Guild Wars 2

I have a Magic Find suit that I wear when I’m out farming, totals to about 59%. I eat an omnomberry bar bringing it up to 89%. I notice very little improvement in drops, so I am wondering what everyone else runs? I have heard that anything over 100% and you get DR, is this true?

I thought the best way to get rewards was to go over 100%….Have a set that gives me like 150% with food but never wear it. I find it not even worth my time to switch my traits and gear to the MF set. I’m sure other people will have different opinion but I use shout warrior for dungeons and most PvE events and very dependent on gear and traits.

I only go as high as the Raspberry Peach Bars allows, because it’s silly to gimp yourself and others wasting a slot for stats over a stat that is garbage and slows down progress.

To be clear, I’m not talking about running dungeons, just PVE and farming. I guess I’m wondering if it’s even worth it to gimp myself for that, when maybe it all comes out in the wash if I can kill faster and survive longer without it.

0% People keep complaining about MF gear and how it doesn’t benefit the player or party. MF is basically another RNG lottery but it does give you better chances… If chances were good in the first place. I honestly don’t know how MF works but a lot of people that do know post that the con’s outweigh the pro’s.

0%
I never use MF.
I use consumables that supplement my build.

0% the stat is broken and I get way better drops without it.

If anyone puts up an MF banner while farming I simply walk past. If someone asks if I have MF I’ll say no, they’ll ask why, I’ll ask why they bother with it. Refer to first line.

I run around 140% when I can and when it’s worth having it on. I get noticeably better drops. Well worth it in my opinion, adds some extra challenge cause you have to work harder to be as effective. In a group, just remember to put the party first. If the run is going bad take it off and put some real gear on.

I’m not a ‘drops’ farmer.

But I’d be interested to see some insight on this from people who actually use MF gear in open world.

Because right off the bat, by using MF gear, you’re gimping your dps/total kills per minute/hour/session. In favor of a higher ‘probability’ of drops per kill.

I’m no mathematician but it’d be interesting to see how this plays out.

0% and I’m perfectly happy with my income.
I might not be farming 30g/day but I make 10g by just doing fun stuff and that’s ok.
I don’t need tons of gold, my gear is maxed and I’m not really obsessive with getting legendaries fast.

3% Atm, but getting rid of it soon. MF is not really worth it and I don’t want to be a burden for my party

I can get up to around 120% while still being super effective stat-wise.

I run the ‘Chocolate Omnomberry Cream’ for 40% (additionally the 20% boon duration works wonders for might stacks). Then there’s the two ascended rings I some times swap for ’Snaff’s Gyre’ & ’ Yakkington’s Ring’, that’s 20%. My guild keeps the MF buff up everyday, so there’s 10%.

The remaining 50% is if I pop a ‘Magic Find Booster’. I don’t get very many of those, so I’ll usually save them for areas that I know give good loot (like Ascolan/Dredge in Fractals).

Ultimately, I’ve noticed a huge improvement in the rares I get. The only way I’ve been able to notice this is though my little ocd behavior I got going in my bank. I’ll save 30 slots specifically for rare/exotics I want to salvage for ectos. I won’t salvage anything until those 30 slots are full. Point being is that I’ve noticed that with MF, those 30 slots become full really quickly over a few days time versus not having MF (where it would take weeks to fill it).

With or without MF all I get is blues and greens. I think MF is a made up stat.

I would never wear MF in dungeons.

Uncle Salty.6342:

I’m not a ‘drops’ farmer.

But I’d be interested to see some insight on this from people who actually use MF gear in open world.

Because right off the bat, by using MF gear, you’re gimping your dps/total kills per minute/hour/session. In favor of a higher ‘probability’ of drops per kill.

I’m no mathematician but it’d be interesting to see how this plays out.

In open world events where there are lots of people and lots of mobs it really pays off. All you need to do is spam AoEs and tag as many mobs as you can. Kills per hour is just as high. Even solo I don’t notice a huge difference in kill rate cause I traited my toon to compensate for the MF stat.

My second PVT (power/vit/tough) set is 5 superior pirate 1 superior noble. I use d/d on my ele or my delusion staff (+3% mf) both have a single superior luck sigil for +15% at max charges (0.6 % x 25).

So far, that is 75% MF + 3 % if using staff and then 3% more with exotic karka shell.
I then eat an omnomberry bar for +40%

115-121% end result and as far as I am willing to get.

