blue items in pre-searing

Is it worth it to ID blue items in pre-searing? It seems like most items in pre-searing don't sell more than 10 gold unless identified with the increased sale value, but is the probability of getting 'increased sale value' or 'highly salvageable' in pre-searing high enough for it to be worthwhile to ID all blue items I get?

ABSOLUTELY! You'll get more than enough "increased sale value" items to offset the price of ID kits.

thanks a lot for the quick answer! what about in post-searing? is it worth it to ID blue stuff there as well?

Yes, it is worth it. After a certain point it's worth it to ID anything, including white items, the value of an IDed item goes up regardless of its quality.

Probably one of the best tips you can possibly give someone

Yeah, especially when as you get farther along in the post-searing story lines. Identifying every white you get can dramatically increase your profits.

In pre, though, I haven't found it necessary to ID whites. Blues and up, yes, but not whites.

well according to this page http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Earning_gold, whites should be ID'd when their value exceeds 15 gold

That wiki is not a good source. The administration is very lax so the info is not reliable. The original admin moved the wiki to another host, but Wikia refuses to remove the wiki.

You should use the Official Wiki http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Identification
or the original Unofficial Wiki http://www.guildwiki.org/Identification_Kit

As you can see the advice differs between the wiki sites, but as long as the average item's value increases by more than 4g you will make a profit.

specially blue armor, as it can have runes/insignias, specially radiant,survivor, vitae,minor vigor etc!

...4g being the calculated cost per use of the ID kit (in case it needs saying).

In Pre, I collect all blues and purples that drop and always carry an ID kit with me in case my inventory fills up and I need to decide which items to throw away. As a rough estimate, the 25 items identified with a kit worth 100g will get you back about 250g. That's if you're unlucky and don't get any items with improved sale value. But chances are you'll get 2-3 of those in every lot of 25, pushing the profit to as much as 350g per kit.

Blue item farming is actually a classic method of making money in Pre and thus an ID kit is probably the best investment for your first 100g.

Now, how much money you should try to make while in Pre, that's another story. Here are some worthy investments:

* At the very least you should probably make about 300-500g (100g to unlock access to Xunlai storage; 200-400g for armor from Benoit or Corwen).

* Try to buy one or two Charr bags. They usually drop in the Northlands and players sell them for 450-500g. Any higher price is not worth it if you're gonna move to Post, you can pick up a bag+rune of holding for 600g in Post from any merchant.

* Farm or buy 50 iris flowers and get an equipment pack from Yakkington. They cost 2.5k in Post.

* Invest into a salvage kit, pick up white drops and convert them to materials. This will help you save the money for buying those materials in Post. Check the wiki to see what materials Benoit/Corwen will request for your profession's armor -- no use salvaging metal/wood items if you need cloth or dust.

* Rangers and Warriors would also be wise to invest into weapons from Arthur Ayala, who can make a decent sword/hammer/axe for a W in exchange for 300g, 11 iron and 3 wood, or a bow for R for 100g and 5 wood. Other professions want nothing from Ayala, he has some focus items but you'll get better drops almost anywhere.

* Take any dye you find with you to Post. There's a dye trader there who will pay much better than the Pre merchant.

* Depending on your profession there are some excellent items received as reward for certain quests. Examine any reward carefully. Some of them will serve you well for a long time, even in Post.

Other than that, there's not much to spend money on in Pre. The exception is, of course, if you have a perma-Pre character. That guy or girl will have to round up some decent change to be able to buy charr bags for whatever the sellers ask for, charr salvage kits, unsalvaged runes for their armor and of course a decent weapon/offhand item. We're talking 30k+, so their best choice is to farm Northlands for drops (charr bags, kits, items and runes) they can sell or use. Another decent alternative is to farm quest items, exchange them for Gifts of the Hunter from Nicholas Sandford and sell those; this will get you 1.5k for 5 unopened presents, per day.

Personally, I don't think it's worth the time to identify whites - yes, that's not a typo - not worth the time. Just blues and up.

In the time it takes to identify a bunch of white, you could kill more stuff and get more drops that would be worth more gold.

Edit - I'm referring to post-searing.

Identify while you're walking to the next group.

Always identify blues, anywhere, even those dropped from level 0 foes. The ones with increased sale value will make over 2x the cost of the kit, but it's not everything you'll get!

Don't forget about *highly salvagable* items - those are so often overlooked - salvage them all!

A 2gold worth blue with hs may salvage to 4 iron ingots or 5 wood planks and those sell straight to merchant for 20g!

(ofcourse only merch them if you're perma-pre, but also consider searing some like Granite Slabs)

It really adds up, just like identifying whites later on.

Hang on.. I'm ninjaing this with another question.
IDing whites makes the price go up..?!
Why would it do that? Does it depend on what kind of items? Would it be good to ID end game whites? (DoA/FoW/Urgoz/etc)

I don't think there's any particular explanation for it, it just happens. Anything that doesn't have a 'Value: x gold' or similar will go up in price when identified. Greens increase in price but it tends to be 35 -> 37 which isn't useful. Whites from HM can increase from 1g (a loss) to 30g+. It's definitely worth it.

EDIT: Just did today's Wanted and one of my drops was a 5-25 (non max), req 12, white spiked axe. Original value was 56, it literally doubled to 112 after identification. 'Increased sale value' aside, whites probably increase as much as blues do.

one more question, should I salvage everything I find in pre-searing (besides items with increased value which I should sell or that are highly salvageable which I should salvage later with an expert kit)?

Only if you need the materials.

The materials won't sell for much in Pre-Searing so unless you plan to use them or use/sell them Post Searing then just sell the drops after IDing.

I plan to carry mats into post-searing but I'm not sure which ones are worth salvaging e.g. wood planks, bones

you should id all weapons you get from any area where you have max armor. the prices will always go up more than the cost of the kits.

This.

When I was reading this thread yesterday I actually went out into green hills county on my perma pre and found 3 blues with increased sale value within 3 minutes. That was at least 180g right there.

@Rence, look at the armor and weapon crafters for you profession on the wiki. It will have links to individual crafters as well as the actual armor styles and you can see the mats and costs.

The costs are listed on the pages I linked. For the mats you need to choose an armor rating, then pick a crafter (depending on the outpost location) and then on the crafter's page you get links to styles they can fashion (eg. Tyrian or Charr Hide). Finally, on the actual page for the armor (eg. warrior ascalon armor) you get a table with costs and mats.

Right after leaving Pre you will be most interested in either Corwen or Banoit, since they're located right in Ascalon City, so that's a good place to start.

You won't meet a worthwhile weaponsmith until Yak's Bend. The ones you meet before have the same stuff as the one in Pre.

My answer to that is no in pre, where its hard to get gold, it only pays to salvage items that were ID'd with highly salvageable. Each salvage costs you 4g. If you salvage 1 bow and get 1 wood, in post searing when you sell it to a material merchant you will only get 3 golds for it (going rate lately). A stack of 250 wood sells for 2.5k to 3k in LA. But selling the bow to a merchant (in pre) will get you 2g plus, depending on the level of the bow.

-4g (salvage) + 3g (selling it in post) = -1g, so not worth it. Other items will be worth it, like for granite.

Edit: Just another tip. If you are keeping a toon in pre for a while, make another toon and take it to post as soon as you can. Use that toon to check the prices out in post so you can compare with pre. Keep up with the price fluctuations of black dye, white dye, materials, runes, etc...