Guild Wars 2

So I’ve noticed that ever since maxing all my toons to 80, all I ever salvage from anything ever is … mithril, thick leather, and silk. I suppose rarely I’ll get an orichalcum or ancient log. In a game where I need tons of lower level mats to make ascended gear or legendaries, this is incredibly frustrating. Even when I play in lower level regions, say 40-55 or something, all I loot is level 80 gear and (wait for it), that salvages into just mithril, thick leather, and silk.

This has been an issue for as long as I can remember, and nothing has been done about it. I shouldn’t have to waste a character slot on a perpetually level 40 toon just so I can loot/salvage lower level gear.

Please ANet, do something about this. I’ve got a few ideas to change it, but if anyone has others please post them. I’d really like this to change.

-Low level regions drop loot within their stated level range, regardless of character level (world bosses will still only drop level 80 gear as the only exception to this)
-Decrease the number of lower level mats required to make damask/elonian leather, etc.
-Fractal items can drop at any item level (ascended drops would still obviously be 80)
-Have merchs in game who set a going rate for certain mats (e.g. merch sells linen scrap at max price of 2 silver or whatever) – this might kill the TP for that mat but at least it would clean the inflation of it

Or something. I’d really like to finally salvage something other than mithril, thick leather, and silk.

Get a guild hall, you’ll be really happy with all your T5 mats, trust me.
Though, i agree with you, and they could implement a bit more variety in mats rarity from salvaged lvl80 items.

Christina.7926:

-Low level regions drop loot within their stated level range, regardless of character level (world bosses will still only drop level 80 gear as the only exception to this)

This is already the case. All loot that drops is going to either be your character’s level or the map’s level. This means that a level 80 character who is on a level 25 map will get a combination of level 80 and level 25 gear as drops.

-Decrease the number of lower level mats required to make damask/elonian leather, etc.

This would counteract the whole point of having those materials be required (which was to maintain value for them).

-Fractal items can drop at any item level (ascended drops would still obviously be 80)

Fractals are end game content and should therefore drop end game loot.

-Have merchs in game who set a going rate for certain mats (e.g. merch sells linen scrap at max price of 2 silver or whatever) – this might kill the TP for that mat but at least it would clean the inflation of it

The prices of these things are not based on inflation but on supply and demand which means you’d be hurting the players who make gold farming these items (or playing through these maps). This means that your “problem” is invalid which negates the need for your solution.

Or something. I’d really like to finally salvage something other than mithril, thick leather, and silk.

T6 materials do salvage from level 78+ gear, but at a low rate. The point was never to be rolling in piles of materials from salvaging.

@mtpelion
I didn’t realize I could get a combination of level 80 drops and lower level drops in a lower level region, so that is good at least. Overall though, the number of times I salvage thick leather, silk, or leather from these regions is still staggering, so I’d say this “combination” is still pretty low. I don’t have a problem with these lower level mats having value in crafting of ascended gear, but the problem is that the supply doesn’t match the demand in the game and so these prices are skyrocketing. I realize a ton of money is made by flipping on the TP, but preserving the ability of some to flip for a profit shouldn’t be the basis for having ridiculously low drops/ability to procure an item in game. There are plenty of other things to flip. One cured thin leather square shouldn’t cost 13s79c on the TP:
https://www.gw2tp.com/item/19733-cured-thin-leather-square

When the game came out you would get all zone level appropriate drops, and thus zone level salvages. People requested via these forums that at least some of the drops be of the characters level and not the zones level.

This change is due to Anet actually listening to their customer base. So, players now have exactly what they asked for.

That would have been back in the day of the Queensdale champ train and so people were obsessing over getting level 80 loot from all their champ boar kills. With the train nerfed these areas are mainly populated by lower level toons and no 80s whatsoever, so that request doesn’t even have much effect on the game anymore. World boss event participation has plummeted with the HoT release and most 80s are only in new regions or SW. My point is that I think it would greatly help the current mess of leather and cloth prices on the economy if the drop rates of these lower level items would be increased. Damask patches have royally skewed the numbers.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Level-scaling-but-no-item-scaling

Only needed to go through four of the oldest pages to find this. This is what players wanted from the first couple weeks and Anet listened.

