Runes

I was wondering if MF applies to rune drops? I read somewhere it doesn't yet I've noticed yesterday my MFer gets better drops (runes) than my grinder.

Its rng, MF do not affect runedrops

Magic find does not affect the base item that drops. Magic find affects whether that base item is normal, magic, rare, set, or unique. If items only have one 'base' e.g. keys, essences, runes, gems,

Gold, potions, scrolls, etc, magic find does not have an affect on them. MF also does not affect which runes drops. What effects runes drops are: how many players are in the game, what difficulty you are on, and which chest or monster dropped the rune.

Higher magic find exactly LOWERS your chances of finding runes. Why? because the game throws more items instead.

With 0% or lowest possible magic find, you find most White items (bases for rws) and runes itself. Trust me on this, Ive done my testing hell of a lot with it and read about it all over the internet. That is how it works and anyone claiming otherwise do not know how it works.

Note that there are other factors as mentioned above; player amount. More players = higher chances for good stuff but ofc enemies are harder and other players may pick your drops.

P.S
To all the yorldes ready to fight about this, I know Magic find literally does not affect in runes what so ever. But having higher magic find causes you, the player, to find more items instead of runes and that means you have lower chance in finding runes and must work more for it. Drop your magic finds down and farm cows or diablo &

Baal, youll find runes just fine

Semirotta wrote: 9 months ago

Higher magic find exactly LOWERS your chances of finding runes. Why? because the game throws more items instead.

This is false. Anyone claiming otherwise is misinformed. Sure, you can find this claim all over the place on various forums when googling, but it's all misinformation.

The way the game's drop mechanic works is that it first picks the base item it will drop (a rune, a scroll, a potion, a piece of armor, a weapon, etc). Then MF kicks in to determine the quality of the item, if relevant. This is after already picking what base item will be dropped.

tl;dr
MF has no effect on runes.
Lower MF will not yield more runes.
Higher MF will not yield less runes.

Because, again, MF only kicks in after the game has already determined what base item will drop. If the game has decided to drop a rune, MF is not used (and MF, whether low or high, had no impact on the decision to drop said rune). If the game has determined that a piece of equipment, charm or jewel will be dropped, then and only then does MF come into play.

@ShadowHeart is 100% right. Trust him.

The best way to find runes is to kill as many white mobs as possible. Go to high density areas, preferably in online games and wreck Flayers, Cows, Wraiths etc.

Good places are: Act 2 tombs, Chaos Sanctuary, World Stone Tower, Cow Level, Flayer Jungle, Pit, Halls of Pain etc.

Some say Arcane Sanctuary, but I don't like it, because you have to fiddle the Wraiths to get them killed over ground floor. Not worth it in my opinion.

ShadowHeart wrote: 9 months ago

MF only kicks in after the game has already determined what base item will drop

Spot on. This is a critical fundamental that many misunderstand regarding itemization and drop mechanics in D2.

To grasp rune drops, you must understand Treasure Class (TC) Groups and Tables. Runes exist in the "Good" Table, a subset of a TC Group. Each monster's drop is limited to six items as it goes through its "Picks."

The system functions like a Galton Board—a cascading sequence influenced by Picks, which determine how many rolls occur. Within each TC Group, probability intersections dictate item selection from its associated Table.

Example (Players1,

Baal H):

Picks: 7
NoDrop: 18.5%

Gold (x8): 6.2%
Act 5 (H) Equip B: 64.2%
Act 5 (H) Junk: 6.2%
Act 5 (H) Good: 3.7% Runes live here

Since all Picks occur before Magic Find (MF) applies, rune drops—like all drops—are purely RNG-based. MF has zero effect on rune drop rates. Instead, /Players count influences the NoDrop % and, consequently, rune frequency.

Why is Ghost Hunting so effective for runes?
Ghosts drop twice as many runes as regular white monsters because their drop tables eliminate Picks from Items, Gold, and Junk, increasing the chance of selecting from the Good (rune) Table. (I made a video on this.)

Bonus insight:

The Countess' Rune Mechanic
She has both a standard Good Table and a special Rune Table. Unlike other mobs, lower /Players settings are better because you want a higher NoDrop rate from her standard sequence, forcing more Picks from her special Rune Table. This explains why she often drops 3+ runes and, in rare cases, even four—despite the six-item cap.

Th3ory wrote: 9 months ago

Act 5 (H) Good: 3.7% Runes live here

And IIRC from modding the tables many years ago, that's also where you get gems. So, every gem you find is basically a potential rune that did not drop.

DasNarf wrote: 9 months ago

Some say

Arcane Sanctuary, but I don't like it, because you have to fiddle the Wraiths to get them killed over Ground floor. Not worth it in my opinion.

The advantage with

Arcane Sanctuary, is that it can be played safely by builds that tend to be fragile in a lot of places that are technically far better to farm.

So it's not that it's best place, but that it's one of the easiest places for several builds. Or if you simply don't have good gear and need to take it more easy.

For runes it's a numbers game, the more you kill the higher the chances something will drop.
Also like people above said, the drop you get is decided before MF, then it just makes you spin the slots on colors of your drop.
If you are interested in knowing more
-> https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo2/commen ... _advanced/

FULCRUM75 wrote: 9 months ago

And IIRC from modding the tables many years ago, that's also where you get gems. So, every gem you find is basically a potential rune that did not drop.

Yup! There was your

Zod Rune .

BonyM wrote: 9 months ago

If you are interested in knowing more
-> https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo2/commen ... _advanced/

Pavke did a great write up indeed.

my best luck -
arcane w. Lawbringer (me or merc)
trav

¯\_(ツ)_/¯