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Welcome to the JPitems.com MF Guide
JPitems.com provides this Magic Find information free to the public. Here you can learn some Magic Finding strategies, get answers to common questions, resolve some misconceptions, and get some specific ideas on what type of MF gear you could be using on your characters. Hopefully you can pick up a few new magic find concepts from the guide, and get some clear ideas about how much MF to use, where to MF, and what bosses to kill. The guide is intended to help you find some new ways to make your magic finding more productive, more fun, and more rewarding. Please refer to the PVP guide glossary if you find terms that are unfamiliar to you. The guide includes answers to typical questions, as well as a suggested build for each of the most common Diablo 2 Character types. At the top of the table of contents you can find some sample questions this guide should help you answer. We are open to suggestions; should you disagree with any of our recommendations, you are welcome to contact us with better ideas.
This guide is intended to help you answer the following questions and more (for both PVP and PVM ). You will notice there is a big focus in this guide on
1. What does the modifier % to find Magical Items do exactly?
The quality of your items will be higher based on your magic find. The same amount of items will drop, however, the higher your magic find, the better quality on average your items will be. Here is a sample chart:
Magic Find MF% Chart
Item Quality Probability Based on MF%
|
| Character MF Level |
Magical |
Rare Items |
Set Items |
Uniques |
| 0% MF |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 100% MF |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 150% MF |
150 |
146 |
145 |
141 |
| 200% MF |
200 |
185 |
183 |
171 |
| 250% MF |
250 |
220 |
215 |
193 |
| 300% MF |
300 |
250 |
242 |
211 |
| 400% MF |
400 |
300 |
287 |
236 |
| 500% MF |
500 |
340 |
322 |
253 |
| 750% MF |
750 |
412 |
382 |
280 |
| 1000% MF |
1000 |
460 |
421 |
295 |
| 1200% MF |
1200 |
494 |
448 |
305 |
| 1500% MF |
1500 |
520 |
468 |
312 |
| *In Diablo 2, MF only effects item quality, not quantity of items dropped |
After about 350 to 400% magic find, there is a dramatic drop in the ratio of magic find to the % chance of finding unique items. For example, adding 100% more magic find, and moving from 300% to 400% MF only grants you a 24% better chance of finding unqiue items! Magical items drop quite a bit more with higher MF rates, however, you will find that unique item finds drop off drastically with more & more magic find.
Perhaps a better illustration can be made: to get from 193% to find unique items (250% MF) to 312% to find unique items (1500% MF) you have to add over 1100% Magic Find!
2. Is more Magic Find always better? If not, what percent % magic find should I try to achieve?
There are drastic diminishing returns beyond about 350-400% magic find (for finding unique items). This guide is based in part on the premise that more magic find, is not always better. You have to consider that if you can kill 50% faster at 400% mf vs. 750% mf, the odds would give you a 74% better probability to find uniques, even though you had less MF. You need to strike a balance with your character's ability to kill and with the amount of magic find you are using. That is why we recommend about 350%-450% magic find on a character. Beyond that, if you hamper your ability to kill, the amount of uniques you will find may not significantly increase.
3. What is the best Diablo 2 Magic Find Character Class?
Overall, the best class is a sorceress. Since her attacks are not weapon based, it is sometimes easier for a Sorc to use more MF oriented gear and sacrifice less damage. Sorceress attacks are still skill based, and having your synergy right is still important. In my opinion, the Blizzard sorceress is by far the best for magic find. I have found I can usually kill Pindleskin (act 5, Anya's portal) in one Blizzard attack while wearing 350-450% magic find, with plenty of empty inventory space. Aside from that a Sorceress comes with the teleport skill and also they naturally have the most mana. It's easy to teleport around with a sorceress wearing at least 1 soj, with maybe at least 50 points in energy. If you are using an ES/ Energy Shield Sorceress (with 400+ energy points) you should rarely or never run out of mana just from teleporting. Barbarians are the second best magic finders; they can dual wield high mf weapons (e.g. 2x 6 ist 180% MF crystal swords, for 360% MF on just 2 slots!). The Barbarian 'Find Item' skill can also be used to effectively kill the same enemy twice. Paladins may be the third best MF class. A good hammerdin can do solo Baal MF runs in Hell. with a good build, its easy to pull off 350%+ MF while maintaining over 10k Magic Hammer damage. Also, Paladins and Sorcs have two of the most MF oriented sets in the game. the Tal Rasha Set and the Griswold's Honor set both come with some base MF. You can mix & match items from these sets to pull of some solid MF numbers without sacrificing too much capacity to inflict damage. Smite Paladins are great for Uber Tristam bosses, and Lightning Javazons are good for killing the Diablo Clone. Other classes, such as Druids, Necros, and Assasins are great & fun classes to play, however, I think they are a bit inferior for magic finding.
