Guild Wars 2

i was promoting crystals to orbs and ran out of incandescent dust
so i thought to myself why not promote the previous tier of dust via mystic forge but before i tried that i looked up the price and saw it was double….

anyone know what is the reason for this oddity?

Probably supply.

Luminescent dust is less than 10k supply. Incandescent dust is over 100k supply. If you check where they drop, incandescent dust drops from dust mites in Drytop and mobs in Cursed Shore and Luminescent dust drops from places like Fields of Ruin, Blazeridge steps and Iron Marches. There are a lot more people killing mobs in level 80 maps like Dry Top than killing mobs in the lower level maps.

Also the new Legendary’s require the dust for the gifts, so some people probably bought stacks of the stuff when HoT came out, and sell it back later.

oh i see thanks

There also aren’t a lot of mobs that drop Luminescent Dust in particular. The biggest sources of Dust as direct drops come from Branded and Ghosts, neither of which spawn at levels that drop T4 Dust. You can get plenty of Radiant Dust (T3) from Blazeridge Steppes, but there aren’t as many Branded in Iron Marches, and few players hang around that area since there aren’t many events to keep players there.