The #1 tip for newbies: Don't sell that Dye!

Becca Bellows

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Greetings, friends!

As have a large number of other Guild Wars players, I have a level 20 that's Ascended, finished all of the missions, etc. and am now in the "twink" phase.

Although games like this tend to be infested with scammers as a rule, there is one particularly infuriating scam that I see people using to prey on people that are brand new to the game. What I see is as I wander pre-Searing Ascalon on various alts is people offering "buying all Dye, 50-200g" or similar wording.

Of course, those of us who have actually played to post-Searing know that this is crazy, and I hope you veteran players won't hesitate to announce in local chat that this person is truly despicable and taking advantage of new players in this manner.

For those of you that are new to the game, please be advised that the Dye you're being offered 50-200 gold for in the "newbie" area of the game will sell for 200-2400 gold (over 2300g for Black Dye, last time I looked) to other players or Dye Traders after the "big event". I don't want to spoil the "big event", but if you see grass, leaves, pretty sun, etc., that's the "newbie" lands and really only accounts for 10% or so of the story-line/mission/PvE content of Guild Wars.

You don't really need money for anything in the "newbie" lands, so please be sure to hang onto any Dye that you find until after the "big event". You'll thank me later. And be sure to announce to the whole zone that you're in that the person offering to buy Dye is a disgusting sleazebag attempting to take advantage of their fellow player!


- Becca Bellows, Ascended Mesmer/Monk (finished every mission in the game with only henchmen)
- Bella Bellows, Necromancer
- Brianna Bellows, Monk/Mesmer
- Bria Bellows, Ranger/Monk




P.S. Looking for a good guild, preferably all mature adults, heavy into PvE and PvP (i.e., "serious" players that play nearly every night), near EST time zone, using TS/Ventrilo, light RP if possible (my current guild of ex-WoW people pretty much all went back to WoW). Add Becca Bellows to your Friends and chat with me some time (usually on Brianna lately, though)!

Mariena Feladon

Mariena Feladon

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: May 2005

Netherlands

Silhouette Stars [sil]

Mo/N

Good tip indeed. In fact, I used all the dye because I simply wanted to try it.

I had no clue that you could sell the dye for huge amounts of gold! I thought it was like in 'every' other game, where dye is really cheap and can be bought at the local merchant, including hair dyes and things like that.

/doh

PieXags

PieXags

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2005

The Infinite Representation Of Pie And Its Many Brilliances

Here's question, did you beat every MISSION in the game with henchmen, or every QUEST with henchmen?

Good tip though, I just create new characters every few days to get dye and then go post-searing quickly for some cash on my main character.

Jia Xu

Jia Xu

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2005

England

Dynasty Warriors

Mo/E

just a point - the only dyes worth lots of money are silver and black - don't sell them until you have played the game for many long hours.
I don't sell them anyway - Silver looks REALLY cool when you have a whole set dyed in it :P

OrangeArrow

Flame Bait

Join Date: Mar 2005

Mass

Mo/Me

personally i think buy saving and trading dye is a waste of time except for black

I use to horde dye when i was A low level but once you ascend there are much better ways to make money then dye trading the margin is too small and there really isnt an effective way to farm dye. Dyes are decent for low levels players early on but with the addition of being able to put money in storage its not worth the time if you have an ascended charcater.

I know pre searing has a higher drop rate for dyes but in the time it takes to farm for dyes in pre searing I could make more money, gain 600 or so xp a minute , and stand a chance to get purple and gold items farming monsters solo in the ring of fire.

Dye traders really are low level players that dont have the builds to solo or really like to trade and rip Newbies off.

Becca Bellows

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

PieXags: Every single mission (and 100% of all quests that I could find) in the game, solo with only henchmen. I just went and finished Aurora Glade (which is a PAIN unless you do it a certain way) with only henchmen so I could say I did it

In fact, the final mission of the game is FAR easier with only henchmen than the usual parade of retards doing pickup groups at that spot (and the 70% of W/M that are near-useless). And there's nobody to whine if you take the time to Capture a good Elite spell off a mob in those later missions that way, too. Also, it certainly helps to be a Mesmer/Monk, since this makes the killing so much faster and safer.


OrangeArrow: You are aware that there's a "Sell" tab on the Dye Trader, right? You might want to check it out some time. Most dye sells for darn good money to the Trader and is definitely worth saving until the end of your current mission/quest.

