------------------------------------------------------ ~Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction Magic Find Guide~ ------------------------------------------------------ Table of Contents: 1)FaQ Information -Legal Information -Update Info 2) Magic Find Basics -Introduction -Advanced tips 3) Magic Find Equipment -*Suggested Equipment 4) Setting up a Magic Find Character -Barbarian -Sorceress 5)Hirelings/Mercs -Merc Equipment -Leveling 6)Hints and Secrets -Cow Level -Horadric Cube 7)C & C. Contact and Credits -Terms and Lingo Used -Contact Info -Credits ------------------------------------------------------ FAQ Information~ ------------------------------------------------------ This Faq Was written on Notepad on July 23, 2002. This is my first FAQ, although ive used Gamefaqs.com for years, so bear with me please. V1.0 Legal Crap: This Faq is resricted to GameFaqs.com only, and may not be used for promotional purposes, advertisement, copied onto any disk or altered in ANY way. It may not be incorporated into any guide EVEN for private use. Not to be inserted in magazines, put onto a private or secured website where membership or a fee is required. All profesional Rights belong to me, and me alone, the author Caliastro. Diablo, Diablo2, and Diablo2:LoD are copyrighted to Blizzard entertainment. Any future updated will be given to www.GameFaqs.com because CJayC is the man. ------------------------------------------------------ Update: 7/27//02 V1.1 Added more to hirelings section. Corrected some typos. Added New Section: Hints and Secrets ------------------------------------------------------ Magic Find Basics | ------------------------------------------------------ Intro: Magic Find is an idea created by some anonymous Diablo Guru and has been circulated through chat rooms and what not. Anywhoo, i thought it a good idea to make a Magic Find FAQ. I myself have mastered Magic Find as you will soon be able to. Magic Find is a "mod" found on many magic, set, rare, unique, and even crafted items. It increases the chance you have of getting good stuff to trade for even better stuff and become an AWESOME Diablo player! It works on many things including the following: treasure chests, barrels, bosses, and even regular bad guys like skele- tons. Magic Find includes: Magic items(violet,blue), Set Items(snot green), rare items(bright yellow), and unique items(gold). It doesn't mean you are going to get more runes, sad but true. Contrary to what you may have been told on battle.net, there is no max MF you can have. But the benefits arent as good once you get a really, high number. But it's still better to have more than to have none. ---Advanced Tips for Advanced Players: Here is the really beautiful part, Magic find from your hireling, merc, whatever you want to call him, comb- -ine with his !IF! he makes the final blow on the monsters or bosses. But only if you shred the bosses life and let him get the FINAL blow. This is really important i emphasize this so i dont get email saying how wrong i am. Barbarians have more natural MF so it is better to use them, not to mention their good skill called 'Find Item' which MF DOES count towards. Bosses give better drops, as compared to monsters. It may Take many, many MF runs to get good stuff, but its worth it. Even more frusterating than not having good stuff for your chars on Diablo is not being able to find good stuff, so on to our next section: Equipment! ------------------------------------------------------ Magic Find Equipment | ------------------------------------------------------ Listen up ladies and gents, because this is a very important part of Magic Find, your equipment! You can use any equipment really, as long as it has a good number of Magic Find on it. Now I'll break it on down for you so you can abosorb all this into your head! Now ill list them by item type and from best to well, not the worst, but not the best! You dont have to use what i list, you can use Magic items that give + to MF also...*Equipemnt Listed in Highest MF% to Lowest. Helmets: Griswold's Valor: This is a set item, its very rare and hard to find. I havent even found one! It's got 2 open sockets, insert Perfect Topazes or 2 Ist runes into it, plus the original 30% and you got 78%-80% (depending on which you insert.) Harlqurens Crest: Unqiue Shako. A bit expensive but in the long haul worth it. It reduces Dmg by 10% and has +1 to all skills. Socket a Perfect Topaz or IST rune for up to 74%-75%. *Tarnhelm: Unique Skull Cap. Using the Socket quest from Larzuk in Act 5, you can insert a Perfect topaz or an IST rune. Up to 75% MF. Crap Def, but +1 to all Skills. *StealSkull: Unique Casque. Pretty much same as Tarnhelm but has Dual Leech. Again Perfect Topaz or IST rune. Up to 75% MF Armor: Skulder's