The problem is not simply that Sunder Charms are rare. Blizzard deliberately wants them rarer than they were before Reign of the Warlock, and Diablo II has never promised that 100 kills earns anything. The more interesting complaint is about risk versus reward. High-tier Heralds can stop powerful characters in their tracks, erase mercenaries, roll miserable combinations such as Thorns and Stone Skin, and sometimes take minutes to kill. When the reward at the end is two blue items your loot filter does not even bother displaying, the player is left wondering what exactly the fight was for.
One Player Has Passed 100 Heralds Without a Sunder
The current discussion began on August 28 with a player saying their Herald count had crossed 100 without producing a Sunder Charm. They describe deliberately farming Terror Zones in large multiplayer games and becoming increasingly frustrated by both the Sunder drought and the general quality of Herald drops. Other players immediately pointed out that a streak like this is entirely possible under Diablo II's RNG. One community calculation suggested that even if a Tier 5 Herald had roughly a 2% Sunder chance, going 100 kills without one would still not be remotely impossible.
That statistical point matters. A bad streak is not automatically evidence that Blizzard broke the drop table. We already covered the wider Season 15 changes to Sunder Charm farming, and Blizzard's Patch 3.3 notes specifically say that the Herald-specific Sunder drop rate was not reduced. What Blizzard did reduce was the effectiveness of Magic Find on Latent Sunder Charms obtained through the normal loot system, while also restricting those Magic Find drops to Hell difficulty and increasing the minimum drop level from 69 to 75.
So if Herald Sunders feel rarer, the current official patch notes do not support the simple explanation that Blizzard secretly nerfed their special Sunder chance in Season 15. The frustration is real. The cause may simply be Diablo being Diablo.
Another Player Logged 344 Herald Kills and Got Five Sunders
The strongest counterpoint in the thread comes from a player who has actually been counting. They report 344 total Herald kills, including 287 Tier 5 Heralds, resulting in five Sunder Charms. Their longest drought between Sunder drops was 133 Tier 5 kills; their shortest was only 11. They still believe Sunders are slightly too rare and say seven or eight across that sample would have felt healthier, but their results also demonstrate how wildly the experience can swing from one stretch to another.
This is why anecdotal Sunder farming can feel so brutal. Player A kills 11 Heralds and gets one. Player B goes 100 without anything. Player C reaches 133 before the next drop. All three may be interacting with exactly the same drop table. Random distribution has no obligation to make individual players feel that the mathematics are being fair.
Diablo II veterans understand that intellectually. The emotional response after the 100th unsuccessful Herald is usually less academic.
Season 15 Was Supposed to Make Heralds More Worth Fighting
This is where the complaint becomes more interesting than one unlucky Sunder streak. Patch 3.3 explicitly increased the chance for Tier 3 and higher Heralds to drop Rare-quality and better items. That change followed months of complaints that Heralds were disproportionately dangerous compared with the piles of blue items they often left behind.
Blizzard had already tried to improve the system in Patch 3.2. Heralds were made easier to spawn, the increased Sunder chance began at Tier 2 rather than Tier 4, player count stopped heavily modifying their special Sunder chance, and a failed special Sunder roll gained an increased chance to produce another desirable item such as a Charm or Amulet. Blizzard's developer note explicitly acknowledged that players felt both Herald spawn rates and Sunder drops were too low.
Season 15 then increased Rare-and-higher drops for Tier 3+ Heralds again. The direction is obvious: Blizzard knows these monsters have to feel worth killing.
Players are still debating whether they do.
A Tier 5 Herald Can Be Much Harder Than Its Loot Suggests
The strongest complaint in the current thread comes from players who do not mind Sunder Charms being rare but strongly dislike how punishing some Heralds can be relative to their ordinary loot. Multiple players specifically call out Thorns, while Stone Skin and other defensive combinations can dramatically extend the encounter. One Barbarian player describes fighting a Stone Skin Herald for several minutes despite using a Physical Sunder setup, only for the monster to drop basic blue equipment afterward.
Other players describe mercenaries dying almost instantly against particularly ugly combinations. That creates a direct Gold cost through resurrection, slows down the Terror Zone farm and increases the danger of continuing the run. One player summed up the problem neatly: if Heralds are going to remain this dangerous, their non-Sunder loot needs to reflect it. If their loot remains ordinary, perhaps the difficulty needs to come down.
Either approach is defensible. What feels bad is combining raid-boss enthusiasm with Fallen Shaman rewards.
The Grind Does Not End When a Sunder Finally Drops
There is another layer to the complaint that becomes easy to forget when discussing only the initial drop chance. Reign of the Warlock changed Sunder Charms from simple finished items into a deeper progression system. Getting a Latent Sunder is only the first roll. You then need the right element for your build, useful affixes and the additional resources required to upgrade it.
A player in the current discussion lays out the problem as RNG stacked on RNG. First the Sunder must drop. Then it must be the correct type. Then the player needs the relevant upgrade Runes. Then the resulting affixes need to be useful, with properties such as enemy resistance reduction, Magic Find, Gold Find and Faster Hit Recovery creating another layer of quality differences.
