TL;DR:
Old Sunders are gone. Latent Sunders now only drop from high-tier Elite Heralds in Terror Zones, and the real key is: higher tier + higher player count = massively better odds.The whole Latent Sunder / Herald mechanic still feels somewhat mysterious, and I haven’t seen a clear summary of how it actually works. I did a deep dive into the game files, ran the numbers, and combined that with several days of in-game testing. Here’s a structured breakdown of the 10 most important things you need to know about Latent Sunders and Heralds. I hope that this helps the d2jsp community to get more latent sunders in the near future.
1. Old Sunders No Longer Drop in ROTWThe previous “regular” Sunder Charms no longer drop. In the game files, the old Sunder entries were replaced in the treasure class tables.
If you haven’t seen a classic Sunder in hours of farming — that’s not bad luck. They’re simply not in the drop pool anymore.
2. Latent (Pre-Crafted) Sunders Can DropInstead of final Sunders, Latent Sunders now drop. These are temporary versions (fixed at worst %) and must be upgraded via Cube recipes.
3. Latent Sunders Only Drop from Heralds and only in HellLatent Sunders can only drop from Heralds in Hell mode. Heralds themselves spawn randomly when killing Champions/Unique monsters inside
Terror Zones.
You will see system messages: First “You draw the ire of a Herald!” and after this “Herald is hunting you in <area>!”
When the second message appears, the Herald has spawned somewhere in that area.
Important:Multiple “draw the ire” messages can occur after each other without the message "herald is hunting you".
Multiple Heralds can spawn in the same game.
The exact spawn escalation mechanic is not fully confirmed yet.
4. There Are Different Herald Types and TiersThere are multiple Herald variants (A/B/C types) and an internal tier system. The A/B/C types are not the same as the tier progression system.
Tier level seems to escalate during gameplay, current
theoryis that with every kill of a Herald in the same game increases the Tier level.
Heralds in Act1 can drop Act3 Consumable Desecrated, Act2 > Act4, Act3 > Act5, Act4 > Act2 and Act1
5. Higher Tier Heralds Drop Better LootTier 2-3 Heralds already have improved drop tables.
Tier 4 Heralds have the best overall drop chances.
Extra item rolls are unlocked at higher tiers.
6. Tier 4+ AND “Elite Herald” Required for Latent SundersThis is the critical part as game file condition clearly states : cond('MonsterTestElite', herald) * (stat('heraldtier'.accr) > 3)
Meaning:
The Herald must qualify as an Elite Herald (proably name Herald of Terror)
AND the internal heraldtier must be > 3 (Tier 4+)
Only then does the Sunder drop table even become active.7. Base Chance Is Extremely LowAt P1, the chance for any Latent Sunder is roughly: ~1 in 272 per eligible Herald kill.
So don’t expect to see them often in solo low-player games.
8. Not All Sunders Are EqualDrop weights show: Cold & Fire Sunders drop most frequently, Lightning slightly lower, Poison and Magic even lower and Magic is the rarest variant.
9. Player Count Increases Drop Chance SignificantlyAt P7 or above, the chance improves roughly 4 times compared to P1.
Example:
P1 ≈ 1:272
P7 ≈ 1:69
This is due to the general NoDrop formula scaling in the game.10. Players in Same Area Further Improve OddsObserved scaling:
1 > 3 players in area: ~+25%
3 > 5 players: ~+20%
5 > 7 players: ~+16%
If you play with mates and split the party too much, you reduce efficiency.
What This Means in Practice1. Don’t Just Run Random TZsUse Worldstone Shards to terrorize whole Acts.
Recommended priority order:
Act 2 → Act 1 → Act 3 → Act 5 → Act 4
Act 2 tombs is the best place due to high monster density and the highest count of monsters able to spawn herald.
2. Kill ALL Champions & Uniques ideally in a P8 gameWhat we see at the moment is that Heralds only spawn from Champion/Unique kills.
With P8 you increase your odds by factor 4. If you have some mates with you, get at least 3 players in the same area to increase your chance by another 25%
P1 solo: ~1:272
P8 solo: ~1:69
P8 with 3 in same area: ~1:55
3. Kill as Many Heralds as Possible (Track Them)Tier escalation seems tied to number of Herald kills.
The more Heralds you kill in one game, the higher your tier likely becomes - unlocking Sunder eligibility at Tier 4+.
Count your Herald kills per game.
If you are interested, I can also post a deeper breakdown of the drop math and tier escalation logic.
Good luck hunting.
this means that 99% of players will not have any latent sundercharms...