Travincal Rune Farming
Why Travincal?
The Travincal is one of the best places to farm high runes up to a Cham rune. The Travincal is a popular area because it is a very easy to reach spot where we find the Council Members.
On top of the relative high rune drop chance, Council Members are also an excellent source of uniques, jewelery, charms, and coins. As a bonus, these demons can also be "horked" by the Barbarian's Find Item skill, giving a chance of additional drops.
The Travincal Area
The Travincal can be reached easily through its own waypoint. East of the waypoint, we find the Blackened Temple. The temple, formerly known as the Temple of Light, contains the entrance to The Durance of Hate. This temple also houses the High Council of Zakarum, the farming target of this area.
There are a total of 11 Council Members, of which 3 Super Unique, Geleb Flamefinger, Ismail Vilehand, and Toorc Icefist. It is important to note that all Council Members have the same drop table, even the minions. However, the minions have a lower chance to drop unique or set items. If your goal is runes, charms, or gold, the minions are just as good as the Super Uniques.
Fighting the High Council
Taking on the Council Members is no easy feat. These demons come with different immunities, high damage, and healing.
All Super Uniques come with natural Fire Immunity, while Geleb Flamefinger will also be immune to Lightning and Toorc Icefist will also be immune to Cold. The minions will be either immune to Lightning or Fire. It is therefore advised to break immunities with Infinity or use a melee or magic based build. Keep in mind that Toorc Icefist is Cold Enchanted, which grants him the Holy Freeze aura, whose slowing effect cannot be negated.
On top of their high damage output, these demons also spawn Fire Hydras. Because of the abundance of fire damage, it is highly advised to stack maximum Fire Resistance and Fire Absorb.
Travincal Builds
Because of the high elemental resistances, magic and melee based builds stick out. Popular builds for farming the Travincal are Berserk Barbarian, Whirlwind Barbarian, Tornado Druid, and Blessed Hammer Paladin. Since Find Item can be used on all Council Members, the Barbarian is a very good choice to optimize the amount of drops.
Other good options are Lightning Javazon or Lightning Trapsin, these builds however require Infinity to be successful, making it less accessible in early ladder.
A Sorceress can be successful using Blizzard, with only Toorc Icefist being problematic. However, this is only 1 out of the 11 Council Members you would have to skip.
Council Members drop mechanics
Each Council Member (both super Unique and normal) get 3 picks from the Council Member drop table. The player difficulty only affects the nodrop chance, showing a huge jump between p1 en p3, a smaller difference between p3 and p5, and almost negligible between p5 and p7. For this reason it is advised to farm on p3 unless your run speed is equal on p5 or p7.
To get a chance on a high rune, you have to roll "Act 4 (H) Good" first. The chance to land on this is 5.45% on p1, 7.5% on p3, 8.11% on p5, and 8.33% on p7.
Press on one of the treasure classes in the drop table to show the drop table of that treasure class. In the graph below you can recognize the treasure classes as wide slices, the thin slices represent an item drop. You can also change the difficulty to see the effect on the nodrop chance.
Council (H)
3 random picksAct 4 (H) Good
Rune Drop simulator
This simulator shows the drops of 11 Council Members per run.