That system creates excellent long-term chase potential, but it also makes the first Sunder drought more painful. After 100 Heralds, you are not necessarily 100 kills away from finishing the item you want. You may only be 100 kills away from finally receiving the wrong one.
The First Sunder Is Particularly Important
Several players point out that the very first relevant Sunder can be the hardest part of progression because a Sunder itself helps unlock more efficient farming. A Fire build that cannot comfortably kill Fire Immunes has fewer viable zones and bosses than the same build after acquiring the appropriate Charm. Supporting equipment still matters, but breaking the immunity barrier can dramatically broaden the character's options.
That creates an awkward progression loop. The item that makes Sunder farming easier is the thing you are currently trying to farm without having one. Veteran Non-Ladder players may already own old Sunders and barely notice the problem, while a fresh Season 15 character experiences the new system from zero.
That distinction also feeds into our recent discussion about whether Diablo II's three-month Ladder seasons are too short. A long chase is easier to accept on a permanent character. It feels more demanding when the seasonal clock is already running.
Magic Find No Longer Solves the Problem the Same Way
Patch 3.3 also changed the relationship between Magic Find and Sunders. Blizzard says the effectiveness of Magic Find on Latent Sunder Charm drops was reduced, while the Herald-specific Sunder chance remained unaffected. That means stacking additional Magic Find does not directly improve the Herald's special Sunder roll in the way some players initially assumed.
This caused confusion immediately after the patch. Players experimented with different Magic Find levels and larger multiplayer groups expecting the old relationship to improve their odds, only to learn that the special Herald drop functions differently. Season 15 deliberately pushes players toward hunting Heralds as the more targeted Sunder route while making random Sunder discovery through the normal Magic Find system less generous.
That design makes Herald reward quality even more important. Blizzard is effectively telling players: if Sunders are your goal, this is the monster you should care about. If the monster then feels miserable to fight and rewards nothing useful most of the time, the targeted farming system begins to feel more like targeted disappointment.
Blizzard Does Want Sunders to Be Rare
It is worth remembering that Blizzard has already explained the broad philosophy. When Patch 3.2 increased Herald spawning and Sunder opportunities, the developers said the goal was to improve access while keeping Sunder Charms rarer than they were before Reign of the Warlock. That is intentional. The developers are not currently trying to make Sunders common seasonal starter gear.
There is a reasonable design argument behind that choice. The modern Sunder system is stronger and more elaborate than the original version. A well-rolled upgraded Sunder can become a serious endgame item rather than merely an immunity-breaking utility Charm. If those dropped constantly, the entire progression system surrounding them would collapse almost immediately.
The problem is finding the point where “rare enough to be exciting” becomes “rare enough that players stop bothering.” That line is notoriously difficult to see from a spreadsheet.
Better Backup Loot Could Solve Most of the Frustration
The best solution may not require dramatically increasing the Sunder rate at all. If Heralds consistently provided good fallback rewards, going 100 kills without a Sunder would still produce meaningful progress. Better chances at Uniques, Set items, useful Charms, Jewels, Runes or crafting resources could make the monster itself worth fighting regardless of whether the special drop appears.
Blizzard is already moving in that direction. Patch 3.2 added the improved consolation drop when the special Sunder roll fails, and Patch 3.3 further increased Rare-and-higher item chances for Tier 3+ Heralds. The community feedback suggests Blizzard may simply not have pushed that idea far enough.
One player proposes guaranteeing at least a Unique or Set item from Tier 5 Heralds. That might be too generous depending on how frequently they can be spawned, but the basic principle is sound: the hardest version of a specialized endgame monster should probably produce something visible enough that the player notices they killed it.
100 Kills Without a Sunder Is Bad Luck — But the Real Problem Is What Happened During Those 100 Kills
This is ultimately why the current thread is worth more than a headline about one unlucky player. Going 100 Heralds without a Sunder can happen. Depending on the actual hidden drop rate, it may not even be particularly extraordinary. Diablo II has always contained miserable streaks, and eliminating them entirely would mean eliminating much of what makes rare drops exciting.
The better question is whether those 100 Heralds delivered enough value along the way. If the player gained good Uniques, useful Charms, meaningful XP and other valuable drops, the missing Sunder becomes one unfinished chase among many. If the experience was 100 difficult encounters, dozens of dead mercenaries and a warehouse full of blues, the system feels broken even if the underlying probability is mathematically correct.
That is the strange thing about loot games. RNG does not have to be fair.
The grind still has to feel worth doing.
After 100 Heralds, some Season 15 players are no longer sure it does.
Sources
Diablo II: Resurrected Forums: 100 Heralds of Terror Without a Sunder
Blizzard: Diablo II: Resurrected Ladder Season 15 and Patch 3.3
Blizzard: Patch 3.2 Herald and Sunder Charm Changes
Diablo II: Resurrected Forums: Season 15 Herald Sunder Drop Discussion
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