If by chance I get I get a MF boost from guild banners, its 125-131%!

If we had the other boost from Guild its another 15%

140-146%

Finally, with the laureate and black lion’s boosters I think its another 80% (30%+50%) or are they mutually exclusive?

170-176% or 220-226%?

So I can go that high probably and still be able to live with high hp. (17.5-18.1k)

Note: Other than the Karka shell, I wear Coral Gear/Rabid/Rampager for accessories/back. The Karka is also Coral slotted.

My MF gear was my first investment, as soon as I hit 80. The sooner you buy it, the sooner you will see a return. I have made probably over 200g from farming (obviously spent on crap because I’m broke), it’s impossible to say how much gold I would’ve got without it.

MF doesn’t improve the amount of drops you get, only the quality of loot from those drops. So let’s say I made 200g on a 1g item that has a 1 percent chance of dropping. That chance is only calculated after the enemy has confirmed you qualify for a drop (this is done separately and what was messing with peoples drops recently).

So to make 200g you would have to qualify for 20,000 drops from enemies. Let’s say you have a 50% chance of qualifying for a drop. That’s 40,000 enemies you’d have to kill, to make 200g.

So if your MF is at 100% that will increase the drop rate of that 1g item to 2%. That means you would have to qualify for 10,000 drops and only kill 20,000 enemies. Which is a huge difference!

These numbers are completely fictitious, but do represent some real calculations, and show that MF is worth the commitment.

Julie Yann.5379:

Uncle Salty.6342:

I’m not a ‘drops’ farmer.

But I’d be interested to see some insight on this from people who actually use MF gear in open world.

Because right off the bat, by using MF gear, you’re gimping your dps/total kills per minute/hour/session. In favor of a higher ‘probability’ of drops per kill.

I’m no mathematician but it’d be interesting to see how this plays out.

In open world events where there are lots of people and lots of mobs it really pays off. All you need to do is spam AoEs and tag as many mobs as you can. Kills per hour is just as high. Even solo I don’t notice a huge difference in kill rate cause I traited my toon to compensate for the MF stat.

Yeap you have a point. Was stuck under the rut with the illusion of running around killing stuff solo.

I’ve never farmed events before nor in open world.

At the moment 186% on my guardian. And I definitely notice a big improvement on the quality of the drops when i’m running it.
But never, EVER, in a dungeon or party…. That is just wrong!

Uncle Salty.6342:

I’m not a ‘drops’ farmer.

But I’d be interested to see some insight on this from people who actually use MF gear in open world.

Because right off the bat, by using MF gear, you’re gimping your dps/total kills per minute/hour/session. In favor of a higher ‘probability’ of drops per kill.

I’m no mathematician but it’d be interesting to see how this plays out.

That’s true, it DOES slow you down, but, that doesn’t matter if you get a group together to farm with you. Some people are under the impression that MF boosts on a player, somehow increases THEIR drops, as well. That’s why so many people want to group up during events. I don’t really pay attention to stuff like that, so i’m not sure whether it’s true, but, If it IS, I’d like to know if that increase is the full amount, or if it’s just a percentage of that players MF (example: player “A” 200% + Player “B” 200% = 400% boost for both? )

As far as I am aware, MF is personal. Like DR is personal.
It’s a stupid mechanic, it should be removed completely and the drops re-balanced taking into account the absence of that stat.
It would then improve the drops for the population in general and we wouldn’t have to run gimmicky set-ups in the hope of seeing some gold drops.

Honestly, I’m not even sure if Magic Find even works. I have a near-full Exotic magic find set sitting in my bank with the typical runes and upgrades to push it towards 137% not including any banners, guild boons, or related auxiliary buffs … and I’m still not convinced that I’m getting better loot than before.

Maybe that might change with the next patch when Champions and Veterans would start dropping stuff more meaningful— hopefully.

I run MF for everything but WvW and even then I still have a few accessories with MF.

The clearest evidence of it working is I get very little white armor anymore which means it had all been upgraded to blue. I also like to think that the number of yellows I find is pretty darn good. I don’t know how likely someone is to get exotics from regular mob drops but I’ve gotten a couple of those too.

MF doesn’t affect chests. People can’t complain about getting the same cruddy greens from dungeon chests because there’s no way MF can help that.

