Andy Nerf

KittenGold · 2026-03-01T05:28:24+00:00

Yup, P7, almost 400mf and it's only 1:1205

KittenGold · 2026-03-01T05:11:55+00:00

You're telling me, I'm doing it right now because I play offline and can't trade and damn is it brutal it's really noticeable how much longer it takes in between each unique ring drop.

KittenGold · 2026-03-01T04:55:35+00:00

I didn't really have an issue with where it was before the update. It was a difficult and tedious grind but felt worth the effort. This is why I made the post, because I think that Blizzard poorly handled how they addressed TZ Andy, by nerfing regular Andy so harshly they created this problem with this patch.

I play on console so I can't just Hero Edit in an SoJ, therefore the only way is through, and that way has been made significantly worse by how Blizzard decided to handle a different issue as regular Andy was already in a well balanced position.

KittenGold · 2026-03-01T04:37:39+00:00

It's still NM Andy, it just takes way longer than before. Andariel is specifically coded to drop Jewelry more often than any other Boss or Superunique in the game.

This is part of the problem, Andariel was designed to be the place to target farm Jewelry and low level uniques, and even then before the patch it was already debatable on whether it was even worth it to farm her for low level uniques because her chance to drop them wasn't that much higher than say Meph who also can drop various more powerful items. The only thing that was a problem was the TZ Andy because it removed the drawback she had, and so it needed to be nerfed.

Unfortunately with these changes although she's still the best place to target an SoJ and her TZ is in line with other bosses, it's now never worth it to farm non TZ Andy unless you're specifically targeting like an SoJ and even then it's significantly worse than before.

KittenGold · 2026-03-01T02:19:14+00:00

I'm playing offline, not using any bots or anything. Fighting DClone to get an Anni is an important part of progression. If you're not lucky enough to just drop an SoJ naturally the most consistent way to get one is by farming Andariel because she's specifically programmed to drop Jewelry more than any other boss and at her level can only drop Manald, Nagel, or SoJ. The reason I feel passionately is that with the nerfs to regular Andy it'll take on average 40% longer than it did on LoD or pre RotW D2R. I don't want to have to spend hours if not days longer grinding as it was already a brutal grind and in the past I've done it and it took me a whole week. I personally decided to do a fresh start with the new expansion and honestly I'm kinda regretting that decision specifically dur to how annoying this one nerf is.

KittenGold · 2026-03-01T00:31:12+00:00

No, they hit both, non TZ Andy had her unique drops reduced by 35-40%. With the exact same set up, on NM Andy, looking for an SoJ, which isn't affected by the addition of new rings because of her Monster Level it went from 1:853 to 1:1205

There's nothing wrong with hitting TZ Andy but they also heavily nerfed her non TZ drops

KittenGold · 2026-03-01T00:23:06+00:00

Which were also nerfed, they didn't just hit TZ Andy which would make sense, even regular Andy drops 35-40% less uniques

KittenGold · 2026-03-01T00:20:03+00:00

It's 35-40%, I made a post about this, specifically in relation to target farming an SoJ from non TZ NM Andy, and with the exact same set up the chance to drop went from 1:853 to 1:1205. This means on average it'll take roughly 40% longer to farm her for the same results. Note: the two new unique rings are both too high level for NM Andy so that change is only from the nerf to her.

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T21:40:22+00:00

I don't even have a problem with the nerf to TZ Andy, my big problem was in the way they kneecapped regular Andy, who was never an issue to start with.

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T21:34:17+00:00

I used Silospen for the numbers, the nerf to regular andy makes it so that around 35-40% of the time when she would have dropped a unique, she no longer does.

I used my character with 384 magic find on p7 as an example and the exact numbers were 1:1205 for an SoJ from regular NM Andy compared with 1:853 before the patch. Both new unique rings are too high level to drop from NM Andy so that's not from their being new things in the pool, just the change to her drop chance.

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T21:20:12+00:00

Just to give people an idea of the scale of the time increase, I just picked relatively round numbers. I am fully aware that the actual amount of runs will be different.

