I often hop into these games between work tasks (WFH/self-employed) and I'm consistently pulling another ~4-6 heralds from supposedly cleared acts. Just by witnessing what has been killed and not killed in an area clearly it's clearly a pathing decision that results in lower herald spawns, people are probably conflating rush/mf mechanics rather than targeted elite/champ pack hunting that requires coverage. I'll often find A4 from Steppes to City cleared in a distinct path' the player scouts the area or intrinsically knows the maps and just heads from one zone to another killing what is on the way rather than covering the zone and moving onto the next without too heavily compromising efficiency. Warlocks are so used to telestomp I'll often find an elite alone with their minions dead and only some unrelated trash remaining in the vicinity. Act 1 is similar, follow the paths from one map to another or don't complete the classic "fork" in Underground passage nor check easy areas like north of tristram the wings of the cloister nor corners of inner which will almost always have 1-2. Act 3 is the biggest culprit; it’s basically a maze that requires a duo-split imo, (one east, one west of the map or split the banks of the river) to actually saturate. Pavke's
floor(?) is 16.9, under that you prob need to re-evaluate what you're doing per game or just pop more shards in more games instances. Whatever is your style and appropriate trade off. You probably can't have both but you can certainly find a suitable medium and reason appropriately rather than hitch on the trailer to reddit0r whining and whinging to > D2-ify the game. Imho, and I might be absolutely wrong: Pairing in acts and split west/east or fan out is the best for speed and coverage.
Anyway here's a ss of a 15hr game I joined for the lols in a 200ping special. 2 heralds prior in A4 alone, and another 4 in A3 (Exhibit A):
Half the temples were missed, sewers untouched, and the player clearly tele'd in a straight line from trav -> council -> causeway all the way to LK only encountering anything on the shortest path their brain[dead] is biased to taking; save for LK superchests.
50% of the river banks untouched with some infrequent attempts at zig-zagging through it until it forks out and promptly giving up or often not even touching both sides of the bank once it goes anything other than "up". If I'm doing this on a slow frame 99fcr zon, wtf are the others doing when the game is hot?
Got a latent out of it too on P1, I'll take it.
I managed to get another 2 heralds working back through A2-A1. IIRC palace (fireeye lol) /arcane and not even summoner was done (my go to for rushing Duriel). On the other hand, open areas like Hills/Oasis and even Maggot lair were done somewhat well enough (I honestly cbf with slow frame and high ping at this point since local superior hosts were getting online) suggesting a miscommunication between players of who's been where and fatal assumptions.