Guild Wars 2

Enzo.3906:

Where are you getting these 61% chance? It clearly says on the kit that you have a 50% chance at recovering rare materials.

Insignia is not a rare material. I saw this figure in a number of forums through experiments done by others. About 60% chance of obtaining an insignia from an exotic using BLSK seems about right although I have not salvaged as much.

crosknight.3041:

purge your collectables of stuff you don’t need, made almost 30g in 10 mins off stuff i had no use for

This is the best suggestion.

DarkSpirit.7046:

Mystic.5934:

As a general rule, I would use a Master SK to salvage anything you buy for under 4g. Above 4g, and it might have something about it that would benefit from a BLSK. BLSK do cost around 1g each use, so you should make their uses count. BLSK vs. MSK is actually based on what the salvaged materials are worth, but that’s harder to calculate, especially quickly.

I don’t see the logic of your general rule. Take the Carrion Acolyte Pants of Divinity, right now you can buy it with a buy order of 5g 20s 69c. If you use a BLSK, you are guaranteed to be able to obtain the Superior rune of divinity from it, which you can sell for 8g 41s 50c sell order. Sure you can be lucky and still get the upgrade with 80% chance from your MSK, but if not, you may not be able to turn a profit.

With BLSK you have a 61% chance of salvaging the insignia/inscription too if you buy an exotic with a salvageable insignia/inscription. With MSK, that chance drops to about 42%. You can sell a salvageable insignia for about 3g+.

Plus you get 1.75 ectos/salvage on average with a BLSK vs 1.27 ectos/salvage on average with MSK on a level 68+ exotic. Therefore, for the guarantee of getting the upgrade, you can still turn a profit if the calculations are right.

=

Another example, you can buy Yakkington’s Pauldron for 8g 33s 11c and sell the Superior rune of the Traveler for 9g 85s 97c. Not quite a profit considering the high price of salvage of the BLSK. But if you do get the Dire insignia from it (61% chance), you can sell it for 3g 11s 93c which would more than cover for the cost. Otherwise, hope to get 3 ectos.

Salvaging exotics is a way of getting ectos and dark matter. But it is risky with low profits, and you are not guaranteed to turn a profit. Furthermore, it is a highly competitive market with an auto outbid bot watching over the buy orders. It is not a good market for profits but I take that risk sometimes for dark matter and ectos. It is certainly not my main source of income that’s for sure. Definitely not a 10g in10mins investment, regardless of whether you logout or not. And if you do logout, good luck getting the exotic with your buy order as the bot and others would outbid you when it comes to a good deal.

I think you should re-read what I said. I said: 3g = MSK, 5g = BLSK. I was a bit wrong – I would say 3g would be a better cutoff to use.
Let’s do some examples:
Yakkington’s Paudrons. costs 8.3g, can give superior rune of the traveler (9.4g) and dire insignia (3g) and ecto
with MSK, costs 61c to salvage, 80% chance of traveler rune (7.5g) + 42% chance of insignia (1.26g) + 1.25 ecto (48s) = 9.2g back – 15% tax = 7.85g – 8.3g to buy it = kitten loss
with BLSK, costs 1.1g to salvage, 100% chance of traveler rune (9.4g) + 61% chance of insignia (1.83g) + 1.65 ecto (63s) = 11.86g – 15% – 1.1g kit = 8.98g – 8.3g to buy it = 68s profit
8.3g is higher than 3g, which is why we use BLSK

Now for lower:
Jalis’ Pauldrons. costs 2.5g, can give superior rune of the Dolyak (2.3g) and shaman insignia (2.9g) and ecto
with MSK, costs 61c to salvage, 80% chance of dolyak rune (1.84g) + 42% chance of insignia (1.22g) + 1.25 ecto (48s) = 3.54g back – 15% tax = 3g – 2.5g to buy it = 50s profit
with BLSK, costs 1.1g to salvage, 100% chance of dolyak rune (2.3g) + 61% chance of insignia (1.77g) + 1.65 ecto (63s) = 4.7g – 15% – 1.1g kit = 2.89g – 2.5g to buy it = 39s profit
2.5g is lower than 3g, which is why we use MSK
of course, if you get BLSK for free, then use them anywhere you want!