General Magic Finding:
(from best to worst)
1- Sorcs
2- Barbarians
3- Paladins
4- Amazons
5- Assasins
6- Druids
7- Necromancers
Uber Tristam
1- Smite Paladin
Diablo 2 Clone
1- Lightning Javazon
Worst Overall MF Classes: Druids, Necros, Assasins, Zeal Paladins
4. Does my merc's MF stack with my MF?
Your Mercenaries' MF only stacks with your MF when your mercenary gets the last hit. Most merc's are already weak vs. bosses, and trying to give them a lot of MF can just make the situation worse. This is why I recommend you try to use the Merc to increase your damage or defense with Auras (especially Act 2 mercs), instead of making your Merc weak to increase your Magic Find. There is one item I can still recommend for a merc; an ethereal Tombreaver Cryptic Axe can come with 50-75% magic find, 30-50% resist all, and 1-3 sockets. You can add jewels (40/15s) or Ohm runes to an Ethereal Tombreaver to give it over 1000 base damage! I have found that a Merc with an Eth Tombreaver can still be helpful, although this limits you to using an Act 2 merc-since only Act 2 mercs can use a polearm (see the PVP guide to see what all the different Act 2 Merc options are).
5. What is the best MF Merc Gear?
The best MF merc gear really depends on your main character class. I like using an Act 2 Normal Defiance Aura mercenary (because with decent gear the merc can get 10k+ defense, and its easy for your character to get 2k to 5k defense from this as well) with most classes a Doom Polearm (cold aura) is also helpful. Now if you are using a Paladin with an Exile, I recommend you don't bother with an Act 2 Normal merc, since you will already have the Defiance Aura from your exile. In fact, with many melee classes I prefer to use and Act 2 Offensive Mercenary with the Might Aura. You will find that it's a great damage boost on a melee class. I remember my legit 1.09 Amazon was doing 3-5k extra damage when the Act 2 Might Mercenary was on. If you are using a Sorceress, Assassin, or an Elemental Based damage class I recommend that you get an Infinity Cryptic Axe. It comes with a Level 12 Conviction Aura, which effectively lowers your enemies' resistance by 100%. You may also find that it causes physical immune enemies to take some physical damage as well (so an Infinity Cryptic Axe is still a viable choice for your melee character). In all cases, I recommend the merc wears a Ethereal Vampire Gaze helm with a 40/15 jewel and either Ethereal Bramble Armor (for Thorns), or an Ethereal Chains of Honor (for the 65% resist). There is a summary of merc gear recommendations in our PVP guide as well.
6. Does it help when I MF alone in full 8 player games?
You should avoid trying to MF alone in 8 player games. You will find it takes much longer to kill a boss in a large game and due to this fact, (and the fact that other players can take your drops)--it's not such a great idea to try and MF in a full game. Also, the % chance to drop a unique item is not increased with more players; it is only based on the MF% of the last player to hit any given boss (see the chart above for drop rates of item types based on your MF%). One should also consider that if it takes you longer to kill the boss in a large game (there's a good chance you will die if you are using a lot of MF), you will end up finding less. So, in summary, there's no real advantage to MFing in a full 8 player game. And since you will kill the bosses slower, you will probably end up finding less.
7. I just did 100 Mephisto runs in a row without any luck, am I doing something wrong?
Your chance to find any given item is based on the Treasure Class of the boss you are fighting. Each boss has a set range of items they can drop, and each time you kill a boss there is a probability they will find certain types of items. After the server decides the item types it will drop, it rolls on the item quality. The higher your MF%, the higher chance the items the boss is dropping will be of higher quality, with unique as the highest quality, down to plain grey items at the low end of the spectrum. What each boss drops is purely based on probability, not on whether you just talked to Ormus or just sold something to Charsi. Some people get superstitious about things when they find a correlation between their actions and their drops. I assure you, it is all based on random chance; if you get unlucky 100 runes in a row it really doesn't mean anything. Now this is assuming you are using 350-400% magic find, and that some player with less % MF is not getting the last hit on the boss (the drop is calculated based on the last player to hit the boss). Anyway, because of this factor, it does help your MF a bit if you switch to a higher MF weapon right before you kill a boss.
