Guild Wars 2

Should I buy ecto off the trading post, salvage my own from rares or do a combination of buying ecto/selling more valuable rares/salvaging lesser valued rares?

How do you guys go about it?

I almost never buy rares to salvage just for ectos. If I do, it’s because the item has a socket that makes it worth more. Sometimes you get lucky, but there are thousands of people looking for exactly that – because it’s easy to look for: go to the TP, filter by weapon or armor, set it to rare level 68-80, sort by price, buy the first 10 or so.
I have a list of like 20 rares and 200 or so exotics that are less easy to search for, and those are profitable to salvage for ectos + socket + inscription.

Now, if I get a rare as a drop, I’ll first check it’s TP price. If it sells for more than the cost of buying an ecto, I’ll sell it on the TP. If it sells for less, I’ll salvage it with a Master SK.

I sell rares that cost more than an ecto + major rune/sigil price. All others get salvaged.

Most bids for rares are priced close to the break even point for salvaging so I would suggest only doing this on rares that drop rather buy Level 68 and up rares to salvage.

If you don’t mind waiting they place bids for your ectos. Lots of players will still sell to highest bidder and ectos are a very high volume item.

It depends. How fast are you trying to get your ectos? I am assuming you are using them for crafting purposes. If you are trying to hurry up and get whatever, than farming gold and buying them is the way to go. If you don’t mind, and are taking your sweet time, than just salvaging rares as they come up would be the better option.

There’s also dungeon tokens you can use to get rares to salvage. I’m trying to get ectos also for my legendary and my cof and Coe tokens are of used for that so I usually end up with 20 ectos a day and a nice bit if silk to sell also

The thing is you really would only go profit in the long run when salvaging rares if you use black lion salvage kit. Mystic Kit and the other rare salvage kit has an output of 0.875 ectos per rare. So salvage all rares that’s under 40 silver on TP I’d say and every rare above 40 silver you sell direct on TP.

Salvage all your rares.

I salvage all rares. I’ve had times I’ve had 2-3 dropping attempt after attempt as I kill off a pile making me very rich, other days very little. In the long run, I’d have to estimate my salvages bring in around 1-2 ecto per rare over the total span of my game play from day 1

You’re forgetting that you only get 85% at MAXIMUM (80% if you’re unlucky) of any item you list on the TP after deduction of transaction costs.

If you vendor the rare runes you also get, you’ll get more profit by salvaging everything that drops in the long run. This of course assumes you ever use those ectoplasm.

If you never craft anything at all with ectoplasm, then sell the rares.

Rares are fairly easy to get, it was easier before the locked schedule came into play. You get one guaranteed rare per meta event (two for karka queen) and often I got 2 or 3 from the chest when I did the events. Salvage them till you are happy.

I salvage all of mine, unless the Rare price is worth at least two or three Ectos (basically almost reaching 1g).

A world boss tour in a day usually nets you a handsome return in ectos. Fractals, if your personal level is quite high and with high magic find, can be very rewarding as well. Some runs through lvls 40+ I’ve been very lucky to drop over a dozen rares and maybe a few exos to salvage for dark matter or toss on to the TP.

It really boils down to how patient you are. I’m rather patient so I don’t mind taking things slow.

If you go with the dungeon tokens route, you can get lvl 80 rares from the merchants for a mere 30 tokens. Just make sure you buy from the right merchants as although the exo items will be 80, the rare items can be anything from lvl 30 up to 75. Anything less than 75 (IIRC) will not drop ectos

To find out if you should sell or salvage a rare item, do the following:

1. Multiply the current Ecto price by 1.125 (this is to offset the 87.5% chance to get an Ecto by salvaging using a Master kit, and thus a 12.5% chance to NOT get an Ecto).

2. Next, multiply the result from 1. above by 1.15 (this is to offset the 15% trading post fee that you will pay to sell your Ecto).

3. The result is the Break Even point for Ectoplasm and is the amount that you must sell a rare for in order to acquire the equivalent amount of ectoplasm via gold.

4. Add the cost of using the Salvage Kit (a Master would be 61c per use)

Here is an example, using the current Ecto price of 35s70c:
((3570*1.125)*1.15)+61=4680

You will need to charge MORE THAN 46s80c for a rare in order to sell it instead of salvage it.

You can further analyze this number by using the likelihood of salvaging materials and runes/sigils to offset the price above, but that’s outside the scope of a quick formula for an at a glace decision to sell or salvage.

mtpelion.4562:

To find out if you should sell or salvage a rare item, do the following:

1. Multiply the current Ecto price by 1.125 (this is to offset the 87.5% chance to get an Ecto by salvaging using a Master kit, and thus a 12.5% chance to NOT get an Ecto).

2. Next, multiply the result from 1. above by 1.15 (this is to offset the 15% trading post fee that you will pay to sell your Ecto).

3. The result is the Break Even point for Ectoplasm and is the amount that you must sell a rare for in order to acquire the equivalent amount of ectoplasm via gold.

4. Add the cost of using the Salvage Kit (a Master would be 61c per use)

Here is an example, using the current Ecto price of 35s70c:
((3570*1.125)*1.15)+61=4680

You will need to charge MORE THAN 46s80c for a rare in order to sell it instead of salvage it.

You can further analyze this number by using the likelihood of salvaging materials and runes/sigils to offset the price above, but that’s outside the scope of a quick formula for an at a glace decision to sell or salvage.

Wow thank you for the maths sir. Nice! I don’t think I’ll run out of ecto now.

along these lines, has anyone else noticed that rares have gone up a lot in price since the wardrobe release? I did a few world bosses this weekened, and when I went to price-check the rares, about half were above kitten . about a quarter were above 60s. Are that many people just buying rares to salvage and complete their wardrobe? a couple weeks ago it seemed everything sold for low 30’s.