Finding Stone of Jordan...

[Swordslash]

I have read that on earlier versions of D2, you could pretty much force SoJ's by holding Nagelring and Manald Heal in your inventory or stash. What versions of D2 / LoD does this work for? Also, is this practice considered "legit"? i.e., playing an older version to farm a few SoJ's then bringing them up to 1.12a?

[Darkoooo]

Why bother when you can easily farm them from NM Andy (if you quest bugged her)?

[DaveW]

The only SoJ I found was from either NM or Hell Andy. It was totally unexpected too. I was running Andy for the sake of running Andy. Of course it was SC too but the drop odds are the same for HC and SC.
As for playing older versions and bringing the item forward, thats OK in the forums. Taking backwards is another story tho.

[Espr]

IIRC the method you're talking about is for Classic 1.06 and earlier. In those versions, the odds for gambling uniques were much much better, and if already have naglering and manald heal on the char/stash, and roll a unique ring while gambling, it'll turn up as a SoJ. I believe it's briefly mentioned as a perk in the Classic HF rushing guide.

AFAIK it's an acceptable tactic. It might be less work to just run NM or Hell Andy in the version in which you already have some wealth/characters, though. Unless, of course, you have another reason to invest in older Classic versions (such as HF rushing).

[scarred_life]

I can't remember quite where I found my first SoJ but the second one I went after NM Andy with a passion for. It actually didn't take to long and I managed to score a Tal's amulet in the process. I'll see if I can find the post.

Edit: I found my first SoJ from hell countess actually (now that I've found the post)

[XDoomasX]

Soj doesnt exist....I found all kinds of runes drop, even Cham but have never seen SOJ drop in my whole life :crazyeyes: All who found one are haxors.

[Grisu]

I, too, think, that the version you're looking for is 1.06 classic.


Soj doesnt exist....I found all kinds of runes drop, even Cham but have never seen SOJ drop in my whole life :crazyeyes: All who found one are haxors.
Glad I found more than one, then:crazyeyes: :P

[cogline]

I agree with XDoomasX

[Colorless Green]

Espr was correct about the versions - the fixed drops for unique rings was in versions 1.06 and earlier, and uniques were gambled at about 3%. It works out to 1.6m gold per unique ring, or 4.8m from scratch before you get a SoJ.

However, getting gold (not to mention, you know, levelling) in classic is not easy. If you're not playing 1.06 classic to play 1.06 classic, NM andy is a significantly better option. At p8 with 500 MF (and it's quite easy to get well past 500 mf for NM andy without sacrificing kill speed), the odds of a SoJ are 1:805. Figure 30 second runs and you're looking at a bit under 8 hours of runs. 8 hours into classic I was somewhere in the middle of normal. It probably took me a couple months to get a gold find infrastructure set up, and even with that, it might still be quicker for me to do NM andy runs than 1.06 GF runs if I wanted more.

Long story short, take your main MF'er (bonus points if she has some fire spells), load her up with as much MF as you can manage while still maintaining either 63 or 105 FCR, and go run NM andy for an evening.

-CG

[javax]

Got my first soj from andy, then one from mephi and my third one from countress.

[Swordslash]

This doesn't sound right to me... First off, the drop calc I am using (German one) says that even on /players 8 with 500 MF (which is kind of crazy IMO) the drop of SoJ for NM Andy is 1/2108. Are you talking about using the Andariel Bug or something? In that case it lists 1/741, but I heard that the Andy bug was gone (unless you went to a previous version for that?) I also don't know how you'd do the whole run in 30 seconds with 500MF, you'd need a dedicated sorc that was decked out to the nines. My "main MFer" is an enigma-less Hammerdin, who certainly wouldn't be up to the task.

In comparison, it's my understanding that as long as you have the Nagel and Manald, EVERY unique ring (in 1.06- you say) will be SoJ. (Not sure what happens if you have all 3 of them though, and get another. Still a SoJ?) I suppose you could gamble them at 3% chance if you had the money, you could also kill NM Andy in 1.06- couldn't you? If it's the same kind of drops as now, you'd get a SoJ every 70 runs or so. Plus add in gambling chances from the gold from your runs. Sounds like a massive SoJ farm to me, far better than 1/2108 or even 1/741 with a current character. The main problem I see is that I don't think ATMA supports anything earlier than 1.07. So I'm not sure how you'd get the SoJ's off the character... I guess you could do something like making a copy of the character file, upgrading one copy to 1.07+, muling off the SoJ's, deleting that character, then dropping all the SoJ's on the original 1.06.... hmm.

