Scouring for SoJs… good idea?

[Full_Circle]

So, I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I figured I’d run it by all of you to see if anyone’s tried it or would like to try it. I think it might work…

The Plan:

Step 1 – Gather 8 MF Sorcs together and get everybody /f listed, or alternately, seven people /f list one person and that person /f lists everyone and coordinates the effort.

Step 2 – Each player makes his/her own NM Andariel game, tele’s to Andariel, and kills her.

Step 3 – Each player repeats Step 2 until someone finds a non-SoJ Unique Ring. When this happens, that player messages the rest of the group their game name & password.

Step 4 – The rest of the group finishes their respective runs, then joins that game.

Step 5 – The 8 MF Sorcs start killing EVERYTHING in acts 1, 2, and 3 (possibly certain places in acts 4 and 5 as well).

Step 6 – If a player finds a Stone of Jordan, that SoJ belongs to that player. He or she announces it and we go back to Step 2. Otherwise we clear until people start running out of stuff to kill, then we return to Step 2.

The point: Once a Nagel or Manald has dropped in the game, another of that ring CANNOT drop, thus vastly improving the chances that any Unique Ring that drops will be a Stone of Jordan. With 8 people in the game, creatures, chests, urns, etc. drop a lot of items, and with every player in the game an MFer, that means there’s at least a decent chance another Unique Ring will drop. In late act 3, act 4, and act 5, more Unique Rings become available, so most of the scouring will take place in the earlier acts.

The only potential problem I see is deciding who does which area. Obviously, the maker should get Mephisto (if they want him), but aside from that, I’m not sure. Some kind of plan would probably have to be set up to keep everyone from crossing paths.

Anyway… that’s the plan. Sound good?

Also, if you have an MF Sorc on USEast and you’re interested in trying it out, say so here. If there’s enough interest, we can give it a try.

[Frostburns]

Not 100% sure on this but I believe if a unique is selected to drop, and it can't for whatever reason, a rare is selected instead. And since rings have no durability, you would not be able to tell this "failed unique" from any other rare as there's no triple durability mod to give it away.

[TheCerberus]

I thought the whole nagel -> manald -> SoJ didn't work anymore?
You're better off just running NM Andy over and over with this group. She has best chance at dropping, and you'll be doing tons of runs.

[SonOfRah]

Thats correct, however it is not how unique jewelry works.

If it rolls a unique it rolls the chance for each jewely from highest to lowest. Only if the roll fails will it then default to a rare.

[HAMC8112]

The point: Once a Nagel or Manald has dropped in the game, another of that ring CANNOT drop,

What makes you say that? where does this info come from, this has to work only on this ringthing, cos i have seen 2 the same unique's drop in one game.

It would surprise me if this info was correct.

[Full_Circle]

I believe in a case where multiple uniques of the same type exist, it selects one of the available remaining uniques rather than skipping to a failed rare. I could be wrong.
Has anyone ever found 2 unique rings in the same game? That would clear things up.

[stemis516]

i think he is confused...this is how gambling used to work in classic

if a manald and nagle were in the game, they couldnt be gambled, so u gambled unique rings to get a soj....even though hte chances were VERY VERY slim to gamble any unique at all

[Frostburns]

Thats correct, however it is not how unique jewelry works.

If it rolls a unique it rolls the chance for each jewely from highest to lowest. Only if the roll fails will it then default to a rare.

I suppose you're right but that still means no SoJ if the check fails. I'd say the best set up would be to have all these sorcs mf andy in a baal game or something that's likely to fill fast. That way, you have 8 sorcs all mfing in (hopefully) 8 player games.

[TheCerberus]

Ohh I get it, you want to search in the same game... Yeah, it's either two uniques cannot drop in the same game or they cannot drop from the same monster. Either way, I'd think running NM Andy with a massive amount of people would be best, thats how Andybot works and unfortunately its successful.

[Full_Circle]

I'll try to clear things up... although some of my information may be wrong.

First - each sorc is running their own Andy games (single player).

Second - when a non-soj unique ring drops for someone, everyone else joins that game and starts killing everything in sight.

The second part was based on what I had heard (don't remember exactly where from), that the same unique cannot drop twice in the same game. I thought that when a unique ring was rolled, it would check the odds all at once and determine which ring it would be, so if you found three Unique Rings in areas where only Nagel, Manald, and SoJ could drop in the same game, you would get one of each.

The way it sounds, some of my info may have been incorrect.

[TheCerberus]

No i think you're right about two uniques dropping in the same game. Set items can drop twice, but I don't think two uniques can.

[Bongo Fury]

I may be wrong, but I believe that two of the same Uniques cannot drop in the same Act. I have gotten two of the same unique in one game, so this seems to support it. And I have had Mephisto drop two Isenharts at once, so I don't think there's any restriction on set drops.

[kurg]

Based upon what blizz has said, 2 of the same unique cannot drop in the same game.

Therefore, your idea should work.

On the other hand, how much of what blizz has told us through the past few years has actually been correct?

Mastery 'bug'
bow 'bug'
freezing arrow splash 'bug'
marrowalk 'bug'
etc
etc
etc

Nevertheless I've never seen two of the same unique drop in the same game, so perhaps blizz wasn't wrong on this issue.

