Guild Wars 2

I’ve read and contributed to some of the threads pertaining to MF, the “DR bug” etc. And I’ve seen many people with various problems, and some with seemingly good luck. Although I don’t feel as though my drops are too bad as I grind for hours a day I had question I hoped Arenanet or the community could answer.

Before the question, just what I noticed. I seen that everyone says boost up your MF for great gear, drops, etc. So I said what the heck, why not try. So I full out deck my warrior in MF gear head to toe, earing to neck. Oh but that can’t be enough, so I wait for the guild buff, plop down a guild banner, a boost, food, and yep.. another boost lol. So I’m sitting at well over 150MF and here goes..

I grind in my usual spots, some mean ol charr areas, try some lowbie areas. I went to 40/50/60/70 zones. After about 4 hours I’m thinking “Did I even equip my gear?” So I look and yep, the MF is on. What I notice is, and please understand this could be 100% RNG or randomness, but NO increase in dropped rarity. If anything it just became more of a pain in the kitten because I don’t have my exotic berserker stats.

So ok, something dawns on me. All my gear is level capped.. My stats and everything else is level capped. So I get the idea to go back to orr, my new home away from home. And I find after 3 hours that I seem to be getting really decent drops. A slight noticeable increase from normal. Again, keep in mind this could be random luck.

So my question is:
When I’m scaled down, does my MF scale down as well? And if so how can we tell how much since we cannot see it in our stats? Please forgive me if this discussion has been stated before, I’ve been playing only about 505 hours, 44 days. If we can get a clear answer on this it “may” help people struggling with bad luck, or whatever they feel is hindering them.

I will say that if you are under level 80, the loot you receive probably won’t be making you a ton every day. So when that rare does come on your level 50 and it only nets you 20s, be understanding that its due to its level. And since the leveling in GW2 imo is fairly simple and quick, most don’t want to spend a lot on low level rares. So once you hit 80, get out there and sell those drops and mats

Again, sorry if this has been asked before. Thanks for your constructive replies.

Geotherma.2395:

So ok, something dawns on me. All my gear is level capped.. My stats and everything else is level capped. So I get the idea to go back to orr, my new home away from home. And I find after 3 hours that I seem to be getting really decent drops. A slight noticeable increase from normal. Again, keep in mind this could be random luck.

So my question is:
When I’m scaled down, does my MF scale down as well? And if so how can we tell how much since we cannot see it in our stats? Please forgive me if this discussion has been stated before, I’ve been playing only about 500 hours, 48 days. If we can get a clear answer on this it “may” help people struggling with bad luck, or whatever they feel is hindering them.

That’s a really good point which I haven’t seen questioned/discussed here. I suspect that the answer is “yes,” but there’s no real way to confirm that without staff input given that Magic Find is inexplicably left off of the hero tab.

On a related note, I would assume that most people trying to use MF for drops, or experimenting with it, would do so in level 80 zones/instances (my reasoning being simply that it’s what I would do – and therefore this is by no means a safe assumption). Still, the question of whether it scales – and if so, how – is a good one indeed.

Thanks for your response. One reason I thought of this was because I was seeing a lot of 80’s scaled down in other parts of Orr that are 70ish. And if the MF scaling is strong, or heaven forbid over-calculated, it could hurt drops for average players.

Another reason I was wondering if people do this in lowbie areas is because of the ease of kills. At 80 with any decent gear set, you can run thru mobs in 20-50 areas pretty easy. Certain items that are rare drops in those areas when stacked can make some good money. So if people are doing that and the system is capping their MF gear or food, that could be quite a pain. One thing I seen on wiki is that trays of food such as Omnomberry Bar Trays, seem to give the users the effect based on their level. Another reason that led me to question the scaling. Thx again, and hope maybe we can get a shiny red response

Oh and dungeons that scale you down. Dungeon mob drops etc.

Maybe Anet can clarify some part of this.

Well…I just typed a response and lost it in submitting…so I’ll put back just a summary of it.

This, is a brilliant question I’ve never contemplating to start off but after contemplating the question, I don’t believe it scales. Consider the Magic Find Booster (50%) and the Armor Booster (5%). Neither mentions scaling, and the Armor Booster doesn’t downscale. Furthermore, Magic Find does not affect the combat system, purely the drop loot system. So there would be no true reason to downscale MF, if you did, in a 1-10 zone, that Booster would be worth 2% (Possible Exaggeration).

Personally, I’ve never seen a scaling effect of it, however, I run mostly 70+ content where scaling wouldn’t be as steep. A great question regardless.

Alkron.1345:

Well…I just typed a response and lost it in submitting…so I’ll put back just a summary of it.

This, is a brilliant question I’ve never contemplating to start off but after contemplating the question, I don’t believe it scales. Consider the Magic Find Booster (50%) and the Armor Booster (5%). Neither mentions scaling, and the Armor Booster doesn’t downscale. Furthermore, Magic Find does not affect the combat system, purely the drop loot system. So there would be no true reason to downscale MF, if you did, in a 1-10 zone, that Booster would be worth 2% (Possible Exaggeration).

