Guild Wars 2

I couldn’t help but wonder this. I have had conversations with friends about it.

As I am sure many of you know, you do get ectoplasm from salvaging lvl 68+ rare loot. As I am sure many of you also know and also make your own lvl 68+ loot just to salvage them to gain your own ecto stash.

I have noted by using a Master’s Salvaging Kit, stated to give you a 25% chance of recovering rare materials, use to give me, on ratio, 1 ecto per salvage. USED TO… that is. Basically I would make like say 120 pairs of rare gloves, salvage them and come out with anywhere from 98 to 125 ecto.

Just today, I made 130 gloves, salvaged them and only came out with 67 ecto.

Errr…. anyone else notice the salvage decline on ectoplasm or… am I not drinking enough coffee?

RNG is RNG

Ecto rate for Master’s is around 0.8. If you were getting 1 for 1, you were very lucky. Now not so lucky.

You will hear that same excuse time after time, RnG, last time they said it was RnG it turned out to be a major bug, so yea, its not always RnG,

I stopped salvaging all rares and I just sell them now, after salvaging nearly 500 and getting less than 200 ecto I decided screw there so called RnG system, and when I need ecto ill just add the difference in silver and buy them.

Master had traditionally granted on average only 0.9 ectos per. You were getting lucky with a ratio of one.

Now after Monday’s patch I did do a salvage run of 60 and only got 38 and the week before I did a salvage run of 97 and only got 64. But at other times in the past I have gotten exceptionally good runs getting 306 ectos out of 267 rares. So random is random and sometimes luck runs both good and bad.

I have no numbers (I’m marginally dyscalculic anyway, so I’d never trust numbers from me), just personal bias, but it really feels like the rates have dropped. I’ve been using the mystic salvage kits, so same as master kits. Or it could be this: rewards aren’t quite as dapper as they used to be – for example, I’m more used to seeing lvl 77-78-79 rares in drops for lvl 80 char in a lvl 80 zone on a lvl 80 event. I salvage pretty much everything for its base parts, and have for a long time now, and lower level stuff seems less likely to give shiny things like ectos, but it can still happen.

I do concur there is an element of RNG involved (spits), but it seems a lot more random these days. Which leads me to this next bit:

Happy to be corrected on this, and certainly haven’t read anything about it, but does account-based MF have any bearing on salvage as well (and not just the quality of loot which would possibly give an explanation for less shiny stuff being dropped)?

Ceridwen.6703:

Happy to be corrected on this, and certainly haven’t read anything about it, but does account-based MF have any bearing on salvage as well (and not just the quality of loot which would possibly give an explanation for less shiny stuff being dropped)?

No effect whatsoever. MF only affects a narrow part of the overall loot system, giving better chances for rarer drops from enemies. It doesn’t affect items that contain other items, such as opening chests or salvage results.

Except for extremely rare bugs (as in “it happened once but people refer to it every time they get two ectos out of five rares”) these kinds of complaints are just trolling, or people overreacting to a bit of bad luck.

Anet devs themselves can perform millions of salvages, and/or examine the data from millions of salvages by players if there is any concern about a bug. But first someone needs to offer real evidence that there is a problem, not feelings.

This again? Sheesh.

Your sample size is way too small to try to conclude anything, try multiplying it by 1,000 and then post again.

I also get mostly just one ecto out of two items since quite some time, and started to sell the items at the TP at some point.

Flissy.4093:

This again? Sheesh.

Your sample size is way too small to try to conclude anything, try multiplying it by 1,000 and then post again.

Keep trolling.

He could post results on a 10,000 run and you’d still claim the sample size was too small.

Flissy.4093:

This again? Sheesh.

Your sample size is way too small to try to conclude anything, try multiplying it by 1,000 and then post again.

lmao… Love the out-pour of love and compassion in that post… Truly… not

roflmao, he is a she, btw… My husband would be quite disappointed if he found out he married another man.

And we have this thread again, seems every month or two we see another one. It is RNG, so the law of averages says that sometimes you will be below average (in fact ~half the time). Sometimes you may only get a very small fraction of what you think you should.

A sample size of 130 is nowhere near enough for such a statement. Last night I salvaged 25 rares with a master kit and came out with 21 ectos. By that sampling it could be said that they increased the drop rate. Of course it would be silly to make such a conclusion on such a small sample size.

I am not aware this question as been asked before… Why am I getting responses like I have asked this question 50 million times before?

Thank you for those who genuinely answered.

The rest of you are just all out rude, I’m sorry

I’ve been getting 0-3 consistently.

