Guild Wars 2

Many people have done the math: people have salvaged thousands of items and wrote down the results. Statistically, the amount of ectos one gets from salvaging a high level rare is a 1:1 ratio, so why not just remove the system and make it so 1 rare drops 1 ecto?

The current system in place is yet another example of the almost universally despised RNG system everyone past 100 hours of gameplay faces. Rares salvage for 0-3 ectos. When you receive 2 or 3 ectos, you celebrate. When you get 1, you are satisfied. When you get nothing at all, frustration sets in as you realized you just lost 25 silver.

Unfortunately, it is our nature as humans to remember the bad parts of a situation over the good. We remember, when fighting with our best friend, all the terrible things they’ve done to us and none of the wonderful moments we shared. Likewise, even though we know that statistically, we should eventually even out, it is still a frustrating and aggravating thought to lose money to this forced gamble.

Since the drop rate of ectoplasm is a 1:1 ratio, why not make it a guarantee that whenever you salvage 1 rare, you get 1 ectoplasm?

this will cause multiple effects:
1. ectoplasm supply will increase due to increasing amounts of people willing to spend money on them, stabilizing the market (as a larger volume of ectos will buffer any market fluctuation)
2. the price of tier 5 fine crafting materials and high level rare drops will equalize as the risk is removed as a factor
3. remove the aggravation one feels when his hard-earned gold is taken from him because of an arbitrary system based on luck and chance that he doesn’t even want to participate in.