Rune drop questions

Hi all,

Couple questions, how is the max rune drop for a given area/monster determined? I’ve found conflicting info. I’ve mostly heard that

Lo is max in act 1 hell but have then seen a video of

Ber dropping in

Den of Evil from a White monster and then heard teebling found

Ber from lvl 5 tower. Additionally, what of chests? I’ve heard they max lower than monsters for highest rune drop. I heard in arcane that max drop from chests is

Vex but yesterday, I’m almost 100 percent certain I dropped an

Ohm from a locked chest. Do superchests and normal or locked chests differ in highest possible rune drop?

Also, my understanding of item drops is that every time a rune drops, it had a chance of being the highest possible rune that the given monster/area can give. So for instance, in cow level, cow dies and drops something, rng hits rune 17, and then checks from the top first, so

Zod,

Cham,

Jah …. And then inevitably, in my case, becomes an

Ort :p

I’m guessing it’s more nuanced, but is the premise accurate? In other words, is measuring the average number of any runes dropped in a given area (with a high enough sampling size) a good measure of the relative probability that an area will drop its highest possible rune?

Please hook me up with any info you got. I’m curious to hear what ppl have found that has surprised them. For instance, I was shocked to find an

Ohm in act 5 throne nm last season.. Also any accurate resources on this info would be helpful. Furthermore, information concerning how rune drops have changed since early d2 til now are also interesting to me. I heard that in 1.13 that rune drops were increased and have heard some speculation from more experienced players that in d2r they have the hunch rates were upped again. Any info is appreciated.

Thank you

Personally I use this calc https://dropcalc.silospen.com/item.php
Can’t vouche for it but seems accurate, to me at least. I’ve dropped 2

Ist on nm. One at

River of Flame the other at

Lower Kurast. I have ran Cows like crazy, offline thou, over 700 times. Dropped more than 18 High runes. Highest a chest can give at Moo Moo Farm is

Vex, that is to my knowledge ofc. I could be wrong. A few days ago I dropped a

Cham from a skulls pile just outside of

Chaos Sanctuary, I was stunned lol.

Are you sure that the area wasn't terrorized?

mockingbirdreal wrote: 1 year ago

Are you sure that the area wasn't terrorized?

Hi, I’m assuming you’re asking about my post but apologize if you’re asking Lars.

Concerning the video of

Ber drop in

Den of Evil, I’m pretty certain it wasn’t, but now I’m questioning if it was a

Ber and not some lower rune. I’ll find the video later and can reference it.

As far as countess

Ber, I recall that it was teeblings first hell countess run and saw no mention of tz. Additionally, he would have been sub or = to lvl 80 at that time. It sure if that would impact the possibility of

Ber. The info is available under “matriarch teebling” post like two weeks ago.

Concerning my

Ohm locked chest find, the area wasn’t terrorized but it is possible that I was mistaken and it came from an enemy instead, but I trust my senses and remember clicking the box and the

Ohm dropping well after the enemy dead by the

Ohm had perished. I play with items perpetually displayed, so I notice exactly when things drop. The

Ohm I found in nm I’m almost certain wasn’t in tz zone.

Unlikely as it is, a

Ber can indeed drop off of random White mobs in den. Even while not terrorized.

Ber might be special in that it ends up in the best of the best runewords out there but the rune itself isn't actually that high.

Teebs got his

Ber off one of the adds next to countess, more likely than not as (non-TZ) countess herself is indeed limited to

Lo (maybe that's the "

Lo max" you're remembering?) while the normal mobs next to her can drop all the way up to

Cham.

And yes, Ohms do indeed start dropping in NM A5 already. Should've been a mob though. Chests in NM WSK top out at

Ist.


Generally, drop calcs are your friend for questions like this.
(though they aren't necessarily correctly updated for TZs yet across the board)

Rik wrote: 1 year ago

As far as countess

Ber, I recall that it was teeblings first hell countess run and saw no mention of tz. Additionally, he would have been sub or = to lvl 80 at that time. It sure if that would impact the possibility of

Ber. The info is available under “matriarch teebling” post like two weeks ago.

Yeah it dropped from one of

The Countess minions, Hell, I think I was level 76 at the time? Wasn't terrorised.

As far as I know runes can drop from pretty much any monster as long as it has the necessary level and it can drop in the difficulty, it's just a really low chance for HRs.
Also regarding the "tip" to seek out ghosts and other ghostly monsters, cows "only" have about 1/3rd of the drop chance and you can ask yourself what's faster to farm 30 cows or 10 ghosts

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

Unlikely as it is, a

Ber can indeed drop off of random White mobs in den. Even while not terrorized.