I mean, consistently getting 0 in 3 out of 3.

Ha!

Gathering enough ecto to infuse the back item took me over a year salvaging any rare I got that would sell for less than 45silver in the trading post. And I’m getting rares practically only from guild missions and world bosses, even now that I have over 125% MF, and over 3,500 hours of gameplay.

It’s just random. No changes in rates unless they said so in the update notes (or there’s a bug and nobody noticed until someone makes tests with a huge pool). You simply got lucky before, and not so lucky now.

Jaymee.1560:

I am not aware this question as been asked before… Why am I getting responses like I have asked this question 50 million times before?

Thank you for those who genuinely answered.

The rest of you are just all out rude, I’m sorry

They are not saying you asked this again.

They are saying that people thinks a random rate has been changed all the time, when they get lucky or unlucky strikes.

And since nobody seem to bother to search, or use the forum’s search instead google (the forum search sucks horribly, you have to use google with the parameter site:forum-en.guildwars2.com to find anything in these forums), so posts like this one keep popping every now and then.

MithranArkanere.8957:

I’ve been getting 0-3 consistently.

I mean, consistently getting 0 in 3 out of 3.

Ha!

Gathering enough ecto to infuse the back item took me over a year salvaging any rare I got that would sell for less than 45silver in the trading post. And I’m getting rares practically only from guild missions and world bosses, even now that I have over 125% MF, and over 3,500 hours of gameplay.

It’s just random. No changes in rates unless they said so in the update notes (or there’s a bug and nobody noticed until someone makes tests with a huge pool). You simply got lucky before, and not so lucky now.

Jaymee.1560:

I am not aware this question as been asked before… Why am I getting responses like I have asked this question 50 million times before?

Thank you for those who genuinely answered.

The rest of you are just all out rude, I’m sorry

They are not saying you asked this again.

They are saying that people thinks a random rate has been changed all the time, when they get lucky or unlucky strikes.

And since nobody seem to bother to search, or use the forum’s search instead google (the forum search sucks horribly, you have to use google with the parameter site:forum-en.guildwars2.com to find anything in these forums), so posts like this one keep popping every now and then.

Thank you, Mithran, very much… Now that’s a well-rounded answer.

Jaymee.1560:

I am not aware this question as been asked before… Why am I getting responses like I have asked this question 50 million times before?

Thank you for those who genuinely answered.

The rest of you are just all out rude, I’m sorry

I realize you may be new to the forums or even new to the game in general, but there are many people who have been hanging out on these forums for several months, or even since the release of the game. We have heard the exact same statements made, generally at least once after every (twice monthly) patch, sometimes more often. It was correct exactly once, and that time was accompanied by documented proof from several sources which prompted John Smith, an Anet staff member in charge of the economic systems of the game to investigate and quickly fix the bug.

When people salvage a small number of items and claim that this indicates there is a problem, those of us who have been here a while see the same argument that has been made dozens of times before, and sigh…

Neural.1824:

Flissy.4093:

This again? Sheesh.

Your sample size is way too small to try to conclude anything, try multiplying it by 1,000 and then post again.

Keep trolling.

He could post results on a 10,000 run and you’d still claim the sample size was too small.

That is where you are wrong. If he really did a run of 10,000, we’d be ready to hear him out. And if his data showed a rate that was higher than 0.9 or lower than 0.7 I would definitely want a dev to look into this.

Yes, it really happened that there was a problem with the ecto rate ONCE, but there have been people claiming problems with the rate every week since the game has been out. Without any serious data, it’s more likely that the OP is mistaken and is merely a victim of RNG.

Jaymee.1560:

I am not aware this question as been asked before… Why am I getting responses like I have asked this question 50 million times before?

Thank you for those who genuinely answered.

The rest of you are just all out rude, I’m sorry

Because it has been asked before, dozens of times since the game came out. And it has been discussed in great length many times before on what constitutes a significant sample size, and people are getting sick of people who don’t understand RNG or statistics coming in with their crazy conspiracy theories.

tolunart.2095:

Jaymee.1560:

I am not aware this question as been asked before… Why am I getting responses like I have asked this question 50 million times before?

Thank you for those who genuinely answered.

The rest of you are just all out rude, I’m sorry

I realize you may be new to the forums or even new to the game in general, but there are many people who have been hanging out on these forums for several months, or even since the release of the game. We have heard the exact same statements made, generally at least once after every (twice monthly) patch, sometimes more often. It was correct exactly once, and that time was accompanied by documented proof from several sources which prompted John Smith, an Anet staff member in charge of the economic systems of the game to investigate and quickly fix the bug.

