Ideal Magic Find?

Is there an ideal MF number? I read an old article that says there's huge diminishing returns after 300% but is that still true? I'm currently sitting at 470mf and my merc has 23, I can still add an

Ist to an occy then be sitting on a pretty 500mf. I kill fast with no issues on survivability but just curious if anyone has thoughts on this.

i believe that is still true yes. looked at alot of mf guides and videos and this point has been consistent. that said more mf is always better than less, up until the point that it slows down your kill rate/ survivability. which you said was not an issue.

There is still diminishing returns in the formula. Here is a great video on MF formula.


TLDR; More magic find is always better, but don't risk survivability.
Unique drop increase will stop after 200mf.
Rares and Sets drop increase will stop around 375mf.
Magic items drop increase will continually increase with more MF.
The more magic find, the less normal (socketed & ethereal) items will drop.

cool thanks all

RecycledGunsD2 wrote: 3 years ago

TLDR; More magic find is always better, but don't risk survivability.
Unique drop increase will stop after 200mf.
Rares and Sets drop increase will stop around 375mf.
Magic items drop increase will continually increase with more MF.
The more magic find, the less normal (socketed & ethereal) items will drop.

Agree with your first point. Your others are a little misleading.

You seem to be confusing the % increase for uniques/sets/rares with the total MF number. At 1000MF the increased chance of finding a unique item is 200%. Likewise for rares/sets, at 1000MF you hit a practical limit of 394% and 348% increased chance respectively.

These charts illustrate this nicely: https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Magic_fi ... ng_returns

So, increasing from 200MF to 500MF will still get you a 55% better chance of finding uniques, and a 108% better chance of finding set items. The marginal returns on MF investment drop precipitously after 200MF but you still do get better chances. It's not worth it to

Sacrifice any kill speed for MF beyond 200-300, but if you can increase without hurting efficiency there's still potential benefit.

and a slightly related note that mf has zero bearing on rune drops quality or chances. i think people often misinterpret what mf actually does. it does not increase the amount of items that drop but the odds that any given items dropped will be rolled unique/set/rare/magic/normal. I believe it works in a descending order where the games checks to roll unique and if it fails it rolls set and so on and so on. if im incorrect about this please correct me, im not an expert.

Sekraan wrote: 3 years ago

RecycledGunsD2 wrote: 3 years ago

TLDR; More magic find is always better, but don't risk survivability.
Unique drop increase will stop after 200mf.
Rares and Sets drop increase will stop around 375mf.
Magic items drop increase will continually increase with more MF.
The more magic find, the less normal (socketed & ethereal) items will drop.

Agree with your first point. Your others are a little misleading.

You seem to be confusing the % increase for uniques/sets/rares with the total MF number. At 1000MF the increased chance of finding a unique item is 200%. Likewise for rares/sets, at 1000MF you hit a practical limit of 394% and 348% increased chance respectively.

These charts illustrate this nicely: https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Magic_fi ... ng_returns

So, increasing from 200MF to 500MF will still get you a 55% better chance of finding uniques, and a 108% better chance of finding set items. The marginal returns on MF investment drop precipitously after 200MF but you still do get better chances. It's not worth it to

Sacrifice any kill speed for MF beyond 200-300, but if you can increase without hurting efficiency there's still potential benefit.

Ah you are totally right. My bad.

Banjo wrote: 3 years ago

and a slightly related note that mf has zero bearing on rune drops quality or chances. i think people often misinterpret what mf actually does. it does not increase the amount of items that drop but the odds that any given items dropped will be rolled unique/set/rare/magic/normal. I believe it works in a descending order where the games checks to roll unique and if it fails it rolls set and so on and so on. if im incorrect about this please correct me, im not an expert.

The game rolls for rarity once, after rolling for item type, quality (normal, exceptional, elite), etc. If an item type doesn't exist for the given rarity it gets downgraded but with extra durability. You can identify failed unique rolls by the presence of triple durability on rares, and failed set rolls by the presence of double durability on magic items.

fuberwil wrote: 3 years ago

Is there an ideal MF number?

Yep, MF curve posted below. You never really need more than 300. The diminishing returns after the first 300 makes it not worth going further, with the first 100 MF being worth more than the next 200. So people stacking 600+ MF are not finding GG items any faster than anybody else. If anything they are finding items SLOWER due to crippling their kill speed.

Here's a little MF per-slot guide i made so you can easily stack 200-300 without gimping your character early on: How to Hit 400+ MF Fast & Cheap

BillyMaysed wrote: 3 years ago

fuberwil wrote: 3 years ago

Is there an ideal MF number?

Yep, MF curve posted below. You never really need more than 300. The diminishing returns after the first 300 makes it not worth going further, with the first 100 MF being worth more than the next 200. So people stacking 600+ MF are not finding GG items any faster than anybody else. If anything they are finding items SLOWER due to crippling their kill speed.

Here's a little MF per-slot guide i made so you can easily stack 200-300 without gimping your character: How to Hit 400+ MF Fast & Cheap


MF curve.jpg

Cool thanks, but it's fairly easy to get 400+mf on a sorc without gimping any kill speed.

fuberwil wrote: 3 years ago

Cool thanks, but it's fairly easy to get 400+mf on a sorc without gimping any kill speed.

Well I'm not talking just endgame, that guide is for while you're gearing up. Of course once you have all endgame items you can stack that a couple ways. But anything above 300 is essentially pointless and unless you just so happen to get more MF with an upgrade, stacking more dmg is always better. Killing speed > MF.

BillyMaysed wrote: 3 years ago

fuberwil wrote: 3 years ago

Cool thanks, but it's fairly easy to get 400+mf on a sorc without gimping any kill speed.

I'm not talking just endgame. Obviously once you have all endgame items you can stack that a couple ways. But anything above 300 is essentially pointless and unless you just so happen to get more MF with an upgrade, stacking more dmg is always better. Killing speed > MF.

You're right about it not being worth trading kill speed for MF, but hard disagree that anything above 300 is pointless. Going up to 500% MF means a 30% higher chance of finding unique items, and a 63% higher chance of finding a set item. That may not sound like much, but for elite tier items that are already rare to drop you want to maximize your chance of it rolling right. Hate seeing those White lacquered plates, etc. The chance of elite versions of an item dropping are already rare enough, it is worth it to maximize unique/set drop even if kill speed suffers slightly (again, this is end game when you are already pretty quick).

Weapon switch works well on bosses to maximize chances. For

Ancient Tunnels, Pit, and the like, you can still get quite a ways with charms and some socketed Ists/Topazes. Shouldn't be sacrificing much kill speed at all given that MF charms exist and you can find solid items with built-in MF that are pretty comparable to the non-MF ones once fully geared.

Sekraan wrote: 3 years ago

Going up to 500% MF means a 30% higher chance of finding unique items, and a 63% higher chance of finding a set item.

Like i said, if you just so happen to get more MF with an upgrade, cool, but unless you're rich will full endgame gear, you aren't going to add another 200 MF and NOT lower your killing speed to the point that it renders the MF moot.