed an

Ort to cube them into a

Thul for HOTO. I almost just left the game and figured I could easily get an

Ort rune for free or just run normal countess, but I decided to go back and try to tele around and find it. When I found the rune, turns out it was actually an

Ohm. I misread the text and almost left an

Ohm sitting on the Ground. XD

My rune and gear finds so far (as far as i remember):

1x

Ohm (andy hell)
2x

Gul (Kurast Hell, Cow-lvl)
2x

Ist (

Den of Evil Hell, Cow-lvl)
3x

Mal (cow lvl)
2x

Um (countess)
many times

Pul

cow-nightmare:
1x

Mal
2x

Um
1x

Pul
1x cold skiller

(all cow hell)
3x cold skiller
2x light skiller
1x pala-skiller +life
some other (no value)

Eth cv 13ed (countess hell)

rerolling charms:
1x light skiller
1x cold skiller
1x psb skiller

rerolling small charms:
some +20life
some +7mf / resist
all resist +5

Keys from mf - runs approx.:
3-4 keysets (3x3)
-> barb torch, sorc torch (sold for

Ohm +

Mal), torch unindent.

Actual chars:
Smiter, fire mf-sorc, cold-sorc, bow ama

Also made a CTA with

Ohm, roll was quite okay: 4/3/1

Unique items found (andy, countess,

Mephisto):
-

Tal amu
- 4-5x viper 30-34
- trang arm 5x
- other

Tal items (10-15x)
- ik - items
- Wrath of the highlord
-

Vampire Gaze
-

Homunculus (4x)

Runequests (higher runes for 5 chars in hell):
- 1x

Gul
- 2x

Ist
- 1x

Um
- 4? x

Lem

In my opinion starting point should always be a mf - sorc or a sorc to farm

Key-levels / cow.

My biggest errors at the beginning of D2Ressurected (i started 20 years ago with d2 ):

buyed

Monarch for

Pul
buyed

Shako for

Ist+2

Um+2lem (because it was clear, that value will decrease over time)
exchanged light / cold skiller for fire skiller (lol)

Biggest WUAH - moment:
Farmed a cow in a

Baal game and a sorc entered and found a

Ber-rune in this run -.-
If i took the other direction on the map first i would have found it

Hoost07 wrote: 3 years ago

turns out it was actually an

Ohm. I misread the text and almost left an

Ohm sitting on the Ground. XD

Holy shit dude really? haha thats insane! I bet you'll always look twice now xD

I found a

Ber/

Gul/Griffons back to back in hell pit.

I almost left the Griffons because I got blasted and died, but decided to check what was on the Ground.

Vex on a random cow and

Lo from an

Oblivion Knight in the

Chaos Sanctuary. Those were the highest I ever got. Both playing alone

Ber from cows

Jah from Eldritch's minions
2x

Gul from cows
Various

Lem,

Um,

Ist, from Countess and mobs throughout the game.

BillyMaysed wrote: 3 years ago

Hoost07 wrote: 3 years ago

turns out it was actually an

Ohm. I misread the text and almost left an

Ohm sitting on the Ground. XD

Holy shit dude really? haha thats insane! I bet you'll always look twice now xD

Yup! I try not to think about what else I've left on the Ground without realizing before. My merc kills a lot of enemies while I'm just teleing around not paying attention.

Hoost07 wrote: 3 years ago

Yup! I try not to think about what else I've left on the Ground without realizing before. My merc kills a lot of enemies while I'm just teleing around not paying attention.

lmao same! I honestly pay zero attention to drops if it isn't in Hell. But boy did i regret that.

I made a NM

Baal run game for peeps and on like the 9th run a

Vex rune dropped from minions and i was stand there from across the room in disbelief and no one picked it up for a good 5 seconds, instead of teleporting to it i instinctively clicked on it instead and slowly walked over... and right before i got to it, the guy standing right next to it picked it up. lol

that's awesome love hearing all these stories!

1

Ber from

Durance of Hate Level 2 inside a Box

2

Lo, one from Travinqal minion and one in act 1 Pit

2

Sur one from the Convinced minion near Mepp other one forgot

1

Ohm from the minion running to Countess

4

Vex from the Devilkin packs in act 1

Ist act 5 killing randomly

Arqua wrote: 3 years ago

1

Ber from

Durance of Hate Level 2 inside a Box

2

Lo, one from Travinqal minion and one in act 1 Pit

2

Sur one from the Convinced minion near Mepp other one forgot

1

Ohm from the minion running to Countess

4

Vex from the Devilkin packs in act 1

Ist act 5 killing randomly

I guess we don't have the same playtime and/or playstyle but wow, that's an amazing amount of dropped high runes!

