01-27-2004, 08:45 PM
MF is a passive bonus. Every time you kill a monster and it drops an item, MF will increase the chance that the item is unique/set/rare/magic.
Find item is a skill you can use on corpses to have a chance at another drop. If you never use it, it doesn't do anything. If you do use it, you have that % chance of getting a drop from the same TC as when the monster was first killed. MF does work on this second drop.
With your numbers...
Your base chance of getting a second drop is 19% and your base MF is 257.
If you use your Heart Carver, you'll have a 35% chance of success instead of 19%. That's an 84% increase in items of all kinds from Find Item.
If you use your Rhyme and Ali Baba, you'll have +358% MF instead of +257%. However, there are diminishing returns formulas for rares, set items and uniques. So you'll really have 28% more magic items, 16% more rares, 14% more set items and 9% more uniques. The MF will also not increase your number of total items; it only increases your chances of an item being higher-quality. This set-up also has GF, but you apparently didn't consider this the important point.
I'd say that, in your case, the Heart Carver is a much better choice. However, do note that the Heart Carver wouldn't do anything for you when you kill monsters. It's only when you use the find item skill that it does anything.
Find item is a skill you can use on corpses to have a chance at another drop. If you never use it, it doesn't do anything. If you do use it, you have that % chance of getting a drop from the same TC as when the monster was first killed. MF does work on this second drop.
With your numbers...
Your base chance of getting a second drop is 19% and your base MF is 257.
If you use your Heart Carver, you'll have a 35% chance of success instead of 19%. That's an 84% increase in items of all kinds from Find Item.
If you use your Rhyme and Ali Baba, you'll have +358% MF instead of +257%. However, there are diminishing returns formulas for rares, set items and uniques. So you'll really have 28% more magic items, 16% more rares, 14% more set items and 9% more uniques. The MF will also not increase your number of total items; it only increases your chances of an item being higher-quality. This set-up also has GF, but you apparently didn't consider this the important point.
I'd say that, in your case, the Heart Carver is a much better choice. However, do note that the Heart Carver wouldn't do anything for you when you kill monsters. It's only when you use the find item skill that it does anything.