A couple of questions after coming back

So, I was a long time player of GW when it all first began. However, after taking a nearly two year break, I'm finding I'm a bit rusty on getting back into the full swing of things. One of the biggest challenges I'm up against is remembering all of the abreviations, numbers (such as 15^50...which i remember now), and different sets/mods/runes/inscriptions/etc...

Anyway, two of my questions as of now are as follows:

When it comes to drops, what is worth keeping, worth merching, worth salvaging, etc...?

More of a directed quetion, I'm looking at hero build that calls for a 40/40 Inspiration set. What would that be exactly?

Thanks in advance for your help. If you have ANY thoughts or suggestions beyond the questions I posted, I'd appreciately it greatly!

Items worth keeping are max (in damage) with low requirements. Salvaging/merching depends on you. Rare skin items, off the top of my head an Emerald blade, is worth keeping.

Here is a link for your second question:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Abbreviations

And like always, when starting a game, you will need to get use to the economy.

Things I like to pick up/keep: Rare skins, unidentified gold items (to sell), red/white/black dyes, certain runes/insignias (e.g. vigor, survivor, radiant), lockpicks, experience scrolls, crafting materials of all sorts (which can be easily stored or sold to players) etc.

If you're playing in an area with high level enemies, which is any area near the end of campaigns or elite areas, or anything in hard mode, it is worth IDing all of your drops. It's a bit of a pain, but it adds up to being more cash. As for salvaging, all runes with a value of over 100g I tend to salvage and sell (you can check prices at the rune trader if you're unsure which). Certain weapons mods are more valuable than others, most notably, +5energy inscriptions, +30hp mods for weapons and shields, 20% enchant mods for martial weapons and staves, zealous mods for daggers and scythes, furious mods for martial weapons, adept staff heads, focus cores of aptitude, and "forget me not" 20% inscriptions (worth easily 25k).

A 40/40 set consists of:
wand with: wand wrapping of memory (20%) + apptitude not attitude inscr (20%)
offhand with: focus core of aptitude (20%) + forget me not inscr (20%)

The name 40/40 is misleading as the effects are not additive in exactly that way, but do stack (im just not sure of the calculation)

GWwiki is your friend. The article about 40/40: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/40/40

Everything is worth iding if you know you'll sell it to a merchant, it will pay off.

But if you'll sell it to a player, it's much more complicated. It's just to learn what people pay for. What type of upgrades and skins etc. I'd suggest you take a look in http://guildwarsguru.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=6 and in Kamadan, AD1 to see what people are buying/selling.

The market is constantly changing. Not very many things are worth as much as they used to be, with a few rare exceptions.

When deciding whether to merch/salvage, you need to know what is the average yield of the salvage (type/price per unit) and what the current price for the salvaged mats are. It can be a pain in the ass because of the time involved, but to each his/her own, it just depends on whether or not you absolutely must get the best deal or not, and tbh, the time involved usually isn't worth it.

Thanks a lot for all of the great responses. Helps get a grasp on things a little more, and brings back some old information long ago forgotten.

I guess I'll return when I have some more detailed questions...Lord knows they'll come pouring in...