Ire: Unique Russet Armor. This is a prime choice for MF armor. It does +MF depending on the charector level. Socket this with a IST or Perfect Topaz and you got up to 148% on this baby! TalRasha's Guardianship: Set Item;Laquered Plate I belive. Initial 88%, but with a IST or Perfect Topaz its either 112% or 113% *WEALTH: RuneWord. Lem,Ko,Tir runes in a 3 socketed armor for this one. For more info on RuneWords go to someone else's FAQ, i think WingChild is the author of the RuneWord FAQ on GameFaqs. (i have no time to write them all down in this FAQ.) It Gives 100% to MF instantly with 300% Extra gold from mon- -sters. Nice. Weapons: (using barbarians, you can have two.) IstIstIstIstIstIst: a 6 socketed weapon w/6 IST runes in it. VERY VERY hard to do, Ist runes are very rare, and very valuable. *Ali Baba's Blade: Unique Tulwar. Not very valuable, easy to get. MF based on Character Lvl AND two sock- -eted! But DO NOT stick two Perfect Topazes in, it will not do MF, but it will do Lit. Damage. Very bad. Use two IST runes if available. NOTE: Two of these on a Barbarian is very good. Total: 159% max. *Gull Dagger: Unique Dagger. Again, cheap and use- -ful. Not advised for Barbarians, good for Sorc MF chars. Does 100% to MF, but with an IST rune, 130%. Occulus: Unqiue Swirling Crystal: Rather expensive. Its a Sorceress Class Specific weapon with initial 50% MF, with an IST rune, thats 80% and a really really good sorc weapon, its the best one to be pre- -cise. Shields: (optional for Babarian) IstIstIstIst: 4 socketed shield w/IST's. Hard to make, as Ist's are valuable as they are rare. Milabrega's Orb: Set item. Initial 25% MF, plus a Ist rune and thats 45% total. *Rhyme: Runeword. Again, im not going to list all the runewords in this FAQ. This is the most comm- -on MF shield out there. 25% to MF. Gloves: *ChanceGuards: Unique Chain gloves. Not valuable, easy to come by. 20%-40% (it varies) Magic Gloves: EXTREMELY easy to come by. Just go to a Hell game and search all the item peddlers in all the acts until you find a pair. Up to 35% i Believe. Better just go with the chance guards. Belts: (kinda like gloves, theres only one good one) *GoldWrap: Unqiue Heavy Belt. Cheap, easy, common. 30% to MF. And sadly, it only has 12 potions. Magic Belt: Again, you can buy some in hell. im not sure how much it goes up to. Boots: Wartravelers: Unique Battleboots. Expensive, pretty rare. It goes from 30%-50%. A perfect is VERY valuable. *Magic Boots: Any MF boots, i think it goes up to about 35% Rings: Plague Master: Rare Ring. Well, its a random rare ring, its very valuable, and you probably wont get one, i know i didnt. It does Dual Leech and 30% MF. *NagelRing: Unqiue Ring. Easy to find. Up to 30% *Magic Ring: Up to 35%. Find a Magic ring? Pick it up. It could be your next MF ring! Amulets: Magic Ammy: a Double MF prefix and Suffix ammy, very rare. it does 49% MF. I have never found one myself. =/ *Magic Ammy: a regular ammy of Luck. 35%. *=Afforable and Good MF equipment, Suggested Use. I think that covers the equipment you would need to become a good MF'er. Let's go to our next section Characters! ------------------------------------------------------ Setting up a Magic Find Character | ------------------------------------------------------ Intro: Now here is another Major part of MF'ing; the character The two most successful MF chars are the sorceress, and the Barbarian. I'll list some pro's and con's about the two: BARBARIAN: ----------------------------------------------------- Pro's | Con's | ----------------------------------------------------- Can Use two weapons |Melee Char | ----------------------------------------------------- Has Higher Natural MF |Alot slower Mover | ----------------------------------------------------- Have Warcies for Life |Runs out of mana quickly | ----------------------------------------------------- SORCERESS: ----------------------------------------------------- Pro's | Con's | ----------------------------------------------------- Can Teleport |Can Kill Bosses From Far away| ----------------------------------------------------- Can sacrifice Melee Dmg|Doesnt Have Much life | ----------------------------------------------------- In-Depth; Barbarian: Barbarian Can use two weapons at once, which makes use of dual Ali Baba's. He has a higher natural MF(1118%) compared to the rest(1024%). Whirlwind can steal back alot of the life and mana used for him, making a use for StealSkulls Dual Leech. The warcry Battle Orders increases his Max Life and Mana, so use it, then ste- -al it all back from a Boss like Mephisto. Skill and Stat Distribution: Barbarian Vitality: You'll need tons of this to be able to Tank massive hits from bosses that do tons of damage, real fast. at least 200. Strength: Only enough to use the