Guild Wars 2

So, black dye is insanely expensive, and I’m a poor simple nublet with little expendable income.

What is a good cheap dye that will get me pretty darn close to a black colour?

midnight fire

insanemaniac.2456:

midnight fire

after previewing that, it comes out quite reddish

iron dye doesn’t look too bad on some things, neither does midnight ice, but it depends on what you are dying

It’s going to depend on your material. Take a look at Pitch, Iron, anything starting with Midnight. What armor are you dyeing? If I have that on any alt I could go in game (on NA) and meet up with you to show you all the dark dyes on it, as I have every non-specialty dye and some gem shop ones (the latter won’t be in the “cheap” category, though).

Let me know, I’m about to take a food break for an hour or so but could do this if you’re ready now.

Charcoal. Technically same as black but with a different hue.

You can use the wiki to identify the various gray dyes and then preview those. But generally the purer or primary colors tend to be more expensive.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dye#By_Color

I used to use Night Shade for my black-of-choice, back before dyes became account-based and I sprung for Abyss. I still use it when I want a darker grey that isn’t as showy as Abyss. It’s 1.8G.

Iron is another excellent option, and it’s super cheap, around 2-3 silver. Of course, if you’re really feeling cheap, Ebony Dye is one of the default dyes…

None of these are as dark as Abyss or, material varying, some of the Midnight dyes, but if you compare to actual Black Dye, Iron and Night Shade aren’t bad at all.

Now if I could only dye that hat, I could actually wear without having to dye my outfit Violet Tint. Such is life.

Donari’s advice is sound. You really have to check, because dyes show up differently depending on the material (cloth/metal/leather) and the specific item and the other colors used.

e.g. Midnight Fire is great with golds and reds, while Midnight Blue is better with cooler colors.

Dusk makes a pretty good black substitute for cloth armors.
But it’d be best to preview them for yourself.
:D

I’ve been using Midnight Ice since near launch. It’s important to pick a color that matches well with your character’s own coloring.

Yeah, if you’re looking for as “dark ninja-like” as possible, I would just save up and get abyss.

But… one thing to keep in mind is that if you’re utilizing an outfit where hair and/or skin is showing significantly, abyss may not even look good. There’s all sorts of stuff you could look into about complimentary colors and such, if you really want to get into it. I find that despite knowing a bit about how colors work, what consistently works for me is just experimenting with dyes/looks a lot.

One thing you’ll notice if you’re looking closely is that if, for example, a color badly contrasts with the skin tone, your character will look less realistic and notably more plastic. When colors mesh well, you may notice a more subtly realistic feel.

Labjax, that’s good advice.

Speaking about Abyss specifically, even though it’s probably out of the OP’s price range: It’s super popular because it’s so dark, along with Midnight Fire / Midnight Ice. It also looks bad in a lot of cases, and can look tacky since it’s one of the go-to showoff dyes. Black Dye isn’t super dark, and there are a lot of good alternatives to actual Black Dye when you keep that in mind.

And, as ever, it’s important to preview dyes by right-clicking on them before you buy them. Colors can look very different on different armors, especially across weight classes.

I offered to demo dyes in game because the preview doesn’t always show you how they’ll look in different lightings. It’s miles better than AA’s (my gosh, don’t get me started on the saturation issues there) but still can be misleading if you have a very specific color effect in mind.

What I’m trying to do is turn the shadow assassin outfit from it’s original bluish colour to an actual black, So I guess it’s mostly cloth, but with metal pauldrons?

Abyss looks to be exactly what I’m after, but the current market value of 63 gold is waaaaaaay out of my price range

Midnight Ice is what I use

rapthorne.7345:

What I’m trying to do is turn the shadow assassin outfit from it’s original bluish colour to an actual black, So I guess it’s mostly cloth, but with metal pauldrons?

Abyss looks to be exactly what I’m after, but the current market value of 63 gold is waaaaaaay out of my price range

Don’t worry for that. When I started to play, 8g (the price of the black dye) seemed like a lot. Abyss was 12g, so I was like nope, I’ll never going to get enough gold.

However, after 1.5 years, I found myself with +1.3k gold spent in dyes (mostly Abyss ans Celestial).

If you really want this, do your dailies, gather and kill everything you can and sell all your mats (use laurels to buy Heavy Crafting Bag). You’ll get the gold in no time.

Try —> Pitch

Ash is another dark grey dye you can try, but I think it’ll be insufficiently dark for your purposes.

Put out buy orders on fine/masterwork dyes and start forging! Unlock a few colors on the way; as someone who has all colours unlocked (including gemstore dyes) I can honestly say I hardly ever use abyss. True story.

i always use midnight fire at slots where it go’s black, it’s allot more black than abyss but it depends on the armor and dye slot you put it on.

Isnt black the substitute for abyss?
But seriously, abyss is 63g now? kitten i remember when it was 1g.
#thosewerethedays

Depend on armor, sometime midnight fire or ice is more black than abyss, abyss sucks on leather armor. U have to preview the colors first

Iron and Midnight Blue / Ice was what i always used before we got accountwide dyes.