Guild Wars 2

So I bought myself a magic find set and put some magic find runes on it, I also bought a magic find weapon and put a magic find sigil on it.

All of this feels weird and offputting, because I spent a lot of days and repair bills running Twilight Arbor to get my beautiful exotic set.. only to find myself spending most of my gametime in my rusty magic-find armor.

Was this design intended? It does feel odd… so anyway, I wish I could do dynamic events on my twilight arbor exotics but I am afraid I will be hurting my gold income by doing so.

Any tips?

Although I can’t answer your question, I find Magic Find gear to be the most ridiculous design decision ArenaNet has ever made.

you shouldn’t run an MF set in a dungeon :| Imo, its a very selfish way of running dungeons, and you should only do it if you’re very very familiar with it in that you can contribute (and not die) just as much when running it in your other non-MF gear.

While MF can be used in dungeons, I’d like to think it wasn’t designed that way. I think it’s designed to be used in open world pve, in dynamic events, etc etc where it’s all on you. Whereas dungeons, you really have to work as a team. So get some tough/vit/power/prec/condi or w/e gear and run your TA, and hopefully you’ll die less.

dimgl.4786:

Although I can’t answer your question, I find Magic Find gear to be the most ridiculous design decision ArenaNet has ever made.

This

just as a comparison:

Yesterday myself and a guildy did some eventing together around cursed shore

She ran with 0 magic find as an elementalist
I ran with 225% extra magic find as a trap+sword/horn Ranger

In 90 minutes she got 3 rare drops, I got 11.

Do your own test, same events, same amount of time, If the extra amount of rare drops, 15s each at the tp is worth it for you, then stick with it, if not, return to your TA armor. I didn’t really notice any significant difference in drop quality until I breached the 130% mark in extra mf, any less than that and you may as well stick with the TA armor.

If I’m honest, I’m considering swapping my mf armor for something else with more stats, I’m a little bit squishy atm, especially after the last patch and the changes to penitent/shelters and wondering if the loss of mf and a gain in vit/tou stats on the armor pieces (a loss of 18% mf) would be worth while.

225% extra mf:
6 pieces exotic explorers 6×3% =18%
5x Pirate runes 50%
1x Travellers rune 10%
5x exotic accessories = 5×7% =35%
1x exquisite gem in back slot = 4%
travellers weapon 3%
25x stack of luck 15%
guild boost 10%
omnom/lotus fries 30%
mf booster 50%

This sometimes increases to 235% if i find a guild banner about.

The real question is why would you like to run in mf gear? Luckily there are no items in this game that require huge amounts of gold and grind, besides ridiculously expensive legendaries which most of the players don’t even bother with. When you get your easy exotic set there is really nothing to spend money on, besides repairs and teleports.

I wear my rare mf set only for farming CS, so I can get 1 gold for repairs maybe a bit faster than usually.

And tbh I think this game would be better off without mf stat.

I’d only really consider MF gear for DE farming as your personal performance hardly matters.

As for the stat itself, I’m convinced it works. I remember seeing a HUGE increase in yellow drops going from 0 to 200+ MF. It’s not just a placebo stat like some people claim.

It actually makes a difference but it’s invisible to the eyes.
Initially, I thought it doesn’t make a difference too. Mathematically, yes.

If the drop is 1%. +200% MF increase will make it 3%.
“1 out of 100 kills” turns “1 out of 33 kills”

dimgl

Although I can’t answer your question, I find Magic Find gear to be the most ridiculous design decision ArenaNet has ever made.

couldn’t agree more

And to the op: I farmed for an hour without and then with a 50% magic find booster (from the black lion chests), and noticed absolutely no difference.

^That’s because the increase you had was too small to notice. Many players run MF well into or two hundred percent – effectively doubling or tripling rare drops. In an hour of farming that could easily make you a gold or two more than not using any when selling rares/masterworks at a vendor/tradepost.

However, I agree completely that the stat is ridiculous and should be taken out of the game. I seem almost forced into using the stat and forgoing something more useful (like vitality or toughness) in favor of more mf to keep up with the cost of things.

Safari.3021:

just as a comparison:

Yesterday myself and a guildy did some eventing together around cursed shore

She ran with 0 magic find as an elementalist
I ran with 225% extra magic find as a trap+sword/horn Ranger

In 90 minutes she got 3 rare drops, I got 11.

Do your own test, same events, same amount of time, If the extra amount of rare drops, 15s each at the tp is worth it for you, then stick with it, if not, return to your TA armor. I didn’t really notice any significant difference in drop quality until I breached the 130% mark in extra mf, any less than that and you may as well stick with the TA armor.

