Magic finding in 1.10...

[DarkPhenomenon]

So far I've tried and/or seen the following magic finding area/strats and experienced the following (FYI I've got about 450 magic find on my 78 MF barb)

1) Normal/NM baal
Takes a while to get through minions and I didn't find his drops as good as the NM Council

2) NM Council
So far this is my favorite place to MF, although it doesn't allow for high end elite uniques :(

3) NM Meph
In my experience not worth the trouble compared to Council, although every so often he'll drop well.

4) NM Countess (more or less for runes)
If ya want runes, I've gotten up to a hel off of her so far. I mainly do her and the NM trav

5) Doing group hell boss runs and attemping to gank the drops.
I've never done this as I find it quite... innappropriate, too many draw backs as well (large group fighting for drops, seeing a good drop and not getting it etc)

6) NM/Hell Eldrich/Shenk
Again i don't find these 2 guys as good for drops as the NM Council, however they may be able to drop higher items then the Council

7) Doing group runs in hell and hanging back with an item find barb
The payout is way too low since there's usually a necro/assassin/cold sorc who all make corpses unavailabe for item find (cold sorcs shatter corpses). Only decent thing I've found this way is a Gheeds charm (which is helpful for gambling jewelry cheaper though)


So, anyone elsebeen magic finding a lot? comments? Find any other good places to Magic find? I tried soloing some places in hell but I keep getting my behind handed to me on a royal platter :/

[Crill]

The best magic-find teams I've seen in 1.10 consist of a Sorceress paired with a Paladin who uses Blessed Hammer. The Paladin deals out massive damage to both groups and bosses, while the Sorceress can wear lots of magic-find gear and deal the killing blow to act Bosses and superunique monsters. The ability to Teleport is still invaluable for magic-finding.

[Necrologia]

I've never had a problem running Hell Meph solo with my MF Barb. The trick is some resistance charms and crushing blow. Just make sure you stay close to him; his Blizzard attack hurts.

[Boooyakasha]

Blizzard has secretly sneaked in some areas for you people to MF :) The monsters' level is now depend on the area they spawn. For example the random monsters that spawn in Worldstone Keep levels will have they levels raise up which means they can drop higher level items than their original levels.

A lot of the areas where people rarely go before have become level 85 areas, all the monsters there will be able to drop items up to that level. Below is some list of the level 85 areas:

Act 1
Pit Levels 1&2 (Under Tamoe Highland)
Mausoleum (Under Burial Grounds)

Act 2
Maggot Lair Level 3
Ancient Tunnels (Under Lost City)

Act 3
Sewers Level 2 (Under Kurast Bazaar/Upper Kurast)
Forgotten Temple (Under Upper Kurast)
Ruined Fane & Disused Reliquary (Under Kurast Causeway)

Act 4
River of Flame
Chaos Sanctuary

Act 5
Worldstone Keep Levels 1-3
Throne of Destruction
Worldstone Chamber
Arreat Summit (although it is irrelevant, it is level 87 in fact)

[sdcougar]

I just recently found some of my old characters, including a MF barb who is lvl 63. I can recall being able to run through NM mephisto and Baal very quick but now with not being able to steal mana from mephisto and Baals mana steal attack I found both to be very long and tedious.

How do you conteract these effects to make MF runs quicker?

SDCougar

[Ruger]

I have a lvl 55 Frenzy bar who is still working on his MF % (approx. 270 now with charms, Chance, nice three P Topaz hat, boots, rings & ammy - no Ali's or Wealth yet), but he has no trouble with Meph in NM. I have an Act 2 Merc (lvl 54) to help with Def. The biggest problem is finding the stairs to Meph. The new Dur 2 in NM is huge. I typically, Frenzy for a second and then run until I slow down, frenzy, run, etc. til I find the stairs. I clear the first area, if needs be, then take out the council and Leap Attack into Meph's area from the "tounge". I draw him out and hack til he dies - takes a while and usually requires one blue and several reds. I still get the Def Aura from my merc, but he just stands, watches and leachs ExPs while I kill him...that way I don't have to worry about him getting the kill. Drops lately have been so-so. I'm going to spend more time in the new places listed and see how they perform.

