Best way to find runes

[Sorceress Zahra]

Funny, but I've never found Mal, Um, Lem, Lum, or Fal... and they're all lower than Ist. But I find plenty of Ist runes. Too many. Before I knew they could be cubed, I sold them to the trading NPCs for cash

-Zahra

 

[deathsgatekeeper]

if u have the patience i would do countess over and over. i may just be lucky though i mean i have done less then 150 countess runs since this season started and i have found 3 or 4 ists a gul off one of her minions and 2or 3 mals from her. to me thats good but i dont know. maybe she just gets annoyed with me so she drops one so i will stop killing her for 30 mins or so.

 

[SeDnA]

Ist is a highly popular rune in both Battle.net AND Single Player.

In Battle.net you could trade it for items, runes, whatever.
In SP you wouldn't be able to even trade it (openly).

Selling ists to vendors isn't smart at all, in fact it's totally retarded.

@deathsgatekeeper: You are really lucky. In 150 runs you shouldn't even expect a mal, not to say 3 ists and 2 mals.

 

[Orphan]

So, MF doesn't increase my chances of finding runes or gems? I basically have to get to Hell lvl and just keep playing until my hair turns grey?

There's some minor things you can do to improve the odds abit, but that's pretty much what you'll need to do yes. Put basically, the key to rune hunting is quantity, not quality. Taking most of the MF gear from your character, and focus on killing power will allow you to kill more monsters is less time, which will slightly increase the chances of you finding a rune.

Also, killing monsters in a higher player count game will also slightly increase the odds of a rune dropping since it'll reduce the odds of a no-drop on that monster. This will have an adverse effect on the Countess's special rune drop though (if you plan on running her), because her item drop is rolled before her rune drop.

That said, having just 1 extra person in the game won't make any difference at all, unless that person is in the same party as you, and within two screens of each monster you kill. When determining the amount of players to use in the "no drop" of a monster, the game basically does this:

1 + (1*AlliedPlayers) + (0.5*UnAlliedPlayers)
AlliedPlayers = People who are in the same party as you, and within two screens of the monsters death
UnAlliedPlayers = People who are not in the same party as you, or who are but are further than two screens away.

This means that if it's just you and another person in the game (and the other person is somewhere else), each monster you kill with have 50% more life, but no greater chance of dropping a rune than if you were in the game yourself. Likewise, if your in a public game with 7 other people who are doing a baal run or something, while you're runehunting, the player count used in the no-drop chance will be: 1 + (1*0)+(0.5*7) = 4 players.

Although this might sound bad, unless you're running with friends it's generally better to do solo rune runs in a public game, because you don't want that Jah rune to finally drop and having it grabbed by some random person. Also, if you do focus on killing power instead of MF, then doing solo runs in a full game shouldn't be too difficult, or time taxing.

 

[Hrus]

Funny, but I've never found Mal, Um, Lem, Lum, or Fal... and they're all lower than Ist. But I find plenty of Ist runes. Too many. Before I knew they could be cubed, I sold them to the trading NPCs for cash
-Zahra

I don't think you have ever found an IST rune, they are quite rare you know? I think you have found plenty of ITH runes, no ISTs.

 

[phool]

a strafezon in flayer jungle/anywhere with loads of flayers potentially (wsk2,3 + halls of pain) should be the best i think. Very expensive gear NOT needed, but laying of hands a must.

 

[Xenon[XoA]]

"Tradebulk" :lol:

 

[nickedoff]

Someone once told me that Travincal has the highest HR drop ratio thing.

I once found them. Hah, I get pretty attached to little bits of ones and zeros...

They aren't ones and zeros. They're the 3 years you'll end up playing before anything higher than Pul falls off a monsters shoulder.

I've gone near-four, and NEVER has something bigger than Lem dropped...unless I missed it, or sommat.

Actually _finding_ a highrune seems impossible. It's much easier to go trade for a duped one.

 

[dyre]

Higher Runes

I have had Ohm drop twice, Sur and Lo once each. All of these were dropped in Act 3, either Travincal or Mephy's buddys. Takes hundreds of runs to get even one.

Patience helps.

 

[Evrae Altana]

Patience helps.

And some crazy luck.

 

[Dawnmaster]

Someone once told me that Travincal has the highest HR drop ratio thing.


They aren't ones and zeros. They're the 3 years you'll end up playing before anything higher than Pul falls off a monsters shoulder.

I've gone near-four, and NEVER has something bigger than Lem dropped...unless I missed it, or sommat.

Actually _finding_ a highrune seems impossible. It's much easier to go trade for a duped one.

Travincal has a high drop rate for runes (not THE highest though) but it's easiest and fastest accessable.
I've had more luck with runes than finding uniques. I've found my first hr in under a few weeks running travincal. But never found a soj, not even after months of running andy. So it's all about luck and bad luck.

If you look at the odds, it seems impossible. It would take you insane high speed runs, 10 hours per day and then you'd be busy for 2-3 weeks before you could find a high rune (according to the finding chance)

Yet high runes ARE found. Not as often as you'd think, but still pretty much.

And lastly, to the original poster: if someone would know a place and or trick where you could find high runes easily, he would be very foolish to tell it to anyone? Peeps who dupe don't share their knowledge with a lot of others do they?