Guild Wars 2

What should I be doing with the various drops I receive that I can’t use? I’ve recently hit 80 on my Elementalist to join my main (a Guardian), and I’m interested in trying to get exotic/ascended gear.

My current approach is to salvage “salvage items” and whites, sell blues on TP (to highest current bidder 98% of the time) or vendor, and forge greens or higher in hopes of getting rares/exotics. I’m not sure if the forge is the best choice for those and I’m wondering if I could get better returns simply by selling the greens/yellows on the TP and then buying the exotics I want.

I don’t really want to spend time marketing, tracking and setting prices, etc, but if there is a better way that I can still do in my last 5 minutes of game time each play session, I’d like to hear it.

This is my method, it might not be the most gold-efficient way, but it’s what I do.

Copper Fed Salvage-O-Matic:
White, Blue, Green

Mystic Salvage Kit:
Yellow

Black Lion Salvage Kit: CAREFUL HERE
Orange

Keep in mind, for any Yellow under level 68, I either sell on TP or use Copper Fed.

Mystic Salvage Kits are made using 3 Mystic Stones, 1 Journeyman, Fine, and Master Salvage Kit and are 250 use Master Salvage Kits.

I also have plenty of Disassembler Kits (250 use Basic Salvage Kits) for my other toons.

I then use the T5 mats to make my daily time gated T7 pre-mats, which I hoard until I ever get enough Dragonite.

CAREFUL With Black Lion Salvage Kits, make sure you check the price of the Rune/Sigil AND the price of the Item beforehand. If the price of both is about the same, salvage it for the Globs of Dark Matter and Ectoplasms (or chance of, to be precise). You’ll get the Rune/Sigil so you won’t “lose” any money, especially if you don’t get anything nice. If there is a price disparity, go for whichever sells for more.

If the blues/greens are like 3s or more then I sell on tp, usually to highest bidder. The rest of them you can just sell to vendor (or salvage for MF if u want to instead). The rares I also just sell on tp, maybe I could salvage but doesn’t matter to me. If you are trying to get exotic gear, I would suggest running dungeons and using tokens to buy them rather than from TP (this way you also get some gold and other mats). Also I wouldn’t recommend forge for rares because it’s a waste of gold and you usually don’t get an exotic. Something else to try though, buy exotic gear with tokens and throw them in forge. you won’t lose any gold that way, and sometimes you get lucky—I got a Dusk drop months ago from this.

The reason for salvaging white/blue/green is for T5 mats. If you’re overflowing, don’t do it. If you craft T7 mats, do it.

The reason for salvaging Rares is for Sigils/Runes and Ectos.
Upgrade the Sigils/Runes via Mystic Forge. Most of the time you won’t get anything back, and then suddenly you’ll get a Rune or Sigil worth 5+g and you’ll be super happy. Heck, I just got mad the other day and sold half of my Runes/Sigils in my bank because I was frustrated that it was taking 3 Tabs. Ended up making nearly 40g off of it within half an hour, and I don’t think everything sold yet.

The reason for salvaging Exotics is:
If the price difference is negligible:
Ectos, Runes/Sigils, Dark Matter.
If the price difference is severe:
Rune/Sigil.
If the price difference is severe in the other way:
Because you’re bad.

And I used to toss my Rares and Exotics into the forge, but you end up losing a lot of ectos over time, although I guess a different way of looking at it is that you have no ecto income and don’t gain any for an extended period of time.

I suggest salvaging everything you can’t use until you get your MF up to over 100%. You can sell the mats and forge the upgrades (or sell if they can net you more than vendor price….don’t forget 15% TP fee).

What you use to salvage depends on your Salvage kit availability (mostly, what you do with your mystic forge stones). I never use mine for anything other than Mystic Salvage kits, so I have plenty of those and use them for nearly everything. I also do a good bit of keyrunning so I usually have spare BL kits (I use these for ANYTHING that can give me Ectos or has upgrades I need intact).

This is what I do ..

White
Salvage all with Basic kit

Blue
Salvage all with Basic kit for mats and essence of luck

Green (armour only)
Salvage all with Basic kit for mats and essence of luck

Green (weapons only)
Mystic forge for a chance at a rare weapon

Yellow (armour only)
Salvage all with Mystic kit for mats, ecto, and major runes
The major runes either go into the MF for a chance of a superior rune, or are listed on the TP.

Yellow (weapons only)
Mystic forge for a chance at an exotic weapon

Orange (armour only)
Salvage with Black Lion kit for mats, ecto, insignia, dark matter, and runes

Orange (weapons only)
Check price of weapon and/or sigil on the TP
If weapon is selling for more than 3g, list it on the TP
If weapon is selling for under 3g, will forge with 2 other randoms and forge stone for a chance at a better one
If weapon has a desirable sigil worth close to or more than the weapon/sigil combined, salvage with Black Lion kit for mats, ecto, inscription, dark matter, and sigil

Another CAREFUL to add! Make sure the orange item is NOT A PRECURSOR. It will say right there in the flavor text that it is.

Of course if you are checking the TP price before salvaging you will see that it is worth a ton of money and that should tell you not to salvage. Still, don’t rush too much on the salvaging that you could miss this. You’ll hate yourself.

Thanks for the answers. I’m still catching up on the terminology and trying to figure out how all these different things fit together in crafting (ectos, dark matter, dragonite, t7, etc). Just to make sure I understand:

It sounds like there is no universally accepted “most efficient” method, but I certainly should start salvaging more and selling/forging less. I should probably be saving my Mystic salvage uses since it sounds like Basic kits work fine for most loot. I assume the “t7 pre-mats” that Esplen refers to are things like Lump of Mithrillium since those are time-gated and require t5 (Mithril). Those also require Globs of Ecto, which I have none of. Prior to this thread I would never salvage high level rares since I have so few and they are generally valuable, but it sounds like I need to start.

I’m not sure what the following means. Bad at what?

The reason for salvaging Exotics is:
<snip>
If the price difference is severe in the other way:
Because you’re bad.

It sounds like bri does still suggest forging weapons only for possible upgrades, but that seems risky. Maybe I’ll do it sparingly when I’m feeling lucky. That always seem to work in Vegas.

Oh, that’s just saying that….

Say the Exotic is worth 5g, and the Sigil/Rune is worth 10s. If you salvage that item, then you should get slapped.

The one thing you need to know about the market right now is that if a precursor is expensive (like the staff “The Legend”) the rare of the same type will be expensive.

Yellows: Sell greatswords, daggers, sword and staves (or forge four of a kind if I am going for a precursor). Salvage everything else with mystic salvage kit.

Greens: salvage all light armour for silk. Try and match up greatswords, daggers, sword and staves for the forge. Sell heavy and medium bodies. Put all other greens into the forge either four weapons at a time or three armour one weapon.

Blues: Salvage for luck.

Whites: salvage all except medium armour, which I sell (leather is cheap)

This is what I do:

Sell:

• whites (they do not give MF when salvaged)
• blues and greens > 1 silver
• yellows and oranges (except if I really want the skin)
• salvage items

Salvage:

• blues and greens < 1 silver
• salvage items and other items if I haven’t reached daily/monthly

That’s my default, but when I’m in a specific situation (in need of specific mats, or ectos, or whatever) I make exceptions.