Guild Wars 2

I have over 100 base magic find and I have been running birthday presents for almost a week so my magic find is north of 200. Since the magic find change I have logged over a hundred hours of game play in WvW, 70+ WvW levels and more than 5k kills. In that time I have gotten 2 exotics (worth a combined 3g) and nothing bigger than a thimble of WvW liquid experience.

Maybe I am just unlucky but with 1500 hours in game and nearly 400 WvW levels, multiple 80s, tons of world events I have never seen a precursor (nor has anyone from my guild) or an ascended item drop.

Anyone else with a similar problem or can explain how this is supposed to work?

I have 270% MF. I had a really good run of exotics two weeks back where I got about 6 in one day. Thats probably more than I have had drop in my entire time playing WvW.

The description on the wiki says:

""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."

So lets say the catergory for an exotic is 1/100,000 chance, with my (soon to be) 300% MF I have a 4/100,000 chance of getting an exotic. Basically, an unnoticeable difference as far as I am concerned. If we compare lower level things like trophies, salvage scraps, materials and maybe even rares, this is where you get more benefit from your magic find because you are having them drop more frequently. Basically, measuring the success of your magic find on exotics is not the way to do it.

Also, one thing I am interested in is loot bags. MF does not effect the quality of loot in a loot bag, but it does increase the chances of getting a loot bag. I presume this is so for WvW, but I am not certain. I just know this is the case in PvE.

Works GREAT in PvE :p

sostronk.8167:

I have 270% MF. I had a really good run of exotics two weeks back where I got about 6 in one day. Thats probably more than I have had drop in my entire time playing WvW.

The description on the wiki says:

""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."

So lets say the catergory for an exotic is 1/100,000 chance, with my (soon to be) 300% MF I have a 4/100,000 chance of getting an exotic. Basically, an unnoticeable difference as far as I am concerned. If we compare lower level things like trophies, salvage scraps, materials and maybe even rares, this is where you get more benefit from your magic find because you are having them drop more frequently. Basically, measuring the success of your magic find on exotics is not the way to do it.

Also, one thing I am interested in is loot bags. MF does not effect the quality of loot in a loot bag, but it does increase the chances of getting a loot bag. I presume this is so for WvW, but I am not certain. I just know this is the case in PvE.

1/100,000 × 300% would be 3/100,000?

I got 72% now and play mostly WvW. I have noticed little difference. It is like 1 rare a week but my mf is low.

kingcragus.6810:

sostronk.8167:

I have 270% MF. I had a really good run of exotics two weeks back where I got about 6 in one day. Thats probably more than I have had drop in my entire time playing WvW.

The description on the wiki says:

""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."

So lets say the catergory for an exotic is 1/100,000 chance, with my (soon to be) 300% MF I have a 4/100,000 chance of getting an exotic. Basically, an unnoticeable difference as far as I am concerned. If we compare lower level things like trophies, salvage scraps, materials and maybe even rares, this is where you get more benefit from your magic find because you are having them drop more frequently. Basically, measuring the success of your magic find on exotics is not the way to do it.

Also, one thing I am interested in is loot bags. MF does not effect the quality of loot in a loot bag, but it does increase the chances of getting a loot bag. I presume this is so for WvW, but I am not certain. I just know this is the case in PvE.

1/100,000 × 300% would be 3/100,000?

I got 72% now and play mostly WvW. I have noticed little difference. It is like 1 rare a week but my mf is low.

According to the definition on the wiki, it would equate to 4/100,000.

200% increase of a negligible amount is still a negligible amount.

I feel like i get considerably more yellows, and yesterday got like 2 exotics, which never happens (The glob rate when I harvest said yellows, has become abysmal, though. We talking like 1 glob to 5 salvages ). Now I do play with a magic find infusion and have Outmanned buff up all the time. so rolling about 135 magic find

I think the problem is 100-200 percent magic find is basically nothing in the new system. Go to frostgorge sound and ask the champ train runners what there magic find is. Most of them will have a kittened amount cus they get greens and blues literly every minute or so from the champs to salvage for more essence of luck.

I’ve hardly ever gotten anything of note from WvW, but with just 50% mf I actually got an ascended chav ring from a rank-up chest (maybe rank 67?). My jaw was nearly on the floor, especially because that was the exact ring I wanted! As to how much that was affected by mf, I really don’t have a clue; but least we know it’s possible

ToaLux.6478:

I’ve hardly ever gotten anything of note from WvW, but with just 50% mf I actually got an ascended chav ring from a rank-up chest (maybe rank 67?). My jaw was nearly on the floor, especially because that was the exact ring I wanted! As to how much that was affected by mf, I really don’t have a clue; but least we know it’s possible

Zero. MF effects loot from kills.

