Any advise for boosting MF ?

Any advise for boosting MF ?

How do we get 200-400 mf ?

Since we have:
2x rings
1x amy
1x body
1x helm
1x boots
1x belt
1x weap
1x shield

Do we have to play with -75% resist in hell mode to hit the 400% mf ? dont you guys get killed ? meph really hurt without resist.

 

While not a walk in the park to achieve good MF and good survivability it can be done. I'm assuming you are a Sorceress since you are running Mephisto.

The best way to get good MF is to get a good switch. You can alternate between 2 different weapon+shield combinations by pressing the w button. Then you can have a good weapon with lots of +skills and a good shield with lots of resists on one switch and on the other you can have good MF equipment.

Prime candidates being Ali Baba/Gull and a Rhyme shield. This switch alone will give you 125% MF which is quite a lot.

Another very good piece of equipment is Skullder's Ire which gives a lot of MF and +1 skills...along with the switch you have already achieved 200MF. Harlequinn Crest Shako is a very good helm and also adds 50% MF. You can also further add MF by socketing your armor/shield with Perfect Topaz.

Generally speaking more MF is always better but you have to consider your survivability too. If you can manage 200% without getting killed that's a good start, you won't get as many good items per drop as with 400% but you'll kill your target much faster.

If you are running Mephist, I definitely recommend a merc with Shaftstop+Vampire Gaze+Kelpie Snare, he will be able to tank Mephisto alone, 90% of the time.

 

I tend to put MF% pretty much down in the list since it doesn't help a lot, so I'm getting close to 300 --- with maxed resists, almost my full +skills, decent life+mana pool, decent life+mana regen etc. Heck, I even have some damage reduction and CBF --- as a caster

The "trick" for me was to completely ignore MF to start with, and only add MF if there are no better options. I don't have SOJs/BKs and no real "must have" for the ring slots, so I'm wearing MF rings instead (one of them with +mana, which never hurts). I have ptopazes in armor and helmet. I have an amulet with 23% MF as secondary mod, I have a gheeds and some small MF charms. And I have Gull on weaponswitch (no MF shield for me; I have the same shield on both switches), which is my only compromise towards MF (granted, it's a safety measure as well --- AoKL can be a pretty dangerous wand).

The small charms, of course, are subject to be stashed away if I need the space for skillers: I only have the annihilus, gheeds, a few resist charms (I get almost maxed resists without charms, so these just provide the last few %) and mf charms.

I've always thought about making a char to be more MF centered, but this has a number of disadvantages:

- MF% doesn't really do a lot: it doesn't hurt if you have it, but it doesn't matter if you don't. So I really prefer the brute force char that just walzes everything down that happens to be in the way: "We walk in the dark places no others will enter". I still recommend getting at least SOME mf via charms, unless that's absolutely impossible --- MF has extremely diminishing returns, but this also means that the first 100% will do much more than the next 100%.

- putting a lot of MF% into the gear means I'll need some very expensive items in some slot to get at least some survivability and killing power

- I'm playing a necromancer, so normal gear is cheap. MF% gear, on the other hand, means I'll have to compete with zillions of sorcs trying to get (mostly) the same items

 

remember, that wizardspike alone gives you 75 all res, along with huge castrate and other useful mods. Just using this will get you a good bit on the way, even though you cant use alibabas
Also, remember the ever-so-wonderful charms! 40 squares to fill up, with up to 7%/square, even if you might want some free squares for grabbing.
Gheed charms can get up to 40%mf too, not too shabby!

 

Actually, i use a bowazon to kill meph. My bowazon has 100% mf

The bowazon has 1 amy with +20 mf, 1 ring +22 mf, boots +20 mf, gloves +10 mf, and a few small charms.

The body armor on the bowazon is a +1 skill exceptional unique.. i forgot the name... nothing amazing though.

With all the mf equiped, it drops all resist down to -30 (in hell mode).

The lvl 21 valkiry is tanking meph while i shot.. (i have to recast the valkiry about 5 or 6 times though)

The problem isn't to kill meph but to find the stairs to durance 3. Meph is easy to kill but durance 2 map is so damn big. Since i dont have maphack, i have to search for the stairs so i use the Sorcerer who has +70 resist all in hell and i warp around . Sometime i get killed finding the stairs sometime i dont.

I dont have any runeword gears yet. They seem way out of reach.

I heard Tal armor were good for increasing mf. Ive been playing a month and never found any Tal peice. Like everyone i keep getting the isenheart crap..

I also use the bowazon to do hell Pit, Hell countess and to reach Baal's minions.. But to kill balls minions and Baal himself i just logout the bowazon and log back in with the Sorc.

 

I don't understand why you dont just use the sorc for everything... It's much easier!
On my battle net blizzard sorc I have around 900 mf with about 60-70 all resists. I use
Helm: P-topazed shako
Amulet: Fletch
Rings: 2x perfect nagels
Armor: Eth skullders p-topazed
Gloves: Upped chancies
Belt: Goldwrap
Boots: 46% Travs
Weapon: Wizardspike
Shield: Lidless p-diamonded
Weapon Switch: Ali baba istist
Shield Switch: Monarch istististist
And anni, 5 res all sc, gheeds, and the rest of inventory with 7%smfcs.

I know that this isn't attainable for you, but this way you can see how its possible. I suggest trying to get a wizard spike and lidless with p diamond for your teleporting weapon set. This will greatly improve your resists (+94) and your fcr (+70). This way you can tele fast and with great resists. If you still lack resistances, get a vipermagi to tele to throne, then put on your mf armor (I suggest skullders because it gives ~130mf at lvl 80) to kill the boss. This is what I do when I run baal.

 

fletch? is that some dupe-thingy or just something i've missed? Its nothing i've heard of... and, whats so wrong with the maras for skills and resists? amulets usually dont provide good mf along with other useful stats...

