Q about armor, runes, HM, HoM, crafting mats

I have some more questions regarding some things in Guild Wars.

Regarding - Hard Mode & "Protector" titles

Can you get the "Protector" title for a campaign if you do the missions and bonuses in Hard Mode? Or only if you do them in normal mode?

I ask as I have unlocked hard mode in Prophecies, but am considering changing characters and at some point re-doing Prophecies. So wondering if I wanted to get Protector title on this character, could I just do it all in Hard Mode - and thus work on both Protector and Guardian titles at same time - or if I would have to do it in normal for protector, and then switch to hard mode and re-do missions in HM for guardian title?

Regarding - Armor vs Health

Generally what is considered better or more useful?

I'm considering working on a Warrior, which can get up to 110/90 armor (physical/elemental) while in a stance, or 100/100 (physical/elemental) using Sentinal's Insignia. Doing this I would have a maximum health of 580 or so. Alternately I can use Survivor Insignia's to get up to 620-650 health (depending on +health mods on weapon & shield) but only 100/80 armor (physical/elemental).

So wondering if the extra armor or extra health will give more benefit. More health is a bigger initial buffer, but once gone it does no good for me and makes it harder for healers to heal me up to max, while more armor means I take less damage vs non-armor-ignoring damage and thus shouldn't hopefully need the extra health anyways. Armor-ignoring damage would favor more health obviously, but vs elemental damage the better armor might be a better choice.

Regarding - Absorption Rune

This absorbs -1, -2 or -3 physical damage. Generally in all 3 campaigns, how effective/useful would this be vs say an extra +10 vitae rune?

Regarding - HoM unlock / recognition

Does the HoM recognize a character's achievements if they never see it? I'm sure the answer to this is 'no', but just want to check. So for my 1 character that has protector of Tyria, for that to be recognized I would need to get that character to the HoM right?

Regarding - crafting salvage drops & crafting mats

Is there anyway to get an idea of what kind of crafting drops will come from the salvage armor drops that happen?

Also, would it be beneficial to store/keep excess crafting mats (ie over 250) or sell them?

I ask because I'm struggling with getting what I consider an excessive amount of crafting drops, and having to use tokens to get salvage kits from quartermasters just so I can salvage the armor drops - one mission I filled up my backpack, the 5 slot bag & 1 10-slot bag with just armor drops! Because of this, I'm having to use tokens to get salvage kits - otherwise I'd be dead broke trying to buy expert salvage kits (I use expert for chance at rare mats.)

I now have like ~800 cloth, ~600 tanned hide squares, ~500 iron ingots, ~350 Wood Planks, etc. Most of these mats do not sell that well at crafting npc - I'd make like 2-3 plat from selling all the excess (my maths might be a bit off).

I know some of this is likely personal choice, as these mats will help if I go for elite armor and have the gold for them, but without the gold I'm not going to be getting elite armors soon. So right now I'm just selling low level armor drops, as not bothering to salvage them for yet more cloth or tanned hide squares, and just wondering if there is any indication for higher level armor drops as to what they will provide?

Can you use the common mats for something else? Can you convert them to anything else? Or are the only options use in crafting or selling to merchant? And if you can convert them to something else, is it generally worth doing so (ie covert vs buying outright)?

No, unfortunately. HM completion does not retroactively count for NM as well. At least if you’re capable of doing HM your problem is simply putting the time in rather than not being able to do the content or having to grind some boring crap over and over. Rewards are fairly solid too – don’t forget mission completion books such as Night Falls for a big payoff at the end.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Night_falls

People have been debating this for ages. Armor is superior when you face all armor affected damage, and obviously it will be inferior when against armor ignoring damage. Thus, there’ll be some point in the middle where one becomes better than the other, though it’s not always obvious. I’d start with a +armor set, and when you get multiple sets (if you want to fill your HoM you’ll be getting seven all up, so you’ll bound to pick up at least one more assuming this is your main).
PS: Don’t forget to include shield bonuses in your calculations.
PSS: More health does no good for you until you’re down to that last 30 health or so. Thinking of it coming off the top, as you do, doesn’t account for the fact that it might as well have not been there if not having it wouldn’t have been fatal in the first place.