Lastly, in google searching, it seems some other forums do consider the 1.06 SoJ farming method to be non-legit. :scratchchin:

[Colorless Green]

The drops in 1.06 are nothing like the drops now. That isn't a viable option.

If you have all three, you'd get a rare ring instead.

I was talking about using the andy bug, and it isn't gone.

I'm not sure why you're getting a different number than I am, though. edit: oh, I bet that drop calc doesn't have a party size function, does it?

With the right map, you can be at andy in as many or less teleports than to meph (one to cat3, one to cat 4, two to andy, as opposed to one to durance3, 4 to meph), and to a sorc in the 80s or higher, andy will go down in one or two hits with next to no +skills.

Midrange gear on, say, a meteorb: PT shako, PT skullder's, occy, spirit, chance guards, goldwrap, war travs, two nagels, +3 fire skills and/or MF ammy. That's probably closer to 6-700 counting charms, and maintains 65% FCR, and will kill andy just about instantly (+8-11 skills depending on ammy). If you've got a mesh, drop chance guards/goldwrap for magefist/mesh and you'll hit 105 in exchange for 70 MF.

-CG

[Swordslash]

It does have a "partymembers in the same area" setting. Obviously it should be 1, if you're running solo. Anyway, assuming the Andy bug still exists, I'd have to determine whether or not my Sorc still has the bug (by evaluating the drops I guess), she's a FO/CL sorc though so probably not the greatest Andy-killing power. Mainly made her for running countess. Guess I'll have to start a meteorb... sigh. Some use for my burning GC's at least.

To ensure my new Meteorb has all the Andy bugs, I should do what precisely? Kill Andy, TP to town, talk to Warriv, go to Act 2? And after that is there anything that can "turn off" the bug I need to avoid? I've read lots about the bug and there's a lot of conflicting info floating around...

[Colorless Green]

That's all you need to do for the bug, and it can't be turned off.

Your FO/CL is perfectly fine. We're talking about act one nightmare.

-CG

[Swordslash]

/p8 Nightmare is like /p1 Hell in terms of HP (actually probably worse.) By the way, wouldn't it be better to run on /p7? Isn't it identical drops and less HP? Just tried my FO on /p7 NM Andy, took quite a while. Runs would likely be more than a minute on average. FO has to be aimed from a moderate distance to get a good hit, it can be quite annoying and time consuming compared to a good Meteor. Now I wish I hadn't reset her Hell countess map. Oh well.

I suppose I could run her on /p1 or /p3 but ... might as well just make a new Sorc for NM Andy. Then I'll also be able to keep a good Hell countess map on the FO/CL, and a good NM Andy map on the Meteorb.

As far as determining whether you have the bug... my drop calc says 1/1.2 chance of gold and 1/3.5 chance of super healing potion for non-quest Andy, and seemingly NO chance of those for a quest-drop Andy? That would seem to be the easy way of determining the status of the bug, if true.

[stephan]

Yes, p7 is the same as p8.

The easiest way to determine if you have bugged andy or not is to look for a blue item that is not a failed set. If you don't see one in say 10 runs, then it is safe to say she is bugged. The only problem is that she often has a lot of monsters around her, and it's sometimes difficult to determine if an item is from her or from one of the minions around her.

The most difficult thing about running andy is keep doing it though. She can't drop that much useful stuff beside SoJs and Tal Ammies, especially if you already have some Meph runs on your name. Can be very boring.

[Broncobiv2]

My Meteorb found 2 SOJ's from NM Andy to use for herself (running NM Andy specifically for that purpose). Then I made a Fishyzon and decided that she needed SOJ's too. So instead of muling the 2 I already had on and off the 2 characters that used them, I decided that she needed her own pair. So my Meteorb went back to NM Andy running until I found 2 more SOJ's. And I did. And now I have 4 SOJ's.

