Guild Wars 2

I’ve been reading a lot about the issue of Salvage Kits and rarer materials, and the alleged higher chances of Black Lion Salvage Kits and Master/Mythic Salvage Kits to salvage mats such as Orichalcum / Gossamer and Globs of Ectoplasm.

Sadly, none of the studies and tests have had a large enough sample size to constitute a real answer. I’ve even tried to do some work on it, but I simply do not have the resources to even come close to a result. So can we please have a definitive answer to this?

Q: What are those “rarer materials” listed on salvage kits? In other words, which mats are those kits supposed to be better at salvaging?

(1) Is Orichalcum / Gossamer a *rarer" material?

The official Wiki lists them under T6 “basic material”: Crafting Material
So, are they basic mats, just like Iron and Gold, or are they “rarer mats”?

If they are basic mats, then any kit has the same chance of salvaging them, correct?

(2) Is Glob of Ectoplasm a *rarer" material?

The Wiki lists it under “Exotic” without any details: Glob of Ectoplasm

Some tests suggest that Ecto is not “rarer mat” since all salvage kits seems to have the same chance of getting it, whereas those salvage kits have different % chance listed on them to get rarer mats, which is really confusing.

And, if Ecto is not a “rarer mat”, (and Ori/Goss is not either), then what is?

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for a clarification, so can you help out with a solid answer please just to clear this once and for all?

Thank you

Moderator edit: removed CoC infraction from thread title

Not specifically an answer but not infrequently I get an Ori or Ancient wood off of a lvl 80 item with a 88c Basic Kit. Basic kits are all I ever buy, and I have probably gotten over a dozen if each of the t6 mats using them.

Yea, I occasionally get T6 mats from white/blue/green items using a Basic SK.

But if T6 are basic mats, then any kit would have the same chance of getting them (unless I am missing something), and then it would be best to continue using the Crude/Basic ones.

the wording definitely needs clarification, but i’ve always taken the “rarer mats” to mean one step above the mats inherent to the item being salvaged. in the case of exotics, there are no rarer mats above oric/ancient/gossamer unless ectos count also. If ectos don’t count and all kits have the same chance, i’d really like to know that.

Still waiting for answer.

eh? I’ve salvaged thousands (got a number of pings on agent of entropy already) of white stuff and I’ve never gotten a t6 mat from them ever. I use the 88c one though.

One of my guildies says you can get lodestones by salvaging greens and up, and says he used this method to farm and buy commander. Since I’ve got a decent backlog of gold, I decided to test this and bought 50 l80 greens off of the TP, and used master salvage kits on them. I didn’t get a single lodestone. But I still don’t know whether or not this is true or whether he was trolling The chance could be a lot lower than 2% chance with master salvage kit. If you want to test this further, apparently its green items and master salvage kits. Use Mystic if you want to save yourself money.

penatbater.4710:

eh? I’ve salvaged thousands (got a number of pings on agent of entropy already) of white stuff and I’ve never gotten a t6 mat from them ever. I use the 88c one though.

t6 mats (crafting mats only) can be salvaged from lvl 75-80 white/blue/green/yellow/orange equipment with a basic salvage kit. The rarer material clause is 1 tier higher than the tier of the equipment.
So for example:
Chainmail Helm lvl 80 (white)
You can get either 1-3 Mithril ore(normal) or 1-2 orichalcum ore(rarer)

The salvage kit used increases the chances of getting a higher tier material. So if you want to use basic salvage kit you get a 10% chance to get the higher tier material or use a master salvage kit for a 25% chance. BLT kits are supposed to have a 50% chance.

As for ectos, It is my belief and after salvaging many many rares and exotics (this was stupid) It appears that ecto is not considered a rarer material. It appears that once you get rarity of the item to the rare/exotic range the salvage table expands to include ecto but at a set rate that isn’t affected by the master or BLT kits. I cannot comment on the other salvage kits as I haven’t attemted to get ecto from rares without a master kit or higher. I can say I have gotten 12 consecutive ecto drops with a master and got 2 of 5 with the BLT just last night. I don’t believe the % affects ecto drop at all.

