SALVAGING?! A Ton Of Noob Questions

Hey

I just started playing Guild Wars a couple days ago and think im doing pretty well for myself except for one main fact! IM POOR!!!

I ask everybody what i should do to make money n 1. Farming but im to low of a lvl for that and 2. Salvaging.

I have read a TON of guides on the computer and asked like 20 people but i still dont understand

Help Please?

Do i salvage gold items?
Do i salvage purple items?
DO i salvage rare items?
DO i salvage crappy items?
What do i salvage?
What kit should i buy for salvaging?
What salvaging stuff should i keep?
Where should i tell?
How much should i sell for?
Is it worth it to salvage?
Where do i salvage stuff?
Do i need bulk to sell?
.............
Theres millions lol


Because it seems like i have spend 1000s on kits and when i salvage something worth 20 gold i get 10 gold worth of stuff


THANKS!!!!!

Ahh, now I see why you're poor. You're spending 1000s on kits??? That's not right. If you own Factions or Nightfall use the quartermaster items to obtain kits. (Battle Commendations, Monastery Credits, Imperial Commendations, etc)

1. Do i salvage gold items........Nope. Either merch them or sell to players if they are worth something. (That will take time to learn). Salvage only if they have a "highly salvagable" mod on them.

2. Do i salvage purple items?.......Nope. Again only if "Highly Salvagable"

3. DO i salvage rare items?.......Define "rare". Do you mean gold items? See answer #1.

4. DO i salvage crappy items?.....I prefer to merch them unless "highly salvagable"

5. What do i salvage?......Anything that says "salvage item" on it.

6. What kit should i buy for salvaging?.....I prefer an Expert salvage kit. You can salvage runes and rare materials that you can't salvage with normal kits.

7. What salvaging stuff should i keep?.....Fill up your materials storage. I follow the rule that if I don't have a full stack of the material then it goes into material storage. Otherwise I sell to the material trader. If you need money and you don't need the material you can sell it to the trader or players.

8. Where should i tell?......tell? You mean sell? Sell to the material traders or to other players. Selling to players though takes time and it's time that's usually better spent killing monsters and collecting loot. Materials sell best in Droknar's Forge and Kaineng Center.

9. How much should i sell for?......check the buy and sell prices at the material traders and sell for something in between.

10. Is it worth it to salvage?......on salvage items, always.

11. Where do i salvage stuff?.....anyplace?

12. Do i need bulk to sell?.....nope

DONT salvage anything, the odds of making your money back are low, instead ID everything (especially whites) and merch them, things like golds ask your guild if its worth anything. they might get peeved at you for constantly bugging them with questions but eventually you'll pick up whats wanted and what isnt.

great answers!

Ty guys!

Yup i spent alot of em n spent DAYS straight confused but now im clear


So i should only salvage items that say Salvagable On it and nothing else

Is spenign 100 on ID kit repeatedly worth it?

Tyvm

Do what he said.

- Only salvage max upgrades.
- I'd only salvage items that say "Highly salvageable"
- It makes sense to ID any blue, purple and gold weapon.

Upgrades like Fiery, Cruel, Icy, Barbed Bowstring/Sword Hilt etc, etc are quite hard to sell, but you can salvage those if you want and sell for 500g-1000g if someone is looking for them and if you have enough storage space.

Here's a list of all upgrades:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_weapon_upgrades
(And only salvage if they are max)

Spending 100 gol for an ID kit with 25 charges means you have spent 4 gold per charge. So the identification process only needs to increase the value of an item by 5 gold in order for you to have made a profit by investing in an ID kit.

My advice is to identify all blue, purple, and gold items. In addition identify all white items dropped after you leave the ascalon area (in asalon you have a pretty good chance of not increasing the value of a white item enough to warrant the cost of an ID charge).

If you are playing the other chapters In general I suggest holding off on identifying white items until you are getting them as drops from monsters level 10+.

Hope this helps.

Minor exception on no-salvage.

Any armors should be IDed and then check with the rune trader. In general Blue armors should always be salvaged (you can usually make more, even with just an IDed 25g rune) to get the runes, while purple and golds will depend on what's on them.

Runes/Insignias that are worth something
Runes of Vitae/Vitality (all variants)
Runes of Atunement
Radiant and Suvivor Insignias
Most +1 attribute runes.

Beyond that, check with a Rune Trader before merching. If it's selling for more than 100, it's being bought for more than 25. Some runes are worth multiple plat.