Meteorb NM Andy until you find your precious rings! Best advice!

[Swordslash]

Yeah... I never had many SoJ's... maybe found 3 in my entire D2 career, which has mostly consisted of Hell Meph runs. Of course I've only had a single Mara's (I think it was a 28%.) But SoJ's would help me get over some of the loss I feel over not having Torches in SP (been bugging me lately.)

Anyway, now I'm just trying to decide whether to make a Meteorb, or to make an all-out maxed Meteor sorc to utterly paste some bosses. Would be difficult to solo a single-tree sorc but I'm sure I can muddle through... she wouldn't be versatile but sure would have killing power for some bosses. Hmm.

[Friiser]

Swordslash - Its been almost 2 years to the day (Sept 22, 2006) from when I jumped back into D2 with the plan of completing "The Grail". And as of right now I have not yet found a SOJ, so don't feel too down.

As CG said, a FO/CL sorc will work fine for NM Andy. It is probably more efficient to run with her starting now than it is to build a meteorb from scratch and then run her.

Friiser

[FredzterBeatxD]

Can you play older versions to find items, like sojs, and overpowered uniques, which you cant find in the newer versions and then upgrade to the newer versions in single player and still have them. And will the unique items still be overpowered?

This is only possible in single player right?

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

@FredzterBeatxD:

Welcome to the forums!

Yes, you can bring older version items to the current version and use them. And yes, they will retain their stats/mods.

One exception is runewords, which have a conversion problem. Everything else should be fine though.

And yes, only in Single Player. However, in NL B.Net, there are still some 1.09 items lingering around (might be hacked).

[wakiki]

Is it possible to create SOJs with the resist ring recipes in 1.07? Or is that only set rings?

(Sorry, this is semi-OT...)

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

^ Yes you can. I'm not sure if 1.07 SoJ has +1 to All Skills though.

[SnickerSnack]

^ Yes you can. I'm not sure if 1.07 SoJ has +1 to All Skills though.

Iirc correctly, it does, and it also has a level requirement of 1.

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Sweet Jesus. Thanks for the heads up Snicker.

Also, if I remember correctly correctly much? :p

[purplelocust]

Actually, any SoJ in LoD will have a level requirement. The ones that come from "pre-patch" Classic (1.06 and earlier) don't have a level requirement. If you have a no-level requirement unique from Classic 1.06 or earlier and you bring it forward, what happens depends upon whether or not you bring it forward to a modern Classic or any LoD. The level requirement is added only when you convert the item to expansion, so it is possible to have Classic 1.12 SoJs with no level requirements. One project would be to get no-level requirement SoJs + Tarnhelm + Eye of Elitch to help twink a level one character for speedy levelling, but that could only work in Classic.

I haven't tried the resist cube recipe in 1.07 Classic (or earlier Classic- I'm not sure when that recipe was added) so I'm not sure about that.

A 1.07 SoJ from the cold resist recipe:


The Stone of Jordan
Ring
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x1a12df52
Item Level: 62
Version: Expansion
+1 to All Skills
Adds 1 - 12 Lightning Damage
+20 to Mana
Increase Maximum Mana 25%
Cold Resist +19%

[SnickerSnack]

Also, if I remember correctly correctly much? :p

correctly


Actually, any SoJ in LoD will have a level requirement. The ones that come from "pre-patch" Classic (1.06 and earlier) don't have a level requirement.

Thanks for the correctlytion.

[JMJimmt]

Andy NM is definitely the place for these. The odds are only slightly better with 1000 mf compared to 300 (~500:1 difference between the two)

[Quickdeath]

Personally, I've never had a problem with finding SOJs. I did get one gambling in 1.05 or 1.06 before LOD came out, but have found 6 or 7 SOJs since. However, I have never found a Nagelring with 30% MF!

[JMJimmt]

Personally, I've never had a problem with finding SOJs. I did get one gambling in 1.05 or 1.06 before LOD came out, but have found 6 or 7 SOJs since. However, I have never found a Nagelring with 30% MF!

I've *never* found a SoJ - ever.

