I remembered this weekend that extra items drop on higher MP levels in Inferno. With MP turned on, there's a chance that an enemy that rolls to drop an item (including a pile of Gold or a potion) will drop a second item as well (again, could be a pile of Gold or potion). There's a 1% chance of an bonus item on MP1, 26% on MP4, 59% MP7 and 100% MP10.

So when is it worthwhile to increase the MP level? The 20% XP bonus on MP1 is enough for me to never really run below MP1 (that's a Leoric's Signet!), but it seems like I would be getting 26% more items dropping on MP4. Tack on 40% MF and 100% XP and even if I'm killing much slower than MP1, that seems like a really good trade off.

So taking a new twist on the "which MP level do you play on?" question, how should the bonus item probabilities impact which MP level I choose to play on? Does anyone else thinking about it? Is everyone rolling MP7 now anyway so no one cares?

I don't think that the extra items can be gold and potions. I vaguely remember a blue post answering a question of what kinds of items can drop and them saying that it wont be gold or potions.

I never really think about it. I usually run on MP3 with my wizard and think more about the extra experience more than the bonus item.

The 20% XP bonus on MP1 is enough for me

It's 10% on MP1, I believe. I actually run on MP0. I think I did the math sometime awhile ago, but the number of mobs I kill vs. time outweighs the increased MF/item drops on higher MP.

I have to say that I recently dropped from mp5 a3 runs to faster mp2 runs. In this switch I get a lot more legendary items, but 99% of them are crappy ilvl 60. When I was on mp5 I got less drops, but all seemed to be much better quality overall. Thinking about going back to mp5 for legendary drops.

I remember the blue post as well. I think some sort of gears are mentioned instead of gold/ potions.

When I last measured my XP gained per 10 minutes in Alkaiser Runs using DW, I got roughly the same result (8 millions per 10 minutes) on MP0 and MP1. However MP0 will give me more monsters killed per minute, and monsters drop item. To me it is just 375% MF with more monsters, vs 400% MF with a little less monsters. 1% bonus item is too minor for consideration.

Now I am doing a faster 2H tempest rush, and I do only MP0 since I have focused more on DPS and spirit regen, and drop all of my LS, LoH, and most of my resistances. I rarely die in MP0 and I can watch TV, chat while doing runs. I only look at 2 things on my screen when not in battle.....mini map to move my toon, SW to maintain 3 stacks for max spirit regen.

It is after I made my switch to Alkaiser Runs that I see oranges rain from the sky. I get at least 1 leg per hour. The most I got is 3 legs just from the field in one game alone, the earliest I got is 2 Lacuni from the Core with just 1-2 stacks of NVs, the luckiest streak I have is 5 consecutive runs with at least 1 leg per run. So, the magic, I believe, apart from max MF, is to kill things fast and in mass and in a big consecutive stretch.

Nowadays I run my version of extended Alkaiser. Standard Alkaiser still the best for XP, but my focus now is more on MF hence I need spots which are also dense in mobs to extend my time with 5NVs. My route using Monk's TR:

1) Core, WP
2) Stonefort, backwards to Skycrown (for quick NVs) to town, WP
3) Tower a circle, WP
4) Rakkis Crossing (skip stores), into Field (skip cave), doing a big S starting from north anti-clockwise, WP
5) Keep 2, Keep 3 if convenient, portal
6) WP Stonefort, clear (I don't hunt for key unless it is in my way)

Here's the official Bliz figures


Personally, I've vasilated from MP2 to MP4. I can really tell the difference regarding gold piles between 2 and 4. At MP4, there are a LOT of 3k gold piles.