None. I don’t really care what drops I get or how much money I make, I don’t play for legendaries anyway.

Magic Find works for drops, can’t really deny it. I only ever used it for farming stuff in a group in Orr. You want to be in a group for tagging, because MF gear will gimp you to the point where you will have a hard time tagging. Your damage pretty much goes down the drain.

And this is the biggest gripe with MF gear; it’s completely opposite to Anet’s goal of rewarding playing cooperatively. Many people -even guildies- run an MF set in dungeons and fractals, yet you can’t even check whether they are. But yeah, if they have 7-10 rares and 1-2 exotics after each series, while the rest got greens and blues it’s pretty obvious.

Unless they remove MF gear or share the bonus across players, we’re in a really bad situation here.

I have self crafted yellow MF set that goes as (all rare):
– Explorer Armor set: 6×3% MF
with 3 runes of pirate: 20% MF
3 opal orbs: 3×3% MF
– Wayfarer acessory set with opal orbs: 6×6% MF
- Explorer weapons with opal orbs: 2×6% MF
- Raspberry-Peach bars or other (depends on mats I get): 30% (?) MF
Total is around 120% MF with some extra guild buff that Im not sure, or ocasional banner.

I use this only for open world events, as its too much of a burden in dungeons.
You can feel the difference. I mostly only get blues from trash… most of the times is green and yellows…

The best part is to take it off.
When you get the real power of your main set it just feels soooooo nice…

I’ve been using the yellow MF set as it was relatively cheap to make, but I have been considering to make an exotic one… wondering if the increase in atributes is worth it, since MF wont change…

Every piece of my PvE armour has at least some kind of magic find on it.
I’m over 150% atm with food for +30% and I’m currently aiming to get a laurel ascended piece, and then slot that with the ascended 20% magic find utility piece.

I notice a distinct difference in the quality of drops. Few whites, but many many blues and greens—and a decent amount of rares. After finishing a farming spree in PvE coming out of a dungeon, I compare loot with my friend and I come out with more gold every time.

The longer you play with magic find, obviously the more return you’ll get. Think about it, 200% MF means that (over time) you should average TWICE the amount of non-white drops than you would have received without MF.

Run as much as you like, but don’t focus on it. But keep in mind that plus 100% just means 100% of the odds, not 100% to find something. Example: plus 100% to 1/10,000 drop ratio is only 2/10,000. You’re still the RNG’s b**ch. ;-)

Arenanet doesn’t give us all of the details. They won’t divulge their RNG formulas, nor will they let us know if it stacks all at the same time (all added up then multiplied) or compounded (ex: 10% calculated first for one gear piece, then that new total calculated again for each other gear piece).

What I do: if I can get a double-digit stat increase (plus 20, 90, etc.), I ‘ll skip the magic find and go for stats. And if I can’t (plus 5, etc.), I’ll go ahead and slot magic find.

Example: Ascension Amulet. I’d rather have plus 20% MF or plus 15% Karma instead of plus 4 to a stat.

0% Since the effect from it is minimal. You still get plenty of bags and other things in Orr for instance.

Bags = crafting mats T5+6 which = money.

No need to grind slowly for a slight increase in getting rares you need to RNG again with a salvage kit for ectos.

I think anything over 100% is pointless. I myself will probably end up with around 60% from utility infusions in rings and an amulet. If you are fully geared in exotic and ascended stuff, those 15pts from infusions don’t even amount to a drop in the bucket for your stats anyways.

As far as I can tell it does make a subtle difference. Even just using high MF food I notice fewer whites and a few more greens in my bags at the end of a dungeon. Although, the only exotics I have ever had drop for me from mobs, were dropped when I had 0 MF. True story.

MF works. I’ve tested it in orr. I have around 350 hours plus farming penitent/shelter. When i first started farming there i had no MF and would avg about 1 gold a hour. Then i got my MF up to 175% and avg 4 gold plus a hour. So i really think MF works. Theres other factors that matter to when farming events like these. A group is a must to get most loot possible and having right class that has good aoe. I use engineer with granades by far best farmer for these two events. btw i have one 80 of every class and tried them all.

blanketfreak.8913:

MF works. I’ve tested it in orr. I have around 350 hours plus farming penitent/shelter. When i first started farming there i had no MF and would avg about 1 gold a hour. Then i got my MF up to 175% and avg 4 gold plus a hour. So i really think MF works. Theres other factors that matter to when farming events like these. A group is a must to get most loot possible and having right class that has good aoe. I use engineer with granades by far best farmer for these two events. btw i have one 80 of every class and tried them all.