Those last rune picks (after weapon, strength, and vigor) won’t have a big impact. The absorption bonus is global so I use one, and you’ve still got another slot for a vitae if you want one.

No. You MUST put it in the HoM for it to count towards your official GW2 point count. There’s no rush though, the HoM is simple to get to and takes no time at all, so if you’re not interested in heading there just yet you don’t need to.

-The only way to be really sure is by checking either of the wikis. I don’t bother though; my judgement is usually good enough (if it sounds metallic and dropped from a warrior/paragon you can probably guarantee it’s going to result in iron, for example).
-I generally don’t salvage salvageable drops. As a Warrior, the only time I’m going to get usage out of things like cloth is on alternate characters, so I just merch them until I’m anticipating needing more. Material storage holds 250 so that’s usually fine.
-Expert salvage isn’t necessarily better than normal. In fact, a lot of the time it’s worse. Some common materials are worth far more than rare simply because they have more usage. Things like iron can be used for things outside of armor crafting, like creating consumables, so going for normal mats can be both cheaper and more profitable.
-If you’re going to sell mats, sell them as a stack to other players. It’s easier and you’ll get more cash. Check prices in your choice of trading forum (Guru/kamadan/wherever).

Marty, thanks a lot.

You have to do them in NM for Protector. Then repeat them in HM for Guardian.

There really isn't much difference either way. People will give you all sorts of arguments and formulas, but in the greater scheme of things, one is just as good as the other.

Much the same as armor vs health. (when considering Superior Absorption - minor and major absorption aren't worth it.)

It is perhaps useful to keep a stack or two of materials for future crafting needs, but it is not useful to simply salvage everything you pick up. Most of the items are worth more to simply sell to the merchant, than their salvaged materials are worth. (And you can just buy the mats with the gold you've collected, if you need them.)

The best way to get an idea of what salvages into what is to look the item up on wiki.

Armor drops are usually more useful for salvaging Runes and Insignias off them. Other than that, they are again, more valuable to just merch rather than salvage for mats.

Protector is from Normal Mode, Guardian is from Hardmode. You must do each mission in Normal mode and then again in Hardmode to get this title.

If you start a new character you'll have to redo it all. The Legendary Guardian title requires you complete all three campaigns in Normal mode and Hard mode with bonuses. So for that extra title I wouldn't advise changing characters as it will just add time to an already lengthy process.

Armor/Health/Damage Reduction...
The best advice is... More armor and More damage reduction = better survivability. More health is in my opinion somewhat of a waste. Vigor Runes are good as you get a 1 shot big boost in health. But Damage reduction and armor bonuses are more useful than survivor and vitae runes.

You need to get the character to the HoM to "unlock" the statue for that accomplishment.

Ok... Crafting is a big thing. I do salvage a lot of things because I like having excess materials. Excess materials is never a bad thing. (Except Wood) Check wiki to get a feel for what types of weapons yield which materials. Also I would suggest not salvaging with Expert. Use a salvage kit, it will save you money and you will get a decent yield of materials. All the rare mats that you actually need don't often come from weapons/armors anyways. Check to see which rare materials you need, or which ones are valuable (Saphires, Rubies) and see where you can expert salvage them from.

The best thing about armors is getting ones with runes. Salvage all usable runes and get your heroes buffed up with runes. Then just sell all the excess. Materials that are good to have excess of are bones, dust, feathers, iron, granite, fibers. That is because they are all used to craft weapons for HoM or consumables that are widely used.

Bit more clarification on the Protector and Guardian titles (at the risk of rehashing what's been said)....HoM is account wide so you can get these two with two different toons...but completing all missions plus bonus objectives in both NM and HM in all three campaigns on the same toon also awards the Legendary Guardian title. This counts as another title in HoM.

In regards to drops....unless you really want multiple stacks of common materials I would suggest just merching the drops you get. Drops with "highly salvagable" on them are usually always worth using a reg. salvage kit on...even if you don't use the material you end up with you can usually come out ahead when merching the results. DO cross-check the wiki until you get a feel for what drops usually salvage into...as said before some materials are worth more to keep and sell to other players (such as iron, feathers, dust, granite, fiber, bones). DO also have an ID kit or two on you at all times. One you get past the lower level areas, ID-ing even the white drops will increase their resale value at the merchant (sometimes just a little, sometimes a bit more). If you end up salvaging a rune and don't use it on yourself or a hero, you can also ID it and resell to the Rune Trader (not the regular merchant).

