Poor Mans MF spots?

[tmd turka]

Poor Mans MF spots?

Is there any place that someone with little or no MF can go to get items. I go to the Pits from time to time and havent gotten anything from them yet and this leaves me to believe that i shouldnt bother unless I have good MF gear. Hell Andy seems to be the only spot I can really get good items with my low MF.

I am sure this has been asked before but all i keep reading is pitruns and they are not workin for me. By the way I am using a meteorb sorc to get most of my items and I mostly play with no one else in the game but myself. Should I join larger games if i hope to get good items.

Thanks for the Help.

 

[Myrakh-2]

Andy has her drop bug, so she tends to drop high qualities.

Mephisto, Diablo and Baal are all act bosses --- even though they don't have a drop bug, they still drop with a very good chance for higher qualities.

Pindleskin, Shenk and Eldritch (or whatever he's called...) are popular as well --- directly accessible via waypoint/portal (ok, I guess quite a few people these days now close the Anya portal to hunt for keys...), and superunique drops are biased towards higher qualities as well.

High MF is way overrated by the crowd. You can easily double your output of uniques (needs 169% MF to achieve), and it's very difficult to triple the output of uniques (needs 1000% MF).

EDIT: having more players in a game will increase the number of items that drop from normal monsters significantly, up to 4 players. Above that it basically flatlines (to my knowledge, anyway).

More players in the game also increase the chances for items on act bosses, although to a lesser extent. It's still useful.

I almost always play with 2 players (both my CD keys) --- not the maximum item output, but it means no item stealing. People either want "tp" to leech exp and steal your stuff, or they leave. Baalrun games don't last long enough for me.

In no case will more players cause *better* items to drop; however, *more* items obviously means more chances to roll "good" items. Stupid probability stuff

 

[tmd turka]

Andy has her drop bug, so she tends to drop high qualities.

Mephisto, Diablo and Baal are all act bosses --- even though they don't have a drop bug, they still drop with a very good chance for higher qualities.

Pindleskin, Shenk and Eldritch (or whatever he's called...) are popular as well --- directly accessible via waypoint/portal (ok, I guess quite a few people these days now close the Anya portal to hunt for keys...), and superunique drops are biased towards higher qualities as well.

High MF is way overrated by the crowd. You can easily double your output of uniques (needs 169% MF to achieve), and it's very difficult to triple the output of uniques (needs 1000% MF).

Can you recomend some attainable gear for getting around 169mf? By the way though I have a hard time in Hell, i can run both Nm Diablo and Baal in a very short amount of time. Should i just keep NM running?

 

[Myrakh-2]

Can you recomend some attainable gear for getting around 169mf?

I have no idea --- MF is just a secondary attribute for me: nice to have, but I don't build my chars around it. If you are talking about the current ladder season there is no such thing as "attainable MF gear", since everybody, his friends, grandparents and pet fish are making MF sorcs.

What I'm aiming at, though: MF% gear gives a nice boost at lower values, but it's effectiveness diminishes very quickly. So if you can stick a perfect topaz into your helmet and/or armor you already have a good start; some people even use 4-ptopaz armors and 2-ptopaz helmets, although this might come at a price, such as less resistances or +skills.

If you are lucky and find an IST --- don't stick it into gear. MF is nice to have, but not *that* nice, and certainly not at the beginning.

Depending on what gear you are wearing, you might also want to identify magic items of certain types. MF can spawn on rings, amulets, belts, gloves, boots... so if you think that any of these that you are currently wearing are total crap and you'd be better off without them, then consider identifying magic items of that type as well.

By the way though I have a hard time in Hell, i can run both Nm Diablo and Baal in a very short amount of time. Should i just keep NM running?

One way to split the D2 players into groups is by looking at how they handle "bad gear" cases. I prefer to stick to areas that I can handle well, collect currency, and build up (whether it still works on this ladder season remains to be seen, though).
Other people don't mind dieing all the time, so they hope for the big bang drop.

 

[tmd turka]

I have no idea --- MF is just a secondary attribute for me: nice to have, but I don't build my chars around it. If you are talking about the current ladder season there is no such thing as "attainable MF gear", since everybody, his friends, grandparents and pet fish are making MF sorcs.

What I'm aiming at, though: MF% gear gives a nice boost at lower values, but it's effectiveness diminishes very quickly. So if you can stick a perfect topaz into your helmet and/or armor you already have a good start; some people even use 4-ptopaz armors and 2-ptopaz helmets, although this might come at a price, such as less resistances or +skills.

If you are lucky and find an IST --- don't stick it into gear. MF is nice to have, but not *that* nice, and certainly not at the beginning.

Depending on what gear you are wearing, you might also want to identify magic items of certain types. MF can spawn on rings, amulets, belts, gloves, boots... so if you think that any of these that you are currently wearing are total crap and you'd be better off without them, then consider identifying magic items of that type as well.



One way to split the D2 players into groups is by looking at how they handle "bad gear" cases. I prefer to stick to areas that I can handle well, collect currency, and build up (whether it still works on this ladder season remains to be seen, though).
Other people don't mind dieing all the time, so they hope for the big bang drop.