equipment you choose. Around like, 100-120 at most. (136 for Lightsabre) Dexterity: Just enough to use what you want. Energy: Very Little, Not much is needed. You can always steal mana back. Warcries: Battle Orders: 10-20 (1 to all the pre-req's) Combat Masteries: Sword Mastery: Either 12 or 20 Iron Skin: at Least 11 Natural Resist: at least 11 Combat Skills: Whirlwind: 12-13 Beserk: Max(20) Find Item: 4 (optional) Double Swing: *1 (optional) (1 to all pre-req's) *So you can make use of two MF weapons. Get him to AT LEAST lvl 80. More is ALOT better, but if your lazy and dont want the full effects of magic find to kick in. Have it your way. :) Strategy: Mephisto. Once you hit Durance of Hate3, Run down the middle plat- -form and Leap Attack to the Base of the Red Portal. From there, open a Town Portal. Use Battle Orders, Use a potion, and make mephisto come down to you, there could be bloodlords to make your life harder. But not so close he blocks the Town Portal. Wail hard down on him with your Heavy Damaging Weapon. (I use Lightsabre and a Gerkes Sanc.) Then when he has a shred of life, switch to your Double Ali Baba's Tulwars and either let your merc kill him to add his MF with yours, or, Finish him your self if you dont have one. Press ALT with heavy anticipation and reap your prizes. Like said before, it may take many runs to get good stuff, but belive me it is worth it. Mephisto is a good boss to kill because he is easy and he has little life. By level 80 you should be doing MF runs in HELL. Yes, it will be tough but this is How the Big Boys Play on the Big Boy's playground. In-depth: Sorceress. Sorceresses have an advantage skill called teleport. It reduces the time of a MF run dramatically. She can sacrifice melee damage for better MF, like the Gull Dagger. It can also use the Occulus. a +3 sorc skill weapon with nice Faster cast rate and 50% Mf, (80% with IST.) A dramatic downfall of the sorceressis that she has no warcries to boost her life, she has realativily low life compared to the barbarian and must pull circles around Most Bosses to Kill them, it cant tank hits.Thunderstorm, once cast can Attack Bosses auto- -maticly if you are within range. And Energy Shield will withdraw Mana as damage instead of life. Skill and Stat Distribution: Sorceress Strength: Not too much, just enough to use your equipment. Dexterity: Same as Strength. Vitality: A bunch, at least 150 Energy: Tons, at least 200 There are two kinds of MF sorc. Firewall, or Thunder and Ice. Firewall is a safer kind, it is easy to use, but after the recent patches, it has been dramaticly lowered, still effective killer. Mostly just used for Killing Mephisto, which is the easier dropper, boss, and has the best terrain to work with for a firewall Sorc. Now the Thunder and Ice is a much more aggressive, brave sorc. You will be reduced to running back and forth to kill mephisto, but this is the overall better, but harder to use sorc. The easier one would definatly Be the Firewall Sorc. Skill Distribution for Firewall Sorceress: FireSkills: Warmth: 2-4 No more, it may be tempting to do more, but dont. FireMastery: MAX(20) Firewall: MAX(20) Hydra: MAX (20) (1 to all pre-reqs) Thunderskills: Just enough for Teleport and its pre-req's. ColdSkills: None For best Results be at least level 89. Skill Distribution for Thunder|Ice Fireskills: Warmth: 2-4. Thats it. It may be tempting when your a low lvl. ThunderSkills: EnergyShield: At least 10 (1 to all pre-req's) ThunderStorm: MAX(20) ThunderMastery 18-20 Teleport: 1. No more, No Le-wait you have to have this skill. IceSkills: IceOrb: MAX(20) Ice Mastery MAX(20) For Best Results, Be at least Level 90. FireWall Sorc Strategy: Mephisto From Durance of Hate 2 Waypoint. Teleport around the area until you get a glimpse of a staircase on the map, then teleport to that. Or if you have sold your soul to the hacking population use the map hack and Teleport your way there. I do not advise the use of any hacks, trainers, or any other bot. Then from Durance of Hate3, teleport and lure Bremm Sparkfist and his gang away from you and down into the base of the DoH3. Then teleport over the wall and up the side. From here Tele- -port and lure mephisto to the staircase on the side or in the middle and blast away at him with firewall from the safest possible distance, use hydra also. Once you hear his death scream, go and collect the items. =) Thunder|Ice Strategy: Mephisto From Durance of Hate 2 Waypoint. Teleport around the area until you get a glimpse of a staircase on the map, then teleport to that. Or if you have sold your soul to the hacking population use the map hack and Teleport your way there. From DoH3, tele- -port down the middle strip and onto the platform at the base of the red portal. Cast energy shield and thunderstorm and