If you find a drop with a "measure for measure" inscription on it, do try to salvage it if there isn't something else on it you also want. They can be put on other inscribable drops to increase the amount of a material you can salvage. I.E. put it on a blue/purple sword and you might end up with 40-80 iron ingots as opposed to just 5-10.

For your heroes....if you find that you have a rune(s) on your heroes that you want to change...you can use an Expert Salvage kit to get them off. Hero armor is unbreakable. However, you will need a Perfect Salvage kit if you want to get a rune/insignia off your character's armor...it IS breakable.

Thank you all for your responses. I've decided to stick with the one character for now, while I am sure I can easily get through Prophecies again I think I'll just stick with one character and work on titles and story with that one character. Well, mainly to avoid repeating the same content 3+ times rather than just once, and the current character I'm playing can run multiple ranged type builds (which I prefer) vs mostly melee (Benny hill gameplay) of the warrior.

Also glad about the advice regarding the salvage armor drops. I've just been selling them all to the merchants now - and making money better than I was before. I've also realized I lost gold buy extracting and selling the runes rather than just selling the armor drops - checking prices, 2 runes selling for 50 gold (25 each) while the armor drop with runes sells for 60 gold. Seeing that half the time I'd only get 1 rune, looking back I was missing out a lot of gold salvaging, and wasting tokens on expert salvage kits that I shouldn't have been using. From here on in, if I do want to salvage I'll just use a regular, and save the expert's for runes I actually want to extract for use or sale.

I do have another question. Thought I'd just post here, rather than use another thread.

Regarding - Luxon/Kurzick Rep.

Am I right in thinking that there are 4 ways to gain Luxon/Kurzick rep, with 2-3 being realistic ways of getting them?

1) Quest's - limited as quest's generally are not repeatable. Are there repeatable quest's that give rep?
2) Book - hand in a partially or fully complete book to get reputation points
3) PvP maps.
4) Hard Mode Vanquishing

Regarding #4, to get faction points it's treated same as getting sunspear points right? Talk to a priest or someone at a rez shrine and get a blessing that gives you the relevant faction points for defeating creatures? Can you gain rep for a faction if the area your in is not "controlled" by that faction? I ask because looking at the Cantha map right now, Luxon own/control something like 90% of the map, meaning there are very few area's to actually use to get Kurzick rep via vanquishing - wouldn't this make getting kurzick rep hard? Or doesn't it matter as can just repeat vanquish the same area to gain points?

If you haven't been doing so already, make sure you check the current price at the rune trader to get some idea on what you'll get for the rune. If the buy price is 100g then you're probably only going to get 25g for the sale. If the price is above that then there is some demand and thus they'll pay more than that. Use your judgement - if you think you can make a profit, not forgetting you've got a chance to retain the salvaged item, then go ahead. The same applies for material traders.

That's pretty much it. I can't think of any others atm, and any exceptions would be minor. Some repeatable quests exist (they're obtainable in explorable areas only and will be removed if you don't complete them before leaving the area) but they're not efficient when you compare it to vanquishing.

It's sort of the same system but it's a little more complex.

First off, the faction you gain when you COMPLETE a vanquish depends on the location, not who owns it. So vanquishing the echovald forest areas will give reward kurzick points and vanquishing the jade sea areas will reward luxon points, regardless of which faction controls the area.

Secondly, most resurrection shrines in the jade sea/echovald forest will be manned by a squad of luxon or kurzick dudes. Which faction appears depends on which side of the war line you're on. So if luxons control most of the echovald forest (as you say; I haven't logged in myself in a while) then most of the shrines will have luxons. A priest will be one of the people at the shrine, and for a small fee he grants you a blessing which boosts your max health, gives you some health regen, and rewards you with faction points every time you kill something (with bonuses for bosses). The faction is of the type of the priest, not of the area, so you're in luck if you want luxon faction, not so much if you want kurz. Also, you'll need to bribe the priest (100g, afaik) if you have more current faction points of the faction that opposes the faction of the priest. An example, since that probably doesn't make much sense: if you have 4378 current luxon faction and 0 current kurzick faction, you can get a luxon blessing by paying a small fee to a luxon priest, whereas you'd need to bribe a kurzick priest with 100g before he offers you a kurzick blessing for a small fee.