At any rate, it would be quickly determined if this is the case doing your idea, since 2 manalds in the same game would quickly answer the question.

[PhatTrumpet]

Two of the same set item can drop in the same game.

Two of the same unique cannot drop in the same game. Why do you think they were called "uniques" in the first place?

The question becomes a matter of how ring drops work. If the game drops a ring, does it:

- pick "unique" quality first and then sift through the list of available unique rings
- or does it straight up pick a specific unique ring from the get-go?

If it picks a specific unique ring, then any repeat in the same game would produce a rare ring instead. If, however, it sifts through the list of possible unique rings, omitting ones that have already dropped in the game, then Full_Circle's plan would work, although there are a few more rings to choose from than just Manald and Nagel (unless you're talking about Classic of course).

[rachil0]

I recall reading that two same uniques could drop in one game, but they had to be dropped simultaneously by the same monster (like a boss).

[Pain]

No i think you're right about two uniques dropping in the same game. Set items can drop twice, but I don't think two uniques can.

OK, here is the way it worked originally in DII, and I haven't heard that it has changed in any of the .X releases...

By definition, a unique item is UNIQUE. Now, what does this mean for game play? Not that an item can't EXIST multiple times in a game (ex: I can find a Shako in Game 1, put it on, and move on to Game 2. In Game 2, another Shako can drop, however unlikely :uhhuh: ). Additionally, 3 people can be in the same game and all of them can wear a Shako, obviously the item is not unique to the game.

So, what does Unique mean? It means that the same item CAN NOT DROP MORE THAN ONCE IN ANY GIVEN GAME. That means if Andy drops a Shako, no other monster in that entire game will ever drop a Shako (insert Nagel/Manald/SOJ for Shako if you like).

Edit: oops...didn't see Phat's response. He's effectively saying the same thing as me, just more concise and a little less arrogant. :lol:

[kurg]

The question becomes a matter of how ring drops work. If the game drops a ring, does it:

- pick "unique" quality first and then sift through the list of available unique rings
- or does it straight up pick a specific unique ring from the get-go?


I'm fairly certain I've gotten 2 unique rings in the same game. However, they id'd as different rings. A manald and a dwarf star for example.

although there are a few more rings to choose from than just Manald and Nagel

No, the reason he suggested doing this in NM acts 1, 2, 3, and parts of 4 & 5 are because the OTHER rings cannot drop there due to item qlvl or w/e.

SOJ is the 3rd lowest unique ring, which might make this strategy feasible.

Here's the qlvl info from d2data . net

Nagel qlvl 10
Manald qlvl 20
soj qlvl 39
dwarf qlvl 53
raven qlvl 53
bk qlvl 66
nature qlvl 77
wisp qlvl 84
carrion qlvl 68

[cyradis2003]

I could swear I got 2 butcher pupils in one game different acts ... I remember complaining that bnet was throwing axes at me again. :scratch:

Maybe it was back to back runs though (that was sc so it all runs together)

[Pain]

Maybe it was back to back runs though (that was sc so it all runs together)

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Icky! SC? Please tell me you've given that up. Worse than Crack, I tell you.

[kurg]

I can DEFINITELY answer one of the questions this thread brought up.

It IS possible for 2 unique rings to drop in the same game. Tonight we had 2 unique rings drop at the same time from hell andy. One was a manald heal, and the other was ...... SOJ!!! My first to ever drop in a game even though I had gambled one long long ago before xpac.

As to whether the same ring can drop in different acts of the same game, that question is still unknown, but blizz would say 'no' I'm sure.

[DrizzitT]

Erm... well
I heard about the "no 2 uniques in 1 game thingy..." but me and my cuz did manage to find two Eaglehorns in 1 game in 1.09...
He killed Meph, I killed Shenk, they both dropped eagles. I was like "erm... that aint supposed to happen" but yeah, i guess it did.
Dunno if mine was a fluke or something, but it DID happen

BUT, i joined the game after he found Eagle, so that might mean something... Cuz i heard/read from long long ago (somewhere here) that item used to be based on the map/etc/etc which is how the necro bone wall trick thingy worked, but everytime someone joined again, the drops would change... Dunno if that still applies tho.

[BILLY]

Well, I'm not sure about this not dropping In the same act thing, but I'll tell you what I know from my experience. I found a bonehew, then in the same game I found a rare ogre axe, picked it up, looked at the durability and it had spawned unique. I've always thought that 2 of the same Uniques can't drop in the same game and that is why they are called Uniques.

[TunaMofo]

Having a unique ring (ie. Nagelring) drop will not improve your chances of getting a soj. If the game tries to drop a Nagelring again, you will end up with a rare ring. The same happens for all items, though failed uniques with durability will spawn as rares with triple durability. Failed set items (if no such set item exists) will spawn as magic items with double durability.

[Mad Merlin]

I once found 2 Knemil's Awls from Hell Meph (same drop), one was unique, the other was rare with 3x the durability. I'd say you cannot get two uniques in the same act or from the same monster. From different acts is potentially possible.