Ruger

[nobbie]

2) NM Council
So far this is my favorite place to MF, although it doesn't allow for high end elite uniques

Which NM Council are you talking about, Travincal or Durance Of Hate 3?

By the way, did you know that you can always get the 1.10 "Master Drops" of any boss if you create the game (Norm/NM/Hell) with a char that doesn't have the quest(s) yet? You can then leave the game (after 5 minutes, so that it stays up) and kill the bosses with your usual MF char.

[twentythree]

By the way, did you know that you can always get the 1.10 "Master Drops" of any boss if you create the game (Norm/NM/Hell) with a char that doesn't have the quest(s) yet? You can then leave the game (after 5 minutes, so that it stays up) and kill the bosses with your usual MF char.

I discovered this quite by accedent when I was self tweeking myself out of act 2. I started a thread on the issue and was told that this only happens for andie and duriel. I was told this wont work on meph, D, or baal.

In any event is this worth the rate of return? Say, just to pick easy numbers to use, I can do an andie run in 2½ minutes. Would it be better to make a game with a char that hasent done andie, wait 5 minutes, then switch to a MF char? Or should I use that extra 5 minutes to do 2 more runs? Whats better, 1 superdrop run or 3 normal drop runs?

[lfd]

By the way, did you know that you can always get the 1.10 "Master Drops" of any boss if you create the game (Norm/NM/Hell) with a char that doesn't have the quest(s) yet? You can then leave the game (after 5 minutes, so that it stays up) and kill the bosses with your usual MF char.

I discovered this quite by accedent when I was self tweeking myself out of act 2. I started a thread on the issue and was told that this only happens for andie and duriel. I was told this wont work on meph, D, or baal.

In any event is this worth the rate of return? Say, just to pick easy numbers to use, I can do an andie run in 2½ minutes. Would it be better to make a game with a char that hasent done andie, wait 5 minutes, then switch to a MF char? Or should I use that extra 5 minutes to do 2 more runs? Whats better, 1 superdrop run or 3 normal drop runs?

There's a thread somewhere which I'll root around for that mentions that there are two key times on game creation; one of a minute, and one of five minutes. If you create a game, it runs for at least a minute. Then there's a four-minute gap, and then the five-minute timer comes into operation.

The gist of it is you can create a game with your non-quest-status character, leave immediately, and rejoin with your MF character; as long as you do this within a minute of creating the game, you should be fine. This saves having to wait 5 minutes for the game to stick.

[Ruvanal]

By the way, did you know that you can always get the 1.10 "Master Drops" of any boss if you create the game (Norm/NM/Hell) with a char that doesn't have the quest(s) yet? You can then leave the game (after 5 minutes, so that it stays up) and kill the bosses with your usual MF char.

Sorry nobbie, it does not work the way that you are describing, you would just get the 'normal' TC drop that way. It is possible to get the 'quest' TC drops repeatedly from the last three bosses; just not the way that you described.

[nobbie]

Sorry nobbie, it does not work the way that you are describing, you would just get the 'normal' TC drop that way.  It is possible to get the 'quest' TC drops repeatedly from the last three bosses; just not the way that you described.

This the copy of a forum post with the info:

Solo steps

1 - make a game with a character that has the boss quest complete (ex: mephisto)
2 - Leave game
3 - Join the game with a char that hasnt done the quest
4 - Kill the boss, you wil get the bonus drops but you will still be able to do it again.

<you can also do this by joining public games where the quest is completed>

Team Steps (faster method)

Player A has quest done
Player B hasnt done quest

1- Player A makes game
2- Player B join
3- Both do the run
4- Player B does the killing hit
5- again, you wil get the bonus drops but you will still be able to do it again.


