I’ve been doing them constantly and I have broken 1k like 3 times.
on avg. it seems to be around 700. Right now, I had mostly hellborne picked with a 50% faster and raining hellfire from the start. I got nothing but spires. I have 361 b4 the boss fight.
What the heck is going on?
5 Likes
There’s no secret method to give you 1k aether. Just pick what you want and have fun with hordes. If hordes like you enough, it’ll give you 1k.
2 Likes
it started after the devs hotfixed the so-called Desecrator damage.
obviously they tuned down the likelihood of rewards.
this is how a “foreshadowing” tactic works.
9 Likes
Definately nerfed aether drops, it’s pretty clear at this point, once you start running tens of IH and constatly get -200 aether difference from previous average with same build, same playstyle and same or even better dps than before it becomes clear that something must be off
I think it’s mainly a buff and spawn nerf (More worthless buffs like aether lords, masses and spires) and worse spawns aka 4 spires at once. Maybe it’s for preventing players from farming too many mw materials and stygian stones idk but something got changed since a couple of weeks ago, that’s for sure
Also the 60 aether chest’s drops are way worse than before
5 Likes
Don´t play anymore so can´t confirm. But I hate ninja nerfs. It is so pathetic not being able to at least admit rewards are to good.
4 Likes
I wonder what the reasoning behind changing the Hordes in the middle of a short season would be?
If anything you would think they would buff the game, as this would keep people engaged for the expansion.
3 Likes
Simple answer is: those devs have absolutely no idea on how to balance this game, this feels and looks like a constant beta so they need to rely on changing random stuff overnight or totally rework game mechanics over and over again, all of this with no clue whatsoever
Some people think those bs changes will be over with S6, oh boy how wrong they are…it will only get worse
2 Likes
I hope nobody believes DLC will change anything and if yeah they should remove their voting rights. 
6 Likes
Still pretending players who do more than 20/30 IH runs every single day wouldn’t notice it, 10 runs it’s just rng…20 runs…30…100 meh…maybe…
At 200 runs with constant WAY lower average there’s no space for “It’s just rng” anymore
2 Likes
The more Aether the more gear drops. With increased trading (i.e. people buying gold and buying BIS gear from bot farmers and duplicators) too much gear is infiltrating the game and Blizzard compensates with decreased drops. This is what has happened historically since the earliest days of D3.
This is why people argue against an AH and trading.
1 Like
It seems to me that there are more sub-par options between each wave in the hordes I’ve ran since the fix. Also, I’ve had Horde runs where I will choose Hellbornes but no Hellborne spawns, specifically, no Hellborne would spawn in successive waves. 
2 Likes
Hate to be that guy who thinks Blizz has messed with everything behind the scenes without mentioning it in the patch notes but totally agree that choices now are more sucky and as a result less aether most of the time.
I also wonder if they have adjusted some of the other damage mechanics, coz on my necro with 100K+ life from doombringer is getting 1-shot by the ballistas off screen and cannot even get close enough to hit them without being killed, which is incredibly annoying. I also think some of the damage mechanics for the council have gotten harder. Last I wonder if they changed some of the Council trash talk coz now in wave 10 they say you are going to “burn” for nothing whereas before you were going to die. I actually thought wave 7, when they say to open the flesh and rip out the living soul etc., was the council’s best trash talk and should have been saved for the last wave.
3 Likes
The Hordes are going on strike. Between Diablo and Warcraft they finally got tired of being so neutered and wussified by the writing staff. They say if you want better loot then give them their b@lls back. 
2 Likes
Glad I’m not the only one to have noticed this.
I don’t like to make baseless accusations but it’s been really bugging me.
3 Likes
They really need to stop shadow nerfing stuff, it’s going to drive players away.
3 Likes
They didn’t nerf the drops themselves, they merely jacked up the chances of getting a spire to roughly 70%. That’s about the average in total across all waves that are spires for me. I try not to get the Exalted Hordes (50% fewer monsters to fill up the bar to spawn events) because more often than not I’ll have anywhere from two to four spires up at once. And unlike fiends, lords, or hellborne where once you damage them they stay up after the timer ends, the spire (and masses) do not. They despawn even if you have just a sliver left on the bar and a bunch of mobs waiting to die.
The aether itself is the same per mob, per boon, but it’s the spires that are preventing the more rewarding events from spawning. I’ve had situations where I had <300 after eight waves due to nothing but spires. I don’t get why the devs aren’t at least toning those events down, or frankly, since this season is only two months vs. the normal three, shutting off spires entirely. Nobody likes them. Nobody does them in helltides either. At least even if masses took the place of spires you can buff those with boons/banes, but spires sap too much time to ever be of use even with the boons.
3 Likes
Were you in a group with an unintelligent person doing the picks? I did 3xT7s with a group of 4 and was getting like 400-600 and thought they nerfed things. Then did a few solo with my own choosing and got 800-1000.
Spires are the second best way to get aether in IH next to Hellborn.
I find these two sentences funny coming from the same person.
5 Likes
Nothing was changed with hordes in any way that I know of. ITs just there are so many modifiers that your runs are going to vary wildly.
I have been running lower tiers for mats for other gear and toons.
Those seem to be drastically reduced as well after about a week of that, they definitely shadow nerfed or broke something.
Wouldn’t be surprised if it is a straight up unintended bug.