And you can get the same or more gold by doing other things without having MF at all. Since you have 80s of each class you would by far benefit more from just gathering with all of them and killing what you bump into.

I avarage 10-15g during 2 hours by just gathering with 5 toons in crused shore, 4 hours would mean cursed shore and malchors, thats 20-30g in 4 hours. Sure if you grind events for several hours you might make more, but its a quick way to farm when time is limited, plus it requires zero MF.

I just eat an omnombar. I go by the opinion that killing stuff faster is just as good as more magic find.

Just farm mats and sell. Better profit with less hassle

Zero on my character. My guild keeps the 10% buff all the time, but I think that is negligible.

I don’t get any drops anyway, I’m not going to invest in a MF suit with the gold I have from selling gems because I make on average about 10s a day during normal play.

I don’t even know what TP flipping is, Mats are too hard to get to sell things like rare jewelry for coin.

Selling food, you’re better off selling the mats, even though I really like the craft personally, it isn’t a profitable one unless you spend 10 hours a day looking for coriander seeds to make unidentified gray dye.

I have no clue how people make 10, 30, 50g a day. Only way I know to make gold is to sell gems.

But just because I can afford to do so, doesn’t mean my patience won’t run out soon and I’ll just give up completely. There is no reason to have so many restrictions in place to prevent players from being self sufficient without laying out real life money.

Omnomberry Bar 30% and guild buff 10% for my daily PVE stuff. For fun when i have the chance I go 230MF. With the 30% I make around 2-4 gold now an hour in Orr, so I’m ok with that. The 230 MF netted me 11g in 1 hour ish. Which was pretty sweet heh but a lot of concentration.

For dungeons 40%-90%…let me explain….omnom bars 30%, guild buff 10%, and option mf booster 50%. Aside from that I would not run any stat replacing mf.

For Orr 147%-197%…full superior gears (armor/weapon), banners, booster, peach tart (gf is relatively useless in open world), and full mf trinkets, but only only only while in a farming group would I use the booster. There is no point wasting the booster on lesser amounts of drops. MF in Orr farming groups is not just accepted it’s the standard.

to be completely honest…the other day i was using my alt after not playing the game for a while and i was getting rares like they were pourous bones got a couple exotics too i dont know why but it just happened that way and i had 0% magic find

Rhaynne.9467:

I have a Magic Find suit that I wear when I’m out farming, totals to about 59%. I eat an omnomberry bar bringing it up to 89%. I notice very little improvement in drops, so I am wondering what everyone else runs? I have heard that anything over 100% and you get DR, is this true?

I too have a magic find set goes to 140%, i too see absolutely zero in way of changes to loot, i have actually seen a decrease in loot drops compared to zero %…

I see guildies swearing by it etc but for me i see no change what so ever while wearing magic find, i also notice things are much harder to kill and i die far more often in my magic find equips as its gimping my character..

0% the stat is broken and I get way better drops without it.

If anyone puts up an MF banner while farming I simply walk past. If someone asks if I have MF I’ll say no, they’ll ask why, I’ll ask why they bother with it. Refer to first line.

I don’t believe 0% is broken at all, i believe magic find is the part that’s broken to all hell…seriously who implements such a poor mechanic to a game that was fine before, its just a broken tax to players to help hide low loot tables..

You have to do huge scales of loot to see the difference. I posted the pic elsewhere but this is just a small sample, but in my time playing this has not changed from the start to now and remains the same average for me.

Great chart Geotherma.

I find it really silly how so many think it does nothing. They’re just going on assumptions and riding the RNG for only a moment instead of seeing the whole picture.

MF does help. But the real question is whether having the extra stats or MF is better. If people are just farming zones for hours, then having more MF is going to be a huge help. If they’re just running dungeons, fractals, or WvW, then stats might be more beneficial.

If those people who think MF does nothing are farming, then hey, their loss.

169%

I got 5 rares and 2 charged lodestones from an hour and a half of farming. Without it im lucky to see 1 a day.

People have to keep in mind the normal DR when assessing how well their MF works. If you keep getting garbage when you’re farming for 2 hours in Orr, that’s because you’ve been farming for 2 hours and DR hit you like a truck. 100% MF when you wouldn’t get anything normally is twice the chance to get nothing.

