In LoD it was simple. Ladder reset, fight your way up, clear Hell, then farm Terrorzones. Either P8 public with others or P1 solo if you weren’t strong enough yet or just didn’t feel like keeping up.
If a nice TZ was on, you logged in for an hour. P1 or P8. RNG is RNG. On P8 higher chance, sure. But even on P1 you could get lucky and find your Sunder in that one hour. That was possible. That was realistic. That felt fair.
Now with ROTW it’s completely different.
Sunders don’t just drop in Terrorzones anymore. They drop from Heralds. And not just any Herald, but effectively Level 4 or 5 Heralds.
To get there you first need Level 1, 2, 3 Heralds to spawn. And in a normal 30-minute Terrorzone you basically can’t reach that. There just aren’t enough mobs. So you need Shards.
These Worldstone Shards that you first have to find. I used the eight days before Ladder reset in Non-Ladder to farm TZs on P1 and I didn’t see a single Shard. Not one. Maybe bad luck, sure. But that’s exactly the point.
As a casual P1 player you don’t even really get into the system.
If you finally get a Shard, you have to terrorize a whole Act, go through all the dungeons, stay in the same game long enough, kill enough mobs so that a Level 4 or 5 Herald even spawns. And even then the Sunder chance on P1 is extremely low.
So before a Sunder can even technically drop, a huge ramp up system has to be set in motion…
In LoD it wasn’t like that. You entered a TZ, played an hour, and at least had the chance.
Now it feels like if you’re not grinding for multiple hours straight, nothing really moves.
And here’s the real point.
This system incentivizes multiboxing and fillers way more than before.
In LoD the advantage of P8 or fillers was clear: more XP, lower NoDrop. That was relevant for Ladder race players or hardcore min-maxers.
Now it affects everyone who even wants to participate in Sunders or the new Ancient system.
If I invest my own Shards, why would I do that in a public game? Why would I use my resources so some random can grab the loot in front of me or break my whole Herald chain?
So people make private games.
But if you make private games and still want P8 advantages, you need fillers. Or multi-accounts.
And that’s where the circle closes.
ROTW didn’t reduce multiboxing. It made it more attractive. Not just for Ladder top 5 grinders, but for anyone who seriously wants access to Sunders.
Back then as a dad with 30-60 minutes, I could jump into a TZ, farm, and at least feel like I was participating in endgame.
Now I log in, play an hour P1, don’t see a Shard, maybe spawn one Level 1 Herald, log off again. Progress? Feels like zero.
That’s the difference.
LoD rewarded grinders, yes. But it didn’t lock casuals out.
ROTW feels like the core system is built around long sessions, control, and infrastructure much more than before.
Public TZ farming for Sunders? Basically dead.
Either clan runs or solo P8 with fillers.
And that’s what bothers me.
I love this game. I want it to thrive. But right now it feels like a key part of the endgame just isn’t really reachable for players like me.
Is it just me?
What do others think that only play with 1 account?
Happy to hear your thoughts on this
It took me some time and farm to see a Shard but on P1 I got 3 shards on about ariund 4 hours of TZ farming.
Thats still low but not nothing.
I think your point is valid but you are biased by your poor experience.
Shards are farmable on P1.
Sunders on the other hand, I got only 1 herald in that time.
No sunder from him.
My stats are too low to have a clear PoV but I would agree on the 1/2 I read of your post.