Low level salvage and armor question

Completely new to the game here, so stupid questions abound.

I'm level 8 E/N, and I'm wondering if it's worth collecting the materials to get the armor from the armor merchants at each step, or if I should hold off for a while and only upgrade later.

Linked to that, is the fact that I discovered just now (offline, I might add) that you can salvage a whole bunch of items, not just the one's called salvage items... Yeah... I know... Is this worth doing? At what point should I switch to Expert kits, instead of normal ones?

And linked to that: Is there a guide of what to salvage to get particular items?

And an unrelated question, is there a guide as to what collectors have items worth hunting collectables for?

It won't be cheap if you buy armor everytime you find a new collector.
The salvage questions should be easy answered using this page:

Guild Wars Wiki

Expert kits don't give you any more salvage than normal kits do. Instead, they give you a chance at "Rare" salvage when you use it on certain items (mostly the ones labeled "Salvage Item". Only a relative few weapons give rare salvage, so it's not worth wasting an Expert kit on those). The decision on salvaging regular items can be tricky. Personally, I (non-Expert) salvage every white weapon up to Kryta in Prophecies, on Shing Jea Island in Factions, and on Istan in Nightfall. After that, it tends to be a judgement call based on how much the vendor'll give and if I know the item has iron, granite, plant fibres, or glittering dust (the easiest to remember - and quite valuable at the Material Traders), or something I need to craft with.

As for whether or not it's worth it to upgrade at each crafter, that mostly depends on which campaign and how fast you're going through it.

Keeping in mind how difficult it tends to be to get the required drops to get collector armor, you might want to look at the lists of armorers and collector armor collectors. It might help you decide when and where to update.

For prophecies, if you are new and have no stored materials or money to just buy I recommand getting the armor from the armor crafter Corwen asap when you arrive in Ascalon. Do local quests and salvage drops for the materials, it isnt very hard. It helps looking up on wiki regarding what items to salvage for which materials. But much of it can be figured out....swords and metal looking armors yield iron, bows yield wood, cloth looking armor yield cloth etc, but there are many exceptions. You can live with that armor until you arrive in the desert. If you have factions, NF or EOTN you have the option of visiting them when you arrive in Lions arch, and buy maxed armor there.

Myaka is right, wiki is a GREAT resource to use with this game. It's like a player-created encyclopedia of Guild Wars. Unfortunately, it can be a little overwhelming to newer players. Like a lot of things online, the tricky parts are knowing the vocabulary and phrasing the question.

Regarding your question on armor ... If it's your first time through the game and you really want that authentic experience, yeah, I guess you should upgrade your armor as you go. That's how I did it my first time through Prophecies. On every character after that, I'd get at most one step up of crafted armor and then wait until I got the character somewhere that would craft max armor. How long this takes depends on which campaign you're playing. Let us know which campaign you've started your character in and which other campaigns, if any, you also have on your account. We'll be able to give you much better directions for when and where to get armor. As a general rule I'd say skip the step-up armor and save your money unless you find you really need it. As long as you can play and survive with the armor you have on now, there's no reason not to save up for when you can get max armor. Check out the armor crafters and collectors as you see them though. If you get into an area and find you're getting killed way more than the henchmen, then maybe it's time to invest in stronger armor.

Your question on salvaging reminds me of a q/a thread from about a week ago. You might want to check out the responses here regarding salvaging:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10379896

Finally, as to your question about collectors, here's a link to wiki's main collector article. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Collector You'll find sub articles linked there with tables of collectors and their rewards sorted in all kinds of useful ways. You can check out collectors by campaign and region. You can also see lists of collectors sorted by what they reward, like a list of all the Elementalist weapons from collectors. Most of the lists focus on max weapons. You'll find non-max weapons available in some of the earlier areas, so if that's what you need I'd suggest starting from the list of your campaign's collectors.

Welcome to GW and Guru! Cheers,
Luny

Thanks heaps people. Yeah, it really is a case of knowing the vernacular. I didn't know why Fort Ranik had a shield and was flashing until I went back to the North Wall, a tip told me to click "Enter mission" but didn't say where the button had magically appeared, so I spent a few minutes looking.

For the record, I'm level 10, Post searing in Prophecies, and own the first 3 campaigns. I have upgraded to Corwens +30 armor gear (I'm E/N).

More reading to be done, but yeah, salvaging is quite a bit more useful now...

@ogre_jd, you say you non-expert salvage everything up to Kryta... At what point does that come up? I've just done the North Wall, and have most of the area around Ascalon sorted (I've checked maps, there's two outposts left).

Ok, well Prophecies makes you wait the longest of all campaigns to get max armor. If you just want to play through, you'll probably find you need to upgrade a few more times before you get to a town that sells max armor.

If you don't want to wait, there are a couple options. When you get to a town called Beacon's Perch, you can hire a "Droks runner" to run you through a high level area to get you to Droknar's Forge, the first town in Prophecies where you can craft max armor. A lot of people do this on Prophecies characters, but I'd recommend waiting for a couple reasons. First, it's your first time through the game, so it's a shame to get run anywhere and miss out on exploring for the sake of exploring. Second, you have Factions; at Beacon's Perch you're not far from another town, Lion's Arch, where you'll get access to other campaigns. Going to Factions from Lion's Arch puts you in Kaineng Center, and they craft max armor there. So I say save your money and skip the Droks run. You can also get to NF from Lion's Arch, but it takes a little longer to get the max armor crafter there than it takes in Factions.

If you want the pure Prophecies experience, don't get max armor until the storyline puts you in Droknar's Forge. You'll find the armor collectors (not crafters,) in each region of Prophecies tend to offer higher level armor than the local crafters. The downside to collector armor is that you cannot put insignia on it (runes do fit.)

Good Luck & Enjoy!

Since you've done the Great North Wall, there are 5 more missions before you enter Lion's Arch (the main city of Kryta).

Oh, and avoid getting the Droknar's Forge run or, once you get to Lion's Arch, a run to Sanctum Cay. Being your first time through, it will ruin the experience. Once you've been through the storyline and have a decent handle on how to play the game so that sudden jumps in difficulty won't render you useless (as it has for sooooo many people who get runs early in their career since it ends with them needing runs through *everything*) in that campaign, *then* go for runs if you feel like it.

In the meantime, once you get to Lion's Arch (it's a few primary quests and one mission away from the above-mentioned Beacon's Perch), you might want to consider heading to a chain store or something and grabbing the Eye of the North expansion for $10 (with a little luck) - you get to go to that area once you reach Lion's Arch (or level 10 in Nightfall or reaching the mainland in Factions) and the first stop has a max armor crafter. (assuming, of course, you decide by that time that further investment in the game is something you want to do)

Once you get to Crystal Desert, you can get max collectors armor. Remember that Chest and legs are about 60-70% of your hits, and that should help you survive a bit longer.

I finished the game with my first toon by using collector armor. Since then, every toon I have gets shuttled somewhere to get max. One toon for story, the rest for gameplay.