How Magic Find Works in D3: Diablo 3

The amused smile of my traveling companion hints at condescension as I place a topaz gem into my helm and hand a blue amulet to my follower.
"You truly are mad," he jeers with a swig of his ale. "Not only do you place such a useless gem in your helm, but you give your follower a worthless amulet. It does nothing to aid you!"

I sigh. We've had this discussion before. "Finding magical items is not worthless. See?" And with a flourish, I lay before him my stash. His eyes shine with hunger at the bounty before him. I flick a topaz across the worn table and he holds it in his hands with renewed interest.

How Magic Find Works: The Basics 

You see it on gear every now and then: % Better Chance of Finding Magical Items. But what does it mean and how does it work? Magic find basically increases your odds of getting a higher quality item drop from a monster or boss. The higher quality item could be a blue, rare, legendary, or set item depending on the monster's level and the players Magic Find percentage.

Magic Find will not increase the loot level that a monster will drop since each monster has a set table of items it is capable of dropping. Furthermore, it will not increase the quantity of items dropped.

So far there appears to be no cap on magic find. Therefore, a player could potentially have, say, 200% Magic Find without diminishing returns. Diminishing returns (in gaming terms) means a spell, ability, or in this case a stat becomes less effective if used frequently over a short period of time...Dusts off her Mr. Bear Dictionary... "A reduced rate of return for the same original investment."

How Magic Find Works When Grouping

Since each player has their own loot in Diablo 3, Magic Find will be averaged for everyone in the group. Reason being is this will prevent someone who stacks Magic Find from joining a group and doing little but collects the best possible loot while everyone else does the grunt work. 

So if we add up everyone's Magic Find and then divide that by the number of players, we will get the magic find percentage for the group. This works both ways: Players with a high Magic Find number will increase the group's chances of finding magical items while someone with low or no Magic Find will decrease players with a higher chance to find such items.

Bonus: The Nephalem Valor Buff at level 60 will work for the entire group.

How Magic Find Works With A Follower

It may seem a little silly to give Magic Find, Gold, and XP Gear to a follower, but it really works! When I'm alone and questing with my follower, I get a lot more goodies. That's because 20% of your follower's magic find/gold/xp gear gets added onto your own bonuses!

But Does It Make The Stats Better?

To be completely honest, it's all random. Most of it doesn't make sense! For example, I found a wizard-only rare with strength stats, and then blues with nothing but a socket and a health globe buff.

Basically, Magic Find only affects the rarity (or color) of the item dropped: Magical, Rare, Legendary, Set. It will not increase chances for gems or craft to drop, since those are white and not "MAGIC" per say. Nor have I found a significant increase or decrease in gem and crafting drops in terms of Magic Find bonuses.

So what's a girl to do? I farm with my follower who is decked out in bonus gear. I have questioned myself a few times and felt a little silly, but in the end, I truly do get better drops. Is it always useful? Not really, but then again, I am farming.

Good luck and Happy Gaming!