8. What are the best places to MF?
I would recommend farming Diablo 2 bosses primarily in Hell. Very few items can just drop from regular monsters. Avoid spending a lot of time in normal and nightmare. Doing this will limit your potential, and there are many items you will never find; because the best Diablo 2 items drop in hell difficulty.
9. What are the best Diablo 2 bosses to MF? Which boss do I go to for what item?
MF drops are based on treasure class. The vast majority of useful/powerful unique items can only drop on bosses. And some items can only drop on Baal, Pindle, and a few others. There are sites out there on the web that display the drop rates of each item with specific bosses. You can be sure that if you do a few thousand runs, you would be able to confirm those drop rates are correct. For the starting Magic Finder, I highly recommend doing Mephisto runs. Mephisto is very limited in the spectrum of items he drops, but he has great drop rates on some good MF items such as Shakos, Skulders, and others. Pindleskin, the boss in Act 5, through Anya's portal is great because he can drop nearly every item in the game. There are some exceptions; Pindleskin can't drop Tyrael's might and a few other rare items. Anyway, here's a list of bosses that are good for MFing, and some common items they tend to drop:
Andariel: Sojs (even in Nightmare)
The Countess: Runes
Mephisto: Shako, Skulders, Arachnid Sashes
Pindle: Almost Anything
Baal: Almost Anything
Diablo Clone: Annihillus Small Charm
Uber Tristam Bosses: Hellfire Torch Large Charm (requires a full organ set to create the portal)
There are many other useful bosses you can magic find. These are just some of the more common ones. Many magic finders avoid Diablo and Baal because so much time must be spent killing before you kill the boss and get the nice % chance to drop great items. In part, it depends on what you are looking for as well. One final note, I highly recommend you MF only in hell difficulty once you have decent gear. Hell bosses drop the highest TC class ratings. With the exception of a few Nightmare Bosses (Pindle, Andariel, Baal), I would say non-hell difficulty MF runs are nearly useless. One reason is the Treasure class of the bosses you are dealing with. The treasure class of the boss defines the items they can drop. The higher the TC, the better items they have available, Hell Baal has the highest TC rating in the game. In fact, items such as charms dropped by Hell Baal actually have special potential. For example, last ladder season (1.10) a group of people used thousands of gems on Hell Baal charms to create a set of 20x 313 poison damage small charms. Those charms can't drop in the game. They can only be crafted in a Horadric Cube with gems (by random chance). Also, from what I hear, Hell Baal small charms have the highest potential of any charms in the game.
10. What is the best Magic Find gear for each class: Paly, Sorc, Necro, Zon, Druid, Assassin, and Barb? What magic find gear should I use on my character?
Well, I don't know if anyone can claim to know the 'best' mf gear in all situations. However, we will attempt to give you some recommendations here, and show some typical MF set-ups we would consider using with each class. Hopefully we can help give you some new ideas about elite MF gear that will help you.
With every build we strongly recommend you use an annihilus small charm, hellfire charm, some 5% resist small charms, and some 7% MF Small charms. You should go for close to 75% resist lightning in hell difficulty or you may find you have trouble, especially with conviction + lightning enchanted bosses. Cold, Fire, and Poison Resist is not as critical for MFing, although its recommend you have at least 40-60 Cold and Fire resist, and hopfully above negative poison resist for your MF Runs. You want to be able to kill the bosses you are farming quickly, effectively and with ease. If you find you are dying a lot, you may need to change your gear, use a different character class, or make a new character with better skill selections. Our PVP guide has some great advice on skill and stat selections. This MF guide only gives recommendations on your Character gear selection. We don't go into details that are already explained in the PVP guide.
Amazon Builds
Bowazon
Although not highly recommended as an MF class, an Amazon can still be reasonably good at magic finding with the right gear. We recommend you find a way to get 300-350% MF on your Amazon without losing too much IAS (Increased Attack Speed). With this suggested build below you would have 310% Magic Find assuming you use an Ist'ed Shako, Enigma, 2x Perfect Nagelrings, 40% Chance Guards and 50% War Traveler boots. With a Goldwrap belt you would have 340% Magic Find. You can also use some 7% MF Small Charms to get a bit more MF. You may also consider using some 5% resist small charms if your resist is low with this build.
Equipment
Helm: Shako with an Ist for 75% Magic Find
Armor: Enigma for 85-99% MF (assuming you are level 85-99)
Gloves: 40% MF Chance Guards
Shield: None.
