What's so special about purple items?

Before I start, I'll be the first to point out that I am a GW noob. I only started playing about a week ago, and there's still a lot I'm unfamiliar with.

I'm at the point where purple items are starting to drop instead of just blues. At first, I assumed purple was going to be better, but that is not the case. I've picked up around 6-7 purples so far, and none of them have been worthy of upgrading from the blues I have equipped. Is there something special about purple items I don't know about?

Also, what are the other colors of magic equipment?

Thanks in advance, I already love this game!

-Hr Cutsnstuff

One search for "Purple" on guildwarswiki got me these.

SALVAGE MATERIALS

White or Common
Only contains crafting materials.
Salvaging all upgrade components from a blue, purple, or gold salvage item will sometimes turn the salvage item white.

Blue or Common
Contains (or originally contained) a minor Rune and/or an Insignia.

Purple or Uncommon
Contains (or originally contained) a major Rune and/or an Insignia.
Bloodstained Insignia have only been observed in purple and gold salvage items.

Gold or Rare
Contains (or originally contained) a superior Rune and/or an Insignia.
Lieutenant's Insignia have only been observed in gold salvage items.

WEAPONS

White or Common
No bonuses or inscription slots.
If a white item has an upgrade component applied to it, the item will become blue.
A blue, purple or gold item with all bonuses salvaged from it will generally retain its original color instead of becoming white.

Blue or Common
Initially has at least one bonus.
On items obtained as loot, all variable bonuses have values within the lower half of the variable's range.
All crafted weapons, PvP items, as well as most collector's items and all bonus items are blue. Unlike blue items obtained as loot, these items can, and often do, have bonuses with the highest possible variable.

Purple or Uncommon
Initially has at least one bonus.
Values for variable bonuses are within the second highest quarter of their range, rounded up, which means that bonuses with narrow ranges can be found on purple items.

Gold or Rare
In most cases, initially has at least one bonus.
Values for variable bonuses are within the top quarter of their range, rounded up, which means that bonuses with narrow ranges can be found on rare items.
Vampiric and Zealous prefix upgrades, the "I Have the Power!" Inscription and the +5 Energy inherent bonuses are only available on gold items (this is not entirely true; the inscription "I Have The Power" has but very rarely been found on blue or purple weapons but is a very rare occurence).
Available almost exclusively as loot, the only exceptions are Tormented items, Destroyer weapons, Deldrimor weapons, Wintergreen items, Bonus Mission Pack reward items and some Eye of the North quests rewards.

Green or Unique
Generally have an attribute requirement of 9 and the maximum number of bonuses, each of which has the maximum value. The only exceptions are unique items obtained on Shing Jea Island and Istan, the Ogre-Slaying Knife, Shiro's Sword and Shiro's Blades.
Generally obtained as loot from bosses, although some non-boss monsters can drop unique items.
Can be obtained from collectors in Divine Path in exchange for an Amulet of the Mists, in Throne of Secrets in exchange for a Book of Secrets, in Droknar's Forge in exchange for a Deldrimor Talisman and in Epilogue in exchange for a Droknar's Key.
Cannot be modified, salvaged and, with the exception of Straw Effigies, cannot be dyed.

Do a wiki-search next time. Kthnx.

Purples are just another step up on the rarity scale, sometimes their stats (inherent effects, for example, insignias) are better than blues, but purples (or grapes) dropped in Nightfall or GW:EN are easily moddable.

Depending on where you are and where you got your blues from can have a difference on how much 'better' purples are from blues.

Most purple items are or should be sold to the merchant. If you get ones that are Max Damage it may be worth it to give them to your heroes (if you have NF or EoTN and can use Heroes that is). Keep playing until you get to some Gold or Green items to see the really good stuff.

Welcome to Guild Wars Guru

As Tatile said, it depends on which campaign your purples come from.

Purples generally are max damage, though the inherent mods usually are not max. Purples also have a tendency to have higher reqs although I've also gotten quite a few req 9 and 10s, and I have a nice collection of max req 8 purples from Factions.

Purples from Nightfall have inscription slots, which makes them fully mod-able, so that you can make them the equal of any gold or green item. For that matter, blues from NF are, too - I have a lovely blue max req 9 Longsword sitting in storage waiting to be modded.

Yes, its definitely looking closely at the purples you pick up - don't dismiss them. My ranger is still using a purple 15 - 28 req 8 recurve bow that she picked up 3 years ago somewhere in the Maguuma Jungle.

The main thing with purples is that they can come with better mods than blue can, that doesnt mean they always do, but they can.

The are generally worth more than blues aswell.

But welcome to Guild Wars and welcome to the forums, msg me ingame if you got anything your wondering about bud, always happy to help out newer players.

IGN: Legolas Of Mirkwood

EDIT: just saw your second question

Items and weapons come in 5 colours or rarity, the order is

White: Unmoddable, generally sell to merchant
Blue: Moddable but cant have max mods unless from a crafter, generally sell to merchant
Purple: Pretty common later on, but rare at the start, worth more than blue but generally sell to merchant
Gold: These are pretty rare drops, any gold item can be perfectly modded, worth far more than blues and purples
Green: Unmoddable. These are very rare drops which only drop from bosses, except in rare circumstances

Even though green are the rarest, gold are actually the most valuable as you can mod them, green have fixed stats.

However, just because it's gold doesn't make it good. I've gotten more crappy golds than I can shake a stick at - 14-21 swords, req 13s, etc.

I was so thrilled when I got my one and only Jade sword drop (even if it was req 12), until I ID'd it - perfect vamp and swordmanship mods but no inherent mod!

Or the max req 9 Fellblade with 20%< 50%H.