This is true in most cases, but if you get items that will yield comparatively high-priced materials, it can be beneficial to use a normal salvage kit on whites.
For example, right now the trade price for iron is 26 each buying from traders and 16 each selling to traders. If you sell direct to traders, you only need to get 6 iron to make nearly 100g (which is better then most id'ed whites). Selling to players will give you even better profit margins. Just don't expect to make money salvaging everything you find, you have to know what it yields.

And you expect to get rich in only a few days?! Give it some time, the value of drops and the rewards for quests go up as you get further in.

Do i salvage gold items? - Generally speaking, no. There are some items that will get you gems or rare crafting materials, if they are "highly slavageable", but usually the price you get from the merchant is more than the value of the salvage. Some items, especially golds, are worth a lot more to other players.

Do i salvage purple items? - Same as gold, merch unless special salvage.

DO i salvage rare items? - I have a hunch you mean "rare materials". But anyway, don't salvage rare anything. You may need the rare materials to craft armor, or you can sell them to other players or the rare material trader.

DO i salvage crappy items? - maybe, depends upon what materials you want.(see next)

What do i salvage? - depends upon what materials, runes, insignias, weapons mods, etc., you want. Generally speaking, the amount of crating materials you get from a salvage, is not worth as much as the original item, if you sell to the merchant/trader. But, if you need certain materials to craft armor or a weapon, it is more cost effective to salvage white/blue items and/or "highly salvageable" items.
Weapons mods are only worth trying to sell if they're max. Check the rune trade for the value of runes and insignias - the R&I on blue armor are often the most valuable.

What kit should i buy for salvaging? - "salvage kit" and "expert salvage kit". Use the basic salvage kit to salvage common materials. Use the expert salvage to salvage rare materials, runes, insignias, weapons upgrades, etc.

What salvaging stuff should i keep? - That's hard to say. Depends upon what they are, what you want or need, what they're worth, etc. Check the price check forums and/or the wikis to get an idea of what's what.

Where should i tell? - I also assume you mean sell. On america servers, the main selling places (to sell to other players) are Lion's Arch and Kamadan. After that come Kaineng Center and Eye of the North.

Do i need bulk to sell? - no

Nah steel ingots are great salvaging. they give quite nice return. Check what items tosalvage for good materials, and what not. wood is good too if u convert them to parchment, but i usually only salvage that from highly salvageable staves and bows.

The list of answers before is a great advice to live by.

Oh and just since I dont think it was stated, you only get rare materials (the stuff thats worth more $$) when you use an expert or superior salvage kit. If you use a regular salvage kit on something that says "Highly Salvageable", you get the regular stuff at small amounts, for example 10 iron. If you used an expert/superior salvage kit, you could have gotten 38 iron, or 8 steel.

Just to clarify.

TYVM!!!

good answers i understand now
Im not looking to be rich but just to make some money at a paced rate

Thanks again
This forum rulz

I posted this in another thread and thought it applies very well and offers a different perspective than many of those above. The original question was how to make some money as a low lvl player in ascalon. This details how and when to salvage items as your starting out and as the game progresses.

In pre and Ascalon, where it sounds like you have spent most of your time, do not expert salvage anything for its crafting materials. However, do use a regular salvage kit on just about every white drop that you receive rather than selling them to the merchant (unless you need enough money to buy another salvage kit). The reason is for almost every case, the crafting materials are worth more than the drops themselves.

(ex. a req 3 gladius 4-6 dmg would sell for 3g + Salvage Cost of (100g / 25 uses ) 4g, but the iron ingot you get from salvage is worth currently 15g (15g-7g = 8g profit after salvage)

Once you reach LA (Lion's Arch), the white drops become more valuable, and the rules change. Now you should identify everything and watch for the identified value of an item that is much higher than the others. Those items that have inordinately high values have a much better chance of dropping Rare Materials and those should be salvaged with an Expert or Superior (although expert is cheaper per use) salvage kit.

Every "highly salvageable" item found after LA, should be expert salvaged because they will drop much larger amounts of materials and a better chance of dropping rare materials.

Finally, do not salvaging item upgrades from blue or purple weapons, which are distinctly different from runes salvaged from armorsell to other players is rarely profitable because they are rarely maximum, with the exception of bowstrings which are still very hard to sell in trade window.

*Back to Ascalon for a moment, should you come across blue or purple weapons around Ascalon with a salvageable upgrade and the weapon is worth less than 9g it pays to expert salvage the mod and sell it to the merchant. This is because the merchant pays 25g for any upgrade maximum or not, so {25g - (cost of expert salvage 16g) = 9g} In addition, the item may or may not be destroyed during the salvage process possibly leaving the item to be sold or salvaged based on the paramerers described above.

