Having to purchase red maps, vaal & alch orbs

With this very simple "strategy":
*chisel red maps to 10%
*Use Vaal orbs only to unlock
*scour/alch red maps into something I can run / want to run
*don't care about Zana mods, sextants, elder/shaper

...my map tab usually looks something like this:


The higher numbers are in tiers I don't run anymore, but still pick up (6-9).
The maps I run usually are in one-digits, but they never run out, so who cares.

While this isn't "I can run a single special map forever", I'm never really afraid to drop out of red maps. I can play every tier whenever I want, and that's all I care about.

The problem here is... you got there somehow. Somehow you got red maps. If you run out, you are no worse off than you were when you got your first red map. That's the "if" we're talking about. I don't see it. I can see running out of T13+ and having to drop to T12. But even with alch-and-go, you're not going to run out of T12s after you establish them with any reasonable play style.

Cannot bloody sustain red maps, no matter if i invest all my chisels, sextants, alch, chaos and vaal orbs, a map just won't drop in return after running it, it s a pain and it feels very fustrating to play the game this league.

Got to wonder if different accounts have different drop rates. Wouldn't put it past them. We know they CAN do it since they use it to penalize botting.

Or is it more likely that it's a function of play style? When people post about yea/nay on this issue, they really should comment as to how they typically play. Do you use all your portals to vendor stuff? Do you full clear, or skip through? What do you do to prep a map? Stuff like that.

Here is my current maps pool in SSF Bestiary league :

https://imgur.com/a/NZ7Hx

So you can sustan red maps, it takes some time.

I don't like the map drop system but I deal with it ...

I chisel, alch, vaal, and clear till less than 30 mobs remaining. I open all chests and break most of the pots. I can barely sustain T10... I don't like this system of mapping. I want to be able to throw my character against high tier maps. I want to be able to opt in to difficult content. I don't like being forced into playing the same T10 maps over and over only to not even get a t10 drop and then having to play in T9 till i find more maps.

progression shouldn't be tied to RNG.