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA with +6 Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills. Instead of a Lidless you can use a Ber Stormshield on the backside to block while running away.
Belt: 30% MF Goldwrap for higher MF, or 15% Damage reduction Verdungo is the best option here. If you can't afford that, or if you need more IAS, use Nosferatu for 10% IAS, leech +10 Strength, and slow your enemy.
Boots: 50% perfect MF War Travelers
Weapon: A Faith Grand Matron bow (Ladder Only) is now the best bow for an Amazon. The 12-15 Fanaticism aura from Faith adds quite a bit of damage & IAS. The second best choice (and possibly your only choice if you are on Non-Ladder) is Windforce, socket it with a 40/10 min jewel
Amulet/ Rings: 2x perfect 30% nagel rings for 60% MF, or you can mix and match with 20% MF wisp projectors. Your resist will be low with all the MF gear you have equipped, so we recommend a 30% perfect resist Maras amulet. Or a rare godly amulet with resist, skills, and MF.
Charms: 5x 3 Max/ 20 life small charms (don't use poison charms or Critical Strike does not work properly), 5x 3max/ FRW small charms, 1x Hellfire Torch and 1x Annihilus. You should leave some empty space in case 2 good items drop at once, and to avoid having your stash fill too quickly. You may want to use a few 7% Magic Find Small Charms, or a 30-40% Gheeds Grand Charm, however, with Gheeds, remember, if you are carrying one, it's hard to pick up a new one when it drops! (You can only carry 1x Gheeds Grand Charm at a time)
Javazon
This build will give your Javazon 310% Magic Find, not including charms, or a Goldwrap belt (should you choose to use one). You may consider using some 5% resist small charms if your resist is low with this build.
Equipment
Helm: Shako with an Ist for 75% Magic Find
Armor: Enigma for 85-99% MF (assuming you are level 85-99)
Gloves: 40% MF Chance Guards
Shield: Stormshield 15 ias/ 15 res (DPS) or 5/5 Lightning Facet (lower resist)
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1/2 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.
Belt: Thundergod's Vigor has great Strength, vitality, and Java skills bonuses. You can also add an optional 30% Magic Find Goldwrap belt
Boots: 50% perfect MF War Travelers
Weapon: Use a 180%+ ethereal upgraded Titans Revenge.
Amulet/ Rings: 30% Mara's, 2x 30% Perfect Nagelrings, or 2x 20% Magic Find Wisp Projectors
Charms: 2-3x +1 Java grand charms with 30+ life, 3 Max/5% FHR small charms (enough for 50% FHR with all gear equipped ), 1x Hellfire Torch, 1x Annihilus. 5/7 Resist/ MF charms, or MF charms may also be included. Be sure to leave enough space to pick up 2x large items should you have good luck on one run.
Assassin Builds
Trapsin
This Assassin Trap build brings you to about 310% Magic Find at level 85, this is before considering what belt you are wearing, or small charms.
Equipment
Helm: Shako with an Ist for 75% Magic Find. The Shako provides life/mana per level, +2 skills, and comes with 10% damage reduction.
Armor: Enigma Breast Plate for 85-99% MF (assuming you are level 85-99). +1 Teleport will make you mobile, and the massive Strength bonus will let you get away with putting zero points in Strength. This leaves a lot of points for vitality!
Gloves: 40% MF Chance Guards
Shield: If you choose to use a shield us a Stormshield (Um/Eld/Cham). Many people forget that you can use an Eld rune for 7% increased chance to block. At high levels this can save you from putting as many as 30 points into Dexterity to reach a 75% block rate.
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.
Belt: Thundergod's Vigor has great Strength, vitality, and Java skills bonuses. Optional, 30% Magic Find Goldwrap.
Boots: 50% perfect MF War Travelers
Weapon: Find some magical 2 socket, +3 Traps, +3 Light Sentry claws/ or rare +2 Assassin skills, +3 Traps, 2 socket claws . Socket them with 2x 15% IAS/15% resist jewels. (Magic Claws usually get 2 sockets)
Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Assassin amulet with 20 FCR, + strength, and stats/MF/resist, and 2x 30% perfect Nagelrings, or 2x 20% MF Wisp Projectors.
Charms: 2x +1 Trap grand charms with 30+ life, Life/Resist/FHR small charms , 1x Hellfire Torch, 1x Annihilus. You can add 7% MF and 5% resist small charms to your remaining space, be sure to leave a few slots open so you can pick up more than one item on a good run.