 

yes it one of the most duped prismatic ammies ever...armageddon fletch
+2 sorc
20fcr
18 strength
50+life??
around 60 mana
and just under 25 all resist

 

i also had a strafe ama, dont know what kind of ama u got but still maybe of some help, who whas doing pit runs with some nice mf maybe it could be of some help

My gear:
helm: shako 15 ias jewel
armor: tal armor 15 ias jewel
bow: wf
boots: wts, very nice add strenght vita dmg and mf perf boots for this
gloves: LoH, extra dmg to meffie and 20 ias
ring: 2 raven
amu: cats eye, extra dex and frw and ias
belt: goldwrap

this was on a strafer, and with this setup i reached the 120 ias breakpoint, and my resists wherent that bad either, altough resist on a ama is always a problem, cuz mostly u are using a shield and no wiz spike for extra resists

 

Sure, if you can tell me how to kill cold immuned with my orb sorc.

Lightning ghosts (forgot their name), some bosses are pretty much the only things immuned to bowazon.. so i use bowzon to mf.

I use the bowzon also because i have an Amy that gives +1 all zon skills with +32% mf on it.

Im pretty much doomed to the gears i find. I haven't found anything useful for the sorc with mf yet.

My sorc can't use the bowzons gear and my bowzon can't use the sorc gears otherwise its going to mess up all their stats.

i.e: if i remove the gloves on my bowzon i will lose +2 bowskills,

My sorc has a weak defense so i use a Vampire Gaze to reduce the damage by 17%. I tried without the gaze and i was getting killed too often. For some reason i dont like Shako.

I know i should put the gaze on the Bowzon but the Bowzon has an helmet with +35 resist all. If i remove that helmet i lose +35 resist all right there.

as for the Wizardspike, is that one handed or two handed ?

My sorc use an old +2 skills 1-handed.... havent found anything better.

 

isnt there a optimal mf for uniques, due to the dimishing returns?

well anyways i just use an enigma hammer pally.
330 some mf
Shako [p-topaz]
wizspike [ist]
enigma [lvl87]
nagel [25 and 27]
gheed [39]
and like 12ish 7% smfc i havent counted those in a while.
Hoz [um]
+2 combat skill ammy
arach mesh
hellmouth
inferno stride
he has full resist and 10k def.

but i've always been wondering if chaos runs are really worth it? can the monsters drop everything. i havent done any baal runs since i got the enigma but the gloams always gives me trouble.

 

Do cold damage reduce the drop rate ?

I ran an hell cow with Cold damage Charms and at the end of the run there was less drops on the ground.

Should we avoid using Cold damage charms when killing stuff ?

 

Wow, one missing space and it all changes...

 

Here is my MF Sorc setup, 472% MF and only negative resist in hell is poison (Cold- and Lightning-resist is maxed in hell):

Helm: Tals 'ptopaz'
Amulet: Tals
Armor: Tals 'ptopaz'
Weapon: Tals 'Ist'
Shield: Stormshield 'Ist'
Gloves: Chanceguard
Belt: Tals
Boots: War Traveler
Rings: Nagelrings

And a Gheed's Fortune and misc resist + MF small charms. I could fix the poison resist by charms or by changing from War Traveler to Sandstorm Trek (and loose 46% MF).

IMO Tals set is a very good combination of MF and survivability.

 

I agree with front, Tal's set is an excellent mix of mf and survivability and rather affodable.

However, I do not wear the full set, just the armor, ammy and belt.

Helm: Shako (p topazed)
Amulet: Tals
Armor: Tals (p topazed)
Belt: Tal's belt
Wep: 32% HOTO, switch to Isted Ocy when I enter Worldstone Chamber for Baal
Gloves: Magefist
Boots: War Travellers
Rings: SoJ and rare ring with resists + mf
Shield: Spirit monarch (the str req for travellers alone mean carrying a spirit is very worthwhile for its plus to vit and mana)

And Gheeds + mf scs give me 469% mf on Baal, and 389% on regular monsters. Very sufficient. With some resists charms, mine are maxed cept for poison, which isn't too dangerous so thats okay.

unresgistered, 'Should we avoid using Cold damage charms when killing stuff ?'

ONLY if you're a find item barb. Otherwise a dead monster is a dead monster and will drop whatever it will drop whether you kill it with cold or just plain bad breath.

And if you need stuff, just collect a whole bunch of p gems and sell them. Shouldn't take you too long acquire a Tal's set.

 

You should not kill them, just teleport through them.
Sorc is good for running bosses (Meph especially), she has teleport and with faster cast rate, she doesn't get hit when teleporting. Then straight to Mephisto, let your merc tank (Vam Gaze belong to your merc, not to your sorc), static him and finish him with your main attack. And I did that with negative resistances in Hell.
If your merc is not able to tank, go without him and use a moat trick.
For Baal you need more "uber" gear.
For Meph and Pindle, you need only mediocre gear for your merc (Vamp Gaze/Rockstopper, Shaftstop, Kelpie/Reapers) and you can be dressed in full MF.

For area running (Pit for example) you need more flexibility, bowazons are good there. But if you have not items that Hell Meph can drop, I would recommend to use a sorc and do some Meph runs first - he is the best MF target (but can't drop items over TC78)

 

Hell Baal is very easy.

I find Pindle harder to kill than Baal actually. in fact, i can't kill Pindle... there just not enough space to move around.

The goat trick ? never heard of..

btw, I dont know if this is rare but i just found something called Mara's Kaleidoscope Amy
+2 skill, 21 resists , +5 attributes on it.

 

It is very rare. Your's is a bit low on resist but still a great find!

I only found Mara's twice in the time I played. I found them less than an hour apart both from Meph.