PTR 2.3.0, Are Sunders, Heralds, and Shards Better Now? Diablo 2 Resurrected

portolkyzz: You should suggest to Blizzard that there is always two different zones terrorized, so you got more choice
RandomStuff-zw7uh: After finding every HR except Cham and Lo this season, I am happy to announce I found a single Sunder!

Except it's lightning and I don't need it for my build...
scottasin: I've liked TZs from the start just because it allows more variety in gameplay. I'd rather run whichever TZ is up than be stuck in just the few old level 85 zones. You cam always run Pits or AT if you want, but its fun to also be able to run other zones if they're up. Variety is great, variety is important. I don't like being stuck only farming a few zones that are high level. Also, lower difficulty TZs are great for other builds. I love TZ Cold Plains on a weaker character for example.
T3KN1K: i think its better that the terrorizing shards drop way more... i personally don't see them being something that should have trade value.
Robert_Shmigelsky: I just want to terrorize whole acts, so I'm glad it looks like the shards will be dropping more.
BloodyBobJr: Overall I like TZ and shards, for the simple reason..you actual have a reason to farm act 3, act 4 and random areas of act 5. Before TZ you know who farmed Any place in act 3..nobody, you did trav and Durance meph.

But some people like to farm pit 500 times, farm trav council 500 times, farm chaos 1000 times. And I personally dont like grind farming 1 spot for hours or days, just too boring.

If you like to solo grind one area 500 times like pit, then TZ changing or requiring 500 shards is impossible, or very time consuming/expensive.

New shards and TZ actual farmed act 3, 4 and 5 for 1st time ever and kinda cool. Who goes into swampy tomb, spider caves, flayer dungeon, all kurast areas temples. Just fun going all these areas, not being restricted to lev 89 areas anymore. Griffon, tyreal might all high lev extremely rare uniques drop anywhere.

If 1000 pit runs is your thing, still in the game. But being more open overall is more fun
kallmewas: What I have been doing is Terrorise act1, then as other terror zones spawn in other acts I go do them, then come back to act 1. I am a casual player and just do a bit on my days off while doing other stuff at home. By doing it this way, I usually get all 5 Heralds over the day
alexb5364: found ber rune, while listening to this vid
dusty_reaper96: they should just bring back old sunder charms and just make new ones still rare
TheAmazingBendini: Step up of the drops for tougher heralds makes a lot of sense
officegossip: TZs are probably the best addition to the game. I think it woulda been cool if there was an untouched version of LOD with no TZs, Sunders, or any of the newer stuff so that old timers can enjoy the same game while players that want new stuff can enjoy new changes to the D2R.
derrickcall9307: Since I have never found a Sunder Charm, if it is slightly easier to get one.... Works for me.
TrasHnBasH: Phil you need to test the easter egg mf . sunders think are now based on mf or is heralds
mistapitts: I think we need to remember that this game has progressively gotten easier with updates as time went on. Without those updates, many of us wouldn't be here. The friends who told us about the game would have been bored with it before we ever heard of it. Also more casuals = more revenue = secured/more development

Despite that said...
Shards definitely drop too much now. There needs to be be bigger barrier to entry for this kind of content because I shouldn't be able to grind TZ Baal nonstop like I can without shards. Or if it is going to be this way, statues need to go back to being TZ only drops. Personally I think you should have to cube shards with like an Um or greater to make them work, but it's not a big deal.

The herald spawning didn't need a big overhaul. All they needed to do was add an increased chance for ire with each unique killed with a guaranteed ire after so many kills. Now we don't even need them to get sunders and they just seem pointless except being loot goblins. Now that heralds have better loot drops, its going to flood the market of all the good gear. I guarantee a 28 maras will go for a mal within a month next ladder if they leave it as-is.

Regarding Sunders... I've found 10 gheeds this ladder already.... The problem isn't so much that they can drop anywhere, its moreso that the drop being restricted to heralds gave heralds a real reason for existing. They were something fun to target farm which is great for replayability.
If they are going to leave sunders as world drops, the sunders you get from world drops and heralds should be different. Heralds should have better sunders. Whether that means only the old sunders can drop in the world and latent can only drop from heralds, or they even make a new weaker sunder charm for world drops and leave the good one on the herald.

Either way, taking away the exclusivity of a drop from the Heralds was a mistake imo

I'm curious though Phil, what kind of end game content would you prefer instead of terror zones? Surely you don't think the game should just remain in its vanilla state, right?
lemon13197: I also think the sunders change is good I actually dropped my grail run because those were in the chronicle. Still might be a good idea to add a token item that would drop from 3 heralds or something and make it obligatory in order to make the stronger charms so the herald system will still have a reason to exist.
keeno4730: Ive got a deaths webb on a playthrough on diablo like 15 years ago and im still reeling from it....i never found one again
SweatHog: I think they need to bring back the old sunders, but also keep the new ones rare. I think the best way would be have the old sunders charms drop at the same rate they used to, from the same TZ mobs as they used to, but also have a rare chance to get a new sunders from the same mobs, and I think your idea about the amount of items dropping increasing as you rank up the heralds is great! I DONT like the idea of sunders dropping from normal monsters in TZ, that’s just too easy. I’d also like to say that the shards dropping more frequently is a good thing, anyone who is upset their trade value is going down doesn’t matter because they can just farm more and sell in bulk and it will probably even out as far as shard value / time played ratio is concerned.
heinrichharrer82: The main reason I love this game is that there are still so many variations to play this game, found a witchwild string, started a bowazon instantly
McFox111: With how integral Sunder Charms are to allowing lower power builds to function. They shouldn't be insanely rare. I do like them being a chase item but i like these changes to make them attainable.
LibHen1998: I've tested shards for 2 days straight. It's actually the first THREE heralds that spawn very quickly and then each and every time, I didn't get a T4 or T5 before I finished the entire act. This is NOT functioning properly... Especially for builds that need to farm Act 1 or maybe 2 due to power creep of the mobs. Act 4 and 5 T5 heralds are super tough.
zerocrane: I've found 9 gheeds this season. Mostly from tz bosses, which i farm.
kylesmith987: It's kind of like people don't actually like immunities but they find every reason to justify why immunities are good and why other aspects of the game need to change around them. We want to make statements like oh these terror zones suck and i don't want to do them because my build isn't capable of doing this zone so we should just have shards drop constantly instead of acknowledging that the core of the problem is actually immunities existing in the game for no purpose other then to tell you that you are not allowed to play specific areas of the game for completely arbitrary reasons.
ChristopherByerly: Of course people will disagree with you. I am not a fan of scaling in Blizard games, but this was it done right.
(The other games have "stacking mitigation" problem, if one layer falls of the character dies.)

Taking monsters to 95 and slapping on an extra modifier is a simple way to get a lot of value out of a simple system.
Given how the Area levels and treasure class system works and the fact that Baal games from 95 was dulling.
slikskils: We need a p8 slider online. I'm tired of search farming the public game list more than actual farming in a public game.

Keep all p8 slider games public, that'd be fine, I'm not advocating for anti social p8 games, or for map seeding like single player.

As I've seen, only botters are against this (as they have full multi accounts and big interest in keeping p8 loot exclusive)
Caladan-Brood: You're a good dude Phil! Thanks for your content
MyFriendPat: I found an SOJ on a playthrough, it dropped from nightmare BLOODRAVEN. I was in shock, lol.
jf367: I just finished 800 runs of Meph Diablo (no TZ) in the last 5 weeks or so, and I found 8 Gheeds. Single player, non-ladder online, around 400MF.