Guild Wars 2

Yes, I know it hurts to even bring up this topic as the very idea of salvaging this resource isn’t a nice one. However, crystalline dust doesn’t exactly rain down from the sky. Is it worth it to convert the Ecto into the dust or should I just sell the ecto and buy it? Last time I checked the TP, sometime last night, dust was selling for 22silver or so and ectos were 41silver.

There is a chance I can get higher from the ecto salvage but the thought of getting 1 for 1 sucks. Does using a higher salvage kit get you more dusts or is it up to the RNG again for this?

See data on kit and yield in previous thread here

Sure wish forum search worked…at least google is functional.

Forgive me as I did google, however I try not to get answers that are more than a year old. Old data tends to be worthless in the real world…

If its profitable or not pretty much changes on an hourly or daily basis and depends on if you use buy orders and sell listings or buy/sell directly.

I salavaged over 21,000 ecto this year to max out MF, most of my Ecto was bought when it was around 30-35silver each, I then sold off the dust to recoup the losses.

By the end of it, I was down around 1400G, it was an expensive way to max MF but I wanted it done,

In the short term if you salvage 1 or 2 ecto you may get a high return, by hitting max ( insert RnG now ) but in the long term over several hundred ecto you will lose out.

Dust will always sit around 1/2 the price of an ecto.

If you need the luck %, by all means do it.

You’ll randomly get between 1 and 5 crystalline dust from a Glob of Ectoplasm. The rate does depend on the quality of the kit; with a master kit, I’ve averaged around 1.85 dust per ecto (with a 95% CI of ~ 1.8 – 1.9).

People convert ecto into dust in large amounts for the luck; you’ll get a bit over 100 luck per salvage in addition to the dust. That luck tends to keep the conversion from actually being profitable. Unless you need the luck I wouldn’t bother.

If you are salvaging for personal use, I think it is pretty good. Since you also get luck from it.

If you are “buying” ecto, and resale the crystaline dust to boost luck%… You’ll loss quite a lot of money from the 15% tax.

Was just looking into this last night, reviewing the numbers. Here is wiki data I found on the subject:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glob_of_Ectoplasm/salvage_research

With all the data they have there, the average number of dusts from mystic kits is 1.84. Which means that even if you can sell the dust for a higher end of its sell price (22s per) you’re still going to be operating at a small loss, on average.

But if you want the luck points, it’s not a bad deal overall. Another way to go about it is to buy (or loot) rares and break them down for ectos, and then break down the ectos you get for dust and luck.

I ran some numbers last night (albeit with a lot of lazy rounding and estimating) and from what I could tell, despite the tendency for bad luck streaks to trick you into thinking that your chances of getting consistent ectos from rares is terrible, you’re actually better off (on average) salvaging from rares, rather than direct from ectos. Because (assuming you’re salvaging dropped rares and not crafted ones) you have a good chance of getting the sigil/rune off of it, which will sell for somewhere around 3-6s, and the crafting mats (which will vary, but can sell for a few silver themselves).

I find that that extra padding can help alleviate some of your losses – not by much, but it’s something. It also helps that the typical worth of a dropped rare is slightly lower than that of an ecto.

Oh, no…I wasn’t trying to make a profit off the dust. That’s a fool’s gamble and I am no fool. I just don’t want to pay for dust if I don’t have to And no, I don’t buy ectos to salvage, I’d be using the ones from the rares I pick up…I am far too cheap to be doing that.

So for personal use, for getting dusts it’s not a bad idea then. It’s still a choice that hurts though.

On average you lose about 3 silver per salvage if I remember my calculation correctly. However, dust is used for material promotions. If you’re willing to take the time to promote tier 5 to tier 6, and have the skill points, I suggest you go that route to recoup the costs and make a little profit.

For personal use, where you’ve farmed the ectos yourself and now need dust, definitely salvage.

Depending on the market (e.g. ectos are falling in price, but dust isn’t), it could be cheaper to buy ectos to salvage or it could be cheaper to sell the ectos and buy dust.

However, it’s always going to be close, because the TP is really efficient at reaching equilibrium quickly.

So, when I want both luck and dust, I salvage ecto. When I just want dust, I buy it. In both cases, I try to offer as little as I can without having to wait weeks for my buy order to be fulfilled.

If you need crystalline dust, I suggest you salvage ecto, because you can also gain some luck point.

You won’t really loss much money(if any). It only get expensive if you are buying ectos, salvage ectos, and sell the crystaline dust. Because there are 15% tax.