It is frustrating to not see exotics for hours upon hours of game play. I have made over 4k in dragonite and have gotten zero exotics from those events. I crafted more exotics getting to the 500 weapon smithing than I have probably seen this year. Seems my exotic drop rate is less than two per month which means I am seeing an exotic roughly every 75 hours of game play.

What is the point of magic find if there is no loot? Does this game have a “Wi flag” for avoiding loot drops?

Nope, you just get a crap-ton of spikes.

I would estimate it costs north of 100 gold to get a base 200 MF between the price of items and salvage kits. That is a lot of money to spend on something that has very little return on investment.

Seems the answer is don’t bother with MF because it basically doesn’t work.

Definitely works, I notice a massive difference from 160%.

If you haven’t seen a precursor yet, maybe you should run around LA with a rock. It worked for one guy in my guild. Got a Colossus drop after 2 or so days of that.

True fact.

Niim.9260:

200% increase of a negligible amount is still a negligible amount.

^ this. X * 0 = 0

It’s all a big carrot on a stick scam.

Gods Knight.4936:

Niim.9260:

200% increase of a negligible amount is still a negligible amount.

^ this. X * 0 = 0

It’s all a big carrot on a stick scam.

Obligatory:

lol….so many necros lately. I think Anet should work and changing the meta.

the way magic find works in 99% of games is this;
You got X tiers of loot, which can be graded into 3 basic tiers for simplicity.
Bad loot (junk, blues, greens)
Average loot (yellow, special items, WXPbottles, T6 crafting materials)
Rare loot (Exotics, ascended boxes etc…)

In 99% of games, magic find just reduces the number of Bad loot and Average loot “sides” on the “dice”. So when you “roll the dice in order to decide drop” you got less sides of, pardon the expression, crap stuff, to obtain. On the contrary, you end up getting all or nothing instead.
In most games, money wise, if you sell everything you get, its better to have 0% MF.

Yeah, its like the lottery. People spend $10 and get 10 tickets and think its going to give them a better chance than people who spend $1 and get 1 ticket.

Like the person above said, 1 or 10 out of next to zero chance is still next to zero chance.

I got my first ascended ring out of a WvW rank up chest today with around 175% MF with birthday booster on. Too bad it’s useless to me and any of my 80s and I can’t salvage it for a few laurels or anything. =P

As someone with MF now around 125%, I CAN say that I’ve noticed a significant increase in the number of Rares I’m getting from kills than when I had 0% MF last year.

For me it seem it goes in burst. I can go a day or two of just getting great stuff then can go 4-8 days with nothing but a couple of yellows and that it.

You should see more blues/greens with a higher MF than whites. A little more higher tier crafting materials too.

Other than that, you will not be swimming in rares and exotics. You may see a little more, but not very noticeable.

Where you really notice is the number of blues/greens/crafting materials (T6 vs T5).

This is mainly from a PvE perspective, but I’m sure it is probably the same in WvW.

I feel you’re pain, the only exotics I’ve ever gotten were “Truth” and “The Mecha Anchor”. I’m rocking the full 300% MF. Whenever they added magic find to the game I purposely bought as many blues as I could to salvage for essence, and now it just feels like that was a complete waste.

You won’t see a rain of precursors/exotics falling from the sky at 300+ MF. You will however seen far more whites/blues/greens/rares.

I look at it as a chance to increase the quality of loot I’ve already gotten. I still get spikes, but post 307% MF I’ve gotten far more bags, blues, greens, and rares. Exotics aren’t as uncommon now, but the base chance on that is very low to where you as a casual observer won’t notice. If you made a chart I’m sure you could tell the difference over time even with those though.

@Brutal – I’m not sure if it’s just your bad luck/low playtime… but I’ve had several drop in WvW since maxing out my MF… and I small group/solo roam the vast majority of the time. At the very least you should be getting a lot more rares.

It’s not an immediate shower of gold on your head… it’s a very noticeable uptick in the quality of all the loot you’re getting. Over time that adds up to a LOT.

Feel free to check out my guide in my sig if you want to up your MF + make gold while doing it.

Madora.9340:

Nope, you just get a crap-ton of spikes.

This x3… Seriously, I get like 3 spikes a kill. I sell so much “Junk items” that I make about 1g each play session just from it. But it explains why I am always broke. I salvage everything to try and get a better chance at items (magic find). So far, no luck, always get junk!

i honestly feel like MF was, is, and always has been placebo. it seems everything is completely random seeing as precursors and other super rare items can drop from any mob.

I have fairly good magic find and find that I get a fair amount more of mediocre gear which on whole is worth the cost.

It is getting more blue and greens that sell for that extra couple silver that makes the difference in time.

It is a good investment for better saleable gear, but not wearable gear if that makes sense.