OrangeArrow

Flame Bait

Join Date: Mar 2005

Mass

Mo/Me

yes I do know how the dye trader works i also do know what im talking about when I say its not cost effective to horde and save dyes at high levels they are better things to use for an invetory slot and if you ever need one juts kill 5 monsters and buy a dye with black being the exception

I'm Not saying that if you see a dye not to pick it up but for someone to make a new char and farm for dyes in pre sear is a waste of time play the game and if you want to farm do it at a high level where the rewards are better.

Dyes are probabaly the most expensive things low level charchters can get but to go to pre seer and trying to make money trading and saving dyes is bad just play the game the money will come.

I'm not sayign this is a comment about your post but i just see a lot of people horde their dyes at level 20 when they dont need just because when they were low levels it was their most expensive thing.

Michael Jozwik

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeArrow
yes I do know how the dye trader works i also do know what im talking about when I say its not cost effective to horde and save dyes at high levels they are better things to use for an invetory slot and if you ever need one juts kill 5 monsters and buy a dye with black being the exception
How do you make money buying/selling black? Black only seems to go up in value and doesn't swing much as a percentage to its overall price. Dyes like blue/red/green/purple all swing drastically from highs to lows and lows to highs so that you can easily make upwards of 30%-100% simply by buying and selling dyes directly with the dye trader. It's almost no work at all. Black doesn't swing much as a percentage of it's overall value.

example: Blue buy it at dye trader for 140g-160g turn around and sell it an hour later back to the dye trader for 265g. You only have to peek in once in a while for good buys and good sells, no need to camp in the community areas spamming WTS/WTB messages.

I don't know how exactly the traders prices are determined. I have purchase 50+ dyes of the same color before and it had no effect on the price, same goes for the selling. This makes playing the price swings very profitable.

There are more profitable ways of making money but few involve no interaction with other users.

Mr. Matt

Mr. Matt

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

R/Mo

Quote:
Of course, those of us who have actually played to post-Searing know that this is crazy, and I hope you veteran players won't hesitate to announce in local chat that this person is truly despicable and taking advantage of new players in this manner.
He/she could just be a new player themselves, you know, and simply not know how valuable dye is. I know when I first started playing I had no idea how valuable dye was -- I mean, it makes your weapons and armour coloured. So what? How much would someone really pay for that? Boy, how wrong I was. Someone buying two vials of silver off me for the grand total of 100g didn't help me to dispell that idea either.

Witt78

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

Tip #1 = You know that little round Compass / Map in the upper right hand of your screen? Well you can click on it to mark a spot on the compass of every group member... It then rings a bell to alert everybody. You can draw on the map too. Kind of like a football play. Extremely usefull for co-ordinating a group of newer players.

Tip #2 = Hold left control key to view ALL Player Characters names. Hold left Alt key to vew ALL NPC's Names.

Tip #3 = Hold the left control Key and click your EXP bar. In Team chat, you will state your level and the % of progress you have on that level. This also works with your health and mana bars.

Tip #4 = Don't ignore salvage kits in Pre-Searing... Salvage Salvage Salvage! And save your materials. It will save you money and effort later.

Tip #5 = In Post Searing, the easiest way to get map markers is to complete the primary missions. Post Searing is MUCH harder to navigate than PRE... When you get to Post Searing, go to the Great Northern Wall and start there... Once you get the first couple map markers, it's easy to build on that.

Tip #6 = Your Primary player class determines ONLY two things... It determines your player model or appearance. and it determines which classes "Primary" skill you will have the "Opportunity" to level up.

There are 200 kinds of warrior. There are 200 kinds of every class... I have seen people create warriors that do nothing but heal. Just so they won't get targeted in PVP combat. Remember! Classes are VERY blurry in this game.

-Witt78

sybban

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Apr 2005

Beaufort Fun Park

I don't remember the guild name

Mo/W

Silver looks better when it's mixed with red or blue. Blue silver is my color

chojin

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Maryland, USA

Righteous Apathy

R/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by PieXags
Good tip though, I just create new characters every few days to get dye and then go post-searing quickly for some cash on my main character.
Is that the norm... or are you just lucky??

I have taken 4 characters to level 8 in pre-searing. I have done a fair amount of exploration and farming in pre-searing. The most dye one of my characters has taken to post-searing is 2 bottles (1 orange, 1 yellow). In the 3 weeks (3+ hours every night) I have been playing, I have collected roughly 8 vials of dye.