I'm a bit confused - to get the relevant faction points when vanquishing, do you need to speak to a priest/npc to get a blessing to get the faction points? Or do you automatically get the relevant faction points automatically when vanquishing, irrespective of who owns it?

So if I vanquish an area in Echovald forest that requires 200 monsters to vanquish, I would have to kill all 200 monsters to get the faction points right? And based on what Marty wrote, it wouldn't matter if the area was in Luxon control right? I'd still get Kurzick faction points?

You have to completely vanquish an area to get the points? So it's not awarded when monsters are killed, but when enough are killed to class as an area vanquished? Can area's be re-vanquished over and over to get faction points for completely vanquishing them?

Regarding salvage - Marty, that's what I'm now doing. After identifying an armor drop with runes I'm now checking the rune seller to get an idea of how much I'll get for the runes. Previously I would just extract the runes after checking the prices (so went for the highest value one first) without even considering that I'd make more money selling the armor drop instead of salvaging runes to sell.

Yeah, it's hard to explain. There are two ways to get faction via vanquishing.

Firstly, you get 50 * the number of foes you kill when you complete the vanquish. This faction is of the type of the area you're in (so luxon for jade sea areas and kurzick for echovald forest areas).

Secondly, there's the faction as you go blessings that you can obtain from priests. In hard mode, you'll get 20 faction per kill (10 in normal mode, but you can't vanquish in NM so it's a waste of time). The faction is of the type of the priest, which depends on where the war line is at.

So in Jade Sea areas controlled by the luxons, both types of faction will be luxon.
In Jade Sea areas controlled by the kurzicks, you'll get luxon faction at the end and kurzick points from shrine blessings.
In Echovald Forest areas controlled by the luxons, you'll get kurzick faction at the end and luxon points from shrine blessings.
In Echovald Forest areas controlled by the kurzick, both types of faction will be kurzick.

Hope that's a bit clearer. It isn't actually all that complex. It's often easier to just go out and see how things are.

Regarding your other questions,

-Vanquishing is where you clear a zone of foes in hard mode. You need ALL of them, or there's no big payoff at the end or title progress.
-Areas can be vanquished multiple times and you get the same rewards each time, barring the title progress as that's essentially a tick box completion kind of thing.

Regarding salvage, I assumed that was what you were doing, but I figured it didn't hurt to explain it again just to be sure.

If you look at the wiki, every zone will list a usual number of foes along with a range of how many have been encountered. Between variable spawns, pop-ups, and quests, no zone has an exact number of foes to vanquish.

Specifically, you must kill every active, hostile mob on the map to vanquish the region. Tameable mobs, such as Moas, do not count unless they are turned hostile by damage. Pop-up mobs only count once they pop-up.

The counter in your upper left-hand screen shows a progress bar based on how many of the qualifying mobs have been killed thus far. If you activate a series of pop-ups, the bar will seem to decrease because there are now more mobs to kill for a vanquish.

Hopefully this won't add to your confusion, but here goes . Apologies in advance if I oversimplify things and for the Wall 'O Text:

The basic premise of Factions (imo) is to eventually force you to choose between "siding" with the Kurzicks or the Luxons (at least for awhile).

If you're in a guild, chances are they are either Kurzick or Luxon "aligned". This is handy because unlike Sunspear points, which contribute passively to a title track and give a boost to the PvE-only Sunspear skills, there is a limit to how much of either Faction you can carry at a time. Once you reach the cap, you can continue to earn faction but it will be wasted because of the cap. Being in a guild aligned with the faction side you're currently working on allows you to donate/spend the faction you've accumulated on scrolls, Kurzick/Luxon skills or rare materials like amber and jadeite. Spending the faction also contributes to the allegiance rank for that side.

If you hit the "H" button and bring up your Hero panel, the first tab will tell you how much of each faction you currently have. You start out with a 10k faction cap for both sides.

Once you complete the Tahnnaki Temple mission, the following two missions will award you from 1,000 to 3,000 Kurzick faction (Arborstone mission) and Luxon faction (Boreas Seabed Mission). Since you have to do both of them to advance in the storyline, you'll end carrying both for a short time.

