Salvaging.. and when to do it..

I know this has probably been asked a lot, but the search tool for this forum isn't working right now, and it's REALLY frustrating me.

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN TO SALVAGE AN ITEM?

I recently found a Gold Defender, it said it was worth 200 gold. I decided to salvage it because I thought I would get something better than 200 gold from it.. and I got 2 steel ingots.....

I clearly should have just sold this item, or kept it and used it because it was quite good as a shield too. But I didn't. And I don't know how I could have been able to tell whether I should have salvaged it or sold it...

Please help me!

Thank you

Dont Salvage Shields. Or Offhands. You dont get anything but a few materials back. Also dont Salvage Wands expecting to get anything expensive. (If they are lowgrade and not worth 50+ to the merchant, you can salvage them for a few materials that hopefully are worth more, but only if their higher energy/AL/etc items - lowgrade items dont salvage into much).

As for other Weapons, You can salvage or merchant un-modded things (white), but if its blue/purp/gold, look at the mods and dont salvage unless it has something good on it (use this sites mod pricecheck list if you have too) - just merchant it if the mods are bad. You dont want to use a expert kit use on a 25gp mod.

For Enemy Armors - salvage white ones, and ID blue/purp/gold ones. Just salvage those if the Rune in them is good.


Always use Expert Salvage. Just making sure you know that.

Not always expert salvage. If you want to salvage armor and get the basic mats back (not rare mats) then use the normal salvage kit. Use expert on armor if you want to get Runes or Rare mats back, but its not guaranteed.

For normal items though, do what Former Ruling suggested.

Once you get to the Krytia region, the Item to X number of salvaged materials go up greatly.

Krytia is about 1 to 2 where drops from the fire islands is about 1 to 5-11 per conversion.

Always salvage runes BEFORE using ID kit.

Also if you have a perfect mod on a "junk" weapon (not focus/shiled/offhand, there are no upgrades) you may want to try an expert/superior kit to get that mod.

You'll get normal materials 90% of the time anyway It isn't like you'll never get iron ingots again once you go expert lol. Normal Salvage kits just Crowd your Inventory Slots once your in an area where the materials can outwiegh the cost per use of the kit.

I assume he got this completely backwards. As you do not want to Salvage a rune then find out its horrible.

You want to ID then Salvage. Because if its a Major Rune or most Minor runes you'll find out the armor it was in sells for more than the rune will salvaged. Hmm...Salvage a 200gold armor to get a rune that sells to the trader for 10gp..

Doesn't make a difference, just makes you less disappointed when you salvage the armor of superior vigor into 8 bolts of cloth.

Another point I forgot to mention when I bashed that statement that d4nowar just said - Runes are only 100% salvages when they are ID'ed.

That won't happen unless you accidentally use your regular Salvage Kit and not your Expert Salvage Kit.

Haven't pve'd in awhile. Don't remember the change.

No - Always ID before salvaging! you may find that the armor in question is worth more with the rune left in (especially with minor runes) than the rune alone. And ALWAYS Expert salvage to get runes out of armor, using a regular salavage kit will always result in the regular raw materials. Same goes with weapons, you'll never get a mod from a weapon using a regular salvage kit, and you'll never get any rare materials using one.

I though a blue/purple/gold armor drop ALWAYS salvages to a rune if it is ID'd or not, just as long as you use expert or superior salvage kit. This has been my experience.

I salvage superior runes before I ID them. This is just so if it is a class of rune that I have already unlocked all of, then I let a guildie ID and unlock it.

I ID blues and purples first, so if it is a junk rune, I sell to the merchant for typically more than the rune is worth.

Former ruling stated that its best not to salvage wands, shields and offhands. I disagree on part of this. A scroll offhand will salvage into 3 parchment 50% of the time (from desert drops), max wands often salvage into 2 steel (which is worth much more than the 50 or so gold u can merchant sell them for), any shield that looks metal can also salvage into steel, but with less percentage than the wands.

Generally the rule for me is: if it looks like it is made of bone or granite sell it (those mats are worthless), remains (demonic, or phantom residue) will salvage into dust, anything that looks like it is made of metal and is a high dmg I expert salvage for steel, anything that is made of wood and sells for 50g or less I regular salvage for wood. IMO if you do anything different troll, hydra and pretty much any other type of non-green farming becomes less profitable.

EDIT: all percentages are guesses, but I farm and salvage a lot, so they should be good rules of thumb

wait..there's a 100% chance of expert salvaging a rune from a blue/purple/gold salvage item, but not from a blue/purple/gold item? (scroll, weapons, etc)

The post about salvaging before IDing wasn't completely off the mark, though the poster should probably have added the motivations for doing that.

An unIDentified Superior Vigor rune is worth ungodly amounts of gold. Some other Superiors are worth a pretty penny if unIDed as well. The problem with salvaging first is that it is a gamble in the greatest sense of the term. You will inevitably loose money; however, if you do hit the payload it will be one of the biggest payloads you could hope to get.

As is often the case, the bigger the risk the bigger the reward. Still, gambling isn't for everyone.

Edit: To firestar314 above, there is a 100% chance of getting the rune when you salvage an enemy armor that has a rune on it using an Expert or better salvage kit. Weapons of any variety will never have a rune on them, so the rule does not apply to them. For weapons you have a chance of getting one of the mods off of them or getting materials.

Personally, I only ever salvage items for materials if they say "Highly Salvagable" as I know I'm getting my returns then.

salvage everything unless you want the mod off of it OR it's highly salvageable, mathematically wood or iron being worth 8-10, you will always get more worth in materials than if you sent to the vendor, and the space you save will allow you to get more space. I can make 20k a week off of materials alone.