Guild Wars 2

I have the opposite issue, having found several precursors recently. I’d say it’s just horrid RNG, which sucks because it can be a little soul crushing after a while.

NovaZephyr.1293:

I have the opposite issue, having found several precursors recently. I’d say it’s just horrid RNG, which sucks because it can be a little soul crushing after a while.

I am farming a consistent high drop rate item. Not talking about precursors or exotics.

It’s just RNG. I know you don’t think it is but it’s true.

I found 50 dusks yesterday and have 112% MF….it is RNG

Zylonite.5913:

I found 50 dusks yesterday and have 112% MF….it is RNG

Pics or lies.

“RNG isn’t working in my favor! MF is broken!”

“RNG is working in my favor! MF is fine!”

Your MF is fine. RNG is RNG. Ecto salvage rate was never re-balanced…

Move along nothing to see here…

Xenon.4537:

Zylonite.5913:

I found 50 dusks yesterday and have 112% MF….it is RNG

Pics or lies.

Pics AND lies!

Geez i hope that others won’t mind if i use my MF gear in WvW…

Aurust.8961:

I believe magic find is broken. I am currently farming my usual spot and am getting almost precisely the amount of stuff as though I have zero mf. I farmed enough to believe that this isnt RNG bad luck.

Can anyone else share their thoughts?

after the september 20th 2013 update i salvaged 26 rares and got 0 ectos…before that i would always get 1-3 ectos

Shpongle.6025:

Aurust.8961:

I believe magic find is broken. I am currently farming my usual spot and am getting almost precisely the amount of stuff as though I have zero mf. I farmed enough to believe that this isnt RNG bad luck.

Can anyone else share their thoughts?

after the september 20th 2013 update i salvaged 26 rares and got 0 ectos…before that i would always get 1-3 ectos

Does Magic Find even impact salvaging?

Xenon.4537:

Zylonite.5913:

I found 50 dusks yesterday and have 112% MF….it is RNG

Pics or lies.

In a sense, he is claiming the exact same thing that the OP is claiming. It IS RNG.

Its no RNG you ether get 2-3x more exotic drops if MF is working (with MF100-200%) if not its broken,law of probability let all get same amount of loot in the long run.

I actually think it needs a little tweaking in all honesty i have to agree with the op.
i have been testing it out with a friends account they are new. Our magic find is leagues apart.
he gets loot almost every other drop, the same as me.
now this means mf is either broken or not explain properly.

if mobs drops 1 in 3 times then at 300% magic find you should always get an item.
that’s how it has been explained according to what i have read.

FreekPalmer.2839:

if mobs drops 1 in 3 times then at 300% magic find you should always get an item.
that’s how it has been explained according to what i have read.

I thought MF affected rarity and not drops?

So long story short, Magic Find is a fake stat to give the less fortunate a sliver of hope. I have well over 100% MF and it does absolutely NOTHING. It’s all RNG, better known as luck. Even if you had 1000% MF, you still might NEVER get a precursor drop.

Do yourself a favor and pretend Magic Find doesn’t exist (because it doesn’t). Just play the game and keep hating the lucky ones and the ones who implemented this travesty against humanity that is RNG.

I honestly think u guys dunno how MF works……at all….

Magic Find just increases your chance of getting better items then “white items”…if u increase it even more…… u will have better chance of getting items better then “blue items”…. even more… better items then “green items”. U get what i mean?

The table starts from WHITE items. If u have 50..100 mf let’s say that means u will 90% of the time get blues and up.

If u have around 200mf… 90% u will get green items

If u have 300mf (max) 90% u will get yellows..

These are just examples…but this is how MF works in any game. It doesn’t increase your chance of getting a precursor..it increases your chance of not getting crap items..like whites for starters.

Having 100% mf is almost nothing really if you are looking for rare/exo. Before the global MF patch u needed around 300% MF to actually start getting yellows pretty fast and about 1-2 exotics/major event (aka pre-karka queen event). Why do u think the MF cap is 300? Or did u think at “300 mf” u would get constant yellows/exotics.

Me at 120%MF i almost literally never see white items. So every item i get, i can salvage and get even more MF in time.

Rebound.3409:

I honestly think u guys dunno how MF works……at all….