If I’m honest, I’m considering swapping my mf armor for something else with more stats, I’m a little bit squishy atm, especially after the last patch and the changes to penitent/shelters and wondering if the loss of mf and a gain in vit/tou stats on the armor pieces (a loss of 18% mf) would be worth while.

225% extra mf:
6 pieces exotic explorers 6×3% =18%
5x Pirate runes 50%
1x Travellers rune 10%
5x exotic accessories = 5×7% =35%
1x exquisite gem in back slot = 4%
travellers weapon 3%
25x stack of luck 15%
guild boost 10%
omnom/lotus fries 30%
mf booster 50%

This sometimes increases to 235% if i find a guild banner about.

Give me a few to find it but I’m pretty sure I read the past 60% magic find benefit take a huge nose dive.

It helps speed drops to npc. Running through a high mob count fills your bags pretty quick. It also improves the rarity of an item drop. Blues sell for only 98c at most, while greens sell close to 1s50c and yellows for 12-15s on TP. So the more green and yellows from drops and faster rate, the better and quicker you can make 1g.

And as someone said, using it in a dungeon isn’t smart unless your party can do it easily without much of your help which can be possible if you run it with same crew.

Regardless of what you’ve read or heard that states otherwise, being in a group most definitely helps your chances of receiving loot when you tag the same mobs. Which effectively makes better use of magic find. The more loot you receive, the better your odds are at finding higher quality items.

You’ll see immediate results doing so. Just make sure that you are tagging the same mobs as your party members.

Its okay i guess with events with 4-5 people… but in some areas of Orr.. its more than 15 people throwing AOEs.. its practically impossible to tag anything as a mesmer in those cases

I seem to get more level 400 crafting items when I have my set on (~43% magic find) but I don’t notice anymore rare items dropping.

I think having a magic find set is a good idea for pve players.

Yes, even if it means bagging your real gear. Cuz sometimes you gotta pay the bills.

And, you can get the cheap version of dungeon gear to skin onto your magic-find set. Beautious!

You begin to appreciate why the discovery of the scientific method was the greatest advance that mankind has made, when you read threads filled with anecdote on the effect of magic find in GW2.

I will not be using any MF in this game, or very low amounts of it. To me it just isn’t fun wiping like mad or relying on my group mates to carry me because I want a greater chance of nice loot.

I haven’t kept notes of specific drops but I believe I had a significant increase in drops. Not so much doing a few things in Orr at first (oh how I raged) but when I started working on a full map clear was making alot more.

As some one said though, be a good sport and have a different set for dungeons.

I think it was a poor choice to put in the game, because for most people this is the “go to set” of stats. I was telling the guild the other night that I didn’t like my build because it doesn’t work well in MF gear.

I am still gearing out my exotic sets, but I basically do like the OP. Nice armor in dungeons. Yellow MF armor for farming.

SparkStormrider.4512:

I will not be using any MF in this game, or very low amounts of it. To me it just isn’t fun wiping like mad or relying on my group mates to carry me because I want a greater chance of nice loot.

Then don’t use it in dungeons. I crafted my exoctic Berserker’s (medium) set for dungeons then I crafted a rare quality magic find set. I use this set when out farming in the world. I use mine to just get more level 400 crafting items and hope to get more rare drops so I can salvage them for the Ectoplasms.

Edit: typos, remind me to never reply before my morning coffee.

I did some more testing, with higher amounts of mf, and yes it does make a difference. I’m receiving much more rares (golds) than before, while zerg farming in Orr. I am running with roughly 95% mf.

I dont understand why Anet goes around saying they dont want their players “grinding/farming” when they designed a whole armor set meant to expedite that exact process.

Irony or Hypocrisy?

- Tzenjin

Wizardauz.3761:

I dont understand why Anet goes around saying they dont want their players “grinding/farming” when they designed a whole armor set meant to expedite that exact process.

Irony or Hypocrisy?

- Tzenjin

The entirety of the cosmetic gear setup requires massive amounts of grinding (be it gold or dungeons).

Also, to the OP, yep it makes a huge difference.

Edit: I will point out that you have to know how to utilize it well. Grinding mobs solo in CS with full magic find is not going to show you much of a difference, but if you go farm Plinx 4-5 times (full group) with and without, you’ll certainly notice it.

This is one reason why viewing one’s gear would be useful. I wouldn’t want to party with someone who stacks magic find. It increases the chance of the whole party wiping which equates to more silver spent repairing gear.