Mystic.5934:

DarkSpirit.7046:

Mystic.5934:

As a general rule, I would use a Master SK to salvage anything you buy for under 4g. Above 4g, and it might have something about it that would benefit from a BLSK. BLSK do cost around 1g each use, so you should make their uses count. BLSK vs. MSK is actually based on what the salvaged materials are worth, but that’s harder to calculate, especially quickly.

I don’t see the logic of your general rule. Take the Carrion Acolyte Pants of Divinity, right now you can buy it with a buy order of 5g 20s 69c. If you use a BLSK, you are guaranteed to be able to obtain the Superior rune of divinity from it, which you can sell for 8g 41s 50c sell order. Sure you can be lucky and still get the upgrade with 80% chance from your MSK, but if not, you may not be able to turn a profit.

With BLSK you have a 61% chance of salvaging the insignia/inscription too if you buy an exotic with a salvageable insignia/inscription. With MSK, that chance drops to about 42%. You can sell a salvageable insignia for about 3g+.

Plus you get 1.75 ectos/salvage on average with a BLSK vs 1.27 ectos/salvage on average with MSK on a level 68+ exotic. Therefore, for the guarantee of getting the upgrade, you can still turn a profit if the calculations are right.

=

Another example, you can buy Yakkington’s Pauldron for 8g 33s 11c and sell the Superior rune of the Traveler for 9g 85s 97c. Not quite a profit considering the high price of salvage of the BLSK. But if you do get the Dire insignia from it (61% chance), you can sell it for 3g 11s 93c which would more than cover for the cost. Otherwise, hope to get 3 ectos.

Salvaging exotics is a way of getting ectos and dark matter. But it is risky with low profits, and you are not guaranteed to turn a profit. Furthermore, it is a highly competitive market with an auto outbid bot watching over the buy orders. It is not a good market for profits but I take that risk sometimes for dark matter and ectos. It is certainly not my main source of income that’s for sure. Definitely not a 10g in10mins investment, regardless of whether you logout or not. And if you do logout, good luck getting the exotic with your buy order as the bot and others would outbid you when it comes to a good deal.

I think you should re-read what I said. I said: 3g = MSK, 5g = BLSK. I was a bit wrong – I would say 3g would be a better cutoff to use.
Let’s do some examples:
Yakkington’s Paudrons. costs 8.3g, can give superior rune of the traveler (9.4g) and dire insignia (3g) and ecto
with MSK, costs 61c to salvage, 80% chance of traveler rune (7.5g) + 42% chance of insignia (1.26g) + 1.25 ecto (48s) = 9.2g back – 15% tax = 7.85g – 8.3g to buy it = kitten loss
with BLSK, costs 1.1g to salvage, 100% chance of traveler rune (9.4g) + 61% chance of insignia (1.83g) + 1.65 ecto (63s) = 11.86g – 15% – 1.1g kit = 8.98g – 8.3g to buy it = 68s profit
8.3g is higher than 3g, which is why we use BLSK

Now for lower:
Jalis’ Pauldrons. costs 2.5g, can give superior rune of the Dolyak (2.3g) and shaman insignia (2.9g) and ecto
with MSK, costs 61c to salvage, 80% chance of dolyak rune (1.84g) + 42% chance of insignia (1.22g) + 1.25 ecto (48s) = 3.54g back – 15% tax = 3g – 2.5g to buy it = 50s profit
with BLSK, costs 1.1g to salvage, 100% chance of dolyak rune (2.3g) + 61% chance of insignia (1.77g) + 1.65 ecto (63s) = 4.7g – 15% – 1.1g kit = 2.89g – 2.5g to buy it = 39s profit
2.5g is lower than 3g, which is why we use MSK
of course, if you get BLSK for free, then use them anywhere you want!

Still seem to me that the price of the rune and the insignia should be taken into account instead of just going with the buy price of the exotic.

In your example, if Yakkington’s Pauldrons is selling dirt cheap at 2.5g instead of 8.3g, by your rule you would be using MSK, but:

with MSK, costs 61c to salvage, 80% chance of traveler rune (7.5g) + 42% chance of insignia (1.26g) + 1.25 ecto (48s) = 9.2g back – 15% tax = 7.85g – 2.5g to buy it = 5.35g

with BLSK, costs 1.1g to salvage, 100% chance of traveler rune (9.4g) + 61% chance of insignia (1.83g) + 1.65 ecto (63s) = 11.86g – 15% – 1.1g kit = 8.98g – 2.5g to buy it = 6.48g profit

You would get more profit using BLSK instead.