Whirlwind Assassin
This Assassin Whirlwind build gives you about 310% Magic Find before your charms/ belt assuming you are at least level 85. You may want to boost your resist with some 5% Res SC's.
Equipment
Helm: Shako with an Ist for 75% Magic Find. The Shako provides life/mana per level, +2 skills, and comes with 10% damage reduction.
Armor: Enigma Breast Plate for 85-99% MF (assuming you are level 85-99). +1 Teleport will make you mobile, and the massive Strength bonus will let you get away with putting zero points in Strength. This leaves a lot of points for vitality!
Gloves: 40% MF Chance Guards
Shield: None.
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.
Belt: 15% DR Verdungo. Or you can use Goldwrap for 30% Magic Find.
Boots: 50% perfect MF War Travelers, these come with Vitality and Strength.
Weapon: Use one Chaos (Runic Talon for speed or Suwayyah for lower reqs/ higher base avg damage) and one Fury (Feral claw for speed or Suwayyah for lower reqs/ higher base damage). Equip the Fury on the left side of your screen to recieve the 20% AR bonus. +3 Venom, +1 Dragonflight, and +3 Weaponblock (on each claw) is best but impossible to find.
Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Assassin amulet with stats/resist/MF.
Rings: 2x 30% Perfect Nagelrings
Charms: 2-3x +1 Shadow grand charms with 30+ life, 1x Hellfire Torch, 1x Annihilus, 10x 7/5 MF/resist small charms.
Barbarian Builds
Whirlwind Barbarian /Barb/ Baba
This build, like the others above gives about 310% MF with the gear shown below without considering belts and charms. Since the Barbarian can dual weild you can approach this a completely different way as well. You can make a PVP Oriented Barbarian (and use the gear we suggest in the PVP guide), then just throw 2x 180% MF Crystal swords on your backside for MFing. As long as your last hit is with the 2x 180 MF crystal swords, you will hit for 360% MF+! Or if you want to be extreme, you can do one of the builds below, then ALSO use 2x 180% MF crystal swords. As long as you hit with the crystal swords on your last hit, a total of 670% MF will be applied to your drop, this is before considering your belt/ charms (you can easily get a barbarian to 750%+ MF this way). Barbarians come with great natural resist, so you wont need 5% resist small charms as much as other classes do. You can replace these with 7% magic find small charms instead.
Equipment
Helm: Shako with an Ist for 75% Magic Find.
Armor: Enigma Breast Plate for 85-99% MF (assuming you are level 85-99). +1 Teleport will make you mobile to help you MF Faster, and the massive Strength bonus will let you get away with putting very few points in Strength. This leaves a lot of points for vitality!
Gloves: 40% MF Chance Guards
Shield: Stormshield with 40/10 min Jewel or 40/15 max jewel. 40/15 max jewels only APPEAR not to work. This is a clientside bug (i.e. displayed damage will be lower than your actual damage). The server calculates the damage correctly, you just wont know quite how much damage you are doing unless you are good at math.
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Use 2x Echoing Weapons (+3 to Warcries), or you can use 2x 180% MF Crystal Swords to beef up your MF on the last hit (add 360% MF to your last hit!)
Belt: 15% DR Verdungo, 40 Vitality. Or, 30% MF Goldwrap.
Boots: 50% perfect MF War Travelers, these come with Vitality and Strength.
Weapon: A 385% Death Runeword Ethereal Berserker Axe (ladder only) is an excellent choice as well because of open wounds, crushing blow, high damage. A 400-415% Breath of the Dying BOTD Collusus Blade is the next best choice.
Amulet/Rings: Find a godly amulet with MF/ Stats/ Skills, and use 2x 30% Perfect MF Nagelrings. If you want attack rating, use the Angelic Amulet, and one Angelic ring with one 30% MF Nagelring.
Charms: 1x Annihilus with 20 to stats, 1x Hellfire Torch, and 10x 7% MF Charms. You may consider using a 30-40% Gheeds as well, although this will make it hard to pick up a Gheeds if one drops.
Concentrate Barb
Concentrate Barbarians are pretty rare, but just to be safe we went ahead & included them in the guide. The gear is basically the same as above, just with a different weapon in the case of MFing. Like above, you could consider using more PVP / Damage oriented gear, then just throwing 2x 180% MF crystal swords on the backside of your character. This build gets you to 310% MF before considering the belt or charms that you use.
Equipment
Helm: Shako with an Ist for 75% Magic Find.
Armor: : Enigma Breast Plate for 85-99% MF (assuming you are level 85-99). +1 Teleport will to help you MF Faster, and the Strength bonus helps also.