I’m really glad there’s no inspect system. Trying to do dungeons is already tedious and annoying enough without people going into HURR DURR elitist jerk mode about gear.

I agree with Rose tho about the inspect.

People who blatantly go for magic find have no interest in taking into account their needed stats. No interest in party support or their own characters benefit, besides his wallet.

Thats just a fact, you wouldnt be stacking magic find otherwise.

ChairGraveyard,

its one thing to be judged for your stats because you choose a different stat set, and i disagree with that, but a stat set that includes magic find on an exotic end game set isnt even “exotics” to me.

If you look at how many stats ur sacrificing for those couple %’s of magic find you noticed how much you lacking on.

I actually bet you’ll end up spending more money on repair because you’ll be dying then actually getting good loot. (In a dungeon sense)

(when i say “you” i only meant as a generalization not as a specific “pointing at you” kinda thing)

Magic find really is a terrible stat for any game. Just because the stat exists it forces you to kitten yourself by using a magic find set to increases your chances of getting better gear that you are never going to wear because you’re going to be wearing your magic find set anyway. Please remove this useless stat, thank you.

is it worth losing another stat for? i can’t say. i assume the base drop % is very low, and you’re giving up a lot to get that buff.

i’d rather have more of a stat than an increase in drops that may or may not be noticeable.

I’ll echo the (reassuringly common) opinion that Magic Find is just a terrible design decision, through and through. In an ideal world, it would be ripped out of the game, but I doubt that’s going to happen.

It’s not especially problematic in the overworld, where your performance doesn’t really matter, but it is a terrible idea in dungeons. It’s the only mechanic in the game which benefits only one player at the expense of his or her party. It makes a player grossly ineffective compared to gear with proper stats, and the rest of the party is forced to pick up the slack – but the loot that the MFer gains from having that awful gear goes only to the user.

Magic Find should, at the very least, be averaged across everybody in the party.

Crater.1625:

Magic Find should, at the very least, be averaged across everybody in the party.

Ugh, I’d rather not have to link my MF armor in chat before running a dungeon.

So you’d rather make everybody else link their armour in chat, so that you can be sure they’re not screwing over the rest of the party by running weak Magic Find gear?

I’m really hating the MF design, I shouldn’t be forced to wear this crap to keep up with everyone in terms of loot/money, absolutely horrible decision.

If it was a free stat that just came on the side and everyone would get it anyway (which makes it pointless) atleast it wouldn’t affect anything.

Even with the maximum amount of magic find, the loot system rewards so much trash that you’ll quickly find yourself wondering what the point is.

its the holy grail of carrot infront of the horse.

With the rng ingame mf is complete crap and more so since the best drop you can get is a rare item. All the loot possible to drop will never be worth more then 1g and you are super lucky to get even 50silvers for a good item.

But hey lets face it. You kids put so much effort into hording currency and thats basicaly what mmos period design things around. Whoopie doo you got all the gold in the game and all elite gear..now what?

I bought a full green MF set tonight, and did a couple of hours of Orr farming. I got more rares than i have ever got in the entire 2 months the game has been out and made about 6g.

I wouldn’t wear it in dungeons or anything but for farming (preferably in a group) it made a huge difference.

I run normal gear but with pirate runes so I get 50% magic find + food which is 26% so that’s a total of 76%. I can sustain good damage still, less than if I used eagle runes or something but it’s still not bad. With MF% extra, I’m finding myself finding a ton more greens and less rare yellows than before. May be a placebo though

Do you not find that when MF reaches a certain point fewer foes actually drop anything? MF is definitely worth having and there is a definite increase in loot and gathering. However, I find that the difference between an omnom bar and a chocolate cherry is enough to reduce the number of foes actually dropping anything. I think it balances itself out. If it were to be drawn on a graph, I think you would get a sharp increase followed by a slow plateauing – where your drops are more valuable but there are fewer of them, equating to similar or marginal amounts of cash being earned.
I usually hover around the 180% mark, but I have stopped doing Jormag for a few days and then went in with around 230% and got next to nothing.

So they want us to grind for cool looking skins, only to have a MF version for grinding drops?

There should be no MF stat on gear. It should just be a food buff, nothing more…or NOT at all, since it just becomes a basic money sink at that point since everyone will have it on 24X7. Just toss the stupid thing out the window, and make rares drop a little more often, since greens and blues aren’t fun at 80.

Besides, someone running full MF gear in a dungeon is a detriment to the group.