Mystic.5934:

Now for lower:
Jalis’ Pauldrons. costs 2.5g, can give superior rune of the Dolyak (2.3g) and shaman insignia (2.9g) and ecto
with MSK, costs 61c to salvage, 80% chance of dolyak rune (1.84g) + 42% chance of insignia (1.22g) + 1.25 ecto (48s) = 3.54g back – 15% tax = 3g – 2.5g to buy it = 50s profit
with BLSK, costs 1.1g to salvage, 100% chance of dolyak rune (2.3g) + 61% chance of insignia (1.77g) + 1.65 ecto (63s) = 4.7g – 15% – 1.1g kit = 2.89g – 2.5g to buy it = 39s profit
2.5g is lower than 3g, which is why we use MSK
of course, if you get BLSK for free, then use them anywhere you want!

How do you figure out Jalis’ Armor can give you Shaman Insignia? Just because it is a named armor? Any other named armor also gives insignia?

BeardSanity.5623:

Mystic.5934:

Now for lower:
Jalis’ Pauldrons. costs 2.5g, can give superior rune of the Dolyak (2.3g) and shaman insignia (2.9g) and ecto
with MSK, costs 61c to salvage, 80% chance of dolyak rune (1.84g) + 42% chance of insignia (1.22g) + 1.25 ecto (48s) = 3.54g back – 15% tax = 3g – 2.5g to buy it = 50s profit
with BLSK, costs 1.1g to salvage, 100% chance of dolyak rune (2.3g) + 61% chance of insignia (1.77g) + 1.65 ecto (63s) = 4.7g – 15% – 1.1g kit = 2.89g – 2.5g to buy it = 39s profit
2.5g is lower than 3g, which is why we use MSK
of course, if you get BLSK for free, then use them anywhere you want!

How do you figure out Jalis’ Armor can give you Shaman Insignia? Just because it is a named armor? Any other named armor also gives insignia?

Any armor that is not crafted and has stats of an insignia that cannot be crafted, has a chance to salvage the insignia off it. Jalis Armor has Shaman stats. Not sure though, if it also applies to celestial. I dont think there is any celestial armor in game, that is not crafted, but a couple of weapons might salvage into celestial inscription.

BeardSanity.5623:

How do you figure out Jalis’ Armor can give you Shaman Insignia? Just because it is a named armor? Any other named armor also gives insignia?

Yes and here is the breakdown for named armor:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor

The insignia/inscriptions that can be salvaged are rabid, dire, magi’s, shaman’s, cavalier’s, and soldier’s. However, you can’t salvage the insignia/inscription from crafted versions of those armor/weapons (i.e. those without runes/sigil suffixes).

The insignia/inscriptions and upgrades of named armor/weapons are less apparent so there are usually profit-making opportunities by buying and salvaging them, but not always.

Wanze.8410:

Any armor that is not crafted and has stats of an insignia that cannot be crafted, has a chance to salvage the insignia off it. Jalis Armor has Shaman stats. Not sure though, if it also applies to celestial. I dont think there is any celestial armor in game, that is not crafted, but a couple of weapons might salvage into celestial inscription.

I don’t think it is currently possible to get celestial inscription or insignia from salvaging.

1. Find a job that pays $10 per hour
2. Work 1 extra hour per week past norm
3. Buy 800 gems for $10 dollars
4. Enjoy your gold

DarkSpirit.7046:

Yes and here is the breakdown for named armor:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor

The insignia/inscriptions that can be salvaged are rabid, dire, magi’s, shaman’s, cavalier’s, and soldier’s. However, you can’t salvage the insignia/inscription from crafted versions of those armor/weapons (i.e. those without runes/sigil suffixes).

Thanks for this. Very useful. One question, I don’t seem to find magi’s, cavalier’s, and soldier’s from the http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor. How are these 3 insignia salvaged?

BeardSanity.5623:

DarkSpirit.7046:

Yes and here is the breakdown for named armor:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor

The insignia/inscriptions that can be salvaged are rabid, dire, magi’s, shaman’s, cavalier’s, and soldier’s. However, you can’t salvage the insignia/inscription from crafted versions of those armor/weapons (i.e. those without runes/sigil suffixes).

