Guild Wars 2

Hi Folks

First post. Been playing free for a few weeks and have just shelled out for the expansion. I have a couple of newbie questions that I’m sure will have been answered lots of times before but I have not been able to find them in the search or on the Wiki

First, I’ve had a few weapons and equipment that cannot be sold or salvaged. I know from the wiki that this applies to stuff bought with karma and gold (plus some others) but my question is: What else can I do with that stuff? Do I really have to just discard it? Discarding stuff goes against every gaming bone in my body hehe.

Second, a more general one. I’ve just dinged level 45 and I’m not really accumulating any gold. I spent my first gold piece on making a guild (yeah, OK, a bit frivolous) and my remaining cash is hovering at around 1 gold. Is this normal or am I missing something obvious? Apart from the guild I am not really spending any coins other than on map teleporting and it’s getting to the stage where I’m opting to run around rather than spend a paltry few coins on map travel. It’s not really a problem but I can’t help think I must be overlooking a source of income. I should add that I am 100% solo at present, and am likely to remain that way for most of my gaming time.

TL,DR :

1. Is there anything I can do with unsalvageable, unsellable equipment other than discard it?
2. What is the main income source for toons whilst levelling solo?

Oh, and I’ve played many games across many years but performing a daft dance to entertain a cow is a first for me. I might have to try it in RL….

1. You can throw these items (as long as they’re the same rarity) into the Mystic Forge to get a sellable/salvageable piece of equipment.

2. Event’s, hearts and selling mats/trophies.

1. No there isn’t something you can do with it. Got to discard it.
2. The main income with your first char comes from harvesting nodes and breaking down loot, selling all the material u get. Take a look at your bank and sell all the materials u are hording, that should be some gold or more. You can try to run dungeons for around 2 gold per run, but most of the time sub 80s are not welcome in dungeon run party, but from time to time they dont bother or its an all sub 80 party.

You can try throwing your gear in the Mystic Forge.

You can sell your mats on the TP for Gold. Some do dungeon runs for Gold. You can sell gear on the TP for Gold.

Welcome to Tyria, and good luck!

Hello Doc, welcome to the game. You can throw 4 pieces of the same rarity into the mystic forge and usually get something back that you’ll be able to sell or salvage for materials.

The key to money in this game is materials. The materials are oftentimes more profitable than the actual drop. Always hit the harvesting nodes. Be aware that Cabalist armor breaks into cloth — cotton silk or linen can be good money. Conversely, leather is seldom worth much and it’s usually better to sell it at the merchant instead of breaking it down. Pay attention to the runes on armor and the sigils on weapons. At level 39ish you should start having some rares drop — salvage those for the materials and runes/sigils and sell those on the TP too.

At your current level your best bet for quick money is probably chili peppers. Hit all of the herb foraging nodes in Ascalon and have your guild gathering bonus going if you’ve gotten your guild upgraded to that point — banners and WvW bonuses helps too. Some of your hits will yield chili peppers. Sell those on the TP; 4 or 5 will usually get you a gold piece. Soft wood, seasoned wood, iron — don’t hoard those unless you plan to craft for yourself soon. At mid-levels it’s not cost effective to craft your own gear and the deposit all button will have you hoarding mats instead of making money.

Just curious: did you make a guild to be able to have your own private guild bank or are you making a guild for the sake of leading a guild?

Here’s the question section for future ref: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players

You might get more complete answers to post there.

Welcome to gw2.

1) I just trash soulbound stuff.
2) Find you way to Silverwastes if you want money but be prepared to salvage. A lot.

Thanks all. A definite consensus there. The Mystic Forge was something I had not even noticed and, yes, I’ve been diligently gathering and salvaging materials but not doing anything with them. I think I might be too new to sell at the TP just now but that will change soon enough.

You’ll be amused to know that although new to this game I’m certainly not new to GW1, having accumulated thousands of hours over several years (stopped in about 2009) so I’m now in the somewhat ridiculous position of running around GW2 sporting the GWAMM title whilst fumbling all those confusing Elementalist skills and being generally inept. Maybe I should stow the title until I feel I deserve it.

As for the guild there is no grand plan. It said it cost 1 gold and I thought “Hey. I’ve got 1 gold….”.
I’ll probably join a guild of old fat drunkards eventually but I want to learn the game my way first.

DoctorDing.5890:

Oh, and I’ve played many games across many years but performing a daft dance to entertain a cow is a first for me. I might have to try it in RL….

Thanks for playing your part in the Meatoberfest machine. We all know that happy cows are tasty cows. The Legions salute you!

-

Silliness aside, welcome to the game!
As for money, if you’re not crafting, sell the materials you find. Mid-level materials sell really well, especially iron, platinum, and all cloth. Though, you might consider tackling crafting early, since the top end nudges you in that direction.

1) Sadly discard is only option. Luckily you replace your gear while leveling up quite frequently so it doesn’t really matter.

2) Gold is pretty sparse until you hit 80 and can start doing Silverwastes, regular dungeon paths, world boss train, etc. I wouldn’t sweat being broke while leveling up. Every new player is in the same boat I assure you.

DoctorDing.5890:

I might be too new to sell at the TP just now but that will change soon enough.

It’s time. You’re level 45, you’re big enough for the TP. It’s your friend and it beats the heck outta standing in Kamadan hawking your wares (I had over 10k hours in GW1 myself, so I’m no stranger to selling stuff in Kamadan, and the TP was a little bit daunting to me I first started, too).

When you open the TP to a specific item you’ll see two prices listed — the buy price and the sell price. My best tip is this — don’t sell at buy price and don’t buy at sell price. If you’re selling match the sell price, if you’re buying put in an order for the goods and be a little bit patient. It usually doesn’t take more than a few minutes to get the goods you’re after.

