Wanted something that's rewarding for progression. Hades franchise has been fun but need to turn it off for a bit bc non progression games get stale. Could this be the game for me? Played Diablo 3 religiously on release for 2 years and path of exile 1 for 3 years. Would this be an enjoyable solo game ?

Took me way longer than I’d like to admit to get consistent Uber Key farming going in D2R.After a bunch of inefficient runs, I finally settled on a route that feels way less painful than I expected.

Not gonna lie, most guides overcomplicate this. Once you understand what each boss is actually doing, it becomes more about routing than “build perfection”.

Quick breakdown of the 3 Uber Keys (what matters in practice)

You’re basically farming 3 bosses:

• Key of Terror → Countess (Tower Cellar 5)
• Key of Hate → The Summoner (Arcane Sanctuary)
• Key of Destruction → Nihlathak (Halls of Vaught)

Each one is a low drop-rate grind, so consistency > luck.

From my experience, the biggest slowdown early on wasn’t damage — it was just getting lost in maps and wasting runs.

Key of Terror (Countess) — easiest but still annoying

This one is actually the most straightforward once you stop overthinking it.

The Countess is always in Tower Cellar Level 5, but what helped me a lot was this small routing habit:

• After Black Marsh waypoint
• Just circle clockwise first instead of randomly running

Sounds small, but it shaved a lot of wasted time for me.

She has fire + cold immunity in Hell, so if you’re running Blizzard or fire builds, it can feel rough early on unless you have a Sunder Charm setup.

That being said, I didn’t farm her just for keys — runes like Ist/Um/Gul dropped often enough that it felt worth the loop.

Key of Hate (The Summoner) — honestly the most annoying one

This one took me the longest to get consistent with.

Arcane Sanctuary layouts feel random, and I kept wasting time checking wrong paths.

What finally helped:

• Teleport back to center twice (if you can)
• Don’t clear everything — just route fast

On average, it still took me ~20–30 runs per key.

The Summoner himself isn’t hard at all though — no immunities, just slightly tanky elemental resist.

So the difficulty here is 100% navigation, not combat.

Key of Destruction (Nihlathak) — dangerous but efficient

This one feels scary at first because of Corpse Explosion.

The first few times I ran him, I just kept dying to chain explosions from his minions.

What fixed it for me:

• “Slain Monsters Rest in Peace” item (huge difference)
• Or Redemption Aura if you’re Paladin / Phoenix shield setup

Once you remove corpses from the equation, the fight becomes way more manageable.

Small tip that helped me find him faster:
In Halls of Pain, I started using the “red eyes on walls” as a directional cue. Not perfect, but surprisingly useful once you notice the pattern.

Drop rates (don’t stress this too much)

From what I noticed, it roughly feels like:

• Terror: ~7–10%
• Hate: ~9–13%
• Destruction: ~8–12%

It’s one of those systems where streaks happen a lot. I had sessions where I got nothing for 10+ runs, then 2 keys back-to-back.

So yeah… consistency matters more than luck.

What builds actually felt good (from my runs)

I tried a few setups and these stood out:

• Nova Sorc → fastest overall (Teleport makes everything smoother)
• Hammerdin → very stable once damage ramps up
• Lightning Fury Amazon → great for clearing everything fast
• Smiter → obviously best for endgame Ubers, but also fine for key farming

Honestly, anything with mobility + decent AoE felt better than “perfect DPS builds”.

Final takeaway

If I had to simplify everything:

• Countess = route efficiency
• Summoner = navigation skill
• Nihlathak = survival mechanics

Most players (including me at first) overfocus on builds, but the real bottleneck is just learning the loop.

Once it clicks, Uber Key farming becomes pretty chill.

Anyone else farming keys this season? Curious if others found Summoner as annoying as I did.

I have a pretty decked out horker, max res, dual grief coh etc, I’m scared to get one shot by a sorc or something but if I have a fighting chance I’ll fight (hardcore lvl 91 barb). I’m scared to get my cheeks clapped but I’ll trade some blows. Would a novasorc or jav just one shot me?

I really don't want to be paying jah+ber for a cure runeword tbh, at that point I might as well make a ladder sorc just to make the runeword there and then migrate.

What is better..i play P1 non Ladder mostly..i like Phoenix shield for the Qol and big ED

Anyone got a 4 socket sheild im in nightmare and really screwed my respect and I refuse to give up lol