Well thanks for all the help i think im gonna stick to running nm Baal and Diablo since they can drop some pretty decent stuff and i never have to worry about getting killed. According to ATMA and a few other threads Nm Diablo can even drop a HOZ. Running Hell Andy and the pit is fine every once in awhile but NM is just so much easier and faster. I can doat least 3 NM runs for every 1 Hell run.

 

[FearFactory]

If you are talking about the current ladder season there is no such thing as "attainable MF gear", since everybody, his friends, grandparents and pet fish are making MF sorcs.

ROFL!

that was awesome. that made my day.

 

[Thrugg]

You are on the right track, tmd turka. Definitely keep running the highest act bosses you can beat comfortably - most people start with NM Mephisto but not all builds are good for him as he cannot be leeched from. If you can handle Diablo or Baal then they will be by far your best options with low MF. I wouldn't spend time running superuniques until you can get 200-ish MF on.

Note that a lot of the easier MF gear to get is available in normal. Chance Guards, Goldwrap, Tarnhelm, and some set combos like 3 Sigon pieces including the boots, or Angelic amulet+armor+two rings. You can kill normal Meph/Diablo/Baal (probably very easily) for these.

The other thing to consider is finding a four socket armour (you'll need to look in NM for this) and just sticking 4 perfect topazes in there. You can build up to those fairly quickly (or just use Flawless ones). You only weaken one gear slot and get nearly 100 MF right there. You could wear that for running the low end bosses to find other MF gear faster.

Good luck.

[edit] Oops, didn't see that Myrakh already suggested topazes. Well, it's good advice

 

[tmd turka]

You are on the right track, tmd turka. Definitely keep running the highest act bosses you can beat comfortably - most people start with NM Mephisto but not all builds are good for him as he cannot be leeched from. If you can handle Diablo or Baal then they will be by far your best options with low MF. I wouldn't spend time running superuniques until you can get 200-ish MF on.

Note that a lot of the easier MF gear to get is available in normal. Chance Guards, Goldwrap, Tarnhelm, and some set combos like 3 Sigon pieces including the boots, or Angelic amulet+armor+two rings. You can kill normal Meph/Diablo/Baal (probably very easily) for these.

The other thing to consider is finding a four socket armour (you'll need to look in NM for this) and just sticking 4 perfect topazes in there. You can build up to those fairly quickly (or just use Flawless ones). You only weaken one gear slot and get nearly 100 MF right there. You could wear that for running the low end bosses to find other MF gear faster.

Good luck.

[edit] Oops, didn't see that Myrakh already suggested topazes. Well, it's good advice

Thanks for the advice and I never considered running normal games to get MF gear so I will give that a try tonight. I can run Hell Andy without too much trouble but she is pretty much the only one my sorc can make quick work of.

 

[Pred]

My advise: just play the game, do all the quests, and help friends do them as well. (Afterwards if you still need more you can do pitruns or cowruns but I've never found great stuff there) You'll get lots of great stuff on the way. Bosses are so overrated. I have found much more good stuff while doing quests than while hunting pits/countess etc. Besides, it's a lot more enjoyable imho.

Also, if you're gonna do runs, try to kill everything you pass on the way if they die fast enough. On the way to pits or the tower I love taking out those carver/shaman camps in 2-3 strikes of my lightning fury (javazon).
Open chests/barrels/etc! I even found a frostburns in one of those barrels on the way to the countess, and the most valuable item i ever found came from a chest in fact (39 ED/15 ias jewel), also on the way to countess .

 

[tmd turka]

My advise: just play the game, do all the quests, and help friends do them as well. (Afterwards if you still need more you can do pitruns or cowruns but I've never found great stuff there) You'll get lots of great stuff on the way. Bosses are so overrated. I have found much more good stuff while doing quests than while hunting pits/countess etc. Besides, it's a lot more enjoyable imho.

Also, if you're gonna do runs, try to kill everything you pass on the way if they die fast enough. On the way to pits or the tower I love taking out those carver/shaman camps in 2-3 strikes of my lightning fury (javazon).
Open chests/barrels/etc! I even found a frostburns in one of those barrels on the way to the countess, and the most valuable item i ever found came from a chest in fact (39 ED/15 ias jewel), also on the way to countess .

I see what you mean all of act1 i just ran around doind quests and it seemed that many unques and set items were droping that way but unfortunatly non of them were any good. For now I decided to just do a few NM baal/Diablo runs and keep working my way through act2 quest by quest. Ill let you know how it turns out.

 

[tmd turka]

My advise: just play the game, do all the quests, and help friends do them as well. (Afterwards if you still need more you can do pitruns or cowruns but I've never found great stuff there) You'll get lots of great stuff on the way. Bosses are so overrated. I have found much more good stuff while doing quests than while hunting pits/countess etc. Besides, it's a lot more enjoyable imho.

Also, if you're gonna do runs, try to kill everything you pass on the way if they die fast enough. On the way to pits or the tower I love taking out those carver/shaman camps in 2-3 strikes of my lightning fury (javazon).
Open chests/barrels/etc! I even found a frostburns in one of those barrels on the way to the countess, and the most valuable item i ever found came from a chest in fact (39 ED/15 ias jewel), also on the way to countess .

I see what you mean all of act1 i just ran around doing quests and it seemed that many uniques and set items were droping that way but unfortunatly none of them were any good. For now I decided to just do a few NM baal/Diablo runs and keep working my way through act2 quest by quest. Ill let you know how it turns out.