It would be nice if these items were actually worth something.

So far, guild halls don’t seem to be making much of a dent.

poor gossamer, no one cares about you

Zone tier leather and cloth can be found in loot bags in the zone. For example, loot bags from Kessex Hills bandits can drop Wool and Thin Leather. Tier metals like Iron can be harvested in these zones. It is possible to farm these things,, but be sure to move from area to area while doing so to avoid diminishing returns.

As mtpelion says, relative rarity drives price, and Asc. is meant to be either time-consuming, expensive or both. Personally, I’d rather the lower tier mats remained valuable — as compared to the situation in other MMO’s where gathering lower tier mats is not worth the effort.

Christina.7926:

@mtpelion
I didn’t realize I could get a combination of level 80 drops and lower level drops in a lower level region, so that is good at least. Overall though, the number of times I salvage thick leather, silk, or leather from these regions is still staggering, so I’d say this “combination” is still pretty low. I don’t have a problem with these lower level mats having value in crafting of ascended gear, but the problem is that the supply doesn’t match the demand in the game and so these prices are skyrocketing. I realize a ton of money is made by flipping on the TP, but preserving the ability of some to flip for a profit shouldn’t be the basis for having ridiculously low drops/ability to procure an item in game. There are plenty of other things to flip. One cured thin leather square shouldn’t cost 13s79c on the TP:
https://www.gw2tp.com/item/19733-cured-thin-leather-square

It’s not about flippers, it’s economics. If a large portion of the playerbase shared your opinion that that price was too high, then it would fall. People would still list but no one would buy. This is how supply and demand works. But if there are enough people willing to buy cured thin leather at that price, then it will remain.

“Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.”
-Publilus Syrus

I don’t know how difficult it would be to implement, but I know I’d appreciate the ability to toggle which level was used to determine loot level i.e. either level 80, or my effective (scaled) level in the map.

It would also be nice to be able to demote materials, either through a recipe or through vendors who would provide lower-tier materials in exchange for higher.

kratan.4619:

When the game came out you would get all zone level appropriate drops, and thus zone level salvages. People requested via these forums that at least some of the drops be of the characters level and not the zones level.

This change is due to Anet actually listening to their customer base. So, players now have exactly what they asked for.

With the advent of ascended crafting however that solution is no longer valid and its implementation creates more problems than it solves.

kratan.4619:

When the game came out you would get all zone level appropriate drops, and thus zone level salvages. People requested via these forums that at least some of the drops be of the characters level and not the zones level.

This change is due to Anet actually listening to their customer base. So, players now have exactly what they asked for.

Except these was long before Ascended crafting was around to suck massive amounts of mid-tier mats out of the game. They should’ve rethought loot when they changed how we used it.

imo the best way to make lower tier mats available to max level characters would be the ability to salvage higher tier mats into lower tier mats. even with a conversion of 1:1 this would still be a viable option. this would give a little more value to higher tier mats and balance out the scarcity of lower tier mats a bit.

zaced.7948:

imo the best way to make lower tier mats available to max level characters would be the ability to salvage higher tier mats into lower tier mats. even with a conversion of 1:1 this would still be a viable option. this would give a little more value to higher tier mats and balance out the scarcity of lower tier mats a bit.

That assumes that ANet thinks that lower-tier mats are “scarce” — evidence suggests that ANet doesn’t agree, that they are OK with some tiers being more plentiful than others, that the demand:supply ratio differs, and that even some mats of equal tiers have wildly different market values (e.g. silk vs gossamer).

I don’t see an economic issue with the current situation, only a psychological one: most people think that T6 should be more valuable than T5; I don’t think that’s enough of a reason to change the dynamics.

Celtic Lady.3729:

It would be nice if these items were actually worth something.

So far, guild halls don’t seem to be making much of a dent.

1.5 million fewer elder wood logs on the market compared to a month ago