Magic Find just increases your chance of getting better items then “white items”…if u increase it even more…… u will have better chance of getting items better then “blue items”…. even more… better items then “green items”. U get what i mean?

The table starts from WHITE items. If u have 50..100 mf let’s say that means u will 90% of the time get blues and up.

If u have around 200mf… 90% u will get green items

If u have 300mf (max) 90% u will get yellows..

These are just examples…but this is how MF works in any game. It doesn’t increase your chance of getting a precursor..it increases your chance of not getting crap items..like whites for starters.

Having 100% mf is almost nothing really if you are looking for rare/exo. Before the global MF patch u needed around 300% MF to actually start getting yellows pretty fast and about 1-2 exotics/major event (aka pre-karka queen event). Why do u think the MF cap is 300? Or did u think at “300 mf” u would get constant yellows/exotics.

Me at 120%MF i almost literally never see white items. So every item i get, i can salvage and get even more MF in time.

what’s a percent of random?

MF hasn’t worked correctly since the update went live for EOTM, there are people with little MF ( below 60 ) who are getting rares etc drop left right and center, and others who have over 250 who are not getting anything at all,

I was doing Melandru ( pre to temple ) and at the beacon defense stage where the mobs run at you none stop, after 6 mins I walked away with nearly nothing, WvW wasn’t much better, yet everyone on TS who had below 100 MF was getting crazy drops,

From what I was told on ts, the night the patch went live a dev was in LA and said that they where looking at MF as it was not working correctly, I wasn’t ingame so I cannot verify that, but they have no reason to lie on TS.

MF works, read my sig

-hardcore farmer with +300 MF

Ok I Did It.2854:

MF hasn’t worked correctly since the update went live for EOTM, there are people with little MF ( below 60 ) who are getting rares etc drop left right and center, and others who have over 250 who are not getting anything at all,

I was doing Melandru ( pre to temple ) and at the beacon defense stage where the mobs run at you none stop, after 6 mins I walked away with nearly nothing, WvW wasn’t much better, yet everyone on TS who had below 100 MF was getting crazy drops,

From what I was told on ts, the night the patch went live a dev was in LA and said that they where looking at MF as it was not working correctly, I wasn’t ingame so I cannot verify that, but they have no reason to lie on TS.

1.) Beacon is a popular event, it’s unlikely you did not get enough tags/ damage in
2.) You hit DR

Aurust.8961:

I believe magic find is broken. I am currently farming my usual spot and am getting almost precisely the amount of stuff as though I have zero mf. I farmed enough to believe that this isnt RNG bad luck.

Can anyone else share their thoughts?

Well if you’re constantly farming the same spot you could be hitting DR (diminishing returns, the stupid system that hurts non botters just as bad as botters).

Vol.7601:

Ok I Did It.2854:

MF hasn’t worked correctly since the update went live for EOTM, there are people with little MF ( below 60 ) who are getting rares etc drop left right and center, and others who have over 250 who are not getting anything at all,

I was doing Melandru ( pre to temple ) and at the beacon defense stage where the mobs run at you none stop, after 6 mins I walked away with nearly nothing, WvW wasn’t much better, yet everyone on TS who had below 100 MF was getting crazy drops,

From what I was told on ts, the night the patch went live a dev was in LA and said that they where looking at MF as it was not working correctly, I wasn’t ingame so I cannot verify that, but they have no reason to lie on TS.

1.) Beacon is a popular event, it’s unlikely you did not get enough tags/ damage in
2.) You hit DR

Very popular event, although this was earlier in the morning US time ( im on a NA server ) still maybe 15-20 of us there, I was getting all the XP for the kills just no loot,

If I had been down there farming all day I would say that DR yes, but it was the first time I did the event in 3 days, and I hadn’t been in WvW for a week, like I said, when I was doing events/WvW before update I was getting decent look, and my MF is just sub 300%, yet friends who did not invest into MF at all, are getting way more drops than they normally would, and they even know it.

Ok I Did It.2854:

Vol.7601:

Ok I Did It.2854:

MF hasn’t worked correctly since the update went live for EOTM, there are people with little MF ( below 60 ) who are getting rares etc drop left right and center, and others who have over 250 who are not getting anything at all,

I was doing Melandru ( pre to temple ) and at the beacon defense stage where the mobs run at you none stop, after 6 mins I walked away with nearly nothing, WvW wasn’t much better, yet everyone on TS who had below 100 MF was getting crazy drops,

From what I was told on ts, the night the patch went live a dev was in LA and said that they where looking at MF as it was not working correctly, I wasn’t ingame so I cannot verify that, but they have no reason to lie on TS.