VARIATION METHOD (INVERSE OF SOLO METHOD)

1- Make game with a char that dont has the boss quest done
2- leave game
3- join with you mf character and kill the boss
4- again, you wil get the bonus drops but you will still be able to do it again.

This can be done with all (quest) bosses and in all dificulties, as long as you do it correctly you will be able to do it all the times you want.

[moget?]

Ruvanal,

If nobbie's method for 'quest' TC drops does not work, then what method does?

[Ruvanal]

Nobbie the third method that is described there will only result in a 'normal' type of drop; not the 'quest' type of drop. And yes I had tested the condition myself. When the drop is being generated at the time of the kill it is only checking the quest status of the player that is doing the killing blow; there is no check on the quest status that was used to make the model for the game (game creators quest status).

If the person doing the tsting in that post had been using Andariel or Duriel for the testing then it may have appeared that the third method would work. But it actually a matter that quest status conditions for those two are badly set up and you can generally get the 'quest' drops unless the killing player jumps through some eloborate 'hoops' to force these two bosses to do 'normal' type drops.

[Thlayli]

I tested this yesterday with my lvl 75 pala which has just entered Hell Act 3, by creating the game with him, exiting immediately and then joining the game with my around 400% MF sorc... Did not notice any difference in quality of drops for Mephisto, so Ruvanal might have a point here... Only tested it for like 10 times, so statistically I might have just had bad luck, but got me convincicated enough not to bother anymore :)

[Nightwind]

that explains the piles and piles of nice rares my merc tried on from andarial

[Ruvanal]

I tested this yesterday with my lvl 75 pala which has just entered Hell Act 3, by creating the game with him, exiting immediately and then joining the game with my around 400% MF sorc... Did not notice any difference in quality of drops for Mephisto, so Ruvanal might have a point here... Only tested it for like 10 times, so statistically I might have just had bad luck, but got me convincicated enough not to bother anymore :)

There are some things that clearly mark the distinction of getting the 'normal' type drop from a 'quest' type drop.

The 'quest' type drop cannot have any gold coins dropped, scrolls (Duriel is an exception in that a single TP scroll is forced to drop first), potions, keys, arrows or bolts. So if you got any of the above on wone of the runs then you were getting 'normal' drops.

Also there is the matter of the minimum magical quality of the drops. Teh 'quest' type of drop should be at a minimum of rare and therefor the only magical quality items that should appear are either items that do not have rare versions possible (typically charms) or when a failed set item is replaced by a double durability magic ersion of the same base item. Now some items do not have a durability to be doubled, but if you get normal durability magical weapon or armor from the drop, then you can be sure that the drop was of the 'normal' type. If you could get say a dozen magical items that every time had double durability, this would lend a strong amount of support that you are probably getting 'quest' type drops with the magic items being downgraded set drops.

It only took me one run on the realms to see a normal durability magic item and a potion from a Mephisto run similar to yours to confirm that the realms did not have a different set for the drops than is in the single player game.

[vor_lord]

But it actually a matter that quest status conditions for those two are badly set up and you can generally get the 'quest' drops unless the killing player jumps through some eloborate 'hoops' to force these two bosses to do 'normal' type drops.

What are the elaborate hoops? I keep hearing about this, Ruvanal, but I'm curious (apparently I jumped through those hoops unknowingly, as killing Andariel gives me regular drops as I would expect, with plenty of junk).

[adeyke]

If you never ever click an act 1 NPC after killing Andariel, you will get the bad non-quest drop. That means no Cain IDing, no repairing, no buying, no selling, no merc-resurrecting, no gambling, no healing, and no moving on to act 2.

You're not going to get the non-quest drop on accident.

[vor_lord]

If you never ever click an act 1 NPC after killing Andariel, you will get the bad non-quest drop.&nbsp; That means no Cain IDing, no repairing, no buying, no selling, no merc-resurrecting, no gambling, no healing, and no moving on to act 2.

You're not going to get the non-quest drop on accident.

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I must be overly optimistic about the quality of the quest drop.