I just finished my Holy Grail — every unique and set item in Diablo 2 Resurrected, all self-found. It took an absurd number of hours, but somewhere along the way I accumulated a pile of runes and started building runewords just because I could. That gave me a new goal: complete every single runeword in the game. And that means I need high runes. A lot of them.
After some incredible luck running Lower Kurast a few weeks back, I decided to shift to a spot that's been debated for years in the D2 community — Travincal. The High Council drops runes at an insane rate compared to most monster packs, and the runs are fast if your build can handle them. The thing is, I've historically had terrible luck at Trav. Multiple sessions with nothing to show for it. But this time I committed to a long sample size and tracked everything that dropped.
The Build — Werewolf Barbarian
Instead of the classic Horker (Find Item barb), I went with the Werewolf Barbarian. This is a shapeshifting build that uses the new class mechanic introduced for Barbarians, and it absolutely tears through the council members. If you need your own character geared up for this type of farming and want to buy D2R items to get your Werewolf Barb council-ready fast, the key pieces are surprisingly affordable this late in the season. My setup only runs 135 magic find because the focus here is purely on rune drops — MF doesn't affect rune drop rates at all, so I stacked kill speed and survivability instead.
I ran everything on players 3 difficulty. That's my sweet spot for balancing kill speed against the improved drop tables. Players 3 bumps the number of items each council member can drop without turning them into damage sponges. On this build, each Trav clear takes around 25-35 seconds depending on positioning and how many of the council members cluster together. If you want a comparison of how Travincal stacks up against other popular farming locations and routes this season, there's a detailed breakdown of the best D2R farming spots and routes for Season 13 that covers efficiency per hour for each zone.
The Drop Log — What Actually Fell
Let me walk you through the highlights. I'm not going to pretend every single run produced something spectacular — most of them are gold, blue items, and the occasional rare that gets vendored. But the runs that did hit? They hit hard.
Sur Rune — This dropped within the first session. The Sur rune is the gateway to Ber (two Surs cube up), and seeing it pop out of the council was a rush. On players 3 at Travincal, the odds on any given council member dropping a Sur are roughly 1 in 257 kills, which translates to approximately one Sur every 20-25 runs of full council clears. My timing was about right.
Mara's Kaleidoscope (26 all res) — Wasn't even looking for uniques, but a golden amulet popped out and there it was. A 26 Mara's isn't perfect (30 is the max), but it's absolutely usable on any character. I actually called this one before identifying it — the amulet graphic just had that energy.
Multiple Mid Runes (Lem, Pul, Mal) — These fell consistently throughout the sessions. Lem runes are great for Treachery runeword, Pul for various recipes and Oath, and Mal for Grief components or just cubing toward higher runes. I found several of each across the full run count.
Session Summary:
Sur x1 Mal x1+ Pul x2+ Lem x3+
Notable Uniques: Mara's (26), Ethereal Gimmershred, Crown of Thieves (Eth)
Grand Charms: Offensive Auras skiller, Shadow Disciplines skiller
Small Charms: 7% MF, Lightning skillers w/ life
Surprise Drops That Weren't Runes
Even though I wasn't stacking MF, the council members are high enough monster level (mlvl 87) to drop basically anything in the game. A few standouts came through that weren't runes at all.
An ethereal Gimmershred was probably the most exciting non-rune drop. With the newer mastery changes, ethereal throwing weapons that replenish quantity are actually incredible — you get the 50% ethereal damage bonus permanently since the quantity refills. This is basically a free damage multiplier that used to be a meme and is now genuinely best-in-slot for certain builds.
The thing about Trav is that you're killing six council members per run, and each one has TC87 access. That's six lottery tickets every 30 seconds. Over hundreds of runs, the math works in your favor even with low MF.
I also grabbed a Carrion Wind ring that appeared right next to what I initially thought was an SOJ (it wasn't, but the heart rate spike was real). An ethereal Crown of Thieves with 10% damage reduction showed up too. Not the best roll on resistances, but the ethereal defense boost makes it a solid merc option.
Was Travincal Actually Worth It This Time
Here's my honest take after this extended session: yes, but only if you enjoy the rhythm. Trav runs are extremely repetitive — teleport to act 3, run into the temple courtyard, kill six guys, leave game, repeat. There's no variety in the monsters, no map randomization to speak of, and most runs produce literally nothing of value. But the ceiling on each run is so high (any rune up to Zod can drop from council members) that the excitement of seeing that gold text pop up never fades.
Compared to Lower Kurast, which requires players 7-8 and is purely a chest-popping routine, Trav feels more engaging because you're actually fighting. And the fact that uniques and set items can drop alongside runes means you occasionally get pleasant surprises like that Mara's or the Gimmershred. For my runeword completion goal, I still need several Ber, Jah, and Cham runes. Trav is absolutely going to be part of that journey, but I'll probably rotate it with other zones to keep my sanity intact.
If you've been avoiding Trav because you heard it's "overrated" or you've had bad luck there in the past — give it another shot with a proper sample size. Two hundred runs minimum before you judge it. The runes will come. They always do eventually. And when a Sur or Ber pops out of that council pack, every dry run before it suddenly feels worth it.