1.) Beacon is a popular event, it’s unlikely you did not get enough tags/ damage in
2.) You hit DR

Very popular event, although this was earlier in the morning US time ( im on a NA server ) still maybe 15-20 of us there, I was getting all the XP for the kills just no loot,

If I had been down there farming all day I would say that DR yes, but it was the first time I did the event in 3 days, and I hadn’t been in WvW for a week, like I said, when I was doing events/WvW before update I was getting decent look, and my MF is just sub 300%, yet friends who did not invest into MF at all, are getting way more drops than they normally would, and they even know it.

15-20 is still a lot of people to compete against, and unless you are a guardian and in a full party, you will be fighting for scraps. And just cause you get exp doesn’t mean you will get loot – the loot threshold is much higher than the exp threshold, which is why people party up since damage is pooled.

I’ve had instances where I didn’t get any loot for 2 consecutive waves while getting a ton in the 3rd wave. At default (no DR) it seems each mob has a 30% chance at dropping loot. And within that 30% chance, you have x % at picking up certain tiers of loot, such as junk, blues/greens/yellow/rares and bags.

I’ve had enough experience farming (+3000 hours) to notice if there is a problem with MF. It’ll always boil down to RNG or DR.

Dunno but ever since I got my MF to 100% I’ve been getting at least 1-3 unidentified dyes each day I play, boy this will surely make it easy to get Bifrost

Magic find has never worked for certain accounts/characters and is merely a placebo.

I would post pics of bags full of greys and not much else or just simply empty, but really, what’s the point?

I’m lucky if I get one yellow a month. Greens and blues outside of champ chests is rare as well. I ran max MF whenever I could, and have nothing to show for it.

Killface.1896:

Its no RNG you ether get 2-3x more exotic drops if MF is working (with MF100-200%) if not its broken,law of probability let all get same amount of loot in the long run.

Your sample size isn’t big enough yet for the law of large numbers to kick in. You probably haven’t even completed a cycle.

Has Magic Find ever even worked?

Killface.1896:

Its no RNG you ether get 2-3x more exotic drops if MF is working (with MF100-200%) if not its broken,law of probability let all get same amount of loot in the long run.

Please read up on probability.

It definetely works fine.
For 2 monthes I had ~40% MF and my loot was whites mostly, some blues/greens and RARELY rare. 1-2 exotics for whole 2 monthes.
Last month I increased MF up too ~150%(with boosters) and now my loot is mostly blue/greens, up to 5 rares after game session and few exotics almost every day

Vol.7601:

Ok I Did It.2854:

Vol.7601:

Ok I Did It.2854:

MF hasn’t worked correctly since the update went live for EOTM, there are people with little MF ( below 60 ) who are getting rares etc drop left right and center, and others who have over 250 who are not getting anything at all,

I was doing Melandru ( pre to temple ) and at the beacon defense stage where the mobs run at you none stop, after 6 mins I walked away with nearly nothing, WvW wasn’t much better, yet everyone on TS who had below 100 MF was getting crazy drops,

From what I was told on ts, the night the patch went live a dev was in LA and said that they where looking at MF as it was not working correctly, I wasn’t ingame so I cannot verify that, but they have no reason to lie on TS.

1.) Beacon is a popular event, it’s unlikely you did not get enough tags/ damage in
2.) You hit DR

Very popular event, although this was earlier in the morning US time ( im on a NA server ) still maybe 15-20 of us there, I was getting all the XP for the kills just no loot,

If I had been down there farming all day I would say that DR yes, but it was the first time I did the event in 3 days, and I hadn’t been in WvW for a week, like I said, when I was doing events/WvW before update I was getting decent look, and my MF is just sub 300%, yet friends who did not invest into MF at all, are getting way more drops than they normally would, and they even know it.

15-20 is still a lot of people to compete against, and unless you are a guardian and in a full party, you will be fighting for scraps. And just cause you get exp doesn’t mean you will get loot – the loot threshold is much higher than the exp threshold, which is why people party up since damage is pooled.