Is there a certain area in pre-sear or post-sear that you find dye drops regularly? Is there a trick to getting dye to drop?

FYI: I could care less about making gold from the dye market. I just want to customize my characters.

-chojin

Mr. Matt

Mr. Matt

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

R/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by chojin
Is that the norm... or are you just lucky??

I have taken 4 characters to level 8 in pre-searing. I have done a fair amount of exploration and farming in pre-searing. The most dye one of my characters has taken to post-searing is 2 bottles (1 orange, 1 yellow). In the 3 weeks (3+ hours every night) I have been playing, I have collected roughly 8 vials of dye.

Is there a certain area in pre-sear or post-sear that you find dye drops regularly? Is there a trick to getting dye to drop?

FYI: I could care less about making gold from the dye market. I just want to customize my characters.

-chojin
8 vials with four characters? I think I've had more than that with the single character I have in pre-Searing. I find that I get a lot of drops in Regent's Valley, but I'm not sure whether that's just me or not though.

inValidP

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Witt78
Tip #6 = Your Primary player class determines ONLY two things... It determines your player model or appearance. and it determines which classes "Primary" skill you will have the "Opportunity" to level up.
It also determines what armor you wear and the runes you can use. Very important here

chojin

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Maryland, USA

Righteous Apathy

R/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Matt
8 vials with four characters? I think I've had more than that with the single character I have in pre-Searing. I find that I get a lot of drops in Regent's Valley, but I'm not sure whether that's just me or not though.
Regent's Valley... yeah I get a lot of Worn Belts and Grawl Necklaces in Regent's Valley. I mean a lot. Came back with 15+ worn belts during one run...

I run into people that say the get tons of dye drops... but I DON'T...

Any creatures or area in reagent you like to farm in? (i.e. Grawl/Skale near ranger Nente, Bandits/skale/spiders near Fort Rankin, area near fishing village, etc.)



-choin

Mr. Matt

Mr. Matt

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

R/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by chojin
Regent's Valley... yeah I get a lot of Worn Belts and Grawl Necklaces in Regent's Valley. I mean a lot. Came back with 15+ worn belts during one run...

I run into people that say the get tons of dye drops... but I DON'T...

Any creatures or area in reagent you like to farm in? (i.e. Grawl/Skale near ranger Nente, Bandits/skale/spiders near Fort Rankin, area near fishing village, etc.)



-choin
I often get dye drops from Devourers, in fact. Sometimes from Scale, rarely from Grawl or Bandits. I also got a couple from those Oakhearts (? I can't remember what they're called...) in the Northlands, but there aren't enough of them for effective farming really. Plus the Charr can be really dangerous at that level.

chojin

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Maryland, USA

Righteous Apathy

R/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Matt
I often get dye drops from Devourers, in fact. Sometimes from Scale, rarely from Grawl or Bandits. I also got a couple from those Oakhearts (? I can't remember what they're called...) in the Northlands, but there aren't enough of them for effective farming really. Plus the Charr can be really dangerous at that level.
No joke?!?! The Oakhearts give me unnatural seed every time. Devourers give me gold and, of course, the carapices (sp?). Don't get me started on carapices.

I will give it another go though... plenty of Devourers out there to kill.

Thanks for the info!

-chojin

stumpy

stumpy

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2005

Canucklehead BC, Canada

Advanced Necro Undead Society

Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeArrow
yes I do know how the dye trader works i also do know what im talking about when I say its not cost effective to horde and save dyes at high levels ....

I'm not sayign this is a comment about your post but i just see a lot of people horde their dyes at level 20 when they dont need just because when they were low levels it was their most expensive thing.
hes right ... if your seriously going back to pre seared to farm dye as your money maker ... your wasting your time ... in 1 hour i can farm enough money (8K) to buy almost 2 bottels of black dye (time/cost efficiency is definately in question here). So if you are spending 3 weekes trying to find dye ... move on ... forget the dye ... play the game your money will accumulate and when you are higher level you will make it in minutes flat. Trust me.

dansamy

Chasing Dragons

Join Date: May 2005

Lost in La-La Land

LFGuild

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by sybban
Silver looks better when it's mixed with red or blue. Blue silver is my color

Yep. Currently my el/mo is wearing pyro armor dyed with a mix of 1 silver + 1 red. I'll hafta try the blue.