@AngryYoda: it’s 25 × .6%. Note the dot there! And 25 × 0.6% equals 15% so his list is correct. If it were 6% that would be totally unbalanced.

Ontopic: I notice an effect of MF when farming regular mobs in Cursed Shore. I don’t wear my set in dungeons. MF does not seem to affect drops from chests, bags, etc.

Edit: Oh seems he removed his post….

AngryYoda.1345:

@Safari,

225% extra mf:
6 pieces exotic explorers 6×3% =18%
5x Pirate runes 50%
1x Travellers rune 10%
5x exotic accessories = 5×7% =35%
1x exquisite gem in back slot = 4%
travellers weapon 3%
25x stack of luck 15%
guild boost 10%
omnom/lotus fries 30%
mf booster 50%

Correct me if im wrong but with a superior sigil, its 6% per kill at a max of 25 stacks which would mean 150% ? not 15%?
And if thats true, that would put ur total mf at like 360 ? something is wrong here.

its 0.6% per kill not 6%

I myself run with around with 187% mf most of the time and there was once when i did the pre-events for claw of jormag and looted 1 rare and 2 corrupted lodestones from the mobs that the claw spawned and another 2 rares from the chest that came out after claw died. Then again, there are times when i get all blues from the same chest. I would say that MF does help, but u still need some luck to go with it

Llywellyn.4635:

AngryYoda.1345:

@Safari,

225% extra mf:
6 pieces exotic explorers 6×3% =18%
5x Pirate runes 50%
1x Travellers rune 10%
5x exotic accessories = 5×7% =35%
1x exquisite gem in back slot = 4%
travellers weapon 3%
25x stack of luck 15%
guild boost 10%
omnom/lotus fries 30%
mf booster 50%

Correct me if im wrong but with a superior sigil, its 6% per kill at a max of 25 stacks which would mean 150% ? not 15%?
And if thats true, that would put ur total mf at like 360 ? something is wrong here.

its 0.6% per kill not 6%

yeah i realised that after i posted which is y i took it down =/

Wolfgang.6489:

Even with the maximum amount of magic find, the loot system rewards so much trash that you’ll quickly find yourself wondering what the point is.

Yeah this is a major problem. GW2’s loot is abysmal by the standard of any other RPG ever made.

My character is a Garbage Collector of Tyria, not a Hero.

Even if it made a difference, it’s too much of a performance drop to use a set. I would not want to run with anyone using a set of MF gear. Honestly the way MF was implemented is largely silly… in Diablo 2 you could run a full set of MF gear and still pve like a boss.

I run at about 100% MF simply because without it I can’t afford to do anything in the game world. I need the MF booster for the sake of the money I get from the extra/better loot.

MF gear works fine. It’s a long term deal which you won’t see significant benifits from with farming one spot, killing on type of monster over and over. Most of the guilds i run dungeons with run MF gear and it’s almost always a better, easier experience with people that know what to look out for and know how to play their class. I’ve never had a problem with out without MF gear.

Oh it makes a difference alright, a huge one. Like, when I go to a dungeon and some schmuck is in full MF gear and contributing less to the group because he’s geared like a nub.

Other than that I duno and I dun care. MF has no place in this game and should be a removed stat.

What it has dome for me is it afforded me time to do the dishes and laundry without feeling like I’m losing out on loot.

While I think their algorithm has changed since I was farming, I would easily meet my DR within 2 events, then I’d just go afk and take care of business for 15 minutes, then do 2 more events. And I netted a more worthwhile loot (yellows) overall than just spamming all day in no MF gear (which I had done prior to obtaining the MF set). That’s just camping one spot. People who want to farm all day and see maximum benefits from their MF gear will change zones every couple events. I’m not that motivated.

PS @ Gurp and those like him: My MF gear has power/precision on it. I do as much, if not more damage, thus make as high a contribution to a group as anyone else. I say if not more because I’m far better at staying alive (IE dodging, moving my kitten out of danger) than a lot of people, thus I’m able to contribute more. It’s only a performance drop from glass cannon gear (full pow/pre/crit/Condition), which few people actually run with. For me, performance-wise, it’s the same as any other 2-dps-stat gear.

Orb.1702:

dimgl.4786:

Although I can’t answer your question, I find Magic Find gear to be the most ridiculous design decision ArenaNet has ever made.

This

Double this.

And any time hardcore fans use their ‘GW2 isn’t about loot card’ to undermine opinions of people looking for better rewards, i tell them to have look at MF stats. It is like egg on their face.