Personally, I’ve never seen a scaling effect of it, however, I run mostly 70+ content where scaling wouldn’t be as steep. A great question regardless.

A fair point, but something else to consider is gear. Lower-level MF gear has lower stat values (example, Sunstone Nugget carries +1% MF while Opal Orb carries +3%). It’s reasonable to infer that, like all other gear-based stats, MF’s gear-derived value scales down by level.

Once that’s done, though, the MF and Armor boosters can simply add their percentage on top of the total. In the case of Armor, the result will be down-scaled – 5% of armor that’s been reduced to level 10 is quite a bit less than level 80 armor. Given how the MF stat is typically handled in terminology, though, it’s a safe assumption that the booster just provides a straight 50% addition on top of everything else.

On the topic of scaling, it’s worth pointing out food boosts don’t get downscaled, but lower-level foods have lower-level stat values.

Blueshield.6291:

On the topic of scaling, it’s worth pointing out food boosts don’t get downscaled, but lower-level foods have lower-level stat values.

What about trays? Wiki says users buff is scaled to level? Just curious.

Geotherma.2395:

Blueshield.6291:

On the topic of scaling, it’s worth pointing out food boosts don’t get downscaled, but lower-level foods have lower-level stat values.

What about trays? Wiki says users buff is scaled to level? Just curious.

To the best of my knowledge, how a tray works is that it grants the buff for the item type used, but the magnitude scales depending on the user’s level at the time of interaction with a tray.

In other words, a level 70 character can’t eat Omnomberry Bars, but can eat Raspberry Peach Bars, which have the same effects but at a lesser magnitude. The desert tray, as it is able to be used by all characters regardless of level, checks for which buff is level-appropriate and grants that.

Alkron.1345:

Well…I just typed a response and lost it in submitting…so I’ll put back just a summary of it.

This, is a brilliant question I’ve never contemplating to start off but after contemplating the question, I don’t believe it scales. Consider the Magic Find Booster (50%) and the Armor Booster (5%). Neither mentions scaling, and the Armor Booster doesn’t downscale. Furthermore, Magic Find does not affect the combat system, purely the drop loot system. So there would be no true reason to downscale MF, if you did, in a 1-10 zone, that Booster would be worth 2% (Possible Exaggeration).

Personally, I’ve never seen a scaling effect of it, however, I run mostly 70+ content where scaling wouldn’t be as steep. A great question regardless.

Hmmm… we know that loot drops DO scale though:

Game Update Notes – November 15, 2012
Items
The amount of loot that drops for downscaled players has been increased. You should now be able to receive level-equivalent loot until you are fighting at a downscaled level that is less than 2/3 of your actual level. You should also receive loot a greater percentage of the time as well as receiving a greater percentage of experience, gold, and karma. For level 80 characters, this means level 55+ areas will be able to drop level 80 gear and give about 75% or so of the other rewards. Previously, these areas would give level 77 gear at best and closer to 60% or so of your rewards.

So… we know that gear drops are ~15% of your drops. We ALSO know that MF won’t double that to 30%, and only upgrades the rarity of your drops:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/139obn/isaiah_cartwright_explains_magic_find/

With that in mind, we can guess that:
If:
-% chance for fine drop + % chance for master drop + % chance for rare drop + % chance for Exotic drop is greater than or equal to % chance for normal drop, it would be possible to push normal drops off the loot table entirely with just +100% MF.

If:
—% chance for fine drop + % chance for master drop + % chance for rare drop + % chance for Exotic drop < % chance for normal drop, we would see a greatly reduced amount of normal drops with just 100% MF.
If:
—% chance for fine drop + % chance for master drop + % chance for rare drop + % chance for Exotic drop <<<<< % chance for normal drop, it would be hard to tell the difference

So, with a bit of fuzzy logic (can’t do the equation without the variables), I’d be willing to bet that one of these is true: MF downscales, the chance of greater than normal drops is too small to make a difference, or DR is too significant for MF to make a meaningful impact.

I find that even on a lowbie character (because Devs have confirmed that sub-80 characters get more rares, but I can’t find the quote) who is constantly roaming (which reduces the chance of DR) and has 100% MF I’ve never observed normal drops disappearing entirely. This leads me to believe that MF either scales or caps.

Weather I’m right or horribly wrong, at least I brought some facts.

Interesting point indeed. Without direct knowledge, I would expect that mf from your gear WILL scale down in low-level areas. I would also expect that mf from food/boosts will NOT scale down.
however… gold find is easily quantifiable, and I would expect it to scale or not scale the same as magic find. and I can confirm that Rune of Scavenging (adds 15% gold find) DOES NOT scale down (silver obtained from bosses in low level dungeons). Further, everyone already knows that omnom bar applies 40% gold find even at low levels, which could be why no one has thought of this point before now.
After that thought, I’m thinking they may of forgot to scale magic find and gold find when in low levels. That brings up if they even should be scaled. I think that a guild’s mf banner should apply the same percent to both a high and a low level in the same area… but omnomn bar isn’t available to low levels and they do have low-level equivalents. If it were up to me, food and gear would scale but boosts (from BL chests) and banners would not.

Any staff who can answer this, or have any helpful input?