What's the best way to get items like these?

[Endarire]

I'm a L50 CL/FO Sorceress who's been glitch running Nightmare Andariel because Andariel's 'first time' has the best chance of Stones of Jordan. I only have about 108 MF and my chances of her dropping one seem ridiculously low, about 1 in 2200. In general am I better off waiting 'til Hell Mephisto and glitch farming him for trade items?

I also seek these items. Am NOT I better off waiting 'til I can glitch Hell Mephisto for these, and if so, which?

War Traveler
Arachnid Mesh
Stone of Jordan x2
Mara's Kaleidoscope
Harlequin Crest/"Shako"

[BAMFSpecialOps]

Why not just add Nightmare Meph into your Andy runs, Meph can drop some nice trade items in NM, doesn't take too long, and you are already in NM looking for SoJ's.

[Hrus]

It's of course better to trade for one. I would push myself to NM Mephisto and after getting some basic items from him, move to Hell Mephisto. (He can drop all of the items you want and drop lot of other tradable items)

[mephiztophelez]

just a word of caution: do NOT trade for SoJ's with anyone you do not know and trust. the vast, vast bulk of SoJ's offered for trade on the realms are unperm dupes.

and yes, the chances of getting one to drop is ridiculously low. i've been playing for six years now and am still yet to find an SoJ or a BK.

if you're playing on the realms, the Trav's and the Shako can both be acquired reasonably cheaply. Arach's are generally VERY expensive on Ladder and fairly cheap on NL.

the cost of a Maras varies wildly with the resistances on it. a 20res one is fairly cheap (and unlikely to be a dupe) while a 30 res one is going to be expensive and is more likely to be an unperm dupe.

[Kesshi]

Endarire,

I remember reading somewhere that Normal Diablo has the best chance of dropping a SOJ. This was not from a reliable source, however, so I can't be 100% sure of its validity.

[Hrus]

@Kesshi that's not true. NM Andariel has the best chance to drop it (and she is usually Warriv-bugged so, it's even better with her). She is also much faster to run than Diablo.

IMHO someone misinterpreted ATMA drop calculator, which gives the best results for normal UBER Diablo (mlvl110), who cannot spawn in the game, but still is presented in a game droplist as a real monster who can drop all items as normal Diablo, but with 100% chance to be unique.

[Kesshi]

Hrus,

Okay. Thanks for clearing that up.

[DoomBoy]

You can always try your luck at the pits. Easy monsters, great way of getting socketed items, and there's a path leading to those caves.

[TheWorldEnds]

What's glitch running?

[Endarire]

Glitch Running
Sorceress S who hasn't completed a quest like Mephisto's 'The Guardian' joins a game hosted by Necromancer N who has completed said quest. S kills Mephisto but can't complete the quest since the game won't let her, but she still gets better drops from killing Mephisto the first time.

S can join another game hosted by N or another who's completed The Guardian and continue to farm Mephisto for the better first kill drops.

[lron]

I sincerelly think boss runs are overrated...
I'm playing at Bnet for only about 3 months now and, sure, I'm not a pro that can do Meph/Baal runs in less than 5 minutes, but even so, I have better results with minions in the path to the bosses that they themselves.
To list the best (runs in hell dif): 1 Soj in flayer jungle and 1 Griffon's Eye in Nihtalak temple. Both of them with minions of those "super-unique-like" monsters of the way... There was a Tal Rasha's amy from a fallen, just outside the Rogue's camp too.
Andariel, Mephisto, Diablo and Baal sure drop a lot of unique itens, but I'm yet to see a good one from them.
By the way, my mf is under 300.
I think is much more fun killing all the things in my path then just pooping in front of a boss, killing him, rinse and repeat...
In useast, you can get a Shako for a Pul, or less, sometimes. You can have a Pul with 40 pgems. Another point to just play the game, collect all those flawless, cube them and you're done... (and in a legit way).
A little bit of patience, and you'll be well geared soon enough.
Or you can be incredibly lucky, as a friend of mine, who got a Mal from the Countess and a Vex in the Pit in the same week. x_x

[SeCKSEgai]

just a word of caution: do NOT trade for SoJ's with anyone you do not know and trust. the vast, vast bulk of SoJ's offered for trade on the realms are unperm dupes.

and yes, the chances of getting one to drop is ridiculously low. i've been playing for six years now and am still yet to find an SoJ or a BK.

if you're playing on the realms, the Trav's and the Shako can both be acquired reasonably cheaply. Arach's are generally VERY expensive on Ladder and fairly cheap on NL.

the cost of a Maras varies wildly with the resistances on it. a 20res one is fairly cheap (and unlikely to be a dupe) while a 30 res one is going to be expensive and is more likely to be an unperm dupe.

I found 2 sojs when I used to play way back, and that was between nrom and nightmare since then I wasn't nearly as competent a player. On my return several months back, somewhere along the lines until now I found 2, one off andy in NM I believe, the other off hell baal.

As far as trading is concerned, there's always a chance of it being a duped item, but I prefer a soj to high runes any day. I've had far more high runes disappear on me while I currently have 4 sojs. The one soj I did lose was too a transfer game when I picked the soj up but it didn't save, losing connection to the server or something.