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I have heard many a rumor going around in the Guild Wars 2 community that you get a hidden magic find buff if you are in a party of five. After looking everywhere I have found no evidence of this claim, and yet...I still create parties of random people just to get a potentially hidden buff. Every little bit counts, right? (I have a full MF set of armor, with food I sit at +139%)

Is there a hidden magic find buff for being in a party of five people? If so, how much additional MF% is it?

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2 Answers

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Anet has not confirmed any kind of Magic Find increase for being in a party.

However, this rumor spun up because people have a perceived increase in party Magic Find due to the following two things:

  • A party will mow through high level mobs much faster than solo players. Going through a zone or area quickly lets you sample loot from more monsters, faster. In addition, depending on how many people are in your party and additional people in the area, monsters that spawn for events may be a higher level and thus have better loot.
  • There is a mechanic whereby your party members can "tag" monsters for you, so that you can get loot and EXP from the monster without contributing as much as you would have to have done solo. The threshold for this party tagging isn't very well understood. This again confuses people into thinking they have "better" loot because they are sampling more loot from more monsters which gives them more chances to get something good.
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This would make perfect sense, were I not a power/crit Longbow/Greatsword Ranger (Barrage and Rapid Fire + Piercing Arrows means I have very little trouble with tagging). Still one of the more plausible theories I have heard. – Confuzzledmaniac Nov 20 '12 at 6:06
@Confuzzledmaniac You don't have any trouble tagging, and you don't perceive a huge loot increase in parties, right? My point was that people who normally have trouble tagging get better loot in parties because of the tagging assistance + mob sweeping and therefore spun up the MF rumor. – Corey Csuhta Nov 26 '12 at 21:14
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AFAIK, there has been no reliable confirmation of this, either from ANET or player experimentation.

Given the murky mechanics behind MF in GW2, I'm not sure if this can be ever be confirmed without official word from ANET.

From my gameplay though, I have never experienced anything that would hint at such mechanics being present. I get way more green/yellow items running around solo compared to doing dungeons.

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Dungeons are far from optimal when it comes to finding loot. Magic find does not interact with chest drops, so the single best thing you can do to farm loot is to find a whole bunch of trash (regular) mobs and kick the crap out of them. Defending Penitent, Shelter, and running through Plinx in Cursed Shore are the best examples of using MF to its fullest. That's the thing, people have talked about articles or AMAs where ANet talked about it. They could have been lying, otherwise...they're out there somewhere. – Confuzzledmaniac Nov 16 '12 at 6:20
@Confuzzledmaniac Granted, that last part was just an anecdote from my experience. Dungeons are the only time I actually party-up with people. Like I said though, it is unlikely that this question can ever be successfully answered without official word from ANET. – Terry Chia Nov 16 '12 at 6:22

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