shiver armor if you have it. Lure him down and run circles around him while casting Ice orb. Use Static when you get the chance. He should die fairly quickly. Just can't hack it in hell? Try these tips: Do all the Resitances Quests. The Anya quest where you save her. Thats +30 to all Resistances total, just what you need. (A5) +60 to Life permenantly; Do the Golden Bird Quest in A3 on all difficulties. Easy to do. Could save your life. +12 to All Skills; Izzual(A4), Den of Evil(A1) and Radament(A2) in all difficulties. NOTE: Izzual gives +2 to all skills. +15 to Stats; Act3 Tome Quest. It's almost always in the Ruined Temple in the Kurast Bazaar area. Do it in all Difficulties. ------------------------------------------------------ Hireling/Merc | ------------------------------------------------------ Still not getting the Item Compensation you deserve? Get a High level hireling, slap on some mf stuff, we are going to Mephisto, in Hell. Muahahahahahahahahaha. When your Hireling finishes a monster/boss, his MF is added to your own, and the combined number of MF is used for the drop. So, shred a bosses life down to bits then let your merc finish him off, preform the coup de tat, and the combined number goes in affect. So if you had, lets say, 800 MF. And your Merc had an extra 200 MF, if he made the finishing blow on Meph- -isto the Drop mephisto gives would be based on 100MF. Thats why Hirelings are an important part of MF'ing. IMO the best MF Hireling is a Act2 merc, the Arabian. For a couple reasons, They dont die as quickly as the barbarian mercs because they don't go charging head first into a battle they can't win. They Survive easily is what i mean. Plus the Aura's they provide. Which kind of Hireling should i get? Combat? Offensive? or Defensive? Well it all comes down to two things: What are you comfortable with. And What class are you? A sorceress isn't going to need the aura Might now is she? A barbarian would however, he would also need Thorns because he will be in close combat. For more information on hirelings and their aura's, go to BladeY2J's Faq on Hirelings. MF Equipment for hirelings: Well first off, you are going to want them to survive, so dont completely hold out on them. But you also want them to have MF. Some items to give them would be, a Harlqueins Crest, because is has a nice MF bonus, and it has 10% damage reduced, which is exremely good for a Mercenary/Hireling. Not to mention the Health Bonus on it. An armor for him would be probably a Nice High defense 4 Socketed armor with Perfect Topazes all around or a Nice defense Wealth armor(LemKoTir). NOTE: For Bab- -arians you might want to give them a Perfect Topaz'ed Immortal Kings Helmet, it is nice and good for Baba's. Ah, and for the weapon. It all boils down to which Merc you picked. Rogue Merc: Give them a MageWrath or a Cliffkiller Windforce if you can afford it.(yeah right) Arabian Merc: Spire of Honor if you can afford it. Iron Wolf: Give him a nice lightsabre or headstriker. Barbarian: Give him an HonoR Collussus blade, or cloudcrack sword. And if you can, a Grandfather. Although that is an extremely rare and valuable sword. Leveling your Mercenary/Hireling: First off, always buy a mercenary from Hell difficulty. Now when you first get him, you want to fit him/her with the best equipment you got to spare. Like a shaft- -stop so he/she wont die constantly, and either a Harlequin Crest or a VampireGaze for the reduced damage. Now if you decided to get a Rogue Mercenary, you want to start her off leveling in either Nightmare Bloody Foothills,(Bloody Run)or in Nightmare Moo Moo Farm (Cow level) Because her level will be significantly lower than the rest of them. If you got the Barbarian Hireling, (around level76 when you buy him)his level will be alot higher and he can use better stuff straight away. NOTE: Barbarians are alot dumber than the rest.EX: They will always run off into a battle and usually get surrounded and die. So for barbarians Shaftstop and Vampiregaze/Harlequin's Crest is very important. Level Him in Hell Cow Runs, Be careful though. And as for the Arabian Mercenary/Hireling, He too will start off in a very low level,(around 58 usually) so level him in Nightmare Bloody Runs and Nightmare Cow Runs. And now for the Iron Wolves, Act3 Mercenary, He will be able to use a sword and a shield, Shaftstop is good for him to start with, along with a Stormshield when he can use it. I'm not sure what level he starts out at.Ice is usually a good pick for an Iron Wolf b/c I don't think there are any bosses that are Immune to Cold. I hear the best place to level him is also Nightmare Cows and Bloody Runs, or Hell Act1 and some of 2. NOTE: All mercenaries die occasionally, if they die extrem- -ely frequently, it means you are leveling them at too hard