Purple Armor Superior Rune?

Well today I logged on my mesmer which I havn't been on in quite some time and I found something interesting, a purple ettin's pauldron identified with a superior rune. I know that before 4/26/06 armors that were purple or gold did not have to be major or superior runes, but I never heard of a purple armor being identified with a superior rune. Has anybody seen this before?

Probably a minor bug introduced from the recent update with the new weapons, & skillz

well that my friend is VERY weird. If they accidentaly went back to the old system i thought things worked as a downward system.

So:
a gold armor piece could be a superior (gold) or major (purple) rune
a purple armor piece could be a major (purple) or minor (blue) rune
a blue armor piece could only be a minor (blue) rune

so as u can see, urs doesnt even follow the old system :/

i know it doesnt follow the old system thats why i posted it. by the way i didnt get this recently its been on my mesmer for probably over a year give or take a few months

Not to derail, but I got a Gold Salvage Item today, looks like two upgrades.

Is it worth it to buy the 2K salvage kit to be sure both runes/insignia come off without breaking?

Best thing to do in that situation is check the prices of the runes in rune traders and half the price you see. That's the selling price to the rune trader.

By the way, you need a _perfect_ salvage kit to be sure both rune & insignia come off without breaking, the superior salvage kit still has the same chance of breaking the armor as the expert salvage kit, it's just got more "charges".

has anybody seen something like this before or know how its possible?

The update you specified not only changed the fact that blue, purple and gold armor drops could sometimes drop without a rune, but also the fact that runes became restricted.

Prior to that update, any rune could appear on any rarity.