MF worth it in 1.10?

[Gandalf_teh_White]

After hearing about the MF nerf in 1.10 i got to thinking. Why should i spend so much time getting high MF if it doesn't work on meph or baal? The cow king has never been one for fantastic drops and no average minion can compare to what you can get off meph in one night with good mf. All in all I think mf has lost it's purpose except for a nice extra add on to some item but not the main reason you would wear the item.

[Axispoint]

Truth be told, I don't even MF now. I've never found those godly MF items, so with the crap I have, I never find anything good. Do they have any plans to make rares/uniques/set/etc more easier to find w/o needing MF? I mean, not make it to where every monster drops one 'cos that would get boring, but maybe make them a tad easier to find without having Godly MF?

And forgive me if I'm saying stupid stuff. I don't know much about MF and what exactly the number is MFers aim for, though I've seen lots with an MF of 400 (my most has been under 100). Even though I've had D2 since May of 2001, I've still never got to play it much until now, but hey, I'm learning ;-).

[Pu uhonua]

I think the point of the Magic Find nerf is to encourage playing a game through, instead of endless boss runs. The current system rewards boring, repetitive play. It also encourages bots which is not at all good for on-line play.

Not to worry though, if a persons playing style is to repeatedly beat up on end-bosses, I'm sure they'll still be able to play that way in 1.10...

[TaiDaishar]

The MF change they did was incredible, I actually never thought about that and always thought they'll just lower the effectivness of MF and/or total monster drops in the game.

I like it this way, no more meph runs, I think that the ice caves in act 5 will get more attention now (I find them to be populated with more than usual uniques and champions) and mephisto will finally rest in peace

[Rataxes]

MF was still very much worth it in classic D2, where boss runs did not exist, so I have no doubt that it will still be valuable in v1.10.

Gasp! Yes, it was possible to find good equipment back then without boss runs, and it still is.

[wonkothesane]

like it this way, no more meph runs, I think that the ice caves in act 5 will get more attention now (I find them to be populated with more than usual uniques and champions) and mephisto will finally rest in peace

Eh, I dunno. I don't think that the Lord of Hatred will get to rest much once players on the ladder are able to do him. Remember, just because MF doesn't work on bosses doesn't mean bosses will be dropping at the level of normal monsters; they'll still drop better, just not nearly as good as in 1.10.

The deciding factor will really be how much "subsequent" boss drops are nerfed, as Meph and Baal will be a challenge (*gasp*) and will not be item supermarkets any longer.

I do agree that the whole of Act 5 will be much more appealing, especially when characters are relatively weak. I doubt act4 will be "run" much, as the Stygian families and the Death Knights will be unpleasantly difficult compared to most stuff in Act 5. Probably.

/can't wait for the patch.

[BEEFMOTRTON]

MF will definitely be worth it in 1.10
Though I think the Bloody Foothills will probably be toughened up a decent amount.

It's kinda funny, I've been playing the seven lances mod single player and going through normal difficulty and had a harder time in Bloody Foothills than I did in the Chaos Sanctuary. So it definitely can be made difficult, even against a multishot amazing.

[Brista]

Remember, just because MF doesn't work on bosses doesn't mean bosses will be dropping at the level of normal monsters; they'll still drop better, just not nearly as good as in 1.10.

Well the MF not working on bosses is only one of a number of announced changes

- the bosses are going to be tougher (pretty relevant if you're contemplating NM Meph running with a no twink level 45 Barb)

- the bosses will only get a high quality drop the first time they are killed. We ran all the Act bosses once and discovered that this already seems to apply to Duriel. He drops incredibly badly, much worse than Pindle

On the other hand normal monsters have improved drops and MF% works on them.

I think the most successful players will be those coming up with new strategies

[niomosy]

I'm not sure. It almost seems like a fallback to the D2C days where some people ran large MF in the RoF but a lot didn't. It may just end up going back to runs to get stuff to sell for gold for gambling since they're going to increase the odds of getting uniques and such (by how much, who knows). In the end, I'm not sure that it's all that much less mindless and repetative than running Meph and a few other uniques.

The other thing people will now start figuring out how to do is rush characters through to get those "first time" drops if they turn out to be decent. It's a throwback to the old imbue mules in a way. Sure, it might take a bit more work than imbue mules did since they'll need to level to get the nm and hell drops. I'm sure they'll figure out a way to do this pretty quickly, though.

For me, I'm not sure that they've really made Diablo any better with the huge MF change. Just.... different.

[Fragbait]

When magic finding does not apply to act bosses anymore, and champions / unique bosses are made stronger and more challenging, those methods of getting items may not pay off anymore.

