MAP DROP RATE

It's very possible to do well playing solo 100% of the time. Maybe not so much for a new player inexperienced in what mods work best on certain maps or figuring out the thresholds of iiq/benefical mods for the different map levels, but things like that come with experience if you pay attention to what you'r doing.

If GGG were to finally listen to everyone who wants a true 1week solo race, something that has been cried for ever since they started hosting weekraces during cb, (yet hasn't been done for some reason) I think alot of players would see that a solid strategy when mapping works pretty much flawlessly even when soloing. Then again a 1week solo no trading would be more of an ironman thing, but still, would probably be good for showing do's and dont's of mapping.

Kripps recent mapstrategy is decent, yet it isn't optimal, and he doesn't really go into specifics regarding wich maps work with wich mods, but then I suspect something like that would be better noted in a spreadsheet, rather then a youtube video.

What I'm saying mostly is that it isn't that hard to get into the higher levels of maps, sustaining them is extremely hard, nigh impossible. Yet with a solid strategy you'd get close to it, even solo. Needs patience and a very good understanding of maps and their mods. Try keeping track of what mods, wich levels of iiq etc seem to work best for you when running maps, sonner or later you should be able to pick up on what maps to run etc.

Tho, maintaining the currencies needed to map is pretty hard, but it's doable solo. Mf gear on your mapdude farming some random easy boss where ever you can rack up the most rares/hour works pretty damn good completely solo, without party iiq. But getting the mf gears is so expensive right? But you'd start saving whatever iir/iiq gear that beats your current, if you have none everything is an upgrade, sooner or later you have enough iir/iiq to farming effectively, then using the orbs etc to buy better mf gear or use the orbs to roll maps.

Number of stash tabs do still make a notable difference unfortunatly. Then again, if you've gone this far you might aswell throw a few bucks to ggg i suppose.
Anyhow, making alterations to roll the lower maps you want to run blue is extremely easy, Again, still extremely easy even solo. Yes. and with the ease of getting alts you should never have to run a bad blue map.

Also try to figure out ways to run nasty maps, such as ele weak, - maxres, phys/ele ref etc. wheter it be using totems, minions, switching skills for specific maps, running certain auras or whatever, being able to do all an every mapmod with relative ease or at the very least without killing yourself over and over is a very good way of wasting less currencies on rolling maps.

Say this map rolls maze magic(3%)temp chains (27%) -maxres(15%) ele reflect(12%) with chisels (20%) Thats a pretty decent map for mapdrops, 77% iiq with good mods, given the base map handles maze well, Say you get this and you're an elemental user, what do you do to be able to run it still? You would not want to reroll this, cause its too good to give up, sure, you can trade it for something equally great with about the same mods, but this wastes time and you don't want that. Alot of ppl shy away from temp chains too, but I see temp chains as free iiq.

Anyhow, put your main skill on a totem and do the map slowly, summon some minions to help you survive too, link leech with your mainskill, nerf you'r damage to be able to survive even crit reflects etc etc.

Try to get some mf on your main gear too, It's always helpful when mapping to keep the currencies flowing your way, Trading now days is more of a chore then something enjoyable tho, But that might chance once things settle down a bit, segregating global/trade chats by difficulty once again would probably help with this too, tho GGG's fully integrated system for trading sounds promising.

Point is, to do well in maps, you need currencies, farming them via straight grinding or trading etc is entirely possible solo, I know quite alot of experienced players who's been playing pretty much solo since the realease of OB and their doing quite well.

In the week races, I always, without exception, farm until I have atleast 5 or more of the lowest level maps, more is always better, but if you start gaining 50% of regular xp off the highest non map zone its pretty dull, yet, still worth it in the long run, if you dislike the grind, then think again and get used to it, or buy some maps off trade.

once I have these I roll them blue as good as they can get then start running them. Then keep rolling the maps to achieve good rolls no matter the cost, If I have to break from mapping to grind currencies for a bit then so be it, It's better then trying to get by on maps by being cheap, doing that will leave you out of maps quickly.

Doing this I have never gotten to the point where I don't have any maps left.
You need a plan for maps, mapmods and getting currencies if you want to map. It's fairly simple to grasp yet alot of players seem to not get it. The point of maps is to provide the hardest content ingame, the highest level zones for the ultimate rewards in terms of exp, maps do this by eating away at your currencies, and as such they keep orbs flowing out of the economy, this is a good thing.

Maps do drop quite frequent, if you don't try to cheap out on the rolling part of them.
Also never start mapping with less then 5 maps, more is better but I've never run out so far starting from five.

Do blue maps with:

30-40%+ iiq
15%+ iiq and a high magic/packsize roll
Maze with 15%+ IIQ

Any indoor map should be mazed, don't cheap out.

Almost no outdoors map handle area well, theres a few exceptions, but generally you're better off going for 40% pure iiq or the 15%+iiq with magic/packsize.

doing 66-69 as blue maps isn't a problem.
Don't run the highest maps you have all the time.
You can easily get to 86 without touching a 70 map so there's no reason to rush into the higher ones.

You need a strategy for currencies for rolling maps since it gets expensive quickly.

Make sure your indoor rare maps roll maze, and at the very least 50%+ iiq, more is better.

Pure IIQ rare maps are pretty much never worth running, by pure I mean one without a magic/packsize/maze roll.
Make sure you have a plan for every mod possible so you don't have to spend currencies rerolling just cuz the mods are hard, or leaving you unable to do a very good map.
Chisel and alch anything 70+ scour and alch or chaos until the roll is good enough. Don't try to get by cheaply, this will leave you without maps quickly.
If you have to go farming for a day or week or whatever to roll your maps good enough so be it.
Since you only have a limited amount of maps you really should be trying your best to get them nicely rolled.

Some maps maze better then others, a few maps handle area well but most don't. Knowing what maps benefit most from different mods will make it easier deciding when to spend alot and when to spend less when rolling. Some maps are just small too, spending a fortune rolling small maps is a bad idea, getting a halfway decent roll on those would work fine. it's the large maps that take to certain mods particularly well you should be spending alot on.