Gloves: 40% MF Chance Guards
Shield: Stormshield with 40/10 min Jewel or 40/15 max Jewel.
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Use 2x Echoing Weapons (+3 to Warcries
)
Belt: 15% DR Verdungo, 40 Vitality or 30% MF Goldwrap, for 10% IAS and MF.
Boots: 50% perfect MF War Travelers, the 10 Vita and Str help.
Weapon: 415% ED Botd Ethereal War Pike, or if you need to use a shield, use a Ethereal Botd Colussus Blade (or an Ethereal Death Berserker Axe - ladder only).
Amulet/Rings: Use the Angelic Set for +75 life (on the amulet ), and +1000 AR on one angelic, then use a 30% MF Nagelring on the other side. Or you can use 2x 30% Nagel rings and an amulet with MF/ stats/skills.
Charms: 1x Annihilus with 20 to stats, 1x Hellfire Torch, and 10x 7% MF/ 5% Resist Small Charms.
Druid Builds
Elemental Druid
Druids are not exactly your typical hard core magic finders. However as long as you are an elemental druid, they can be a half decent MFer. You should definitely be using an Enigma to MF with your druid. This build gets about 310%+ MF not including your belt or charms.
Equipment
Helm: Shako with an Ist for 75% Magic Find.
Armor: Use a Mageplate/Breastplate Enigma and avoid wasting a single point on Strength. This also adds 85-99% MF (assuming you are level 85-99).
Gloves: 40% MF Chance Guards
Shield: Stormshield with a -15% requirements, 15% Res all jewel or an Eld rune for 7% increased chance to block (saves you from spending points on Dexterity).
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.
Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills, or you can use a 30% MF Goldwrap.
Boots: Get a Perfect Pair of 50% MF War Travelers, these also add 10 Vita, 10 Str.
Weapon: Get a high resist (close to 40%) Heart of the Oak flail. 30-40% resist all, +3 Skills, and 40% FCR make this the weapon of choice. 40% Fast cast from your HOTO is critical to making your Elemental Druid effective.
Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Druid amulet with stats/resist/FCR.
Rings: 2x 30% Perfect MF Nagelrings, or optionally use 1-2 20% MF Wisp Projectors for light absorb + MF too.
Charms: 2-3x +1 Elemental grand charms with 35+ life, 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch and 10x 7% MF/ 5% Resist small charms. You can use a Gheeds, just remember, you will need another hell difficulty character to pick one up for you, should it drop.
Necromancer Builds
Bone Necromancer
Necromancers are probably not the best MFing choice, however if you use enigma and you have good gear and a solid mercenary, you can MF with a necro. This build below displays an example of gear that can be used to get to 310% plus Magic find on your Necro. The 310% number does not include your belt or charms (i.e. you could go for 400%+ MF if you want by adjusting those items).
Equipment
Helm: 75% MF Isted Shako (25% ist + 50% Base on the Shako)
Armor: Use a Mageplate/Breastplate Enigma and avoid wasting a single point on Strength. This also adds 85-99% MF (assuming you are level 85-99).
Gloves: 40% MF Chance Guards
Shield: Darkforce Spawn with +3 PB Skills (Poison Bone). This is the best Necro shield period, the 35% FCR, and 10% Mana can't be beat. Socket this with an Um rune or a 7% FHR , 15% resist all jewel. A Spirit Monarch is also a great choice because of FHR, FCR, and +2 skills (another ladder only shield).
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills. A good alternative is a Spirit Monarch (ladder only) for +2 Skills, FHR, and FCR.
Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills, a 30% Magic Find Goldwrap belt can help as well here.
Boots: Use perfect 50% Magic Find War Travelers
Weapon: Get a high resist (close to 40% Res ) Heart of the Oak flail. 30-40% resist all, +3 Skills, and 40% FCR make this the weapon of choice. 40% Fast cast from your HOTO is critical to making your Necromancer effective.
Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Necro amulet with stats/resist, and 10-20% FCR.
Rings: 2x 30% MF Nagelrings, or mix & match with 20% MF Wisp Projectors.
Charms: 2-3x Poison Bone grand charms with 35+ Life, 1 x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 10x 7% MF/ 5% Resist small charms. A 30-40% Gheeds is optional.
Poison Nova or Hybrid Necro Build
This build is basically the same as above, I just want to make it clear that if you are using a poison nova necro, or a bone necro, you can use the same MF gear to get to about 310% magic find (not including your belt or charms).
