er, a few posts ealier were incorrect. Countess cannot drop any rune gul or higher. if you want high runes from botting, you should use YAMB's Hephasto script, and make sure you have a merc to tank him because he hits hard. But you shouldn't really bot for runes.. while Heph can drop up to zod it's EXTRAORDINARILY rare that he ever will, you could go an entire night of botting Heph and get maybe a Mal... it's all about luck.
But, if you do decide to bot for runes, go Hephasto. He's usually not immune to anything, either.
Personally if I was in need of hr's I would rush hell instead.. and you don't need to bribe people with items, just tell them you'll do skill and socket quests if they don't bail, that's what I do. I still get about 1/3 of them bailing, but at least some people stay and I don't have to lose a good item if they do!
also always remember, don't grush someone for their forge... the drop will be crap because they are low level. The highest chance for up to Jah on hellforge is if you got a game full of 90+'s. So you know when you start the rush that if the person is a high level you've got a better chance at a good rune.
Also, I did an EXTENSIVE test over a few weeks about hammer repairing. I'll post my data table some other time, it's huge, in my sketchbook right now. My results were that when the levels and amount of players in the game is kept constant, OVERALL, the rune dropped from the forge is higher when the durability under 10 than it is if the durability is a higher number. HOWEVER, it was only a VERY slight difference (an average of 2.44 rune levels) so it's EXTREMELY possible that this was coincidental.
The bottom line is, everything about repairing the hammer is pretty much a myth in my eyes, but if it isn't a myth, then the drop is better if the hammer is NOT repaired.