Ber might be special in that it ends up in the best of the best runewords out there but the rune itself isn't actually that high.

Teebs got his

Ber off one of the adds next to countess, more likely than not as (non-TZ) countess herself is indeed limited to

Lo (maybe that's the "

Lo max" you're remembering?) while the normal mobs next to her can drop all the way up to

Cham.

And yes, Ohms do indeed start dropping in NM A5 already. Should've been a mob though. Chests in NM WSK top out at

Ist.


Generally, drop calcs are your friend for questions like this.
(though they aren't necessarily correctly updated for TZs yet across the board)

Yeah the nm

Ohm drop was a witch I think. The other

Ohm I mentioned I found on hell arcane from a locked chest. I was surprised by that bc I’d read on a couple sources that

Vex was max from chests in arcane. Again, there is a slight chance that I’m mistaken and a

Vampire dropped it.


Does anyone know about acts and chest drops? I kind of remember hearing that lk runs could get

Ber but not sure about higher than that.

Also does anyone know if the amount of runes an area drops on average is positively correlated with chances of high rune?

As above, drop calcs are your friend for this. Including for chests.

Hell arcane chests for example go up to

Lo. See https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2-drop-calculato ... r=chest,74 as one of many sources.

And yeah, the amount of runes obviously improves your odds at a high rune. Not the chances "per rune" but overall. 10 * chance X > 5 * chance X.

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

As above, drop calcs are your friend for this. Including for chests.

Hell arcane chests for example go up to

Lo. See https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2-drop-calculato ... r=chest,74 as one of many sources.

And yeah, the amount of runes obviously improves your odds at a high rune. Not the chances "per rune" but overall. 10 * chance X > 5 * chance X.

Sweet tool. I will probably end up staring at it a lot.

I appreciate the clarification. It’s not yet obvious to me as I’m still working on understanding the way the game generates items and wanted to double check. I’m pretty obsessed with maximizing high rune drop and having a tool for measurement is very useful to me.

Also, super stoked that act 1 can drop

Ber.

@Rik, just to give some confidence in the maxroll calculator, I have personally dropped

Lo from a hell arcane chest.

If your goal is to maximize runes over abiding by a specific play style (i.e. wealth over fun),

Travincal runs with a horker barb is definitively the fastest path to high runes.

Rik wrote: 1 year ago

I kind of remember hearing that lk runs could get

Ber but not sure about higher than that.

That used to be something people did on single player (find the hut around the fireplace and check chests) because of a bugged loot table I believe. No idea if that is fixed in resurrected now.

cristobal03 wrote: 1 year ago

@Rik, just to give some confidence in the maxroll calculator, I have personally dropped

Lo from a hell arcane chest.

If your goal is to maximize runes over abiding by a specific play style (i.e. wealth over fun),

Travincal runs with a horker barb is definitively the fastest path to high runes.

Thanks for providing the personal experience to support max roll’s program and also concerning trav runs being the quickest path to high rune drops.

I have done my share of trav horking this season and last and get the hunch that it will end up being the highest yields for high rune drops per time spent. Last season I spent a ton of time and runes trying to find the ultimate merc and character items to cut down my times per run without shattering corpses. I wanted it to be fire rogue merc with Wrath sooo badly but, it was Desert with Infinity just like most every other end game build… however, my fastest time ever was with rogue 1 Wrath merc, but not consistent enough. Maybe if I played on pc and could control my

Teleport more precisely I could post comparable times with my rogue pal Elly, but afraid not on Xbox. Cheaper than Infinity at least…

Wealth=fun for me in the freedom it gives me to explore builds and farming starts plus I’m addicted to seeing orange on the screen.
I think you’re right on trav but want to test it myself. I’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect from trav and now am testing further in arcane and cows with a few creative twists to increase my yields using despicable multibox tactics :p

I’m really hoping to find something superior to trav (doubtful), but need to test and tinker with new areas and strategy and collect a lot of data before confidently judging. I really appreciated a video by dark humility on

Arcane Sanctuary runs but haven’t seen anything as comprehensive as that on horking or cows though presumably something exists but I’m highly doubting they are employing the same tactics I’m testing. If someone has, and they suck by comparison to trav, I’ll shut up and accept the data. But only after independently testing it

Thanks all!

if you want Spirit set runes, hell countess n nm countess is good, I've droped

Sur & horked

Gul in sup 150 runs on trav

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo2/commen ... _w_a_barb/

3650 trav runs with barb data from reddit

Rik wrote: 1 year ago

I have done my share of trav horking this season and last and get the hunch that it will end up being the highest yields for high rune drops per time spent.

