Purple Useless Loot?

Hey all, I'm new to GW, have a quick question. I've found some nice (for n00b equipment) purple stuff. I've also found some purple equipment that did, upon identification ... dun dunna dun... nothing!

is this common? just a cruel ploy to torture n00bs? or is there a purpose to the useless purple loot?

They generally have a higher stat bracket, but that's not necessarily true.
As for them being useless and annoying, very much so. My first THREE purples of my second character haven't even been unidentified, and the fourth one had another minor rune I already had. Really dissapointing start so far =\

Don't waste an ID on anything that doesn't specifically say "Unidentified" in the description. A purple item without the "Unidentified" tag is just a higher-damage/defense/etc. version of the item, I believe.

Or in some cases, it is a salvage item with a higher percentage chance of being expert salvaged into a rare material.

And just because it's purple doesn't mean anything (necessarily) about it having higher damage/defence, etc. The WHITE hammer I currently use is 19-34 dmg, which is way better damage than any of the purple ones i've found as drops.

i can beat the purple useless items, i got a staff wrapping, that is white and does nothing, has anyone else seen this?

yes i also have a staff wrapping that does nothing :/

I found some of these purple items with no stats quite often.
Usually they have more damage or less requirments but still end up getting sold or deleted for better stuff.

it's an extra layer on the onion of failure

I've had a ton of purple items without anything special on them but the best useless item I have got is a Grim Cesta that gave a 20% chance of increasing casting speed and recharge time to Soul Reaping skills. If only there actually were any it would actually be a great item.

I have found that if you ID every single item:
1 - The price will be higher
2 - You may find a white text item that does have an upgrade (I salvaged an Axe Haft from a white text Spiked Axe, because after I ID'd it, the name changed.

Normally, I only collect mid/high damage/energy items, or unidentifed mid/high damage/energy items. I have raised the price of items from 10gc to 39gc just by ID'ing a normal white text item. Rule of thumb should be to ID everything before you sell. Even if it only raises the price by 3-4gc, which I have found is only about 15% of the time, you still would get 75% out of gc spent on ID kit. I have doubled my income now by doing this...

You ID'd an object that wasn't marked unidentified and it worked?

I could have sworn I tried this one and it told me "This object is already identified" Maybe I should try that again...

If it is a crafting material it will already be identified. But if it is an item, it will work.