I’ve had instances where I didn’t get any loot for 2 consecutive waves while getting a ton in the 3rd wave. At default (no DR) it seems each mob has a 30% chance at dropping loot. And within that 30% chance, you have x % at picking up certain tiers of loot, such as junk, blues/greens/yellow/rares and bags.

I’ve had enough experience farming (+3000 hours) to notice if there is a problem with MF. It’ll always boil down to RNG or DR.

I know you farm lol I been following your website :oP

So tonight in WvW/EotM I decided to do some testing, this is a small sample, first role was with a guard, in a full team, I did a 100 kill test, the drops where close to none, even in the solo fights I had when running back to a group etc, the drops pre patch where far better, I ran a necro 2nd, to tag everything that moved, and again drops where sub par, yet still friends with very low MF are getting loads of drops,

I understand RnG but that should be based on the type of drops, not whether you get drops or not, and post patch, it seems very much that my MF is broken, and others is off the chart.

I’m not sure anyone really understands how magic find works, but from my understand (seeing previous posts from Devs), it works like this:
Each monster has a specific drop rate: As an example, looking at a level 80 subjugator in Cursed Shore (a level 80 zone).

When you kill it, you roll on a RNG table. That table probably is a 1-1000 table, on this table 1-200 = Heavy moldy bag, 200-400=White item, 400-700=Blue item, 700-900 = Green item 900-999=yellow item, 1000 = exotic

Once you roll your item you then go to that table. So using exotic as an example, in the first case you rolled 1000. Now you go to the new “exotic” table. Which probably has 1-100 Orrian sword, 100-200 Orrian scepter, 200-etc etc etc, all the way to 1000 = precursor.

Once you roll your type of loot table, you go to the next table for specific item on that table (so which stats on an Orrian sword for example, or which pre-cursor).

MF% changes your percentage on that table. So using an example of getting a pre-cursor. If you had 100% magic find. On the first table you would have a 2 in 1000 chance (instead of 1 in 1000) to get onto the exotic table, and then after that (once on the exotic table), with 100% magic find you would have a 2 in 1000 chance of getting a pre-cursor (instead of 1 in 1000) and then after that, it doesnt help at all, since every number is a specific item for which precursor.

So if with 0% magic find, your odds of a precursor drop are 1 in 1000 in 1000 (or .0001% on a single drop) with 100% magic find, this would increase to 1 in 500 (2 in 1000) in 500 (2 in 1000 again) or now you have .0004% (which is actually significant), with 300% MF, your odds become 1 in 250 (4 in 1000) in 250, which becomes .0016% chance.

Now even with 300% magic find, that still means you have a 99.9894% chance of NOT getting a precursor. but you still have nearly 16x greater chance than without any MF.

Please note, I made up all the numbers above as an example, no one knows the exact RNG tables that are being used (it could be 1-500 for exotic, or 1-10000…we dont know)…but devs have said that you roll on one table first, then the next, then the next and MF affects your odds on each single table.

So it is not 100% MF = 100% chance to find magic, it simply means you have 100% more chance (2 instead of 1) on an individual roll within a table.

Some days you are simply luckier than others. I had a day 2 weeks ago (I have 133% MF) where I got 6 exotics in one single champ run in frostgorge. But I have not gotten a single exotic since then, or for about 1 month prior to that…while a friend has gotten 2 since then…with no MF….over-all though, I am better than him by 4 exotics looking at the whole month…MF has a minimal effect on individual rolls, but over longer time periods that little effect adds up.

MF isn’t broken because there’s nothing to break. It’s actually just a Placebo.

Moshari.8570:

Some days you are simply luckier than others. I had a day 2 weeks ago (I have 133% MF) where I got 6 exotics in one single champ run in frostgorge. But I have not gotten a single exotic since then, or for about 1 month prior to that…while a friend has gotten 2 since then…with no MF….over-all though, I am better than him by 4 exotics looking at the whole month…MF has a minimal effect on individual rolls, but over longer time periods that little effect adds up.

Nah… i think its more to do with account. Typically I’ll run fractals with guildees and they will be getting a rare or exotic in boss chest and ill end up with blues and greens. This is with me at ~160% MF and they have from 20-100% MF. A full fractal level is generally rares: me=1 others (each)= 1-5 … There are two guildees in particular that I know have half the MF and consistently have much better loot. Over multiple months this has happened.

