Guild Wars 2

I haven’t noticed any difference in looting with Magic Find… Does it even work that great..?

Well if you have a +100% MF that means 1% of chance looting rare items becomes 2%

Not something a human being can perceive but if you keep statistics over the long run you will see a difference.

Does it work? yes

Are all your blues going to turn into rares and exotics? no.

It doesn’t work on chest loot.

People don’t see a large immediate difference and they assume it doesn’t work or it’s useless. If that’s the way you feel just slap on combat stats and let the rest of us get the loot.

Its not a massive difference, but it does work.

It does work but it takes a long sampling time to actually see the difference. And it’s generally easier to just snack on some food rather than build your gear for it.

I personally see so little difference that it might as well be zero. I have a set of armour that with boosts will give me about 140%. If I go looking for corrupted loadstones in this or another armour without any MF I still get 1 stone every 2 hours roughly. So for me I just run with the odd 3% on a piece of jewelry and I might snack on a omni bar.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It does work but it takes a long sampling time to actually see the difference. And it’s generally easier to just snack on some food rather than build your gear for it.

Just buy some green magic-find gear and throw on whatever upgrades you can find. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend a lot of gold on gear you’re hoping will get you more gold anyway.

Chickenshoes.6250:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It does work but it takes a long sampling time to actually see the difference. And it’s generally easier to just snack on some food rather than build your gear for it.

Just buy some green magic-find gear and throw on whatever upgrades you can find. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend a lot of gold on gear you’re hoping will get you more gold anyway.

No, but it makes sense if you’re trying to get a specific sort of item after you’ve already made your gold. (Read: Exotic, Tier 6, Vials of Mist . . .)

I recently crafted my own Explorer’s Exotic armor with all Wayfarer’s Trinkets (from Melandru’s temple Karma vendor); it’s not “crazy” because I had the resources, and judging from my loot drops, MF gear does make a difference, however subtle it may be. In fact, I had my second exotic drop ever (last year’s was the first… with a Risen Chicken no less) an hour or two after using the full set, as well as rather “easier” rares.

I believe the difference is much more noticeable when you go from full MF to zero MF-you’ll still get some good drops some times, but you’ll notice how less T6 mats, greens, and even rares you’ll get (rares always drop for everybody, but they won’t be as common anymore, talking from experience using both with and without.)

Is it worth it to even craft/acquire Exotic Explorer’s gear? Well if you already have all the armor sets you need, have a little extra, and are planning for the years to come, IMHO the investment will pay-off over your playing time. It does make things harder, so in a way it helps you play way more carefully. I would still not use it in Dungeons, not because it’s “wrong” but because it’s very risky, and I am used to much higher stats elsewhere-but for the PvE map, it works really well for improved mob drops.

Chickenshoes.6250:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It does work but it takes a long sampling time to actually see the difference. And it’s generally easier to just snack on some food rather than build your gear for it.

Just buy some green magic-find gear and throw on whatever upgrades you can find. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend a lot of gold on gear you’re hoping will get you more gold anyway.

Yeah, this is what I did. Bought a full set of green explorer’s gear for when I’m working on my dailies or explorer title. Doesn’t make a noticeable difference but I figure I might as well use it if it’s available, it’s not like it cost a lot to buy. The Superior Sigil of Luck was the most expensive part.

Heck, going from Masterwork to Rare or Exotic doesn’t even always give you more MF. I think it may for gems, but looking up armor on the TP right now, green through gold are all 3%. Upgrading for the extra combat stats would certainly be worth it if cash isn’t a concern (or if you plan on wearing MF armor in dungeons, in which case shame on you :P), but I wouldn’t bother if you’re trying to save gold for other things.

It does work. in fact some people have gotten it so you have double or close to triple the chance to receive a rare. Just remember your original chance was close to 1%. so thats an increase to 3%. Which in the short run doesn’t seem worth it. for example 1% of 100 is only 1. But in the long run it does triple your potential profits. 3% of 1000 is 30 rather than the usual 10 that others would have.

The typical response seems to be, “RNG is RNG.” As others have pointed out, an increase to 2% for a rare is more of a long-term result if anything, and as it doesn’t work on the chests, but only field drops, it’s probably most useful when you’re cutting through a high volume of mobs.

An example: Been doing lots of fractals. One run, I got 8 rares. Another run later on, on a higher fractal difficulty, I popped an Omnomberry Bar and a Magic Find booster for an increased 70% or so. I was expecting to see a lot more rare drops or T. 6 mats – instead, I saw a lot less that run.

So: RNG is RNG (with slight boosts from Magic Find).

That said, I still like to have some MF equipped and don’t think it’s the selfish devil many folks make it out to be.

TheAngryLuddite.1834:

That said, I still like to have some MF equipped and don’t think it’s the selfish devil many folks make it out to be.

The “selfishness” comes from basically upgrading and building gear solely for the highest Magic Find rating rather than balancing it in amongst other bonuses. It overall means your stats are weaker, which means you are weaker. Depending on what you’re doing, those points could mean the difference between:

“I’m doing okay, but I could be doing better. At least I haven’t really screwed anything up.”

and

“Sorry I died again guys.”

it doesn’t seem to work for those of us who seem to have a permaDR on our account. I’ve tried so many times….oh you meant dungeons? I dunno I don’t run those, this game was supposed to be meta DE’s.

Chickenshoes.6250:

People don’t see a large immediate difference and they assume it doesn’t work or it’s useless. If that’s the way you feel just slap on combat stats and let the rest of us get the loot.

- Actually OP’s question is fine. How do we even define what “magic find” means? It’s not explained in the game. Wiki says this:

“Magic find is an attribute that increases a player’s chance to receive uncommon loot from dead foes.¹ Magic find is applied when a foe dies; it does not apply to loot from chests, items created in the Mystic Forge,² or random drops from gathering. "

Increase chance for uncommon loot? What is uncommon loot? Loot other than “common” class items? So without magic find you could get 2 common items, but with magic find you could get 2 common and 1 uncommon item?

At the bottom of the Magic Find page on the wiki:

“Everytime you kill a monster you roll on a number of tables, inside these tables are different rarity categories. Magic find increases the chances you will get higher categories. For example if there is a 1 in 10 category, and you have 200% magic find you will have 3/10 chances to get that category. This improves not just the rarity of the items you get but can also improve your chances at getting trophies and rare crafting materials like lodestones.”