However I find when I’m killing mobs in a new zone and no DR with my >150% MF I find all kinds of green/blue loot and a very healthy number of rares. This is why I keep my MF on all the time, it kicks in when DR finally ships out, and the more random mobs I’m killing, the better the chance that random is going to drop yellows at a somewhat steady rate.

People like their stats but honestly you don’t need them for anything because nothing in the game is really difficult. The only times you really need stats is when you’re carrying a team through a dungeon or you’re doing WvW. MF gets you more cash. I kill things just fine without max stats.

cipher.7438:

Great chart Geotherma.

I find it really silly how so many think it does nothing. They’re just going on assumptions and riding the RNG for only a moment instead of seeing the whole picture.

MF does help. But the real question is whether having the extra stats or MF is better. If people are just farming zones for hours, then having more MF is going to be a huge help. If they’re just running dungeons, fractals, or WvW, then stats might be more beneficial.

If those people who think MF does nothing are farming, then hey, their loss.

Thanks, I wish it was a bigger scale but haven’t had the time because of college. But as far as MF vs Stats I “think” you can get 130MF alone w.o gear. Granted you need food, buffs etc, but it takes away the need for a full set that could otherwise be devoted to a nice trait line or build. But I agree with Chickenshoes, aside from Fotm where you need AR, its not too big of a deal since most of it is about skill.

Omnomberry Bar 30% MF – 40% Gold – +10XP
Guild Buff 10% MF
Guild Buff 5% XP
Guild Banner 5% XP
Guild Banner 10% MF
Magic Find Booster 50% MF
Experience Booster 50% XP
Laurel Coin Booster 30% Gold
Laurel MF Booster 30% MF
Laurel XP Booster 30% XP

130% MF
70% Gold
90% XP
+10 Xp

Chickenshoes.6250:

People have to keep in mind the normal DR when assessing how well their MF works. If you keep getting garbage when you’re farming for 2 hours in Orr, that’s because you’ve been farming for 2 hours and DR hit you like a truck. 100% MF when you wouldn’t get anything normally is twice the chance to get nothing.

However I find when I’m killing mobs in a new zone and no DR with my >150% MF I find all kinds of green/blue loot and a very healthy number of rares. This is why I keep my MF on all the time, it kicks in when DR finally ships out, and the more random mobs I’m killing, the better the chance that random is going to drop yellows at a somewhat steady rate.

People like their stats but honestly you don’t need them for anything because nothing in the game is really difficult. The only times you really need stats is when you’re carrying a team through a dungeon or you’re doing WvW. MF gets you more cash. I kill things just fine without max stats.

This is about right to me. In fact I suspect all DR does is gradually reduce your MF (right on down to 0). Seems to be consistent with what I experience, as the regular drops don’t seem to change at all.

i know this is an old forum but i just started the game and i have a toon with 168% MF without any MF gear!! I get alot of rares and a few exotics running with a large group i don’t hamper anyone because all my other stats aren’t reduced because of my MF!! you don’t need the gear and if you are on a monthly that you need to salvage 500 things well each of those things has a chance of giving you essence of luck which permanently raises your MF. if you do what i did there you can wear your max stat gear, get your monthly salvages done, get alot of materials to sell, and get awesome loot to boot!!! I am happy with my MF and i can see a huge difference since i first started my game!!

@Muninn – They recently revamped how MF works and eradicated almost all the MF gear from the game. Only thing I can think of that is left is the utility+20% MF infusion.

Muninn.9108:

i know this is an old forum but i just started the game and i have a toon with 168% MF without any MF gear!! I get alot of rares and a few exotics running with a large group i don’t hamper anyone because all my other stats aren’t reduced because of my MF!! you don’t need the gear and if you are on a monthly that you need to salvage 500 things well each of those things has a chance of giving you essence of luck which permanently raises your MF. if you do what i did there you can wear your max stat gear, get your monthly salvages done, get alot of materials to sell, and get awesome loot to boot!!! I am happy with my MF and i can see a huge difference since i first started my game!!

This is due to a recent change, there is no longer MF gear.

Please note that this thread is kind of outdated. For newer information on Magic Find please visit this thread for example: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Magic-Find-Cap-Loot-Bag-Drops