One important note: Although you can carry faction from both sides....as soon as you spend faction for one side you lose the same amount from the other side if you are carrying any.

Regardless of which "side" your guild is aligned with, you do not have to pick that side for your character. The main advantage though is that you get double points for spending faction on certain things if your guild is aligned with that faction. i.e. your guild is Kurzick, you get 10k in allegiance points for spending 5k in Kurzick faction to increase your guild's reputation.

Also...to advance in the storyline you need to have 10k in *unspent* faction for the side you choose to support. Once you've finished the Befriending quest, you can safely spend the 10k and reset the counter.

In regards to vanquishing:

Whichever faction controls the town adjacent to an area you want to vanquish will determine who controls the shrine just outside the outpost. It is entirely possible for an area bordered by two or more towns to have a different faction controlling the shrines outside two or more of them You only gain faction for kills while vanquishing if you pay the priest at the shrine. You receive the (additional) end-of-vanquish faction reward once every red dot in the area has been killed regardless of whether you've paid the shrine priest or not.

The tricky part is that, as mentioned by Marty and others, the end-of-vanq reward is based on where the area is located. Zones in the Echovald (Kurzick) *always* reward Kurzick faction when the vanq is done regardless of which side controls the adjoining towns. Same for Jade Sea (Luxon) areas. BUT you can also rack up faction for the opposing side *while* vanqing if the shrine priest is from the other Faction. The downside is that you will end up with faction from both sides at the end, with the opposing side's faction being wasted as soon as you spend your chosen side's faction.

Most people choose one side initially to finish the campaign with and then go back and complete the other side if they're going for a title.

The links above should take you to the wiki pages that give a list of the repeatable/non-repeatable quests for gaining faction for both sides. They are very handy for figuring out how to gain the faction you initially need to continue in the storyline.

Hope this helps a bit and wasn't too confusing >.<

Edit: It's also a good idea to keep an eye on the daily Zaishen bounties/vanquishes/missions offered in Embark Beach. The ones related to Kurzick/Luxon areas reward additional faction that comes in handy. The bounties and missions will reward faction regardless of whether they're done in HM or NM, so if you're not able to complete a mission or bounty in HM, you'll still be able to get the faction reward.

Edit #2: You can also keep multiple Shiro's Return storybooks on you if you plan to repeat any missions on the same toon. Simply put the current one in storage, talk to the Luxon/Kurzick bard to get another. Repeat as many times as you wish, then put all the books back in your bags. However, you'll need to keep an eye on them, since only the first book will have entries credited to it each time you redo a mission. A nice trick is to put the storybook you want the entry to go into in the very first bag slot and keep the others in a diff bag. Swap them as needed for repeats.

Thank you once again for the very helpful answers. I do have two more question regarding faction points and use.

Regarding - Faction points and their use.

I have been reading the unofficial wiki about what you can spend faction points on, and seems I have 2 (maybe 3) options to consider:

1) Spend points getting the rare crafting mats needed for elite armors.
2) Donate/spend on x faction guild/alliance, which increases relevant faction title the fastest
3) Get scrolls for the elite area's

1 - considering you need 80 of each rare mat (Amber Chunk or Jade Shardite) to craft, that's a total of 400K faction needed for the mats. That's a lot of vanquishing over and over (my calcs, based on average of 150 mobs in an area = 7,500 rep per vanquish, or 10,500 w/priest blessing = 38 to 54 vanquish's needed) for the points. No idea how long that would take. Also considering my finances right now, it's the only option to get the mats (I don't have the 136-148K needed to buy the mats and armor pieces, not without serious farming)
2 - The wiki talks about donating faction points to your "alliance". What if your guild does not have an alliance? Can you still donate to your guild and get double points towards faction title?
3 - How doable are the 2 faction elite area's in normal mode with just heroes/henchies? Are they even doable? The guild I'm in consists of just myself, so would either need to pug or go with heroes/henchies - and considering most pugs are likely using set builds looking for speed clear's, I doubt I'd have much luck as a newbie with limited skills, no knowledge of the area's and not super-good playing skills either.