Can't believe nobody recommended this yet -- you just started -- play the game! If you're low level, of course you're not going to be making money. Simply playing the game now will make you money (you get platinum for completing missions and quests) opens up new skills, and eventually gets you to the harder areas where the drops are better. After you hit level 20 and finish the game, that's when the money making opportunity arises. You can do elite missions, farm, whatever.

As a general rule tho to help you, when you get an armor always check the rune and insignia trader to see if it's worth salvaging. As for weapons, the mods I usually keep most are +30 health, 20/20 sundering, zealous, 20% enchanting, sometimes 10% furious, some random ones like ebon scythe or fiery spear, then inscriptions like I have the power, aptitude not attitude 20%, forget me not 19% or 20%, live for today 15/1, serenity now 10%, luck of the draw 5/20%, master of my domain 20%. This is by no means a complete list and it never hurts to keep a max mod, I just always run out of storage and this is with an eye towards easy selling. I hardly ever keep a weapon because of the skin (the way it looks) since I rarely ever get one that people will want to buy.

Well just to say, there are times where it might be more profitable to salvage, esp when there is a increase in buying those particular materials (including materials used for consets). I would also salvage out highly salvageable inscriptions when it is an item that will yield terrible mats that you don't need or aren't worth it. instead put it on the next crappy gold you would otherwise merch with a particular material you might want or sell...

Lmao lemme know if this is in anyway coherent

And don't forget if you wanna squeeze out every cent...
Check to see what material you are after, especially for armor. No point using an Expert salvage kit when you need Iron ingots or any of the common materials. you won't get a higher amount of materials with more expensive kits.

A standard ID kit costs 100g and you get 25 uses or 4g per use. A Superior ID kit costs 500g and you get 100 uses so you pay 5g per use. You spend an extra 100g for the convenience.

A Superior Salvage Kit is even worse. You pay an extra 400g for the convenience of having 100 salvages compared to 25.

These little things won't bother you so much when you get some funds behind you but they can make a difference early on..

Good luck in getting rich

Well, I'll add my one cent here.

I salvage in only three cases.

First is if it is a highly salvageable item and then I use an expert salvage kit. The chance for rare materials is decent and I keep them - they aren't too make money as much as to keep me from spending it when I need them. Most of the rare materials that are really worth it simply drop and are not salvagble - but there are exceptions.

The next it after ID'ing a blue or better item I note a mod, rune, or insignia I want, need, or know I can get enough from a trader (or rarely the players - any more most things you are better off at the trader given how long it takes to sell and how much extra gold you get). There are exceptions here too.

Lastly I have played long enough I generally know what material normal items salvage into. I somewhat look at trader prices and will salvage ones I either need to fill my storage (I like to keep 255 in all the normal material storage) or know sell for more than the item. This also includes crafting rare material from the crafters, but then it is rare that is worth my time unless I just want/need a rare material for an armor.

As to the exceptions - well I like to keep a few "measure for measure" inscriptions around. I normally salvage that from from low weapons from the noob isle on Nightfall (they seem to be quite common there to me, but that is just my personal observation - feel free to disagree, at the very least they are normally not worth salvaging from higher value weapons). I know some of the higher level golds that can salvage into the higher dollar rare materials and use them there - same thing with "show me the money" inscriptions - expert salvaging one from a 150 gold item and putting them on a 450 gold one is a profit for almost no effort whatsoever. This was better back when Rubies and such sold for more (several later game Nightfall items could expert salvage into them with the "measure for measure" inscription).

After that I pretty much ID everything and it goes to the merchant. In prophecies anything from Lions Arch on (and in all of Eye of the North) you will make more than you spend on kits to do so. In Factions and Nightfall I normally bother once on the mainland. ID'ing increases the price of whites by a good bit, especially in the later game areas.

Though, as others have said no real need to worry about gold until late game. GW is not really item based and gold is mostly for vanity items or titles. Just play it and go on.

Ill throw in the "ID kit" crowd. ID'ing items almost always increases the price for which they can be merched. The kits pay for themselves.

Almost all non-endgame gold/purple items are crap. Your chances of finding anyone willing to buy them off you are ridiculously low. Keep the half decent ones for yourself until your high enough level to equip a max damage weapon and merch the rest... and only salvage if the conditions outlined by strcpy are met.


But to be perfectly honest your only focus early on in the game should not be attempting to earn cash, but to go through the missions and only buy what you need to get through the game. Methods of gaining money through farming during end game content dwarfes any kind of farming for cash you will do at low level. The amount of money you can make from farming charr and mergoyle drops outside ascalon in an hour is less then what an "ascended" lv 20 farmer makes in a minute.