of a place or their equipment isn't as good as it should be. Let me add here that as soon as you get your mercenary to a nice decent level, (at least 82+) You need to switch his /her equipment to the MF'ing Equipment. Or whenever you feel like MF'ing. But i do suggest that you don't attempt to do Magic Find Runs in Hell until you are a mid-eighties level. The higher the level of you and your mercenary the better. For Added Bonuses, Add a Gem/Jewel/Rune to all your Merc's Equipment, Becareful. They are permenant. ------------------------------------------------------ Hints and Secrets | ------------------------------------------------------ There are some things not all gamers know about Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. So i created this section for you. Cow Level: This is a nice place to find Charms, gems and some uniques. Even better place if not the best to level! You make the Cow Level by combining Wirt's Leg and a Tome of Town Portal in the Horadric Cube and Trans- Muting them together in Act 1. NOTE: You dont have to make it by a cow, or it making by a cow doesn't incr- -ease the amount of cows there are in the level. The Cow King: (Sounds ridiculous doesn't it?) The Cow King is one Bad Mother. He is Lightning ench- -anted and can decimate a weak char very quickly. He drops good stuff if you have MF, usually. If you have completed the Cain Quest in whatever difficulty you are in and you kill the King, you will not be able to make the "Red Portal" to the MooMoo Farm again. Cow LvL Fact: You must have beaten the difficulty in which you are trying to make the portal in. So if you want to make the Cow Level in Hell difficulty, you would have to have beaten Baal and become a Matriarch/Patriarch. ~MORE TO COME IN THIS SECTION!~ Horadric Cube: It is possible to make many things in the horadric cube. It is a very useful tool to have, not just for the extra storage space either. Crafting: You can Craft items using the horadric cube. I've done it many times, so dont disagree with me. WingChild has a FAQ on crafting items on Gamefaqs.com Go to that FAQ for more information on crafting Items. Cow Level: Wirt's Leg + Tome of TownPortal, and you'll get to go to the Moo Moo Farm. Upgrading Gems and Runes: If you have 3 of the same Rune, or 3 of the same type of gem, you may put them into the Horadric Cube and get one of the higher kind. By this i mean, if you put in 3 flawless emeralds and transmute it, you will get a perfect Emerald in return. Nifty! 3 Rings/Ammulets: 3 magic rings (any kind) transmuted will result in one ammulet with a random prefix and/or suffix. Same thing applies with Ammulets, 3 ammulets will get one random Magic ring. NOTE: You cannot get rare or unique Rings or Ammulets from this. Magic Swords: This is how you make a Cruel Collussus Blade or Cruel Collussus Sword. Toss in any magic Collussus Sword/Blade with 3 chipped gems or skulls and you will get a random Magic Collussus Blade/Sword. It can Take many many chipp's to get a CCB/CCS. The advantage of a CCS over a CCB is it will get more hits in with Whirlwind because it takes less frames to do a Whirlwind with, but at the cost of reduced damage. ~MORE TO COME IN THIS SECTION!~ ------------------------------------------------------ Credits, Contact, and Thanks | ------------------------------------------------------ Terminology: Baba: Barbarian Char: Character MF: Magic Find MF Run: a game made for the purpose of finding magic items, usually short. MF'er: Player who Magic Finds constantly Mod: A statistic on an item Bloody Run: 8 people game where you kill all the monsters on the Bloody Foothills in A5 for leveling.(Channel BLoody on battle.net for more information.) Cow Run: Where you kill all the Bovine's in the MooMoo Farm for Experiance, usually with alot of people. Magic Find Guru: That would be me Credits: -Me, for being able to bask in my own glory for this one sentence. -My brother, and My friends for lending info and stuff. -Blizzard for making the game. -CJayC for making this KICKASS website. And yes, it is KICKASS in all capitals. -www.battle.net/diablo2ex, for the Magic Find Numbers and some info on the Set Item Griswolds Valor. NOTE: Before contacting me, take these into check: A)I dont like to be corrected with minor spelling errors or typo's B) Its probably already in the FAQ, press CTRL+F and type it in what your looking for C) I dont want to be bothered, jk jk. Thanks Please report plagurism of FAQS. Sighned -Everyone. However, i do accept praise mail. =) I can be contacted via Email by:Thunderclease@Hotmail.com Via Whisper on Battle.net: *caliastro *red.faction *Thunderclease ------------------------------------------------------ This FAQ ©Caliastro 2002-©Mike Halliday ------------------------------------------------------