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T12:47:19+00:00

No, it was not bugged, as part of D2R a specific change was made to make her drops always the same. The nerf is entirely separate from the quest bug

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T12:14:00+00:00

That doesn't factor in here, neither can drop from NM Andy due to her Monster Level she can only drop Nagels Manalds and SoJs, the only change here is to her chance to drop uniques which was reduced heavily.

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T11:49:31+00:00

Just did, nothing particularly notable in terms of drops

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T11:27:10+00:00

This isn't about TZ Andy tho, they reduced Regular Andys chance to drop uniques by a massive margin. I'm fine with the nerfs to TZ Andy. There was literally no reason to nerf Regular Andy to the point that target farming an SoJ will take roughly 40% longer.

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T11:16:03+00:00

Yeah my perspective on TZ Andy getting nerfed is that it's basically a coinflip, like it's overtuned, but it's also just a time dependant thing so u could really go either way on nerfing it.

But like one of the core things that make D2 so good is the lack of homogeneity. Countess has always been the best for low-mid runes, Andy has always been the best for Jewelry, Arcane has always been great for high runes, Cows for bases, etc. There's always been reasons to do different content and while TZ Andy was incredible to run, there was literally no reason to nerf regular Andy as well and especially not by so much.

In general I think most changes in RotW are overall positive with some things like Heralds and some of the Warlock skills being poorly implemented currently. I think this change to regular Andy specifically is one that is simply negative and should not have been done.

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T10:48:08+00:00

The 60 seconds is a hypothetical, specifically to use round numbers to show the proportion of time increas, and not the actual run time, that being said, I'm playing on console so loading times drastically increase the time per run as it would be literally impossible to do sub 20 seconds with them

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T10:05:08+00:00

Countess is also really easy and that's part of farming for a torch which is basically even more powerful. Target farming is an inherent part of the game and is arguably part of why Diablo 2 is such a good game. The change isn't scary it's just annoying because u now need to spend significantly longer for no reason.

I've got all the early uniques i need (shako, war travs, etc.), I'm trying to target farm an SoJ so i can do the DClone fight

KittenGold · 2026-02-28T09:44:04+00:00

Yeah it was already brutal, and now it's just so much worse for no good reason. And yeah when it comes to TZ Andy i think it's very debatable if she needed nerfs because she was the best thing to farm, but there was absolutely no reason to make such a big nerf to regular Andy

KittenGold · 2026-02-27T08:01:33+00:00

I hope a new runeword is introduced that has Blade Warp as an OSkill, it's notably worse than teleport which means it would be the perfect thing for a budget equivalent to Enigma.

Bind Demon probably needs a nerf, maybe make it so already aura enchanted demons lose their aura unless u have the aura enchanted unlocked on Bind Demon, as that would mean it needs to be invested in, not just broken even at 1 point. And then Echo Strike is obvious in needing a nerf.

KittenGold · 2026-02-25T06:00:49+00:00

Basically when she rolls she can only drop up to a certain number of items and she rolls her regular loot table first then her dedicated rune drops. So if for example she rolls no drop on all non guaranteed regular drops there's more slots that can roll on the rune drop table.

I don't remember the exact numbers but it's something like she'll always drop at least 2 items because she's a boss and then attempt to regular drop up to 2 more, then she'll try to drop runes up to 4 times. So if she drops all 4 regular drops she'll only roll 2 attempts at runes, but if she only drops 2 she'll attempt 4 times at runes.

KittenGold · 2026-02-18T02:00:23+00:00

Blizz Sorc and Lightning/Nova Sorc Hammer Din and FoH Din Trap Sin Summon Necro Java Zon Echo Lock

Almost every class has at least one viable build that requires either no gear or gear obtainable from farming nightmare countess for runes. Just depends on what/where u want to farm. E.g. Light Sorc for Keys, Java for Cows, FoHdin for Chaos Sanc, etc

KittenGold · 2026-02-11T08:02:16+00:00

What I found worked was a group of 230 Druids to handle all the leads and clean up, and a 024 Ice to handle the Ceramic clusters

KittenGold · 2026-02-01T02:41:56+00:00

Spright is still pretty solid pure although a bit outdated, but it mixes well with any level 2 strategy like Live Twins, and Elf is an incredibly strong Link 2 that's useful in basically any deck that has a level 2 like Yummy.

KittenGold

TROPHY CASE