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Countess Farming

Countess Farming

The Countess is a superunique monster found in the Forgotten Tower, Black Marsh area. She is essential to farming runes for early and mid-game for runewords. This article will provide a small summary of the rune drops per difficulty, how to find her and a rune drop calculator per X runs.

Rune Drops

The Countess has a special rune drop table that guarantees rune drops from her kills.
Always farm at players 1! The tables below show the drop rates for each rune per difficulty level. Each cell shows the probability as "1 in X" where X is the number of runs needed on average.

NL
NM
Hell
ElruneEl
1:9.5
1:21.7
1:23.18
EldruneEld
1:14.3
1:32.6
1:34.78
TirruneTir
1:4.2
1:8.7
1:13.9
NefruneNef
1:6.3
1:13
1:9.27
EthruneEth
1:3
1:6.2
1:6.62
IthruneIth
1:4.6
1:9.3
1:9.94
TalruneTal
1:2.2
1:4.4
1:4.64
RalruneRal
1:3.2
1:6.5
1:6.96
NM
Hell
OrtruneOrt
1:4.5
1:4.64
ThulruneThul
1:6.5
1:6.96
AmnruneAmn
1:5.6
1:6
SolruneSol
1:8.4
1:9
ShaelruneShael
1:9.4
1:10
DolruneDol
1:14
1:15
HelruneHel
1:17
1:18
IoruneIo
1:25.3
1:27
Hell
LumruneLum
1:34
KoruneKo
1:51
FalruneFal
1:66
LemruneLem
1:100
PulrunePul
1:131
UmruneUm
1:196
MalruneMal
1:193
IstruneIst
1:289

Note: Hell Countess can also drop higher runes from her normal monster drop table - Gul, Vex,Ohm and Lo. These however have a very small chance to drop (1 in several tens of thousands), thus not listed explicitly here.

Rune Calculator

Enter the number of runs you plan to do and select the difficulty to see the expected rune drops. The calculator uses the drop rates from the tables above to estimate how many of each rune you can expect.

Expected Rune Drops:

IstruneIst0.35
MalruneMal0.52
UmruneUm0.51
PulrunePul0.76
LemruneLem1
FalruneFal1.52
KoruneKo1.96
LumruneLum2.94
IoruneIo3.7
HelruneHel5.56
DolruneDol6.67
ShaelruneShael10
SolruneSol11.11
AmnruneAmn16.67
ThulruneThul14.37
OrtruneOrt21.55
RalruneRal14.37
TalruneTal21.55
IthruneIth10.06
EthruneEth15.11
NefruneNef10.79
TirruneTir7.19
EldruneEld2.88
ElruneEl4.31

Desired Runewords

Normal

There are two runewords that are essential to many builds, that people usually farm The Countess for in Normal.

  • Stealth in a 2 socketed armor provides +25% FCR and +25% FHR, which is useful both for casters and non-caster.
  • Leaf in a 2 socketed staff gives +3 Fire Skills, among other bonuses, which is useful for all characters with Fire Skills, like Druid, Assassin, Sorceress or even Paladin, if you decide to start with Holy Fire.
#
RunewordRunes
Type
LVL
1
Stealth
TalruneTalEthruneEth
Body Armor
17
2
Leaf
TirruneTirRalruneRal
Staves (Not Orbs/Wands)
19

Nightmare

Nightmare is where you get some really overpowered runewords. With those, you can really breeze through Nightmare and prepare for Hell difficulty

  • Spirit is perhaps the most broken runeword in Diablo 2. In Nightmare, you can make it in Broad/Long/Crystal Sword with 4 sockets. For Paladin, you can make in a Pally Shield. With the increased FCR, Mana, Vitality and +2 Skills it is an essential piece of almost every hero build out there and renders most unique items useless. For Paladins, especially, getting double Spirits, could even get you to the endgame.
  • Lore is another strong runewords for a 2-socketed Helm. With +1 Skills, Energy and Lightning Resist it ads nice bonuses to your hero, which are rarely found in a helm before Hell.
  • Finally, we have 2 runewords, which are very useful for your Act II mercenary - namely, Insight and in some cases Cure. For Insight, you need a 4-socketed polearm to boost the mana regeneration due to the Meditation aura.
    Additionally, if you opt for a Prayer Act II mercenary, you can make Cure for Cleansing Aura. This aura stacks with Meditation and Prayer to provide insane health and mana regeneration - you would rarely need potions.
#
RunewordRunes
Type
LVL
1
Spirit
TalruneTalThulruneThulOrtruneOrtAmnruneAmn
Swords/Shields
25
2
Lore
OrtruneOrtSolruneSol
Helms
27
3
Insight
RalruneRalTirruneTirTalruneTalSolruneSol
Polearms/Staves/Bows/Crossbows
27
4
Cure
ShaelruneShaelIoruneIoTalruneTal
Helms
35

Hell

In Hell, you mainly farm for mid runes for trading and Keys of Terror. However, there are still some useful runewords you can make. We list the most common here.

#
RunewordRunes
Type
LVL
1
Treachery
ShaelruneShaelThulruneThulLemruneLem
Body Armor
43
2
Crescent Moon
ShaelruneShaelUmruneUmTirruneTir
Axes/Swords/Polearms
47
3
Duress
ShaelruneShaelUmruneUmThulruneThul
Body Armor
47

Key of Terror Drops

Hell Countess has should be farmed at players 8 for key drops. She will drop a key approximately 1 in 10.64 runs

Location

Act I field maps are usually a square, with some elements cut out from the edges or in the middle. Use your waypoint to Black Marsh.
There are several rules for generating the location of the Forgotten Tower:
  • The game tries spawn the tower near the outer border of the square.
    Pro tip: When traversing an open map, do not hug the wall! Instead, try to go slightly diagonally and if you see an edge - change the direction to go away from it.
    • Black Marsh Regular Path
  • If it cannot spawn near the outer border (due to cutouts or other objects), it will spawn near another map object (waypoint, camp, The Hole, etc ...).
    • You can get a very short map
  • On river maps, it will usually spawn on the opposite side of the waypoint.
    • River map

Navigating The Forgotten Tower

The entrance tile for each level defines three directions - left, straight and right.
Progressing to the next level - always go left.
River map
Keep in mind that three rights, make a left (i.e. exit tile direction is still left). These kinds of maps are rare in the tower, though.
River map
A complete mapping guide is in the works.

References: Reddit - Countess Drop Rates, D2 Rune Wizard - Countess Mechanics.