How to improve Magic Finding odds?

[Logic_X]

My personal style for doing mf:

aim for 300-400% mf (like archon said) - more's not really worth any sacrifice because of the sharp diminishing returns for unique/set drops - the rest focuses on damage/speed of attack.

Good weapons:
-Silence bows (Crusader or Hydra are my fav) - but they're very expensive.
-Langer Briser (Arbalest) - Great for a switch weapon on boss run mf, can have 30-60% mf, moderate damage, etc.

If you're a hybrid - rhyme (shael eth) makes a good shield with 25% mf, cannot be frozen, and good resists.

Good Armor:
-Skullder's Ire - +1 all skills, and great mf%
-Tal's Armor - Good resists, and 88% mf (still great) - also great if you have Tal's Mask and Belt (resulting in superb mf)
-Wealth - +dex, 100% mf, 300% gf......good armor, cheapest choice for real mf armor
- Atma's Wail - 20% mf, good mods, rep life, etc. good overall armor (nice for a character not designated for mf, but you'd still like that chance).

Good Sets:
Sigon's Gloves + Boots: 30% ias, 10% ll, 50% mf (mf is green bonus on boots)
Tancred's ammy + any other part of the set (I prefer boots): 78% mf (green bonus on amulet)
3 parts of Tal's set (I like Armor, mask, and belt combo): 65%mf + mf on them (88% armor, 10-15% belt)

A few tips:

The way I got my mf equip (I will have my target mf equip as soon as I am able to pry a Tal's armor from a friend's hands ;) ) - Is i got mediocre mf equip (kinda like what you have now.....think i had a little less) - then I ran nightmare mephisto with some friends *we divvied on reserve drops - ie if we called an item and it dropped we got it.... any other items were divvied at end of run*. - Got items that I traded for a friend's Skullder's Ire, found a Tal's Belt, goldwrap, perfect chanceguards, etc. from it....good way to build up your items.

Then I started running hell - tips I have for there:

If in 8 player game: Glacial Trail, Crystalline Passage, Ancient's Way, and Worldstone 1, 2, 3, and Throne are great for mf because you have a good concentration of enemies, some fairly easy (I don't like frenzytaurs so I avoid passage, and worldstone 3, and throne - Glacial trail is my favorite place though) - the monsters here can drop high level items....and a few of them can drop all the items in the game (The unique guy in Glacial trail is one of the top level droppers....he's like a cold pindle :lol: ) .

If solo: I prefer long mf games solo - here's my run pattern:

Mephisto
Council (Travincal)
A5 superuniques (Pindleskin, Shenk, Eldritch, Threshsocket, Eyeback, Sharptooth, Frozenstein, Bonesaw, Snapchip - using wps...which i'm glad i went through and got all of - this long list is high drop uniques..and you pass through areas with decent mlvls so you have a random chance of additional good items)
Baal & his minions (I don't usually do this in solo games....but I do occassionally....best drop from him was a 123% shaefer's)

And then if i don't feel like making a new game yet I run - in no perticular order (until I feel like making a new game..which comes any point in here):
Andariel (her and duriel are the best for finding unique ammy/rings)
Rakinishu
Grizwold (aye, what can I do fer ye.. - Gimme that buriza you refused to tell me about in d1 ;) - yes, he can drop it)
Countess
The Caves lvl 2s (all the level 2s of the caves are great)
The Tombs Act 2/Duriel (duriel, and gold chests......good)
Coldworm (fat worm, easy kill....go for it)
Act 2 Tomb things (not duriel related ones)
Act 3 Temples (gold chests, unique enemies...good)
Diablo
Hephatso
Red portals in act 5 (gold chests, unique enemies...act 5 mlvls....they're really nice..)
*thinks*.....that's about the entire list I think.....there may have been a few places I missed....but those are a few of my favorite places (hums the song from The Sound of Music) hope that helps.