...

I’m really hoping to find something superior to trav (doubtful), but need to test and tinker with new areas and strategy and collect a lot of data before confidently judging

Ultimately, it is all a numbers game.

The trav mobs and in particular the nameds have a rather high chance to give you what you're after for most high runes. If you then hork them, that gives you another shot at the same higher chance. Plus they're easy to get to, making for quick runs overall. That's what makes trav so good.

At the same time however, there's only a handful of mobs in there, meaning you need to do far more runs in total, in turn meaning you spend a lot more time on just running through town/to them and on loading screens as compared to high density zones that you can still clear quite quickly, such as cows or seal-popped CS (far more mobs killed/time but at a lower rune chance each). Going for pure volume over the increased drop chance in trav is a perfectly viable strategy and at least for me has typically yielded far better results overall.

Which one actually is better in the end..really depends on your build, your clear speed of each zone and so on and so forth though.

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

Rik wrote: 1 year ago

I have done my share of trav horking this season and last and get the hunch that it will end up being the highest yields for high rune drops per time spent.

...

I’m really hoping to find something superior to trav (doubtful), but need to test and tinker with new areas and strategy and collect a lot of data before confidently judging

Ultimately, it is all a numbers game.

The trav mobs and in particular the nameds have a rather high chance to give you what you're after for most high runes. If you then hork them, that gives you another shot at the same higher chance. Plus they're easy to get to, making for quick runs overall. That's what makes trav so good.

At the same time however, there's only a handful of mobs in there, meaning you need to do far more runs in total, in turn meaning you spend a lot more time on just running through town/to them and on loading screens as compared to high density zones that you can still clear quite quickly, such as cows or seal-popped CS (far more mobs killed/time but at a lower rune chance each). Going for pure volume over the increased drop chance in trav is a perfectly viable strategy and at least for me has typically yielded far better results overall.

Which one actually is better in the end..really depends on your build, your clear speed of each zone and so on and so forth though.

I appreciate this. Im happy about the nuance and the mystery still present in such an old game. Thanks again. Now I grind.

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

other stuff I skimmed through which is probably insightful and salient per the shnorki norm

...such as...seal-popped CS...

I've play-tested this a few times and don't have confidence in it. Is it legit? I feel like when I run through CS and do a full clear with

Lightning Fury, there's trash all over the floor. When I seal-pop, the place seems empty. I've even tried making sure all mobs engage me, or attacking them all at least once (e.g. casting blizzard once per tile). It doesn't seem to reflect in drops. Is there a technique?

Not trying to hijack the thread, but if OP's target is fast acquisition, this seems relevant.

cristobal03 wrote: 1 year ago

I've play-tested this a few times and don't have confidence in it. Is it legit? I feel like when I run through CS and do a full clear with

Lightning Fury, there's trash all over the floor. When I seal-pop, the place seems empty. I've even tried making sure all mobs engage me, or attacking them all at least once (e.g. casting blizzard once per tile). It doesn't seem to reflect in drops. Is there a technique?

Not trying to hijack the thread, but if OP's target is fast acquisition, this seems relevant.

Mobs only stay engaged for a limited time after you leave their immediate vicinity (~2 screens, is what I've heard). I can't remember how long specifically, but IIRC it's less than 10 seconds anyway. Placing a TP will supposedly also help keeping nearby monsters engaged even if you

Teleport away from there, is what I've heard. Anyway - so, to really take advantage of seal popping, you need to be able to

Teleport pretty fast. I did it a fair bit last ladder, it took some practice for sure until I had a decent technique down. I'm still not particularly good at it

Aye, shadow is correct. They only stay engaged for a few seconds. As a result, you want to pop them as fast as possible:
Move to entrance -> tele up and in a small curve along the sides to engage the ones left around the center on each side -> head to last seal and pop.

No stopping, no fighting, definitely no backtracking.

The faster you are, the easier it is to get all of them. A 63+ FCR sorc can engage the entire place, including wings, and still pop all of them, albeit barely.

Anything slower than that typically has to cut corners somewhere and hence limit the pop effect.

A javazon (since you mentioned

Lightning Fury) will be terrible at it by default and will have limited popping success, simply because the

Teleport is just too slow.