A couple of item questions.

[Raikumo]

First question is about SoJ. I've recently started hunting for SoJ's. I run about 30 runs per day, sometimes more. I'm running them at 307% mf exactly. I was wondering, should I be using more or less mf? If so, how much? Also, is NM Andy really the best place to find SoJs?

Second question is about Mara's Kaleidoscope. What's the best boss or place to run for this amulet, and again, how much mf?

Finally, what's the best place to hunt charms that add +skills? I seem to remember something about Durance of Hate, but I forget what difficulty.

[mephiztophelez]

I was wondering, should I be using more or less mf?

kill speed + survivability first, MF second. can you do the run quickly and safely? if yes: you can add more MF into your gear if you like. if no: get survival and kill power mods, THEN look for mf.

300% is a very nice amount of %MF. after this, you get severe diminishing return on Set, Unique and Rare drops.

Also, is NM Andy really the best place to find SoJs?
theoretically, yes. be warned, you might wind up doing thousands of runs before she condescends to cough one up for you.

Second question is about Mara's Kaleidoscope. What's the best boss or place to run for this amulet, and again, how much mf?
300 mf is plenty, idk the "best" place to get this.

Finally, what's the best place to hunt charms that add +skills? I seem to remember something about Durance of Hate, but I forget what difficulty.
all GC's found in Nightmare from the Flayer Jungle onwards can spawn/be re-rolled as skillers.

if it's high-life skillers you're after, then hell Diablo, Nihlathak and Baal are the only three than can drop GC's with 41-45 life.

[Are]

Hell Duriel has the best drop chance for Mara's Kaleidoscope, closely followed by Hell Baal, Diablo, and Mephisto (all of which have almost the same chance to drop it).

Since Duriel is pretty slow to run, and has black spots in his chamber where his drops some times go missing, I'd go for Mephisto if Mara's is all you're after.

NM Andariel indeed has the best chance for dropping SoJ, especially if you bug her (which is pretty hard not to do, as all that is required is to talk to Warriv in the same game in which you complete the quest). The drop chance is then 1/1616 with 300% MF. So you're still looking at almost 2000 runs to have a good chance of having received one.

I got both my SoJs from Hell Mephisto, by the way :)

[Raikumo]

Thanks for the input, you two. I don't know if I'm necessarily up for running Duriel for the reasons you gave, so I may need to build myself up a bit more so I can run hell Meph. As for the SoJs, yeah, I noticed. I've done about 120 runs in the past 3 days and I have gotten 3 Manalds and one Nagelring. I may switch it up and try running nm Durance of Hate for some GC's and maybe attempt some hell Meph.

[Poppis]

Bosses might not be the best place to farm skiller GCs. You would propably get more grand charm drops by just clearing flayer jungle/lower kurast in NM.

[mephiztophelez]

Thanks for the input, you two. I don't know if I'm necessarily up for running Duriel for the reasons you gave,.....

you probably know this, but just in case: if you kill the Summoner in act 2 (keyrunning), there are six silvery floating symbols around his platform.

the symbol thats MISSING is the symbol to the true tomb of Tal Rasha you'll find Duriel in.

so basically, if you're running for H-keys, you can bop off little D with minimal effort.

that said, the giant bug has never given me anything worthwhile. ever.