when to use an expert kit?

I'm picking up lots of light blue and purple things. Sometimes they are unidentified, and i identify them. How can i tell if something has mods or runes? I don't want to waste expert kits on stuff if all i will get is definately materials.

Thanks.

when something hads mods on it excluding +dam %'s
like fiery hilts, the +% for enchanting or vs.(insert creature type) mods
runes might be on your armor if u added any, and they are from blue, purple, and gold armor drops.

Something has mods in it when the item has a prefix or suffix attached to its name.

Use expert kits to get mods off of blue/purple/gold items.

Use basic kits to get materials.

And expert kits have a higher chance of getting rare crafting materials...

Any blue, purple, or gold armors you pick up are guaranteed to have runes in them. Exp. salvage it and you got the rune. As far as weapons go, you can tell from the name. All weapons are called _____ Weapon Name of _____. If either of the blanks have something there, there is a chance (not guaranteed) that you will salvage the mod.

So i have a lot of purple weapons like "Long Sword" and "Cane"...that's it. So using an expert salvage kit would just increase the chances of getting a rare material?

then i have a "Battle Axe of Fortitude"...using an expert kit on that might get a mod?

Thanks again.

You got it.

As long as it's not a collector's weapon, which can't be salvaged.

Not a higher chance, the only chance.

• Regular salvage kits only get you common crafting materials, nothing else. Fairly useful if you just have blue and purple weapons and don't want the mods from them.
  
• Expert salvage kits have a chance of getting you runes, weapon upgrades, or rare crafting materials. If there's a mod or rune on the item, there's a better chance you'll get the mod or rune rather than a rare crafting material. There's also a chance you'll end up with common crafting materials too.
  
• Superior salvage kits are the exact same as expert salvage kits, except superior salvage kits have more uses.

If it's a collector weapon or quest reward item, you can't salvage it.

This may be obvious, but also use expert kits on "highly salvageable" items (blue). Often time it'll be 3-4 rare materials. This is especially true in higher lvl areas, where a highly salvageable blue shield can yield 4 steel ignots. Other blue items like this may just yield alot of a common material. A blue "highly salvageable" raven staff, for example, can be salvaged for up to 32 wood planks.

After you've identified armor with a rune, the armor is often more valuable sold to the merchant than expert salvaged, even before deducting the 16 gold/use cost of the expert salvage kit.

Most minor and major runes have almost no sale value except what you can get from the rune trader, which often is 25 gold.

Superior runes are a different story, as are Major Vigor, Major Absorbtion, and certain popular Minor Runes.

Actually, this is somewhat debatable. In higher level areas, it's probably worth it, but while you're in pre-Searing and don't have expert salvage kits yet (for instance), just go ahead and regular salvage. You don't have to clutter up your inventory by hanging onto stuff until you can get an expert salvage kit.

Don't double post.

Also, using regular will only give you normal crafting materials. I doubt items in Pre-Searing can give you runes or rare crafting materials.

Most people do that when they quote people after they've typed. None of the mods care about that.

Actually, they can, just that Expert Salvage Kits aren't normally available in Pre-Searing so you can't get them even if you had such items to salvage.

Interesting but worthless fact: You can get armors with runes in pre-searing. You simply can't use them because you can't salvage them out. Never tryed expert salavaging anything from pre..

So I have a white raven staff and I want to salvage it.
If I use a regular salvage kit I will get x wood.
If I use an expert salvage kit I will get y wood.
There is no chance to get a rare crafting material from a raven staff.

My question: is y > x ?

Yes i do this too i only Id the armor to see what the rune is and if its not one of the good ones i sell them to the Merchant. Especially Majors are (25g)worthless except for (maj Vig and Absorption they should always be xp'd) the worthless ones should always be sold to the merchant will give like 200g, for the worthless ones.

I believe the answer is no, y = x.

It works just like runes found anywhere else (once you get the Exp. Kit in Post-searing).

There used to be tons of Rune Armor across the wall in pre-searing (on Charr), but lately, not so much...

So if you find rune armor in Pre, just keep it to Post.

Personally, I've found it's generally not worth the cost of Expert Kits until after you leave Ascalon (in the Shiverpeaks). But, that's just me, and I'm sure there's good stuff in the higher level area (Flame Temple Corridor, for example...)

If you expert salvage everything at a low level, you could actually lose money...

one thing i have found out is that anything the merchant offers at least 20g for will go up enough when ID to make it well worthwhile to do it

i also expert salvage anything kryta and above that will give steel

either i get steel or at least 2 iron which pays for the expert salvage cost