[Cyanide]

Possible changes for Magic Find mechanic

Edit:
I think this first paragraph from the blog post above is worth taking note of.

Since release it has become an increasingly common practice to keep a Magic Find (MF) set in your inventory, and swap it in shortly before a kill. Philosophically we don't have a problem with the practice. While players getting more Magic Find for their kills isn't a game breaker for us, many players have said they don't enjoy doing it but feel the benefit is too large to ignore. Since the call for a solution really comes from all of you, we'd like to invite you to chime in with your opinion on what the solution could be.
It's worth keeping in mind that if we do implement a method to alleviate gear-swapping in combat, we'll simultaneously be looking at ways for players to get an added MF bonus to compensate.

Gist of it

Option 1: Capping your magic find

Option 2: Magic find adjusts over time

Option 3: Moving average of your magic find

Option 4: Zero-out your magic for 3 minutes after swapping

Option 5: Gear swapping interacts with your Nephalem Valour

My thoughts

If I was forced to choose one, I'd pick option 1. I've already begun to wear pieces of MF gear without any useful stats on them. However, I do see that it doesn't really solve the swapping "problem", if you can call it one at all. I don't even know why this is a concern to be honest. It's probably not "working as intended" I guess.

Magic find is a tricky stat to begin with. Let's use gloves as an example. For min/maxing purposes, your ideal roll for 6 properties on a glove would be something like

• +main stat
• +vit
• +all resist
• +something resist? (monks love double rolls)
• +IAS/Crit Chance
• +crit damage

The last 3 being somewhat interchangeable I guess.

There's no place for any other stat if you are searching for your BIS gear. Even if you were to work MF into your set, you're going to end up with a minimum of 2 sets of gear. Magic find, and min/maxed gear.

This is a little bit tinfoil hattish, but I'll throw it out there.
Blizzard wants to make magic find a more desired stat on gear because it creates another set of desired gear for the RMAH. Your typical MF set usually has something like, Ransacking Gloves of Valour (+70 Vit, +20% Magic Find), same goes for other slots with maybe a main stat here and there or some rare piece with main stat, vit and magic find in it. By making MF a desired stat, your gear now reads like the 6 prop example above, with MF worked in.

Option 1:
As I said before, If I really had to choose, I'd like this best. Because I am able to hit 182-226% MF with NV with 3-4 pieces of MF gear on. I sacrifice a bit of DPS and HP, but I am able to clear act 2 easily, and act 3 if the mobs aren't with retarded affixes (otherwise i'd just switch back to my best gear).

This doesn't fiddle with current numbers as well. It is easy to understand. Only complain I can see is, "but I spent X amount of gold on MF weapons as well to get my MF to 350% !!! I want a refund!".

Option 2:
Once again, this doesn't eliminate gear swapping, if that's their intended objective. It'll just be a little more troublesome to do it. Probably the next best option. You can probably tell by now that I am okay with MF gear swapping.

Possible complain? As a melee class, I'd say "damn, now I got to try and survive longer in my weak ass MF gear to get the full benefit". This might be okay in Single Player, but in co-op, people might find it difficult to co-ordinate their gear swapping (people might actually feel it's not beneficial and don't gear swap in the end).

Option 3:
Moving average. This is just too clunky/complicated for most people I guess. My play-style wouldn't change at all, maybe I'd even benefit from it since I can run with 107%-152% MF without NV.
Perhaps the 30s capture for your average might dissuade people from gear swapping, because you'd have to kite for 30 seconds with your full MF gear before you can see a better overall MF.

Option 4:
This is a flat out aggressive move against gear swappers. I'm going to repeat myself here, I still don't see what the problem is!
If you ask me, this works entirely in favour for Blizzard (tinfoil). A lot more gear with MF will be going on to the RMAH (pure speculation on my part).

Option 5:
I don't know if NV > regular MF on gear in ALL situations. For bosses, NV is definitely better than regular MF. You get guaranteed rares with 5 stacks. I feel anything that messes with NV, is just flat out punishing players.
You're already gimping yourself when you choose to gear swap, potentially killing yourself (more apparent for melee I suppose). More often than not, your MF gear is going to be just one stat and MF. Why punish players for going through that trouble?

Option 6:
Not official but everybody wants this. 1 button quick switch. Gives EVERYONE a level playing field since EVERYONE can do it. The complainers can stop saying it's unfair. They can do it too. I'm all for this.

Maybe I'm a little short-sighted when it comes to this. I love gear swapping, I do it when I can (because it's really hard for melee), but I like the "thrill?" of doing it I guess.

Final note: I just hope they don't rush this and really pick one of the 5 options they have presented. Heck, don't make changes, for now even. I'd rather they redirect their efforts to things like Balance and UI issues.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	nice!
	Nemo:	Thanks ! Option 5 massive facepalm ...