Its a poor system.

Vol.7601:

MF works, read my sig

-hardcore farmer with +300 MF

Oh my god vol how….

Before the system changed, it was easier to systematically test the difference between little/no magic find, 100% MF, and 200% MF. Those people who posted their results showed consistent differences:

• About the same number of gear items, but more MF meant more greens than whites or blues.
• More T+1 drops (e.g. T6 instead of T5 in Orr).
• More rares (but not by a lot).
• More exotics (again, not by a lot).

Notably, there were runs in which the low-MF sets did better than a similar run with a high-MF set — this is where random numbers come into play. It’s similar to comparing a professional blackjack player to an amateur: the amateur might have a run of good luck and win more rounds in that time than the pro, but over the long run, the pro is going to do much, much better. (And, of course, the house will do best of all, but only over the long run.)

In addition, there’s a lot of “observational bias” from most of us regarding drops. We’re much more likely to remember salvaging 20 rares without an ecto than we are to remember getting 51e from 40 rares over the next few days (even though the average between those two runs would be be the expected 0.85e/rare).

For those who want to declare that magic find isn’t working , start keeping track of all your drops. How many gear and what rarity. How many containers (e.g. Heavy Moldy Bags), junk items, mats, and miscellany. If you do this consistently for 100s of drops, you’ll start to notice patterns…many of which will turn out to be coincidence. After 1,000s of drops, you’ll start to have enough data for analysis. If that sounds too daunting, then team up with a couple of friends with similar MF (so that each one is only responsible for a few hundred items).

Neek.9531:

Vol.7601:

MF works, read my sig

-hardcore farmer with +300 MF

Oh my god vol how….

The fastest way to 300 MF is to salvage ectos. It is, however, the most expensive, as the loss you get from salvaging a stack of ectos then selling the dust costs you 10-20G.

You can if you wish, buy lvl 20-50 green items through buy orders, but that is extremely time consuming and will give you carpal tunnel.

Overall I think maxing magic find costs you at least 2kg, up to 3kg. Is it worth it for the average GW2 player? Absolutely not. But as a hardcore farmer, it is absolutely worth the investment considering I can make back 2-3KG in less than 2 months. I got my luck to around 278 yesterday and I got 4 exotic drops yesterday in about 6 hours. It’s an outlier of course, but things are looking good so far.

Vol.7601:

Neek.9531:

Vol.7601:

MF works, read my sig

-hardcore farmer with +300 MF

Oh my god vol how….

The fastest way to 300 MF is to salvage ectos. It is, however, the most expensive, as the loss you get from salvaging a stack of ectos then selling the dust costs you 10-20G.

You can if you wish, buy lvl 20-50 green items through buy orders, but that is extremely time consuming and will give you carpal tunnel.

Overall I think maxing magic find costs you at least 2kg, up to 3kg. Is it worth it for the average GW2 player? Absolutely not. But as a hardcore farmer, it is absolutely worth the investment considering I can make back 2-3KG in less than 2 months. I got my luck to around 278 yesterday and I got 4 exotic drops yesterday in about 6 hours. It’s an outlier of course, but things are looking good so far.

When did you started salvaging the ectos for MF? Since the MF update began (when you had around 0-10% MF) or when you reached some sort of “dull spot” when you can’t earn good MF without ectos (like 100%)?

I want to reach 150% MF (currently at 106%) and then start salvaging ectos to boost my way to 300%, I feel like blues and greens hardly give me any progress for the next percentage

don’t forget 100% mf probably means you have twice the chance of loot than normal peeps. If the items is 0.01% chance to drop, that’s now a whopping 0.02% chance at 100% MF. You’ll probably see more kitten loot tho.

I started when I reached 200%.

At lvl 228 you start needing 30,000 luck per 1%.
That’s 150 exotic luck essences, which based on the research on the wiki, 288 ectos or over 80G per 1% (you can make back 60g by selling dusts)

I really don’t recommend going for max luck unless you have the financial capability of doing so. It can be incredibly risky and expensive, especially if you list stacks of dust and the prices start to move down.

288 ectos? Oh well, I’ll just change my goal of 300% MF to 2030.

MF is working as expected. MF has nothing to do with your probability of getting a Precursor. All MF does is give you a chance of getting a rare where you would have instead gotten a fine or masterwork.

