Any sense to the colors of items?

Is there any actual relationship between the color of an item and its properties?

For example, many gold weapons I've found have been less than max damage (meaning that you can't sell it to anyone), and have only one mod that sucks.

I regularly see blue or purples that are better than golds.

I found a gold short bow this morning - less than max damage, and the only mod was a fiery bow string. Granted, I don't know if that mod is worth anything, but still....

Anyone know if there's a pattern to the color assignment for items? Why was that bow gold?

Or is each property of an item, including color, just a random roll on some table, with no relationship to the other properties?

Thank you.

Golds have ranges that are higher than purples, which are higher than blues. For example, gold warrior weapons or bows may have from +12%>50 to +15%>50, purples can have +11%>50 to +12>50, and blues only have +10%>50. Most other weapon properties are similar to that. Sometimes I see purples as good as low gold items, but the only good blue items I've ever seen were collector's/crafter's items.

EDIT: As to max damage, the gold, purple, or blue color only applies to the mods. The base damage itself has nothing to do with the color.

Its very weird that you identified a gold bow and it only having a fiery string.
I guess the answer lies in Savio's answer...there is an inherent damage mod which you forgot to mention.

Take for example a fortitude mod on a weapon.
Blue: +20-21
Purple: +22-26
Gold: +27-30

I don't know if those figures are true, but its just an example.

Its those inherent damage mods that make a weapon expensive.
I learnt it the hard way by applying a +30 fortitude and 9/10 sundering haft on a gold axe that had no damage mod.
Suffered a big loss on that.

It may be true that certain mod ranges are specific to the color coding but I think the underlying issue the OP states is:

Why would the weapon he found be considered rare with (a) less than max dmg & (b) only one simple mod??

I don't know how many items I've found that were Gold that once ID'd were nothing more than a white item colored gold - i.e. no mods, no upgrades just a plain old bow/axe/hammer etc. To that extent, I consider it a bug....a serious let down bug. If an item you pick up is "unidentified", it should ALWAYS indicate something better than a normal white drop.

Like I said, there is probably a damage mod on the weapon that he/she forgot to mention.
Maybe just overlooked.

And as for your gold drop, it probably didn't say unidentified, but it was gold.
Its happened to me before.
They've been fixed now, and everything thats purple or gold has at least one mod on it.

I too am confused and disappointed with how items are done in GW.

Last night I found 2 Purples that unlocked 2 weapon mods each (4 total) and when I Suprior Salvaged them I got nothing. They were nice weapons too (to me at lvl 13 that is)

A lot of the time I find Purple items that are just junk to salvage and the NPC will not pay anymore for them then a white item.


I hope in there expansion that they redo items because its kind of borning.

So far what I have learned is that unless your lvl 20, you will have nothing worth while to sell to other players other than salvaged materials and dyes.

Kind of sucks.

I have had two purple items drop since that patch with NO mods.

A fortitude +20 will go for 25g at the merchant.
A fortitude +30 will also go for 25g at the merchant.
Upgrades are to be sold to players (if you can find a buyer) rather than the merchant.
As for the weapon itself, in merchant value, gold>purple>blue>white regardless of the mods, except for precious.

Expert salvaging a weapon does not guarantee you will get its mods.
You have a chance to get one mod, normal crafting material, or rare crafting material.

And put yourself in that situation. Would you want to buy an 11-15 sword when you can easily get a 15-22 from the throng of sellers?
And its not that you're level 20, its what you have to sell.
Its just that to farm the higher level monsters, you should be level 20.

It seems that you are new to the game, so my advice is just play on.
You don't need money for anything throughout the whole game...not much anyway.
When you've played a bit more, maybe then you can start farming.
Its boring as hell though.

Thats really weird.
Never heard of anyone getting coloured modless weapons since the patch.
Some collector might want them though
I have a gold brute sword which has nothing on it...and keeping it just for laughs.

If that were only true, gold Fiery Dragon Sword out of Fissure last night, unidentified that when ID'd.........viola - a less than max dmg fiery dragon sword....and not one mod or bonus.

A pisser for sure as most everyone on the team had gotten decent drop or shard and I'd finally gotten something that might have been of value....EHHHHH...wrong again!!

Hmm I guess that makes the two of you.
I'm pretty sure that they mentioned it in their update notes that they fixed it though.

I also had this happen the other night. Gold item - no mods. I have seen it more than once since the "fix" went in. It does seem to happen a lot less frequently to me but it does still seem to happen.

I never thought of it before but I wonder if these should be reported as bugs.

Gold and purple are based on a comparison of the item dropped vs the mob that dropped it. Each level of mob has a set range of items that it will typically drop, say 80% of the time, another set that it will drop 15% of the time, and a 3rd that it drops 5% of the time, representing white/blue, purple, and gold. What's gold for a mob of Level X will be purple or white/blue for a mob of level x + y. IE, a level 20 stone summit mob might drop a gold item, but if the level 30 rotscale found in Majesty's Rest dropped the same item, it would be white/blue (runes work slightly differently in this regard as the color defines the chance you have of getting a minor, major, or superior rune from it).