I have found several perfect Nagelrings on bnet a few years back. Since I started up again I've found 8 Nagelrings, 2 of which are 29s but not quite 30s. Still no SoJ lol

[Tubba Blubba]

I've got 4-5 30% Nagels, they seem to occur frequently. I've got 2 SoJ:s which took about 4-5 hours of farming to get.

[Jason Maher]

Personally, I've never had a problem with finding SOJs. I did get one gambling in 1.05 or 1.06 before LOD came out, but have found 6 or 7 SOJs since. However, I have never found a Nagelring with 30% MF!

Wanna swap? Andy's more than happy to give me a 30% Nagel, but SoJ or Tal's? Not a chance! :crazyeyes:

[Ragnarod]

I've got no problems finding SoJs either, but that's because I'm playing 1.06 almost exclusively right now ;)


I haven't tried the resist cube recipe in 1.07 Classic (or earlier Classic- I'm not sure when that recipe was added) so I'm not sure about that.

I'm not certain about that either, I know the recipe was there in 1.06 already but I'm not certain it can produce unique or set rings, I think not but I've never tested it properly.

[UllaV]

My only SoJ was found on normal Baal when leveling up ;)

It though is gone to the mighty bitbucket.

Ulla

[Dolera]

My first soj wasd from NM andy and my second soj was 50 runs after that Nm andy run

my third soj came from 1k runs at hell meph (wasnt hunting for soj)

[Kevin William Cox]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you talking about 1.06 pre-lod (which would mean classic) NM Andy?

Just wanna be sure.


Kev


Edit @Dolera- There's a reason I'm asking, pre-lod 1.06 classic no Baal NM Andy can't drop SOJ.

[Dolera]

Well on b.net i did get one pre lod and in 1.09 (lod obvi)

but these are 1.11 and 1.12 (the meph one) sp

[Ragnarod]

Edit @Dolera- There's a reason I'm asking, pre-lod 1.06 classic no Baal NM Andy can't drop SOJ.

Just to clarify this: unlike in post-LoD patches (1.07 onwards, both classic and expansion) in 1.06 uniques have no required minimum ilvl, so *every* monster can drop a SoJ, and it can be gambled by characters at any level (since rings are available at the gambling screen from level 1).

[Dolera]

i played classic but never knew that, i think i might play it a while

[Ragnarod]

i played classic but never knew that, i think i might play it a while

If you need some info about it you can check the guide (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=745320) I wrote a while ago, should help you out :)

[BabyLink]

I found a SoJ yesterday on my 7th NM Andy run, with something between 450 and 500 MF, /players 8.

[horseheadnebula]

there is some strange aura in this game. tried to hunt soj over year killing nm andy over and over again with no success until today. got two soj :crazyeyes:

[TrueJohn]

Do NM Andy runs work in Classic or just LOD? And if not whats the easiest way to get sojs in D2 classic?

[Username is not in use]

playing 1.06 is considered the "easiest" way to get sojs in Classic

[TrueJohn]

I play on the closed server so I dont know how or if i could play 1.06 since it patches the instant i log in. If I am restricted to playing in 1.12 like I think I am can I get sojs from Andy in NM classic or only lod?

[Corrupted]

I play on the closed server so I dont know how or if i could play 1.06 since it patches the instant i log in. If I am restricted to playing in 1.12 like I think I am can I get sojs from Andy in NM classic or only lod?

NM Andariel in classic doesn't have a high enough level to drop SoJs. Due to the bug still working though Andariel is still your best bet. Hell Andariel in classic has almost similar odds to NM Andariel in LoD. It can be a bit tough to pack a bunch of MF and kill her safely though. IIRC my setup was Goldskin, Tarnhelm, 3 Pdia Shield, Shard, (Gull in inventory for lasthit), Nagels, Goldwrap, Magefist, Rare boots & a rare prismatic amulet.

[Username is not in use]

well, thought u where playing sp, cause its the SPF :p

Diablo himself on normal can drop this pleasure isnt it so?

:wave:

[Anaesthesia]

Yes, Normal Diablo can drop an SoJ. And, like NM Andariel, his level is too low to drop Ravenfrost or Dwarf Star, which start to dilute the SoJ possibilities at mlvl 53 (IIRC).