Guaranteed on Normal[]
this is only a guarunteed drop on Normal. i know, i just did it on Nightmare.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4552327864
24.130.127.92 00:59, June 6, 2012 (UTC)
Drop on Higher Difficulty?[]
Has anyone been able to get this to drop on difficulties other than Normal? If so, any idea of a % chance? ᴷᴬᴸᴯᴵᴻᵀᴵ□ᴻ 09:06, December 31, 2013 (UTC)
Pre-v2.4.3 changes?[]
Just recently got around to grinding out all the random achievements, and this one seems particularly complex ...with the added bonus of the article not being particularly accurate or specific in regards to how the sword is actually found. It's certainly possible this article was once accurate, but the event must have been altered at some point prior to v2.4.3;
- Firstly, of the three times the Blade dropped for me out of ~75 runs, it always dropped from destroying the Shrine - never from killing the Avatar. The avatar dropped what one would expect from a unique elite; gold, and a single random magical item - no Devil's Breath. The shrine drops a single item after its destruction; always a sword, either one or two-handed, either magic (blue) or rare (yellow) ...with the uncommon chance of Rakanishu's Blade.
- Secondly, after ~50 Shrine events in Adventure mode and another ~20 Shrine events during Campaign mode, most of which being on Normal difficulty, I only ever got the blade to drop in Campaign mode on Normal difficulty. It seems that - at least in my arguably limited experience - the blade has a particularly low (if not 0%) chance to drop during Adventure mode and/or using any of the Torment difficulties.
- Lastly, the article currently gives direction to the event based off the location of the waypoint. This is very flawed, as there are two potential locations for the event and the location of the waypoint is not fixed. In the Oasis, there are two 'type A' (large) encounters available, one west-by-south-west while the other is east-by-north-east, either of which may spawn the Shrine event, as it requires a large mat. Meanwhile, the waypoint is guaranteed to spawn on a small mat, but it's randomized and there are ~10 'type B' (small) encounters available.
To summarize, whether or not any of the article's contents were true before, the sword no longer seems to drop from the Avatar - only a small chance from the Shrine, there's a potential that the sword doesn't drop at all at higher difficulties and/or in Adventure mode, and the directions given in the article are ...bad. P.S. The article also lacks standardization, or mention of its transmogrification - another likely later addition. Dsurian (talk) 19:48, February 10, 2017 (UTC)
- Just had it drop for me in Adventure on T9 ...so I guess part of my original theory is void. The odds have to be ridiculous. If Campaign/Normal is 25-50%, then Adventure/T9-ish would have to be <5% ...or I've just been incredibly unlucky. Dsurian (talk) 03:00, February 14, 2017 (UTC)
drop rate[]
I gave up after 15 tries on campaign normal difficulty and finally got it first try while doing bounties on T16 adventure mode. Luck is obviously a factor here, but I'm dubious about the "higher drop rate on normal difficulty". Maybe this got changed somewhere along the way.