Equipment
Helm: an Ist Shako adds 75% Magic Find
Armor: Use a Mageplate/Breastplate Enigma; this will add 85-99% MF if you are level 85 to 99.
Gloves: 40% Perfect MF Chance Guards are a good choice.
Shield: Darkforce Spawn with +3 PB Skills (Poison Bone). This is the best Necro shield period, the 35% FCR, and 10% Mana can't be beat. Socket this with an Um rune or a 7% FHR , 15% resist all jewel. A Spirit Monarch is also a great choice because of FHR, FCR, and +2 skills (another ladder only shield).
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.
Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills, or 30% Magic Find Goldwrap.
Boots: Use perfect 50% Magic Find War Travelers
Weapon: Get a high resist (close to 40% Res ) Heart of the Oak flail. 30-40% resist all, +3 Skills, and 40% FCR make this the weapon of choice. 40% Fast cast from your HOTO is critical to making your Necromancer effective. Don't try to use Death's Web PVP, it does not have the FCR, or resist that is critical to making this build effective. If you use Death's Web instead of a HOTO, I promise you will only be half the Necro you could otherwise be PVP,
Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Necro amulet with stats/resist, and 10-20% FCR.
Rings: Use 2x 20% MF Wisp Projectors or 2x 30% MF Nagelrings.
Charms: 2-3x Poison Bone grand charms with 35+ Life, 10x 7% Magic Find Small Charms and/ or 10x 5% resist small charms.
Paladin Builds
Hammerdin Paly
Paladins are solid MF characters. A hammerdin is by far the best choice for solo Baal runs in hell. No class should attempt solo Baal runs without a decent merc. Most classes run into difficulties with the immunities of the characters that precede the Baal encounter.
Equipment
Helm: Shako with an Ist for 75% Magic Find.
Armor: Enigma for 85-99% Magic find as long as you are level 85-99..
Gloves: use perfect 40% Chance Guards
Shield: A Spirit Monarch (ladder only) is now the best choice because of FHR, FCR, and +2 Skills. The #2 choice is a Herald of Zak (HOZ) with an um rune. The +4 Combat skills, 20 Vitality and 20 Strength on the HOZ are great mods.
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.
Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills
Boots: 50% War Traveler Boots are by far the best choice.
Weapon: Get a high resist (close to 40%) Heart of the Oak flail. 30-40% resist all, +3 Skills, and 40% FCR make this the weapon of choice.
Amulet: 30% Resist Mara's, or a godly +2 Paladin amulet with stats/resist.
Rings: Use two 30% Perfect MF Nagelrings
Charms: 2-3x Combat grand charms with 35+ life, 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 10x 7% MF/ 5% Resist small charms.
Zealadin Paly
Of the different types of Paladin builds, Zeal is possibly the worst for MF. We still offer an example of what gear to use on your Zeal Paly, nonetheless.
Equipment
Helm: Use an isted Shako for 75% MF, 10% Damage Reduction and lots of life & mana.
Armor: Use an Enigma for 85%+ Magic Find for a level 85+ character.
Gloves: 40% MF Chance Guards
Shield: A high defense ethereal Exile with good ED or Resist. An HOZ is another good option.
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.
Belt: 15% DR Verdungo with 40 vitality, or 30% Magic Find Goldwrap
Boots: 50% Magic Find War Traveler Boots
Weapon: An Ethereal Death Berserker Axe is the best choice because of open wounds, crushing blow, deadly strike, and high damage.
Amulet/Rings: Highlords Wrath for damage or 30% Maras for resist and 2x 30% MF Nagelrings. A 35% Resist Metalgrid is also a good choice.
Charms: 12x+ 3/20/20's, 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, and 10x 7% MF/ 5% Resist small charms.
Smiteadin
Smite Paladins are not great MFers, however, no other class compares to a smite Paladin on the Tristam Uber Bosses. If you are actually farming hellfire charms, don't use the gear below on our paldin! The gear below is an example of MF gear; when fighting the Uber Tristam bosses, you automatically get a Hellfire Torch by killing the bosses 100%. Anyway, my point is that smite paladins are really horrible MFers.. you might consider making a second character, such as a Sorceress if you are serious about MFing quickly and efficiently.
Equipment
Helm: Isted Shako
Armor: Enigma for up to 99% MF at level 99.