Thanks for this. Very useful. One question, I don’t seem to find magi’s, cavalier’s, and soldier’s from the http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor. How are these 3 insignia salvaged?

They are not exclusive to the named armor/weapons. They are also salvaged from other exotic armor, with the relevant prefix, that drop as loot and some are sold on the TP. (e.g. Shaman’s Duelist Mask of Melandru for the Shaman insignia and so on)

DarkSpirit.7046:

Yes and here is the breakdown for named armor:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor

The insignia/inscriptions that can be salvaged are rabid, dire, magi’s, shaman’s, cavalier’s, and soldier’s. However, you can’t salvage the insignia/inscription from crafted versions of those armor/weapons (i.e. those without runes/sigil suffixes).

The insignia/inscriptions and upgrades of named armor/weapons are less apparent so there are usually profit-making opportunities by buying and salvaging them, but not always.

You forgot Sentinels, which is also salvagable. As Exotic Sentinel Gear only dropped during the Molten Facility Dungeon, there basically was no supply of those weapons/armor but with the Ultimate Citizens Rescue Bag, they dropped again temporarily.

Wanze.8410:

DarkSpirit.7046:

Yes and here is the breakdown for named armor:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor

The insignia/inscriptions that can be salvaged are rabid, dire, magi’s, shaman’s, cavalier’s, and soldier’s. However, you can’t salvage the insignia/inscription from crafted versions of those armor/weapons (i.e. those without runes/sigil suffixes).

The insignia/inscriptions and upgrades of named armor/weapons are less apparent so there are usually profit-making opportunities by buying and salvaging them, but not always.

You forgot Sentinels, which is also salvagable. As Exotic Sentinel Gear only dropped during the Molten Facility Dungeon, there basically was no supply of those weapons/armor but with the Ultimate Citizens Rescue Bag, they dropped again temporarily.

You can get exotic sentinel insignia/inscription from the Guild Commendation Trader for 80s and 10 commendations.

I didn’t know that you can still salvage the sentinel’s exotic insignia/inscription from exotic armor/weapons? If so, someone should update the wiki.

DarkSpirit.7046:

Still seem to me that the price of the rune and the insignia should be taken into account instead of just going with the buy price of the exotic.

In your example, if Yakkington’s Pauldrons is selling dirt cheap at 2.5g instead of 8.3g, by your rule you would be using MSK, but:

with MSK, costs 61c to salvage, 80% chance of traveler rune (7.5g) + 42% chance of insignia (1.26g) + 1.25 ecto (48s) = 9.2g back – 15% tax = 7.85g – 2.5g to buy it = 5.35g

with BLSK, costs 1.1g to salvage, 100% chance of traveler rune (9.4g) + 61% chance of insignia (1.83g) + 1.65 ecto (63s) = 11.86g – 15% – 1.1g kit = 8.98g – 2.5g to buy it = 6.48g profit

You would get more profit using BLSK instead.

I did say “BLSK vs. MSK is actually based on what the salvaged materials are worth, but that’s harder to calculate, especially quickly” It took me like 10 min to write up those two examples, and I had the prices on-hand. If someone who’s never dealt in these before were advised to do that for every exotic they find, they would just throw up their hands and sell it instead.

BeardSanity.5623:

How do you figure out Jalis’ Armor can give you Shaman Insignia? Just because it is a named armor? Any other named armor also gives insignia?

I did a lot of work with this to find every exotic and what insignia/inscription it can drop. As Wanze said, you look at the stats and see if there is a recipe to make the insignia for those stats. Jalis has shaman stats, and there is no recipe to make shaman’s insignia, so I bought a few jalis armors, salvaged them, got some insignia, and recorded it as able to drop insignia. all celestial items are crafted, so they can not drop inscription/insignia.

There are a few inscription/insignia that are very hard to come by. sentinel’s being one of them (wanze explained it), but the others are soldier’s and magi. basically the only source of these two are dungeon exotics (also some Armageddon armor from fotm).

Mystic.5934:

I did say “BLSK vs. MSK is actually based on what the salvaged materials are worth, but that’s harder to calculate, especially quickly” It took me like 10 min to write up those two examples, and I had the prices on-hand. If someone who’s never dealt in these before were advised to do that for every exotic they find, they would just throw up their hands and sell it instead.