At around 170% (70% base + 100% from the birthday gift buff) I started noticing a significant increase in rare drops from chests, if not standard drops. When I do the Ulgoth chain in HH I almost always get a rare from the chest in addition to the one for the event.

And that is it. That is all MF is good for, getting the occasional Rare where you otherwise would not. It may also increase your chances of exotics and precursors, but not by a high enough margin for it to be relevant, no matter how much farming you do.

My magic find is about 100% and I haven’t seen any difference in drops. I still get blues, maybe a green once in a while with a rare yellow occasionally. Hardly ever see an exotic.

Makes me wonder if there are unseen numbers assigned to your character during character creation (like when you roll an rpg character) that count for or against you. I only say this because I know some people with incredible luck like every time she logs in she gets anywhere between 3-5 exotics a day (during normal game play). I just don’t understand that.

artistry.5904:

My magic find is about 100% and I haven’t seen any difference in drops. I still get blues, maybe a green once in a while with a rare yellow occasionally. Hardly ever see an exotic.

Makes me wonder if there are unseen numbers assigned to your character during character creation (like when you roll an rpg character) that count for or against you. I only say this because I know some people with incredible luck like every time she logs in she gets anywhere between 3-5 exotics a day (during normal game play). I just don’t understand that.

They will tell you its RnG, but it does make you wonder, I know someone who got 4 pre cursors out of the forge in an hour, and has amazing drops in game, yet hardly ever plays, and others like myself who play daily and get next to nothing in the way of drops MF or not.

Kal Spiro.9745:

MF is working as expected. MF has nothing to do with your probability of getting a Precursor. All MF does is give you a chance of getting a rare where you would have instead gotten a fine or masterwork.

At around 170% (70% base + 100% from the birthday gift buff) I started noticing a significant increase in rare drops from chests, if not standard drops. When I do the Ulgoth chain in HH I almost always get a rare from the chest in addition to the one for the event.

And that is it. That is all MF is good for, getting the occasional Rare where you otherwise would not. It may also increase your chances of exotics and precursors, but not by a high enough margin for it to be relevant, no matter how much farming you do.

Magic find has no effect on what you receive from chests. It only influences the loot you get from mobs directly.

I tend to notice a difference in magic find when I go from 150% to 200%, I usually get about 40 rares in WBT if I have around 200%, as opposed to 35 with 150%. I’ve done WBT enough times to say that Magic Find does work. However, when it comes to precursors, and probably exotics as well., the drop chance of them are so low that any increase in MF is pretty negligable in the long run.

Say there is a 0.5% chance to get an exotic drop, if you have 200% MF that is about 1.5% chance. Exotics have a 3x higher chance of dropping but at this point RNG has more of an impact on whether an exotic drops or not. Unless you compare somebody who has done WBT for 3 months straight with 200% MF to somebody who has done WBT for 3 months straight with 0% MF, the former is more likely to have a few more exotics (albeit probably not a whole lot more).

Precursors are even more at the mercy of RNG. Say it is about a 1 in 100,000 chance to drop a pre (which really isn’t an unreasonable percentage). Having 200% more MF ups it to about 3 in 100,000 chance, which is still a very, very low chance. And of course though, RNG kicks in which means you might never get one, ever.

Zera Allimatti.2541:

So long story short, Magic Find is a fake stat to give the less fortunate a sliver of hope. I have well over 100% MF and it does absolutely NOTHING. It’s all RNG, better known as luck. Even if you had 1000% MF, you still might NEVER get a precursor drop.

Do yourself a favor and pretend Magic Find doesn’t exist (because it doesn’t). Just play the game and keep hating the lucky ones and the ones who implemented this travesty against humanity that is RNG.

Agree. 200% MF and loot kittenty as always.

Zera Allimatti.2541:

So long story short, Magic Find is a fake stat to give the less fortunate a sliver of hope. I have well over 100% MF and it does absolutely NOTHING. It’s all RNG, better known as luck. Even if you had 1000% MF, you still might NEVER get a precursor drop.

Do yourself a favor and pretend Magic Find doesn’t exist (because it doesn’t). Just play the game and keep hating the lucky ones and the ones who implemented this travesty against humanity that is RNG.

Why hate on RNG? You want every mob to drop a precursor?