Gloves: 40% MF Chance Guards
Shield: A high defense ethereal Exile with good ED/Resist or an upgraded HOZ (Herald of Zak). Don' t attempt to smite with a non upgraded HOZ.. a gilded shield does very little smite damage. If you an HOZ, you need to Cham it, or use a ravenfrost ring. If you prefer Exile, and you don't want to use a ravenfrost ring, you need to Ber/ Cham your COA.
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.
Belt: 15% DR Verdungo with 40 vitality, or 30% MF Goldwrap Belt
Boots: MF 50% War Traveler Boots
Weapon: The best weapon is now a Grief Phase Blade (or Crystal Sword) because it adds 330-400 damage, which goes directly to smite. The #2 choice is a Ber'd Astreons Wand (both Grief & Astreons are ladder only). You can use a Doom Berserker axe vs. classes that run away from you. A good Astreon's adds +4 combat skills. With the skills bonus + built in crushing blow, Astreons + HOZ will always beat a Doom + Exile setup (Smiter vs. Smiter).
Amulet/Rings: 30% Perfect Mara's Kalaidescope, and 2x 30% MF nagelrings.
Charms: 10x+ 3/20/20's, 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, and 10x 7% MF/ 5% Resist small charms. Only use Gheeds (30-40% MF on a good one) if you don't mind not being able to pick up a new Gheeds Grand Charm (if one drops).
Sorceress Builds
Sorc Tal Rasha 3 Piece Build
Forgive me for being generic, but I think all MF Sorcs should use about the same gear. For simplicity, I just show 2 good sorc MF builds. I honestly prefer the build with Tal Rasha armor, although a build with Enigma can also work well. The build with Tal Rasha Armor can easily get to maximum 75% lightning resist in hell difficulty. I have found extreme difficulty getting resist using an enigma on a Sorc. Aside from that, the Tal Rasha build (that uses only 3 Tal Rasha set pieces) actually gets MORE mf in addition to MORE resist. So honestly, if you are serious about MFing, I'm not sure why you would use another build!
Equipment
Most Recommend: With this build you enjoy a +65% MF Bonus for using 3 Tal Rasha set pieces. Many MF Veterans are well aware of this set up, and it is often used by good MF players. Less experienced MFers may go for other builds, however, this is a time tested build, and I personally know it works extremely well. The MF on this build, not including charms is 438%! This assumes you are using a spirit monarch, 1x 30% Nagelring, an Ist Shako and Ist Occulus. You may have a little trouble with your resistances, and its recommend you add some 5% Resist Small charms, preferably with the second modifier of 7% MF as well on the same charms.
Helm: Isted Shako for 75% MF
Armor: Tal Rasha Armor for 40% Resist Fire/ Light/ Cold and 85% MF
Gloves: 40% Chance Guards
Shield: The Spirit Monarch (ladder only) is now by far the best choice (+2 Skills, FHR, FCR) or an Ist/ Um Lidless Wall PVM.
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.
Belt: Perfect 15% MF Tal Rasha belt
Boots: 50% Perfect War Travelers
Weapon: Isted Occulus for 80% MF
Amulet/Rings: Tal Rasha Amulet and One SOJ (for 25% more mana) and one 30% Nagelring
Charms: 2-3x Cold grand charms with 35+ life, 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 10x 7/5 MF/resist small charms. Optional Gheeds Grand Charm (30-40% MF).
Standard (Less Recommended) Sorc Build
At level 85 this build gets about 345% Magic Find. You may find you can only use 1x Nagelring and you may need to use an Soj on the other ring to get enough mana (you don't want a character with mana that is too low!).
Helm: Isted Shako for 75% MF
Armor: Enigma for 1-99% MF (based on Char Level)
Gloves: 40% Chance Guards
Shield: The Spirit Monarch (ladder only) is now by far the best choice (+2 Skills, FHR, FCR). Distant #2 options are a Stormshield PVP or a Lidless Wall PVM.
Shield/Weapon on Backside: Lidless wall (or +2 skills Spirit Monarch - ladder only if you can get it) for +1 Skills and a CTA for Battle Orders/Command to increase your life/skills.
Belt: Arachnid Mesh for 20% FCR and +1 Skills, or a 30% MF Goldwrap
Boots: 50% Perfect War Travelers
Weapon: Ist Occulus for 80% MF
Amulet/Rings: 30% Mara's and 2x 30% Nagelrings
Charms: 2-3x Cold grand charms with 35+ life, 1x Annihilus, 1x Hellfire Torch, 10x 7/5 MF/resist small charms. Optional Gheeds Grand Charm (30-40% MF). Just remember if you use Gheeds and another Gheeds drops, you will need a friend to help you pick it up!
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