When people salvage a small number of items and claim that this indicates there is a problem, those of us who have been here a while see the same argument that has been made dozens of times before, and sigh…

So there is still at least a 5% chance of being correct? :P

Khisanth.2948:

So there is still at least a 5% chance of being correct? :P

At a 5% chance of being right, we should still be telling them to come back when they have more data. That’s a 95% chance of being wrong :P (And realistically I think the chance that he is right is much lower than 5%).

I just cruise with mystic kits on rares, until I decide I need more ectos then switch to BL kits.

Masters rate for ectos is only acceptable at a lil shy of 1 per salvage, BL rate I’d classify as decent, but RNG is RNG.

The one thing I noticed is that the more ecto you have in your inventory, the success rate seems to go down. It seems that the number of ectos you have is used in the RNG calculation.

jojojoon.8607:

The one thing I noticed is that the more ecto you have in your inventory, the success rate seems to go down. It seems that the number of ectos you have is used in the RNG calculation.

This can be counteracted by eating a plate of nachos before salvaging. For every three tortilla chips drenched in cheese and sour cream you eat within an hour before salvaging, you’ll get an extra ecto.

Thus, they cancel each other out, each having exactly the same effect on your salvage rate.

tolunart.2095:

jojojoon.8607:

The one thing I noticed is that the more ecto you have in your inventory, the success rate seems to go down. It seems that the number of ectos you have is used in the RNG calculation.

This can be counteracted by eating a plate of nachos before salvaging. For every three tortilla chips drenched in cheese and sour cream you eat within an hour before salvaging, you’ll get an extra ecto.

Thus, they cancel each other out, each having exactly the same effect on your salvage rate.

I’m not sure if you’ve coded before because there are ways to make RNG bias..

jojojoon.8607:

tolunart.2095:

jojojoon.8607:

The one thing I noticed is that the more ecto you have in your inventory, the success rate seems to go down. It seems that the number of ectos you have is used in the RNG calculation.

This can be counteracted by eating a plate of nachos before salvaging. For every three tortilla chips drenched in cheese and sour cream you eat within an hour before salvaging, you’ll get an extra ecto.

Thus, they cancel each other out, each having exactly the same effect on your salvage rate.

I’m not sure if you’ve coded before because there are ways to make RNG bias..

I’m not sure if you’ve read anything about psychology because there are ways to make cognitive bias..

You’re not crazy, i’m having issues with getting ectos out of exotics with a blsk as well. usually i end up with 1-2 per, out of 30 today i picked up 12 ecto. fail =/

tolunart.2095:

Ceridwen.6703:

Happy to be corrected on this, and certainly haven’t read anything about it, but does account-based MF have any bearing on salvage as well (and not just the quality of loot which would possibly give an explanation for less shiny stuff being dropped)?

No effect whatsoever. MF only affects a narrow part of the overall loot system, giving better chances for rarer drops from enemies. It doesn’t affect items that contain other items, such as opening chests or salvage results.

Except for extremely rare bugs (as in “it happened once but people refer to it every time they get two ectos out of five rares”) these kinds of complaints are just trolling, or people overreacting to a bit of bad luck.

Anet devs themselves can perform millions of salvages, and/or examine the data from millions of salvages by players if there is any concern about a bug. But first someone needs to offer real evidence that there is a problem, not feelings.

Thanks for replying! I’m removing the tin foil hat and shall now exit, pursued by a bear!

0.4, that’s all i’m gonna say. What the hell!?

I am going to say 1.5.
What the kitten.

lordkrall.7241:

I am going to say 1.5.
What the kitten.

Not sure if serious. I’ve salvaged… can’t even imagine how many armour pieces since i play the game and my highest was 1.1 and those was freaking good times, but 1.5?

If it’s true, gratz, i bet you’re one of those that get precursor once per week too? :P

I have had a real struggle getting ectos as well. Maybe the drop rate was too high, looked like I was averaging 1-2 per rare with Masters.

GuzziHero.2467:

I have had a real struggle getting ectos as well. Maybe the drop rate was too high, looked like I was averaging 1-2 per rare with Masters.

lol

1-2? lucky you. I’m averaging 0-1 using masters.

serialkicker.5274:

Not sure if serious. I’ve salvaged… can’t even imagine how many armour pieces since i play the game and my highest was 1.1 and those was freaking good times, but 1.5?

If it’s true, gratz, i bet you’re one of those that get precursor once per week too? :P

Oh, I thought we were playing the whole: “Thrown random number in the air and then use it as a complaint”-game.

