Finishing Up MF Meteorber

[konfeta]

Alrightey, I made a Meteorb Sorc with emphasis on Fireball (Firebolt adds only 2% less per point to Meteor then Fire Mastery, but adds a whopping double of Firemastery to Fireball so I chose to max Firebolt instead).

My Gear is as follows:

Tal's Mask with P-Topaz
Tal's Armor with P-Topaz
Tal's Belt
Tal's Orb
Tal's Amy
30% Spirit Shield
Chanceguards
2 Nagelrings
Rare boots with decent MF

On switch, empty Ali Baba and Rhyme shield.

Overall this adds up to about 440% MF, with ability to add another 125% if I choose to waste the Ists and get me a 4OS Monarch on switch.

However, my Fast Cast Rate is annoying 25 points below the 105 breakpoint, which I became addicted too as it greatly speeds up my teleport/fireball spam.

My merc is totting enough equip to handle Countess 1 on 1 in seconds but has no MF.

Lastly, I am planning to start another MF character, a Hammerdin, to have a character that can pretty much clear any zone in the game for MF instead of the ussual andy/mephisto/countess.


So the question is, how should I further my MF career?

A. Leave the sorc as it is and start building up a perfect MF Hammerdin.
B. Upgrade the sorc's killing speed by sacraficing Chancies and a Nagelring for +20% Fast castrate gloves and +5% fast cast rate crafted ring.
C. Super-Upgrade the sorc's MF by another 160ish points by getting War Travelers and 6-isting the switch weapon/shield.
D. Super-Upgrade the sorc's killing speed and MF by combining the B and C, ditching the rings for SoJ's, getting a perfect Spirit to get exactly 105 FCR, and getting an infinity for the merc.

Note that this is my first MF character, so I am not really rich yet as any of these options will take up time to build up, so I am not concerned about it. The question is whenever doing the B, C, or D. options is gonna have a noticable enough effect on my MF in order to choose them over immediatly beggining to build a Hammerdin.

[stephan]

A. A hammerdin will be slower than a sorc without Enigma.

B: Yes. There are not crafting recipies that give rings build-in FCR though, so you mights as well gamble for a 10% FCR ring, or roll a 35% FCR spirit.

C: WT's yes, if you happen to find them. Ist swords and shields: no. You'd be much better off trading those Ists for items you actually want. It saves a lot of time MFing. Remember there are diminishing returns in %MF.

IMO you should put as little wealth in an MF char as possible. Otherwise MFing becomes a self-defying purpose, where you first have to earn back the wealth you have put in.

[AnimeCraze]

If you can, roll that 35 spirit, and use magefist. You can always trade the spirit away later if you do build a hammerdin after you get enigma and such. You won't get more MF, but your fireball is going to be pretty sweet after that. Don't Ist the Ali Baba unless you want to transfer that to your hammerdin if/when you build him. Isting a monarch is a plain waste, IMO.

[konfeta]

So is there a general target MF after which getting more is mostly a waste? If I exchange Chancies for magefist and get perfect spirit, I will still have 410ish MF. I heard about diminishing returns on it, but what is the cut-off point?

[mr_sQuinty]

So is there a general target MF after which getting more is mostly a waste? If I exchange Chancies for magefist and get perfect spirit, I will still have 410ish MF. I heard about diminishing returns on it, but what is the cut-off point?


Uniques: Final MF = (MF*250)/(MF+250) ; cannot exceed 250
Set Items: Final MF = (MF*500)/(MF+500) ; cannot exceed 500
Rares: Final MF = (MF*600)/(MF+600) ; cannot exceed 600

copied from here (http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=551)

so 250,600 or 600 depending on what you are looking for , imo dont use more than ~300 if it affects your kill speed

[konfeta]

Wha? What do these caps actually mean? That If I go beyond them I will no longer get improvement on the drop rates for those items?

[HeroXVII]

2x Ist AliBaba
4x Ist Monarch
50% MF WarTravs

That's what you need.

[konfeta]

I doubt that one. That's less then 250 MF at ridicolously expensive price. My entire equip as of right now has about 450 MF (found a near perfect gheedcharm and assembled a p-spirit w/ +20% fcr gloves) took me roughly 3 game time hours of actual MF to complete, costing approx 2 HR and an ist.

It seems that couple more level ups with achieving 105% fast cast rate gave me a very good and mostly cheap MF/Killing machine. That breakpoint made a big difference in my DPS.

[AnimeCraze]

Wha? What do these caps actually mean? That If I go beyond them I will no longer get improvement on the drop rates for those items?No. Let me draw a table to help explain this:

MF UMF SMF RMF MMF
50 42 45 46 50
100 71 83 86 100
200 111 143 150 200
500 167 250 273 500
1000 200 333 375 1000
inf 250 500 600 inf

MF = amount of MF equipped
UMF = amount of MF when applied to rolling for unique items
SMF = amount of MF when applied to rolling for set items
RMF = amount of MF when applied to rolling for rare items
MMF = amount of MF when applied to rolling for magic items

[konfeta]

So, difference between 200 MF and and 500 MF is that the returns on MF for rolling on uniques is far smaller, i.e. 200 points for for 111% while the second gives 56% for 300 points. Same principle applies to latter rolls.

So my MF of 450% has just about reached it's cost effective limit for getting Uniques and Sets assuming no charms?

[kidsmokin]

You will honestly find a lot of sets even at 300 MF, I would suggest dropping some of your MF for some FCR gear.

[konfeta]

Err, why? 105 FCR already gives invincibility during blindteleport. Half my damage comes from timered spells :/