Regarding - donating faction to guild / alliance

Assuming that you can donate to a guild that's not part of an alliance (I'm hoping that is the case), this makes me want to ask about something.

Can you donate all of 1 factions reputation to your guild, for increased title points, disband the guild, re-create guild with no alliegience - then go to the other faction and then donate that faction's points to your new guild to increase the title in that faction (obviously after getting some faction points)?

Here is an example/illustration of what I'm talking about:

- Have solo/self guild
- dedicate guild to luxon side
- donate 20K luxon points to guild for 40K points towards the luxon title track
- disband/close guild
- re-create guild
- go work on getting kurzick faction points
- donate 20K kurzick faction points for 40K points towards the kurzick title track?

Could you do this to continuously work on both title tracks while vanquishing Cantha/Factions? Thus not wasting points you get from vanquishing one region? So vanquish 1 side, donating points to guild when point cap, then when done vanquishing 1 side, disband guild and recreate so can then work on other side's vanquishing and donating it's points when point capped? And thus work on both titles and not have to worry about wasted faction points?

Obviously if that works it's what I plan on doing. I'm also obviously going to use faction points to get the PvE skills as soon as I hit rank 1 and have the faction to do so.

Regarding - Shiro's return (normal mode) book

According to the wiki, this can give up to 40K in normal mode. This goes straight towards the title track right? And thus can't be used for things such as buying skills, getting mats, etc correct?

So with 1 book, to get 1 faction skill I would need to donate 31,500 faction to my guild (assuming I don't need an alliance and can donate just to a guild for double title points) right? 31,500 as 31,500*2 = 63,000 + 40,000 = 103,000 = 100,000 for rank 1 and 3,000 for 1 skill. Is my maths/calculation right?

1. In regards to the amount of vanquishing for the mats needed for the armor...yes, it is a bit of vanqing. However, if you wait until the right weekend events that come up periodically, plus picking up the daily Zaishen vanquishes, you can maximize your point spending. There are weekends where you get double K/L points when turning in faction (but not for earning it). There are also weekends where you get double faction when vanquishing...this wiki page is quite helpful in tracking the prior year weekend events. Anet tends to stick closely to the same schedule each year...usually. This page lists this year's weekend events up to the current weekend. Based on last year's predictions, the second week of August should be double points for spending faction and the last weekend in Sept should be double points for vanquishing.

2. Although wiki says "alliance" you do not actually have to be in a guild that's in an alliance. Just being in a guild that is allied with the faction you wish to donate to is enough. In the end you are actually donating to your guild's faction total. The main advantage to being in an alliance is that the faction for all the guilds in the alliance are added together, allowing guilds with alot of faction to gain control of towns. Town controllage means alliance members can get access to the exclusive area in a town and buy things such as lockpicks and salvage/ID kits at a discount.

3. IMO, the Factions elite areas (Urgoz and The Deep) are rather challenging for a party of live ppl and heroes. While it is likely doable with a minimum of live players and mostly heroes/henchies....I would not advise trying to do so with just one live person and all heroes/henchies. Factions elite areas are designed for a party of *12* rather than just a party of 8. That alone gives an indication of the difficulty for a normal, average player.

In regards to switching allegiances to donate to the other side...you do not have to disband your guild . Simply speak to the Faction Ambassador for the opposing faction in either Cavalon or House zu Heltzer to swap sides. It does cost you 500g per swap however....which is more than the price to create a guild, but if you already have a guild hall and some of the NPCs stocking it, it might be better to just swap sides via the Ambassador.

Yes, faction rewards from books are not spendable faction and go straight to your title track. And yes, your calculations are correct.

Hope this helps!

indeed 400k faction can take some time. it isn't that hot though. When e.g. using vanquishing to do it you also will gain a lot of money for vanguishing over and over. So my guess is that you will only need 250k of faction and can buy the rest with the profits. Still a long way to go.

No, but again it isn't that hot. An alliance can consist out of one guild. Get your guildleader to let the guild join kurzick or luxon (at an npc in either cavalon or house zu heltzer) and the npc where you give the reward to your alliance will be added to your guildhall.

They are doable with heroes only (no henchman though, they can't enter) but it is very very hard. they are 12 partymembers area's and you can only bring yourself and 7 heroes. So you miss 4 partymembers. beside that it is an elite area. There are people who did it but they are rare and very awesome.