People can scream RNG all they want. Ecto rate has most certainly gone down since launch, and again since several months ago.

knives.6345:

GuzziHero.2467:

I have had a real struggle getting ectos as well. Maybe the drop rate was too high, looked like I was averaging 1-2 per rare with Masters.

lol

1-2? lucky you. I’m averaging 0-1 using masters.

I worded it badly. I should have said that I used to get 1-2, now it is like a .4 maybe .5 drop rate, and triples are exceedingly rare.

I use mystic salvaging kits and end up wit 1-1 most of the time, sometimes slightly more. I can salvage 12 rare armors and know I’ll get 12 ectos, most of the time more though.

Sorry, no. I’m still at an average of 0,9 per salvage. I salvage about 500 p/week with rare kits, and I see nothing wrong here. Sometimes you get 10x nothing but it evens out in the end.

lordkrall.7241:

serialkicker.5274:

Not sure if serious. I’ve salvaged… can’t even imagine how many armour pieces since i play the game and my highest was 1.1 and those was freaking good times, but 1.5?

If it’s true, gratz, i bet you’re one of those that get precursor once per week too? :P

Oh, I thought we were playing the whole: “Thrown random number in the air and then use it as a complaint”-game.

Why would i make up numbers? I salvaged 36 pieces today and got 15 ectos. I know it’s not a lot to make statistics, but i don’t want to waste all my tokens if that’s what i’ll be getting.

And one more thing. Why are forum people always start with stupid sarcastic jokes, if anyone is making some criticism?
And a lot of times these same people that were being sarcastic and fools in someone else’s topic are then few days or weeks later complaining about the same thing in their own topic. I’m not saying that’s you, but it happens quite a bit.

P.S. for all wondering, yes i’m using master salvage kits too

I guess i’m having a really bad luck last two weeks, but today is absolutely the worst.

36 salvages is not even close to be enough to make any kind of assumption.
Personally I have salvaged 50ish items the last few days and gotten about 35 ectos.

No one have any real evidence that a change have happened. And people are getting tired of seeing these threads more or less every week.

The Spiral King.2483:

People can scream RNG all they want. Ecto rate has most certainly gone down since launch, and again since several months ago.

Since November the demand of globs have remained relatively consistent. However, the supply has literally tripled. This is a trend from last month. One way to keep the prices high is to reduce the influx of supply.

It wouldn’t surprise me to know that the salvage rates have been altered. Not one bit.

I know, but then again 80% of the new threads were also discussed 100x before.
I’m just frustrated with this rng bullkitten in every corner of the game.
I wish using a master salvage kit would yield 1 ecto guaranteed and then +1 or +2 randomly. Or something else, idk, but pure rng, omg, so kittenin annoying

lordkrall.7241:

No one have any real evidence that a change have happened. And people are getting tired of seeing these threads more or less every week.

what kind of statistical data do you have to back up this statement?

how many “people are tired of seeing these threads”?

why respond? why annoy the guy? he came here for answers and you give him grief.

if these types of threads are not enjoyable to you then why do you read them and post in them?

To O.P: I am facing the same issue as you in that it often seems like the ecto rate has dropped somewhat, but I cannot say for sure and I have to admit that some days I do get a good return when salvaging 9i use mystic forge kits).

I’ve been throwing more rares in the mystic forge lately instead of salvaging (no precursers- yet )

Calae.1738:

The Spiral King.2483:

People can scream RNG all they want. Ecto rate has most certainly gone down since launch, and again since several months ago.

Since November the demand of globs have remained relatively consistent. However, the supply has literally tripled. This is a trend from last month. One way to keep the prices high is to reduce the influx of supply.

It wouldn’t surprise me to know that the salvage rates have been altered. Not one bit.

I would be quite shocked. There are people who have a very focused following of rates of globes, they also have huge numbers to back up when things do change. The only time the rates did change without an announcement they found the problem and fixed it.

Mahaedros.7085:

lordkrall.7241:

No one have any real evidence that a change have happened. And people are getting tired of seeing these threads more or less every week.

what kind of statistical data do you have to back up this statement?

how many “people are tired of seeing these threads”?

why respond? why annoy the guy? he came here for answers and you give him grief.

if these types of threads are not enjoyable to you then why do you read them and post in them?

To O.P: I am facing the same issue as you in that it often seems like the ecto rate has dropped somewhat, but I cannot say for sure and I have to admit that some days I do get a good return when salvaging 9i use mystic forge kits).