I understand that it is harder to calculate quickly which was why I wrote a script to access gw2spidy api to make that determination of whether to salvage or to sell. It was a bit of a pain to extract upgrade information from the item using Javascript. If I have a website, I would put it up so that others can benefits from this too but I don’t.

The worth of the upgrade and insignia from the salvage are important factors to consider when you want to decide if the item should be salvaged or sold or which salvage kit to use.

I just use excel when I play the market. If you know excel well enough then you can really cut down on the time you spend analyzing items.

Ayrilana.1396:

I just use excel when I play the market. If you know excel well enough then you can really cut down on the time you spend analyzing items.

Yes you can use Excel too if you know it well enough. The tricky part is to get the insignia and upgrade from the item name which you can write code to parse those out. I recommend using regular expressions. If you also know how to use the official items API, you can extract the upgrade information from the item id. This was why I pushed for Cliff (ANet) to provide Upgrade information in their api. For insignia, the api doesn’t provide that, you have to provide that information yourself.

If you want to make it even more generic, you can also add support for named armor/weapons.

It took me like 5 pages of regular expressions to get all the items. It only includes sigils and runes worth like 20s or more, so it’s not complete, but I figure if the rune is worth any less than that, it won’t be profitable to salvage anyways.
else if(preg_match("/Yakkington\’s/",$row[’name’])) $socket="Superior Rune of the Traveler";
if(preg_match("/Shaman’s |Tahlkora’s |Reyna’s |Jalis\’ /",$item[’name’])) $craft="Shaman’s Intricate Gossamer Insignia";
and my favorite:
else if(preg_match("/ of /",$item[’name’])) $socket=preg_replace(’/(.*?) of (.*?)/i’,"Superior Rune of $2",$item[’name’]);

Mystic.5934:

It took me like 5 pages of regular expressions to get all the items. It only includes sigils and runes worth like 20s or more, so it’s not complete, but I figure if the rune is worth any less than that, it won’t be profitable to salvage anyways.
else if(preg_match(“/Yakkington\’s/”,$row[‘name’])) $socket=“Superior Rune of the Traveler”;
if(preg_match(“/Shaman’s |Tahlkora’s |Reyna’s |Jalis\’ /”,$item[‘name’])) $craft=“Shaman’s Intricate Gossamer Insignia”;
and my favorite:
else if(preg_match(“/ of /”,$item[‘name’])) $socket=preg_replace(‘/(.?) of (.?)/i’,“Superior Rune of $2”,$item[‘name’]);

I replied to your PM on how to get the upgrade for the item through the official items API. The API docs are here:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API

It doesn’t provide you with insignia information though but you can try pushing for them (ANet) to provide that information in the API forum. I am sure that many people would support that.

In my PM to you, I showed you the JSON record for Yakkington’s Greaves as an example. Here is how you can access that record through the official API:

https://api.guildwars2.com/v1/item_details.json?item_id=892

DarkSpirit.7046:

And there is at least 1 auto-outbidding bot that is frequently on that “cheap exotic with worthy salvageable rune/insignia/sigil/inscription” market and it usually buys in quantity of 2.

hi i am not a bot.

Sounds exactly like what a bot would say

eithinan.9841:

DarkSpirit.7046:

And there is at least 1 auto-outbidding bot that is frequently on that “cheap exotic with worthy salvageable rune/insignia/sigil/inscription” market and it usually buys in quantity of 2.

hi i am not a bot.

Indeed. You would be though if you placed your new buy offer and removed your old buy offer at the same time. Some of them are that easy to spot. Others are have “smarter” behavior now and have been programmed to include a fixed amount of seconds between removing the old buy offer and placing the new buy offer.

But anyway, the point is moot. Programmers have stated on this forum how easy it is to create these scripts. The behavior just continues and becomes more widespread; the only reason the forum isn’t filled with it is that we’re not allowed to talk about it anymore in detail.

Auto outbidding bots are annoying yes, but they don’t make a lot of profits for the botter. Think about it, every time it outbids, the botter’s profit gets further cut.

Another question to ask is, is it always most profitable to be offering the max price? What has the market been like for this item in terms of supply and demand? What were the max/min/average offer prices? Simply outbidding everyone may not be the most profitable thing to do every time.

There is a lot more gold to be made through market analysis like what gw2spidy provides and more.