But, while it’s not the fastest by any means, the best way to make money is still beating monsters about the head and shoulders until they are dead and then looting the corpse. It rocks. You can sometimes find gelatinous masses and what could possibly be better than taking a gelatinous mass from a corpse?

DoctorDing.5890:

Thanks all. A definite consensus there. The Mystic Forge was something I had not even noticed and, yes, I’ve been diligently gathering and salvaging materials but not doing anything with them. I think I might be too new to sell at the TP just now but that will change soon enough.

You’ll be amused to know that although new to this game I’m certainly not new to GW1, having accumulated thousands of hours over several years (stopped in about 2009) so I’m now in the somewhat ridiculous position of running around GW2 sporting the GWAMM title whilst fumbling all those confusing Elementalist skills and being generally inept. Maybe I should stow the title until I feel I deserve it.

As for the guild there is no grand plan. It said it cost 1 gold and I thought “Hey. I’ve got 1 gold….”.
I’ll probably join a guild of old fat drunkards eventually but I want to learn the game my way first.

A couple of additional things, both you can ignore if you are already aware;

1) Until you learn more of the game, the TP is a better place to sell your materials than a vendor. Just right click the item, select sell at trading post and see what the sell price is at. You can then sell it immediately or list for a chance at a better price

2) Nothing wrong with remaining in your solo guild, but you can join multiple guilds. Many people have social guilds, dungeon guilds and wvw guilds and flick between as it suits them.

Well, thanks to my new-found knowledge about the value of materials my imaginary worldly wealth has rocketed into double figures. Woo hoo! I’m rich. RICH! I even splashed out on a 15 slot bag so that’s 2 QOL improvements – more inventory space and guilt-free map travel.

Thanks again.

(Aye – I tried to reply to your PM but the system says I have to wait 2 days due to spam control. Not sure how replying to a message could ever constitute spam but there you go.)

Just an FYI, solo guilds are GREAT ways of getting some more bank storage to share for all your characters. It’s pretty easy to get the first level upgrades unlocked and that’s 50 additional slots of storage. Nothing to sneeze at, for sure.

Oh, and don’t waste money on any bags but the Halloween bags, and you may want to wait for the Halloween event to go in to full swing and stock pile them then for pretty much nothing but playing the event. It’s a great way to max out your characters storage space.

DoctorDing.5890:

Well, thanks to my new-found knowledge about the value of materials my imaginary worldly wealth has rocketed into double figures. Woo hoo! I’m rich. RICH! I even splashed out on a 15 slot bag so that’s 2 QOL improvements – more inventory space and guilt-free map travel.

Thanks again.

(Aye – I tried to reply to your PM but the system says I have to wait 2 days due to spam control. Not sure how replying to a message could ever constitute spam but there you go.)

The spam control and mail suppression goes a little overboard. I’m glad I’m not inundated with spam, but it would rock to be able to send potions of major death dealing to everyone in my dungeon party without being suppressed.

Hope to see you in-game anyway

DoctorDing.5890:

Thanks all. A definite consensus there. The Mystic Forge was something I had not even noticed and, yes, I’ve been diligently gathering and salvaging materials but not doing anything with them. I think I might be too new to sell at the TP just now but that will change soon enough.

You’ll be amused to know that although new to this game I’m certainly not new to GW1, having accumulated thousands of hours over several years (stopped in about 2009) so I’m now in the somewhat ridiculous position of running around GW2 sporting the GWAMM title whilst fumbling all those confusing Elementalist skills and being generally inept. Maybe I should stow the title until I feel I deserve it.

As for the guild there is no grand plan. It said it cost 1 gold and I thought “Hey. I’ve got 1 gold….”.
I’ll probably join a guild of old fat drunkards eventually but I want to learn the game my way first.

This guy. This is exactly the sort of new player I want to see in GW2. Enthusiastic, willing to learn, willing to ask, and humble. We need more players, new and old, like this guy right here.

I won’t offer you the same answers again (Mystic forge and sell mats, so jk I lied) since everyone else already did. Have fun, and welcome to the game! We’re thrilled to have you with us.

Extra note: When leveling for the first time, you can decide what game functions are your priorities. I wanted to craft, so I saved all my mats and was totally broke even come level 80. My brother wanted skins, so he sold his mats and bought cool cultural armor.

You’ll get to everything eventually, so deciding how you want to spend money is your own personal preference. Guilds? Crafting? Skins? Armor stats? Waypointing from Queensdale to Fields of Ruin instead of taking the Asura Gate in Divinity’s Reach because it will save you 20 seconds? All your call.

Good luck, and have fun!

DoctorDing.5890:

First, I’ve had a few weapons and equipment that cannot be sold or salvaged. I know from the wiki that this applies to stuff bought with karma and gold (plus some others) but my question is: What else can I do with that stuff? Do I really have to just discard it? Discarding stuff goes against every gaming bone in my body hehe.

Equipment that you earn as level up rewards generally just has to be discarded. Since you aren’t level 80 this doesn’t apply yet BUT: Over in the WvW forum a dev told us that in HoT we will be able to salvage our armor bought with WvW badges, to obtain the upgrade (runes) and some Badges of Honor back! I have not seen this mentioned for karma armor… But for future you and everyone else, don’t throw that badge/karma armor away yet!

As for making gold: you can run Ascalonian Catacombs and Caudecus Manor explorable paths (story is also good for some loot and leveling). Dungeons will become available to you as you level up- Twilight Arbor in the 50-55 range, Sorrow’s Embrace at 60-65, and so on. The bottom of this page shows you each dungeon and recommended level.