Magic find

[phansawat]

just toked from diablo forum
MF & You: A Beginners Guide - Forums - Diablo III


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Since the launch of D3, there has been a lot of speculation and theories about how Magic Find works. There has been a lot of complaining about loot and drops on these forums lately, and much of it can be attributed to a general misconception of how Magic Find works, how loot drops and so on.

So, I've decided to write a guide to explain these concepts in detail, and hopefully it will help people understand what Magic Find does, what it doesn't do, and why you are getting the drops you do.

My post is based on the fact that Magic Find in Diablo 3 works much like it did in Diablo 2. All my tests and experiences throughout while playing D3 has indicated this, and last week there was a blue post confirming my assumptions. Magic Find in D2 has been extensively documented, I've played the game for several years, and I'm almost certain that most of the information in this post is correct, except for perhaps minor details.

Quality - term describing white, magic, rare, legendary.

Overview
As most people probably aren't interested in the mechanics behind it, I'll start with a short overview.

Magic find does:

•work.
•most likely work when swapping gear just before the mob dies.
•increase the chance for an item to be of higher quality than white.
•by increasing chance of better-than-white, indirectly increase chance of magic, rare and legendary.


Magic Find does not:

•affect stats/affixes on items.
•affect item level of items.
•affect number of items dropped.
•directly affect whether an item is magic, rare or legendary. (!)


Magic Find Basics

•Magic Find is not capped, but there is a limit to Magic Find on gear.
•Magic Find is subject to diminishing returns (confirmed by Bashiok).
•100% Magic Find most likely doubles the chances of getting a higher quality item from any mob.
•Diminishing returns probably come into effect when passing 100% MF.


Magic Find in Retrospect
MF could have made a difference when:
a white item drops, more MF could have made it a non-white item.

MF would not make a difference when:
a magic, rare or legendary item drops. MF already helped make them non-white, the rest is random.

Magic Find in groups
The amount of Magic Find youhave in a group is the average of all players in the group.
Player 1 has 200% MF, Player 2 has 100% MF, Player 3 has 0% MF, Player 4 has 100% MF.
Every player in the group will have 100% MF.
Your group MF is not shown anywhere, your character sheet still shows the MF on your own gear.

Magic Find on followers
Followers can be equipped with Magic Find, but you only receive 20% of 1/5th of his total Magic Find. You can see the amount you gain in your followers character sheet.

Nephalem Valor is not Magic Find
Nephalem Valor provides the player with 15% Magic Find per application, but that is where the similarities end.

•Nephalem Valor has additional effects on most bosses in the game.
•These effects cannot be reproduced by having 75% MF on gear instead of 5 NV stacks.
•NV stacks increases the amount of items that drop from a boss
•A common estimate is 1 extra item for each NV, giving max 5 extra items.
•5 NV stacks guarantee minimum 2 rares from a boss, these 2 rares are included in the 5 extra items.

There are currently 2 bosses in the game that are not affected by NV, Izual and Iskatu. I'm not sure if this is a bug or intended due to ease of access.

Speculation
Before game release, a blue post said that bosses would not drop their highest item level unless you had x NV applications. I'm not sure if this has made it into the final game. It would be relatively easy to test if someone wants to.

Magic Find on Bosses

•Magic Find affect bosses the same way it affects any other mob.
•Bosses normally drop many blue items even with 0 MF, which MF would have no effect on.
•Bosses rarely drop many white items, higher MF could have affected these.
•Killing any boss for the first time gives loot as if you had roughly 3-4 NV stacks.
•After the first kill, the chance of getting any rare items is very low as you have 0 NV stacks.
•The effects of MF on a few white items is overshadowed by the 5 extra items and 2 guaranteed rares from 5 NV.


Blizzard has stated that bosses will have a higher chance of dropping rares on NM and Hell in a future patch.

Magic Find on Chests and Quests
Magic Find works the same way on chests as I described above.
Magic Find probably works the same way on events/quests that give you rewards.

Item generation

•All item attributes and affixes generated at the time the item drops.
•Identifying an item simply reveals the affixes already determined.
•The player cannot in any way affect the affixes on an item.


The n-roll mehanic
While I cannot guarantee on the details if implementation, it can be used to explain how MF works. When an item drops, a series of 'rolls' are performed, where each roll determines an aspect or attribute for the item.

Rolls we can assume are being performed:

•Item type (Sword, Chest, Pants eg.)
•Item level (ilevel61, 62 eg.)
•Magical item (If the item is white or better. This is the only roll affected by MF.)
•Type of magical (If we rolled magical above, is it magic, rare or legendary?)
•Affixes (Actual stats on your item)


And there could be many more, specific details are not important and cannot be guaranteed for. The important part is the separation of rolls for whether or not the item is white, and if so what quality it is.

Closing
I would be happy to receive feedback and constructive criticism on the information, structure and layout of this post. I will try to keep it up to date and perhaps it could even become a sticky one day

[stealthingyew]

are you sure about affect number of items dropped. What is your source or what if any tests did you do to check it? I haven't really tested it myself but I normally always seem to get an extra yellow off bosses when I swap my suit as opposed to not swapping.


;/
MF & You: A Beginners Guide - Forums - Diablo III

[phansawat]

are you sure about affect number of items dropped. What is your source or what if any tests did you do to check it? I haven't really tested it myself but I normally always seem to get an extra yellow off bosses when I swap my suit as opposed to not swapping.

as i write above i just toke it from diablo forum i think it is well written what magic find does or does not

[stealthingyew]

Yea somehow i missed the part and then saw it on main forum.