Snowstorm.3897:

One of my guildies says you can get lodestones by salvaging greens and up, and says he used this method to farm and buy commander. Since I’ve got a decent backlog of gold, I decided to test this and bought 50 l80 greens off of the TP, and used master salvage kits on them. I didn’t get a single lodestone. But I still don’t know whether or not this is true or whether he was trolling The chance could be a lot lower than 2% chance with master salvage kit. If you want to test this further, apparently its green items and master salvage kits. Use Mystic if you want to save yourself money.

I can say I have never gotten a lodestone from salvaging for sure but you can get them rarely from heavy miner’s bags (Destroyer Lodestone) and probably any high teir bag (Heavy Moldy Bag). Now that I think about it, the hides/skins/valuable metal may have a chance to drop them.

I think basic materials are materials which have a slot in the collection tab in Bank, so “rarer materials” should be all those crafting materials which cannot be store in teh colelction tab(ectos, pile of x essence, slivers, shards and, I guess, lodestones).

But I’m not an official I’m just using my own logic.

Snowstorm.3897:

One of my guildies says you can get lodestones by salvaging greens and up, and says he used this method to farm and buy commander. Since I’ve got a decent backlog of gold, I decided to test this and bought 50 l80 greens off of the TP, and used master salvage kits on them. I didn’t get a single lodestone. But I still don’t know whether or not this is true or whether he was trolling The chance could be a lot lower than 2% chance with master salvage kit. If you want to test this further, apparently its green items and master salvage kits. Use Mystic if you want to save yourself money.

I’ve never had loadstones from salvaging, and I’ve never heard anyone mention it before. I think the probability of him trolling you is 98.3% troll.

Stonehenge.7830:

penatbater.4710:

eh? I’ve salvaged thousands (got a number of pings on agent of entropy already) of white stuff and I’ve never gotten a t6 mat from them ever. I use the 88c one though.

t6 mats (crafting mats only) can be salvaged from lvl 75-80 white/blue/green/yellow/orange equipment with a basic salvage kit. The rarer material clause is 1 tier higher than the tier of the equipment.
So for example:
Chainmail Helm lvl 80 (white)
You can get either 1-3 Mithril ore(normal) or 1-2 orichalcum ore(rarer)

The salvage kit used increases the chances of getting a higher tier material. So if you want to use basic salvage kit you get a 10% chance to get the higher tier material or use a master salvage kit for a 25% chance. BLT kits are supposed to have a 50% chance.

I am not too sure if this is true about T6. If you look at my spreadsheet, it certainly does not look like it is considered “rarer” mats, since I only got Ori “twice” from 40 salvages so far with BL/Mythic/Master. If anything, I would speculate T6 have a fixed, low % of getting salvaged from any item, using any kit, which seems consistent with my observations so far.

Which takes us to the subject of Ectos. I can deduce that if T6 mats are not “rarer”, there is not much else to fall into that category except for Ectos.

I know this sounds like me answering my own question in my original post, but I would like a confirmation at least from ANET. Why all the secrecy?

Apparently, I cannot call-out for ANET to answer question in a thread title. While I respect the rules, I still do not understand how one is supposed to get an official answer on a simple matter like this. It’s not like a rant post or a heated argument, it is a simple query. Alternatively, can support help me answer such a question?

Either way, the post title is now fixed, while still hoping for an official response

Unfortunately, ANet cannot answer all the reasonable questions that people ask.

So, I am just going by research notes like the ones you post. I think there’s enough evidence for me that I’m not bothering to invest in the more expensive salvage kits. Yes, they do drop more of something, but

• The amount is so small that it doesn’t make up for the cost (or the extra inventory slot).
• It doesn’t appear to change the amount of side items, like ecto.
• If I want to salvage an upgrade, I’ll use a BL Kit (since I get enough of those from dailies).

For some super nerdy stats, see: http://inquisitive-myths.blogspot.com/

@ Illconceived Was Na.9781 .. very interesting ..