The alliance leader can change the alliance from being kurzick to being luxon wich is a lot cheaper then recreating a guild. To make a single guil;d to a one guild alliance you need to own a guildhall (last time I did that it cost bout 10k) and join the alliance. so total cost for creating the guild, the guildhall and join the alliance would be roughly 11k. Changing alliance only cost 500 gold. Changing all the time is never advisable though. Every time you change site you will loose some points (cause minimum to spent on anything is 1k of points, so everything below 1k will be lost, changing all the time can make easy a difference of 25k in total you waist). Besides you can only do one thing at a time. So focus on doing what you want to do at one side and then change (maybe change twice to unlock the missions/outposts at the other side for other purposes like vanguishes and nm/hm missions).

Indeed they go to the title track directly. and your calculations are correct.

A note on rune salvaging: any superior rune is worth at least 100g, if you also ID it after expert salvage. The rune trader will always pay at least 100g for superior runes due to minimum buy price after identification. Whether or not it's worth salvaging out the superior rune depends on your chance to retain and the value of the runed armor.

So, to donate faction to your guild, your guild has to have a guild hall with a faction ambassador in it? So if you don't have a guild hall, your only options (apart from getting a guild hall) to spend faction are to buy scrolls or rare mats?

So I'm in a position where I have around 20K luxon points, finished the factions campaign but want to do the Kurzick side for the protector title. To do this I first have to drain my luxon faction down so when I get to 10K kurzick, it's higher than my luxon. I was hoping to be able to donate to my guild for title track, and seemed the best option for me. Now as this is going to be an issue, I see this as my options:

1) Spend the 10-15K needed to get a guild hall and ambassador so I can donate straight to my guild. Biggest problem I have with this is I have limited funds, with limited time for farming, and was planning on getting at least 1 elite armor (I have the mats, and by the time I finish Nightfall and get to HoM I'll have the funds, unless I spend the money elsewhere), and with my time - I don't have the funds to get both GH and ambassador and elite armor.

2) Spend faction buying Jadeite Shards - with 20K faction I'll get 4 shards, only need another 66 shards for HoM elite armor (don't need the mask I believe, so total needed is only 70, not 80 like I thought before). One advantage to this is, if I ever decide to work on other characters, I might get them Luxon elite armors (some do look nice imo)

3) Spend the faction on scrolls for elite area's. Based on what people above have said, I don't consider this an option. I'm not one of those mad skills people who could clear a 12 person area with only 8 people. So would have to pug it, and that puts me off.

4) Ditch my guild, go find a luxon based guild that will let me join just for 1 purpose - to donate my luxon faction to that guild for title track, then leave the guild and go back to my solo guild. I guess I could always stay, but not sure I would. I'm an oddball like that

Am I missing anything here? Are there any other options / ways to spend luxon faction points so I can work on kurzick faction to do their quest's and mission?

I'm not 100% certain about this, but I don't think you have to necessarily have a guild hall to donate. Wiki does not specify that you must have a GH...it's handy if you happen to have a hall and the pixel money to stock it with a Faction NPC for donation purposes...but there are Kurz/Luxon NPCs in House zu Heltzer and Cavalon, plus a couple other towns on both sides who will allow you to donate faction to your guild I believe. The Faction exchange NPC on the Kurzick side is the Kurzick Bureaucrat. On the Luxon side it is the Luxon Scavenger.

On a side note...if you aren't the sole member of your guild, it is not uncommon for players working on the opposing faction (to their established guild) to leave and temporarily join another guild specifically to dump faction. We've had a few ppl over the years do so with my guild...they join for awhile, farm faction and donate to the guild/alliance, then leave to return to their "home" guild. If this is an option for you, as long as you are up front as to why you are looking to join a guild, most guilds don't mind overly much. It benefits them in the end after all... :P

If you're currently grinding Luxon faction and are considering vanquishing, you can't go wrong with Mount Qinkai. The priests outside Aspenwood Gate are always Luxon, you get Luxon faction for completing, and it's a fast vanquish (I heroway it in about 20 minutes, but it's also the site of fast speedclears). Once you get down a pattern for completion, you can pretty much do it in your sleep.