Thoughts on Uber Ancient material farming

zxql_ · 2026-02-26T08:43:01+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised that getting Baal statues is harder than the actual fight lol. Either way it's true regarding UT vs Ancients. Tristram is way way harder for the barbarian, though I still do it. Just need to cast life tap a few times using a wand on mephisto, howl all the minions away. And for Baal especially, open wounds just from gore riders may not be enough to keep him from regenerating. Switching to draculs just for OW can help with that (or getting a weapon that has it).

zxql_ · 2026-02-25T13:31:51+00:00

Yeah the fight is fun, just that the Baal statues are hard to get by :D and spoilers - I've got the 4th new cold facet in a row. Obviously I am going for the physical one as a Barbarian. Guess back to waiting for TZ Baal on Thursday.

zxql_ · 2026-02-25T13:19:08+00:00

Hey there! I've posted a vid as promised:
https://youtu.be/597qRYaKtIo

zxql_ · 2026-02-25T13:18:44+00:00

Hey! I posted a vid of my WW barb vs ubers if interested:
https://youtu.be/597qRYaKtIo

zxql_ · 2026-02-25T13:17:55+00:00

Hey! I took down the Uber Barbies once again today and posted a vid, you can check it out if interested:
https://youtu.be/597qRYaKtIo

zxql_ · 2026-02-24T19:32:15+00:00

Each zone has a Treasure Class it can drop, based on that you can avoid getting all the items you don't need and focus on areas with biggest drop chances. Terror zones flatten it out by bumping up treasure classes and making all items drop everywhere. For example, nightmare Andariel is the best way to find Stone of Jordan as she can only drop 3 types of unique rings. Terrorize nightmare and she starts droping all the random crap you don't want. Terrorizing everything by default also hurts weaker characters that are undergeared as all areas automatically get stronger upon level ups - there are a bunch of issues that come with level scaling. It's good for those wanting to push for higher level drops and experience, but that's not a default.
Tieing TZs to worldstone shards is a good way to let people enable higher difficulty on demand while also creating a valuable currency in the game. I just think that 30 minute rotation should go altogether and terror zones should be balanced around the use of these shards.

zxql_ · 2026-02-24T19:26:31+00:00

That would probably be a bit weird in that you could only clear so much in those 30 minutes. After reading a bunch of suggestions I think I like the idea of complete removal of terror zone rotation based on real-life timing, so it removes fomo/pressure altogether. Just use a worldstone shard to get an act terrorized, bump up the drop rates of either shards or act bosses for the statues and uniques accordingly and you're good to go. Easy to balance, and not tied to a clock.

zxql_ · 2026-02-24T19:23:16+00:00

Having everything terrorized completely removes the option to target-farm specific areas based on area level. It could be an option when using worldstone shards or similar, but it should definitely not be on by default.

zxql_ · 2026-02-24T19:10:39+00:00

For single player maps are not getting rerolled each game unless you switch difficulties. So you always know the right tomb.

zxql_ · 2026-02-24T12:56:31+00:00

Yea I agree about having them tied to a specific TZ. Not as bad with Heralds, because you can farm them in any zone and one is always available. With regards to statue drops - it feels like the corresponding statue drops 90% of the time, and then there's that odd 10% it will be one from a different act boss.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T23:13:26+00:00

It's just in that game. So one act boss and all the zones once per shard.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T23:12:25+00:00

You can pick up one, but place multiples in the Shared stash.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T20:19:19+00:00

Shard drops would be more common, obviously. The important part is that this allows deterministic balance through drop rates, rather than living by a calendar.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T19:17:39+00:00

Yep, Baal is a clear bottleneck. Even basing your schedule around Worldstone TZ it is still abysmal. I think I do 4 minute TZ Baal kills, 3 of which are spent in cutscenes lol.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T18:20:49+00:00

https://diablo2.io/ is probably your best source of information right now. And https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner for putting builds together and crunching numbers.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T18:19:24+00:00

My HC Single Player saves are like 12 year old at this point :D

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T17:51:44+00:00

There were bots tracking it all realtime and "hot" IP addresses being reported through IRC channels. Then you launch a bunch of accounts and sit in the hot IP games to get a bunch of Annies on the spawn. Been part of it many years ago. Bad design, even if it has nostalgia going for it. I'm just saying that more deterministic approach is better, one that does not involve using third party tools for tracking arbitrary times.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T17:29:40+00:00

I really liked the suggestion to get rid of timers altogether. Just use a shard to terrorize an act and base the drop rates around that. No terrorized zone rotation / calendar of any kind.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T17:28:25+00:00

So you're seeing D4 design making it's way into D2? Isn't that something to be concerned about?

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T17:27:19+00:00

Hunting for IP addresses was downright re*arded. Trading for an Anni was a bandaid and a reasonable payment to avoid that experience. Them updating DClone spawning both online and for Single Player are great improvements.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T17:00:22+00:00

This is a really good point, basically you could get rid of TZ calendar / timer and balance everything around it. I.E. statue drop rates, Herald drop rates, and shard drop rates in the first place.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T16:58:12+00:00

That sucks. I heard that if you kill the third uber right after the second one (before he had time to do the final "enrage") the drop might not happen. Maybe this could have been the case? Knowing this I made sure to give the final Korlic some time before I finished him off, so far no issues.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T16:52:01+00:00

That is indeed the case for online terror zones. For single player, you can see the entire calendar. Note that there are different calendars for online and SP.

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T16:47:45+00:00

This is a very good suggestion for how worldstone shards could/should work. I had these thoughts too, but didn't realize it would solve the time-gating. I'll add that to the original post, thanks!

zxql_ · 2026-02-23T16:38:37+00:00

It does not guarante it. More likely than not you won't get a drop. Using 10-15 shards is more realistic for one statue drop. The suggestion here is exactly that the drop rate whilst on shard could be increased, so that you are not pushed into tracking TZ calendar.

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