I had a quick look there, and it seems the data confirms my suspicion and observation about T6 mats.

To repeat myself, it seems T6 mats are not considered “rarer” mats, and have the same chance of getting salvaged using any kit (I only use Basic kit anyway).

Seems to be pretty obvious to me. “Rare” means the next tier crafting material. So for example all the light gear you loot from Orr or any 80 are “made of” silk, which means that when salvaging them, u normally get silk. If you use better salvage kits, then it gives you a slightly better chance to get gossamer scrap instead. (Same for wood log, and mithril – orichalcum imo.) But if you ask me, it is not worth the difference in the price of those salvage kits, use simple ones.

I would like to know as well. It is rather ambiguous now that you mention it.

Draenima.3896:

Seems to be pretty obvious to me. “Rare” means the next tier crafting material. So for example all the light gear you loot from Orr or any 80 are “made of” silk, which means that when salvaging them, u normally get silk. If you use better salvage kits, then it gives you a slightly better chance to get gossamer scrap instead. (Same for wood log, and mithril – orichalcum imo.) But if you ask me, it is not worth the difference in the price of those salvage kits, use simple ones.

That doesn’t seem obvious at all. For one, getting T6 seems to depend more on the item type than on anything else(axes almost always get salvaged into ori ore even with basic kit while I never got an ori from a dagger). For two, that’d suggest that using basic kit on an exotic would give the same results as using a BL one and it’ll always be ori/ancient/etc(I salvaged 2 lvl 80 exotic daggers into mithril despite me personally making them with ori).

Here is hoping for an official word

Why is it so hard to get an official word on this matter?

OH! when you said t6, i understood it as t6 FCMs >.< And here I thought I’d be getting a vial of blood from a white/blue salvage >.< hahaha and yea, i salvage whites all the time, and got alot of oris. I actually get more of my stash (got around ~300 ores now) that way than running around in orr/fg/sc. (ofc, I’m also lazy and staying in one spot is more for me :P)

Still waiting …

And waiting …

I too would like an official word. And if they aren’t considered rarer mats (even tho the world drops say otherwise) then why don’t they drop off items salvaged with the BLC kits? That’s all I use because I’m generally getting globs from rares or exotics i find. (what has been bone dry for weeks now).

I’d love to know why using a Fine or Masterwork or even a Mystic kit never produces Powerful anything from items I get from the field like level 68-80 masterwork items? It would simplify trying to get these materials for crafters everywhere if this actually worked. It’s never worked for me so I’ve been selling my greens and blues.

Funny thing is that in the crafting bank they are divided into common and fine, with gems and crops in their own separate area.

What works pretty good for me is, I keep several basic kits and some journeyman kits. Salvage items I hit with the basic kit, anything with a run or sigil or other upgrade I hit with the journeyman, and anything else like gear I just vendor it. Copper for copper it seems to work out with the best return that way.

I will add that I do a lot of exploring/farming in lower tier areas and end up with a wide variety of stuff and plenty of materials for every tier below what I am working on so salvaging gear doesn’t pay off for my playstyle. But then again in hindsight crafting isn’t really necessary and I could do it all from the TP and drops just as easily; crafting for me is just a side game.

I’ve been quite lucky in getting many BLTC salvage kits as rewards and with 50% probability of getting rare material while salvaging, odds play less of a role. My observations:

-using a BLTC salvage on a 70+ rare will have a 50% chance to yield any ecto at all. If ecto is yielded, you get 1-3 with even odds of 1, 2 or 3.
-you never get a fine material out of a salvage, and that’s with 1000 items salvaged
-salvaging will always yield regular materials too. with items of high level, that can be mithril/orichalcum and elder/ancient wood.
-type of salvage kit doesn’t seem to affect whether you get T5 or T6.

I definitely got 50% of ectos using BLTC kit – and definitely have NOT got 50% ori/ancient materials. The rate of Ori vs. Mithril seems to be equal fot BLTC and regular salvage kits.