Perhaps we see a lot of chars doing act 2 arcaine sanctuary (3 golden chests) and the numerous pits (1 golden chest each) in act 5 after 1.10.
Are the chests in the temples of act 3 golden? I don't remember.
Would be funny if 'chest-hunting' would be the successor of 'boss-running'. I don't know the odds of such a chest exactly, though I believe that they are increased, just like the odds of bosses.


Greetings, Fragbait

[Azatoth]

Hi Lurkers!

I also thought alot about the news of Blizzard making MF not work on bosses anymore. If MF still works on uniques and super-uniques, the first thing players will do after getting the new patch is finding the best concentration of uniques in one area.
I think this could be the levels down to the Countess. You never have less than 5 uniques down there, often more, and a few champions, and at the end of the run you can kill the Countess with improved rune drops.

All in all: 5 to 8 uniques and 2 or three champions plus maybe good runes in 5 minutes or so...at least if you aren't looking for the highest TC's, though ;)
Then you would still have to go to Act 5...uh...nothing new, eh?

[WarBlade]

I don't think towers runs will be any greater than running most other areas.

- For one thing, as you rightly point out, the TCs aren't all that great and even with expected balancing in 1.10 it's still only in Act 1 where people are generally a little more keen to get on with the show and go after Andariel and Radament.

- Hell level down that hole is a complete pain in the backside where the immunities really kick in and there's little room to move. There's also the chance of a one-hit kill stair trap . . . not pretty.

- Which leaves Nightmare where you can get a decent shot at the Normal uniques before chucking them in the cube for upgrades. :unsure: People will be more interested in the Rune drop I think.

I'm expecting players to start harvesting areas that suit their characters to be honest. It remains to be seen what the monster distributions are like before guessing at what those might be.

[Archon_Wing]

You'll just have to kill lots of regular monsters for MF. The sheer number of drops gives a good chance for decent items if you have MF. Of course, it's much better if you go killing in act 5 hell. of course, that could be hard. :)

So MF is still useful. Just not uber.

[TaiDaishar]

When I mf'ed I always liked going to the ice caves (crystalline, ancient's and glacial) because the amount of uniques in there is - I think - more than in most areas and with evil urns for added unique fun it was a very fun place for me to mf AND level at the same time

And on a side note, SOME super uniques like pindle and possibly council will get no mf bonuses as well as the act bosses.

[Walkiry]

Perhaps we see a lot of chars doing act 2 arcaine sanctuary (3 golden chests) and the numerous pits (1 golden chest each) in act 5 after 1.10.

I used to do quite a bit of Act 3 sewers runs, lots of chests stacked with stuff down there with Khalim's appendix.

[whereagles]

In D2C, magic-finding was done mostly by whirlwind babos at the Flayer Jungle, where there were lots of low-hits monsters. The flayers could drop rare lances, gothic bows and exec swords, the most sought-after items at the time. Act 4 wasn't so good because monsters had a lot more hit-points and couldn't even drop lances. (Though swords/bows dropped a little bit more often.)

I think the mf situation may very well approach this in 1.10, with superunique runs in the mix. There may be some fighting for your territory, so lots of hostility is to be expected. Act boss runs are still a possibility. Given that mf is prolly not gonna work on those, you can maximize killing speed.

[kandrathe]

If I were to guess, based on some of their hints, that the places harder to get to in Act 5, like Abaddon, Pit of Acheron, Frozen River, Drifter Cavern, Infernal Pit, Icy Cellar, Worldstone Keep 3, and Halls of Vaught will be where the best MF'ing will be possible. I think anywhere that is 3 levels from a WP would be fair MF'ing territory.

[Obi2Kenobi]

Imagine... Hell Nihilthak is the only boss that MF works on. :)

[ghost70]

Are the chests in the temples of act 3 golden? I don't remember.

I don't think they are, but I know there are a few golden chests scattered throughout the great marsh, and I believe there are golden chests in places like the swampy pit and arachnid lair.

I think the new magic find system will be great. I loved the magic find system in classic. I use to clear outer steppes and city of the damned with my s/s whirlwind barbarian all the time. Great money for gambling, I'd usually find some rare boots, gloves, or sometimes a sword, and it offered best experience available. Most people did this, iirc most games were titled 8playerssoloexp or something like that, as opposed to fastcows45. I didn't find this type of magic finding repetitive at all. There was no need to create games every 5 seconds, there were a ton more monsters, and the occasional super unique kept things interesting.

may be some fighting for your territory, so lots of hostility is to be expected. Act boss runs are still a possibility.

Possibly, this happened to me all the time in classic. Damn lance barbs always picking on the little guy :P ... But the main reason for the hostility back them was because the party system was so bad.