Player count influences the drop rate/nodrop.
You need both : more gaming volume,
And more peers in your game, if you can deal with it.
Also :
Quote
The problem is in how these Shard Treasure Classes are assigned to monsters. If you look inside the treasureclassex.txt file and look at any Champion or Unique main Treasure Class, you can see that they are always assigned in the same order: Act3-Act4-Act5-Act2-Act1. Act 3 Shard TC is assigned to monsters level 63-68, Act 4 Shard TC is assigned to monsters level 69-72… Act 1 Shard TC is assigned to monsters level 81-85.
Out of 130 areas in the game, 91 areas have Elite monsters with level 81 and above. Which means most Elite monsters will be dropping their Shards from Act 1 Shard TC. The problem is even worse in Terror Zones. When your character is at least level 76, every Elite you found in Terror Zone will be level 81+ and will be dropping their Shards from Act 1 Shard TC.
Act 3 Shard TC will hardly be used since only Elite monsters that will have that Treasure Class will be Elites in nonTZ Blood Moor. Almost all of Worldstone Shards will be coming from Act 1 Shard Treasure Class which means the ratio of Shards you can get will always be 5-3-2-2-1
The only way to target farm Northern Shard drop is to farm nonTZ Catacombs and Jail. With the current Shard drop ratio, you can Terrorize Act 1 five times more often than Act 5. Something to keep in mind when planning to Terrorize the whole game. If you are spending all your time hunting for Heralds in Terror Zones, you will still be getting Shards in this ratio. If you clear the whole TZ game 10 times over, your will have 28 - Act 1 shards, 16.8 - Act 2 shards, 11.2 - Act 3 shards, 11.2 - Act 4 shards, and 5.6 - Act 5 shards