Gonna let you know right now. If you’ve played for 20 years and never found a Ber or Ist, the problem isn’t the drop rate, the problem is you.
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This. When I first played the game I never found high runes. Why? I was only in pub games and never solo farming cows, chaos, now stony tombs.
I wasn’t well antiquated with the trade network. So all the runes I had were SSF. You can build wealth without running ubers all day. You can build wealth, albeit slowly, only playing a few hours a week. This game survived 20 years because of the chase and the deep complexity that exists. Noone plays D3 for a reason, but maybe those complaining about drop rate should check it out. You can farm to full gear in about 4 hours at end game. Your welcome.
i found something interesting lately, to get hi rune, i trade bunch pack of low rune for a crafting material for a hi rune,
its amazing how the crafter gambler buy for their crafting material… i never found Lo ohm rune, now im sitting 5 Lo with few ohm from trading low runes pack
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Back in the ol’ days, we would just bot and wake up the next day, was like Christmas. Unfortunately, the drop rates are even worse than the original and you would have to be a no life loser that plays 16 hours a day to to find HR’s often.
BACK IN THE DAYS YOU WOULD BOT… NOT ALL OF US BOT OR HAVE EVEN BOTTED, DROP RATES ARE UN CHANGED… THIS GAME IS NOT FOR CASUALS, JUST FIND ANOTHER GAME STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS ONE… ILL GLADLY REEMBURSE U THE FEES YOU PAID FOR THE GAME…
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While this may give results, this sounds like playing the game “wrong” to me.
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If you want to get results “quickly” you have to adjust to the games rules. If you want to play your own way, you have no reason to complain about results.
This is not only true for D2, but for pretty much everything in life.
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Highest IQ post in the thread. Too bad Blizz won’t see this.
My friend used to bot back in 2004. His lvl 95 Sorc was doing 24/7 Hell Meph and Pindle runs. Basically found everything multiple times over in a couple of months. But is the game even enjoyable at that point?
if you don;t want to grind for your gear for hours or days or weeks then go play different game 
what you’ve described is also what diablo 2 is about
keep farming or swipe credit card
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I probably qualify as a casual since I only have hundreds of hours in the game, not thousands, and play SSF. Am still using a level 20 something bow as it’s the best weapon I’ve found for the bowazon build I’m following from icy veins.
I am on the side of slightly increasing drop rates of medium grade gear. It would be nice to find a bow upgrade every 200 hours or so, just to keep the game interesting. Right now its a tedious slog trying to keep my character and follower alive in Hell.
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I’ll give you the same advice Inarius gave recently on the Forum and I instinctively followed when I began this Season(albeit late):
Farm NM TZ for a bit.
Don’t slam your head against the Hell brick-wall and get frustrated.
Check this post by Zax on TZ’s if you haven’t already(or don’t already know their potential for gearing and drops).
Good Luck!!
p.s. I’m pretty casual too. I can’t “play like a bot” which is what a lot of people suggest. Targeting 1 or 3 or 5 individual monsters is sleepy time for me. I need challenge, density and content. It doesn’t pay very well, but at least it’s interesting.
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The OP is right that D2R is a grind game, to some degree. This should not be a big surprise as it is derived from a grind game many of us played… long ago.
I played D2 for some years and quit when the rune express arrived. I had accumulated some wealth before (50+ SOJs + some well equipped chars). Trading and gambling for SOJ. Worked.
I find that D2R is much more rewarding and you can get much better stuff in shorter time, if you
- play online so you can trade or get gifts
- get a start - I started with a bow ama, and it was a bit hard at the start… I was lucky and got some nice unique bows (Kuko shakaku, then a Buritta some time later) for some gems or TAL/RAL runes in a trade forum. With that and leech, I was able to get to hell, collect perfect gems, trade better stuff, so I was able to play effectively in hell. Good stuff dropped from time to time, nice uniques, some low high runes (GUL, VEX… more than ISTS)… and of course I continued to collect perfect gems and trade them for stuff or ISTs.
If you get a start - and everyone can if you select a necro or a sorc as your first character - you will find that D2R is more rewarding than D2 was. And you will get the good stuff, in the long run.
If you do not want to start with a necro or sorc, play non ladder and ask for gifts (you can also ask for gifts if you play a necro or sorc, of course). You will get items. With them you will be able to have some progress every time you play.
From my view, D2R is no bad game for casuals. But it is a grind game where item hunt is the “endgame”.
BTW, found my first BER today… yes, it is possible (I have a bunch of them through trading already). The first game I entered today, after 2 minutes… BER there was.
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I started playing seriously over the holidays and have already found all the gear needed lol what.
You are probably farming the wrong stuff, not enough, or not at all.
Or you are finding really valuable things and ditching them because you have no idea just how good they are
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Over 20 years and never found a Ber. Just recently I found my second perfect Mara’s and a Lem rune in the same run. Totally unexpected.
I played a ton when I was a kid and never saw anything, returned to d2 ladders a few years ago after watching some of Llamas videos and actually learned how to play.
Its pretty easy to get multiple HRs a season if you put the time in, I understand not everyone has the time to no life it but really that’s not the games fault, its a grindy RNG based ARPG you kinda need to put the time in if you want to find everything.
And sometimes you just dont, this ladder I had 5 shakos, Jah, Sur, Lo x2, a few Ohms and a fathom drop but no treks or war travs or aracs or other “easier” things to find.
If you put the time in you find things its that simple
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As bilibobc said above - It often IS “LTP”.
I hate it though 
I posted this in response in a different thread… I think i thought I was posting in this one.
Anyway this topic was on my mind when writing - so I kind of blasted myself:
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Just coming back real quick to remind you.
If you haven’t found BER or IST in 20 years. It isn’t because of the drop rate or that nice gear is impossible to get. You are playing poorly, inefficiently, slowly, in the wrong games.
Capslock is on the left.
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Yep this. I friggin love traderie. It’s the best way to up your stuff to high runes. They never drop for me but I’ve traded up for them!!
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