I’ve been throwing more rares in the mystic forge lately instead of salvaging (no precursers- yet )

Hehe, yeah no precursor for me either… You know how it is… Rare weapons – mystic forge, rare armor – salvage. At least for me. But than i’m not sure if a should salvage today, hm drop rate seems so bad, but maybe i was just unlucky with first 10 or 20 pieces, let’s salvage 10 more and see… Oh same kitten, well, if i salvaged 30, i won’t stop now, i want to reach some reasonable drop rate, so i salvage few more… Bah, you just can’t figure it out, because who says you’ll get more luck tomorrow? :/

serialkicker.5274:

I salvaged 36 pieces

Found your problem, bro. Add a couple of zeros and then come back.

Freeelancer.2860:

serialkicker.5274:

I salvaged 36 pieces

Found your problem, bro. Add a couple of zeros and then come back.

Yeah, because you can guarantee that my drop rate will sudenly jump up to 1.0+, right?

And i said that was just today, 36 pieces, i have extremely low drops for about two weeks. I have salvaged about 250 pieces in two weeks.

serialkicker.5274:

Freeelancer.2860:

serialkicker.5274:

I salvaged 36 pieces

Found your problem, bro. Add a couple of zeros and then come back.

Yeah, because you can guarantee that my drop rate will sudenly jump up to 1.0+, right?

I can’t guarantee squat, but I will tell you that anecdotal evidence is almost as useless as making a complaint thread based on nonexistent sample size.

Freeelancer.2860:

serialkicker.5274:

Freeelancer.2860:

serialkicker.5274:

I salvaged 36 pieces

Found your problem, bro. Add a couple of zeros and then come back.

Yeah, because you can guarantee that my drop rate will sudenly jump up to 1.0+, right?

I can’t guarantee squat, but I will tell you that anecdotal evidence is almost as useless as making a complaint thread based on nonexistent sample size.

That would matter, if i was claiming that they nerfed drop rate or something. I simply made a thread to see if others are having same issues lately as well ( since i never had this low drop) and in hope that anet, if they changed anything, would finally make up their minds and choose one decent drop rate and stop messing with numbers.
Again, i’m not claiming they changed anything, but since i’ve seen so many topics on this these last months, i can’t help myself but to think there’s a strong possibility that it might have changed something.
After all, we already seen some stealth nerfs so far..

Freeelancer.2860:

serialkicker.5274:

Freeelancer.2860:

serialkicker.5274:

I salvaged 36 pieces

Found your problem, bro. Add a couple of zeros and then come back.

Yeah, because you can guarantee that my drop rate will sudenly jump up to 1.0+, right?

I can’t guarantee squat, but I will tell you that anecdotal evidence is almost as useless as making a complaint thread based on nonexistent sample size.

yes he did make a compaint thread but he is looking for answers so he can decide on what to do in the future with regards to salvaging.

he acknowledged that his sample size was very small.

what should he do? just remain silent?

I’ve learned a great deal about the game from reading the forums and have got useful knowledge from reading many “complaint threads”.

He’s complaining about an issue that will affect his immediate future decisions in-game. You’re complaining about him… and I’m complaining about you complaining about him… I’m going to go play Guild Wars 2 now.

Happy New Year everyone!

Mahaedros.7085:

Freeelancer.2860:

serialkicker.5274:

Freeelancer.2860:

serialkicker.5274:

I salvaged 36 pieces

Found your problem, bro. Add a couple of zeros and then come back.

Yeah, because you can guarantee that my drop rate will sudenly jump up to 1.0+, right?

I can’t guarantee squat, but I will tell you that anecdotal evidence is almost as useless as making a complaint thread based on nonexistent sample size.

yes he did make a compaint thread but he is looking for answers so he can decide on what to do in the future with regards to salvaging.

he acknowledged that his sample size was very small.

what should he do? just remain silent?

I’ve learned a great deal about the game from reading the forums and have got useful knowledge from reading many “complaint threads”.

He’s complaining about an issue that will affect his immediate future decisions in-game. You’re complaining about him… and I’m complaining about you complaining about him… I’m going to go play Guild Wars 2 now.

Happy New Year everyone!

Yeah while the ridicule was unnecessary there is at least 1-2 of these threads every week with someone that is citing like a 50 salvage sample and claiming low numbers so you also gotta understand the frustration your frequent forum goer has with the frequent spawning of such threads. Back to the topic at hand, no there’s been no stealth nerf, a good thing to look for if there was would be a spike in the ecto prices because the market is constantly being flooded with them and just as fast they get sucked out… so if they started flowing in less frequently even if players didn’t realize it, then it would cause a bit of a spike in the price.