The Gull - is it any good? (n00b alert!)

[moscatabaco]

I have aquired The Gull (100% extra mf) and equiped my bonemancer with it. So far my MF is between 200-250 (my gull earned me stuff like chance gloves, a 29% mf amulet, a Nigelian ring of 37% or so, and so on). I'm starting nightmare and so far I'm doing fine. The thing is, MF has taken away all cool equipment slots; my only skill enhancer so far is sigon's guard (damn cool shield. I'm at 70% block already and +1 to all skills!) and I'm worried my luck isn't going to last in late nightmare. So my questions are:

... is the gull worth it? It has costed me the slot of several really cool wands

... How hard and/or expensive is to get the rhyme and wealth runewords? I have a Dol and Io runes, but I haven't managed to get a Shael (Shael-Eth makes a rhyme runeword, which makes a shield gain MF.) I'm not sure I want the rhyme shield, however - that would mean losing my already quite insignificant skill enhancer.

[pharoahmonch]

i suggest you put the gull away for mf runs. check your kill/mf ratio and adjust accordingly. you dont want loads of mf dying all the time. i guess it could cost you a bit of +skills if you use the bone runeword.

if your on uswest ladder then i could trade you pgems for a shael. they are a decent drop, but then again all runes are when you aren't looking for um!

[plx]

You have two weapon sets, if you need it that badly, just put The Gull on weapon set two and hit w whenever you kill a boss or something.

[AnimeCraze]

It might work in nightmare, but +1 skills in total is not going to fare well at all in hell......

[jiansonz]

As long as you do fine, just use it. I am not totally familiar with how the gameplay looks like for a Bonemancer at different stages of the game, so I can´t give a recommendation on when to stop using it and get a good wand.

As others have said, once your progress slows down, it´s a good idea to have the Gull on the weapon switch and bring it out just before bosses die and before you open containers.


'Rhyme' is probably not far away for you. I usually find a Shael (or at least some of the slightly lower runes so I can cube one; make sure to keep at least one each of chipped topaz, amethyst and sapphire) not too far into Nightmare. You obviously care about blocking, so keep a lookout for a 2-socketed Tower Shield. Otherwise you can buy a 2s Bone Shield in act 2 Normal.

'Wealth' is much harder. Finding both Lem and Ko with the same character is not common.

You have the runes for 'White'? Excellent for a Bonemancer! Check every gray text and normal non-magical wand that drops (that isn´t a Wand, a Yew Wand or a Burnt Wand because they can only have 1 socket) and look for one that has a bonus to your main spell.

[McCain123]

You have two weapon sets, if you need it that badly, just put The Gull on weapon set two and hit w whenever you kill a boss or something.

That´s also what I would do. Put it on weapon switch and whenever a Boss is near to death press "w" for 100% extra mf.

[moscatabaco]

Thanx all. Yes, I hav a Dol and Io runes, and 'white' looks tempting. Specially since my main spell is Bone spear; the runeword singlehandedly gives it +5 bonus. So far I'm doing just fine, but it's still earnly nightmare, so I'll switch to using white when what I have is not enough.

Of course 'Bone' is a Necro's wet dream, but it seems that 'Wealth' is slightly more approachable, and gives +100 mf. As you can see I'm a NewB, so my intention is to use this character to 'supply' any other I make in the future. (that's why mf is a big deal for me)

[AnimeCraze]

MF has diminishing returns, so never sacrifice killing speed for MF.

[jiansonz]

MF has diminishing returns, so never sacrifice killing speed for MF.

Unless you only allow yourself to play each area once. Then you only need to balance MF with survivability (in HC).

[slizer]

Gull Is just the best MF weapon there is.

Comparing it to ali baba the only weapon that can stand in side of Gull.

Ali gives:
1% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items per Clvl

So you need to hit lvl 99 and still you are lacking Gulls mf.

The thing that brings ali nearly to tie with Gull is the 2 open sockets. Put 2 ISTs in those and you have the theoretically 2. best mf from one hand in game. Only problem is still that ISTs arent so cheap and the fact that you are trying to get even good gear yet! never mentioning runes... (gj if you get lucky though :thumbsup: ) You should also notice that baba has some DEX req not much though, doesnt matter if you are blocker as you are

Still I would prefer Gull anyway baba can hit the 159 mf but with 2 rather expensive runes and the need to level up to clouds.

Just cram the Gull with one IST eventually and you have 130mf and you dont need to care about your level or anything.

What really makes Gull better is that you can wear it right off the bat when you find it if you get lucky at blood moor =) then socketing it with IST later will be nifty and cool and giving some MF more. whereas you need to get to high levels and have 2 ISTs at the start if you want to make profit out of the baba. I think most people roaming in these forums can affor 2 ISTs quite easy, but not us who have just started the game after long pause or completely from beginning!

I would also like to mention the 6socket phase blade which would allow you to have 6 x 30mf from IST, that would be 180 so go for it if you are bored :P

[McCain123]

Why socket ist for mf? The diminishing returns doesn´t make it worth unless you are a 24/7 magic finder. Put in a jool with 7% or more mf and you are done. For an ist you can buy decent gear, for a jool with some mf you get nothing. Just my 2 cents.

[CibaBlue]

I agree with everyone pretty much, on my mf sorc I use wizspike/lidless/kiras to get to hell meph, then switch over to gull/rhyme/3 sck. p topazed helm. Meph is hands down the easiest boss to mf if you can teleport. Before I found a gull, I was using ali babas sckted with a 7%mf,7pct dmg taken goes to mana jewel which is also a completely viable choice since meph won't touch me anyways. Other than the -5 mana, the gull is an awesome mf wep. Oh and about putting 2 ists in a ali babas, i'd much rather socket my occulus and put a ist in it to balance out the + skills and mf pct. better, or socket the gull and put an ist in it, that too would be an option. But, if you are rich, you could obtain around 16 ists and go socket crazy... 4 ist armor, 6 ist wep, 3 ist shield, 3 ist helm.. lmao not the option I would reccomend though, 500 mf is probably the best to stick around.. the odds don't change much after that..

[slizer]

Nah just stuck those Ists only in weapon and shield. In armor and helm you want to keep some stats or you will take severe damage in speed. I had Gull and 4IST monarch when I finished time 1.10 came out. That was hard enough although I must add that It was pretty nice to have. -having 10 ISTs on switch would pretty much be overkill-

[Gorny]

While The Gull Dagger does have 100% Mf on it, it is not the best weapon for MF, as it lacks killing power, IMO.

The better way to go is to have a weapon that can help you kill quickly or to play a charater that kills quickly regardless of weapon (Hammerdin, Sorc, Amazon, Necro, etc) and then have a decent amount of MF on that character.

MF is worthless if you cannot stay alive.

[buttershug]

All other things being equal, killing twice as many monsters doubles the "good" stuff you find. Doubling your MF does not.

And that is even before taking into consideration runes, gems, or socketables.

[CibaBlue]

If, like me, all you run pretty much is meph runs, killing speed doesn't make a difference.. I drop 500% in mf items while still having the plus to skills (skulders, 35%mf ammy, +1 to skills) If you are talking about the best balance of skills to mf or just plain out mf wep gull takes it for straight mf. It also depends on what class you are.. If it's a stationary boss that can't hit you as in meph when you teleport across the river, then gull takes the cake on that one, if I were to use my occulus, i'd only kill him in about 4 meteors less, but who cares because i'm not pressed for time or in danger on that run.