Jah from Eldritch

Ber from Random Cow

Lo from a minion at Andy's place

Lo from the first Wave of

Baal
2x

Ber from Ghosts in CS

Didnt count Ists and below
all on Singleplayer

Back in D2, I was getting tired of the game. I think this was 1.12 or 1.13? Before the respec items were introduced. I was farming Countess. Then I just thought... if I don't get anything good this run, I think I'm done with D2 for a while.

Get to the Tower, and pop that chest/Stone that is always in the bottom right of her tower.

Vex. Highest rune I'd ever picked up of the Ground back then. I kept playing after that.

Somewhat recently, I've learned that

Vex is the highest possible rune to drop in Hell Act 1. So it technically could have been a higher rune forced to

Vex! But... well, since then, in D2R....

I've found a handful of Ums, a single

Pul... I've seen two

Vex drop - one I grabbed, the other I let my brother pick up.

While doing some farming runs with a buddy, we get a

Sur to drop. "Well I can't stop playing right after that, so let's do one more after this" I say. Then, I jokingly add, "If we get another high rune next game, I'll keep going." And that game was when I picked up a

Lo.

Not long after that, I managed to find a

Cham in World Chamber. THEN... a couple days later, I found a

Zod. I kinda like farming Worldstone now.

Note: I still haven't seen a shaco drop in D2R. What even is this game.

That’s crazy I’ve found three shakos, but never found anything better than an

Ist and only from

The Countess. I farm basically everywhere. I’ve worked my way up to

Lo rune through trading, but drops I ain’t ever seen shit. I was beginning to think high runes are Myth. I will say I don’t really like to play in big groups though and I know that hurts my chances.

Hoost07 wrote: 3 years ago

BillyMaysed wrote: 3 years ago

Hoost07 wrote: 3 years ago

turns out it was actually an

Ohm. I misread the text and almost left an

Ohm sitting on the Ground. XD

Holy shit dude really? haha thats insane! I bet you'll always look twice now xD

Yup! I try not to think about what else I've left on the Ground without realizing before. My merc kills a lot of enemies while I'm just teleing around not paying attention.

Yeah often wonder how many

Lo’s have been left behind because people thought the were an

Io.

Two days ago I had my luckiest day in Diablo (been playing for 15 years or so). I found (in no particular order):

-

Lo on Hell Cows singleplayer (I remeber earlier in that exact run also seeing an

Io and thinking to myself: "Why can't one freaking enemy misspell and make that I an L" )
-

Herald Of Zakarum on

Mephisto (I think)
- 40 MF Gheeds in Tunnels

I also traded for a

Vex to turn it into a

Ohm with another

Vex I had sitting around. Of course I'm just like you and had to use it myself for a CtA and got a 6 BC/5 BO/(1BC).

Then as a payback yesterday I found nothing at all. Guess, that's how it goes.

Last night me and my friend was just doing runs for fun. On the third rune we face Memph. I go to one of the chests on the side. One of the chests (left one) was locked. I clicked it, and the chest dropped a

Ber. Soooooo random. I was so hyped. We then sold the

Ber for 22

Ist and from there started to build real value. RNG games is so op

1st

Ber jumped out of some grave on my way to Nihlatak. 2nd - out of casket in ws2, 3rd dropped by some soul minion there as well on occasional farm - all on 8ppl and in 1.13 several years ago tho. 2

Sur's frome ordinary mobs when farmed anc.tunnels, 3rd one from mauler in durance. Only 1

Lo ever - one simple carver at

Black Marsh lol.
Got

Ohm from nihlatak yesterday, also kicked out

Vex from some jug in crystal passage (sometimes helpin people with

Anya quest has its bonus xD)
Never seen

Jah - so it's kinda last valuable rune i hope to loot one day

Upd: got one more

Ber from simple

Fetish right after wanderer. Hell of a way to welcome the adventurer by Kurast, i'd say . Still, 8ppl tho

P2Mc28 wrote: 3 years ago

Note: I still haven't seen a shaco drop in D2R. What even is this game.

Found my first and only

Shako within the hour of purchasing one. Act 1 hell, random mob that I blasted on the way to

The Countess tower.