Guild Wars 2

A simple question. I don’t really know when or when not to salvage items. Is there some kind of trick to knowing when to salvage items?

White – Salvage (Basic Salvage Kit)
Blue – Sell to Vendor
Green – Sell to Vendor
Yellow – Salvage (high-level Salvage Kit)
Orange – Salvage (Master or Black Lion Salvage Kit)

It depends on what you need. Rarer items will give you nicer materials, but if you need gold more than mats you might choose to sell them. If you’re crafting you might need specific things, for example I salvage cloth armour pieces a lot because I do tailoring and the materials are useful to me (and hard-ish to find otherwise).

If you’re not using materials right now, you might like to hoard them for sometime in the future or accumulate them then sell them on the trading post. Otherwise, just sell stuff if you like.

For Yellow or Orange, you will want to salvage because
- You want the materials (or hoarding), and have a chance at rare materials
- You want the Rune/Sigil that comes with it

You will usually reserve the expensive Master Salvage Kit and Black Lion Savage Kit for higher level items such as those level 70+.

Otherwise, check if it will sell a good price at Trading Post.

I rarely sell things on the TP so my mantra is:

Lil Puppy.5216:

I rarely sell things on the TP so my mantra is:

I give u thumbs up just because u put so much effort.into a response

White + Blue = Salvage
Green = Vendor
Yellow = Check TP. If it sells for more then 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a master kit
Orange = Check TP. If it sells for more then the rune and 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a black lion kit

Ojimaru.8970:

White – Salvage (Basic Salvage Kit)

This is not entirely true. Many low whites will sell for up to 1 silver on the trading-post because people use them to transmute on to. That is way more than what you’d get from the mats when salvaging.

I’m probably closest to Oji’s method (though use nice kits on yellows and get most of my ectos that way), though admittedly should be considering Lithe’s approach on Yellows and OJs before stampeding off and salvaging them.

Good stuff to consider.

I used to also preview all types of armor to get a feeling for whether I should check or not based on whether the piece might be considered aesthetically pleasing, but we can’t preview armor we can’t wear any more.

Usually I salvage white and blue items. Green and above, I check at trading post if I can sell them above 1 pa, if so I sell, if not I salvage.

I’m sure it is not the best solution ^^

I always use the second lowest salvage kit (the one by stack of 25) but just because I’m lazy considering which one to use…

Like many I tend to salvage whites, vendor blues and either vendor or TP greens. Yellows and oranges have to be treated on a case by case basis, depending on whether my need for salavge, money or gear is greatest at that time.

One note if you are selling items on the TP is just to make sure you are getting a profit as opposed to vendoring. Sometimes they’ll be an offer on the item for 1-2c above the vendor price, but selling it for this actually give you less money than the vendor after you have paid the sales tax. Always compare the value shown as your return profit from selling an item rather then the value you list it for against the vendor value before deciding where to sell.

LithePanther.5027:

White + Blue = Salvage
Green = Vendor
Yellow = Check TP. If it sells for more then 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a master kit
Orange = Check TP. If it sells for more then the rune and 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a black lion kit

This is exactly what I do. I’d like to add in that if the orange is going for cheap, I might hang onto it and throw 4 in the MF after you save them up. You could get something pretty nice out of it.

For whites, I always check the trading post. Sometimes they have offers for 1 to 2 silver. Those that don’t sell are salvaged.

I also check the TP for greens and blues. If I make the same amount of profit or lower from selling to a vender, I sell to a vender. This is my small way of increasing the value of these items by lowering the supply.

For yellows, I always sell to the tp because I HATE the RNG with a vengeance. They usually sell for 20 to 32 silver and I’d rather use that to buy ectos than salvage and hope I get one. I’ve never been lucky enough to make salvaging them profitable.

For oranges, I always check to see how much the runes and sigils sell for first. Sometimes they are worth twice as much as selling the item intact would be. If that’s the case, I salvage, bank the ectos and sell the rune/sigil.

As for salvage kits, I always use Mystic Forge for common things, even whites, because they come in stacks of 250. I run dungeons a lot so bag space is far more important to me than saving a few silver from having multiple kits. For orange items that I want the rune/sigil from, I use Black Lion kits because they guarantee that I will get it.

Thanks for all the help, guys. I have to say, though, that many of you are saying different things. Keep the help coming, so I can judge more accurately. Thanks again!

At 80 I just mystic forge all my blues and greens and pray for the best. I’ve gotten rares from it here and there.

Do I need the possible materials if I salvage it?
Yes: then do it
No: Move on to step 2

Step 2: is it worth at least a couple of silver on trading post or merchants?
Yes: Then sell it
No: Move on to step 3

Step 3: Do I have nearby friends who are within the levels of using it and could need it?
Yes: Mail it to them free of charge, I’m just that nice. Seriously I give out rings I craft ‘just because’
No: Step 4!

Step 4: Do I have enough junk to throw into the Mystic Forge?
Yes: In the Forge you go!
No: Get more stuff and repeat steps until satisfied.

That’s my flowchart for items.

What Atlas has said is pretty much a decent guide and viewpoint. I’d take that advice.

LithePanther.5027:

White + Blue = Salvage
Green = Vendor
Yellow = Check TP. If it sells for more then 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a master kit
Orange = Check TP. If it sells for more then the rune and 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a black lion kit

This is pretty much what I do. If I weren’t interested in crafting though, I’d probably just vendor the blues. I do sometimes check the tp for greens and see if they’re selling for more than the vendor price, most of the time I just vendor them though.

SuLor.2840:

LithePanther.5027:

White + Blue = Salvage
Green = Vendor
Yellow = Check TP. If it sells for more then 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a master kit
Orange = Check TP. If it sells for more then the rune and 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a black lion kit

This is pretty much what I do. If I weren’t interested in crafting though, I’d probably just vendor the blues. I do sometimes check the tp for greens and see if they’re selling for more than the vendor price, most of the time I just vendor them though.

I salvage blues because lvl 80 blues vendor for like half that of greens but can still give you tier 6 crafting mats, which I get pretty often. And stuff like ori and gossamer sells a lot more then what you would get by vendoring blues, at least in my experience.

I have a quick question, what is an “ecto?”

MangoMan.3218:

I have a quick question, what is an “ecto?”

Glob of Ectoplasm. Just about every rare has a chance of dropping one when salvaged. I believe every exotic will drop at least one. They are used to forge exotics and rare trinkets. A lot of mystic forge recipes require them as well. Salvaging is the only way I know to get them so they’re, “kind of a big deal”.

My personal rule is to salvage whites, blues, and greens if their vendor value is less than 1s. If over 1s, I sell to vendor or check TP for higher value.

my procedure:
account bound exotic/rare = save to throw in Mystic Forge with 3 others or salvage with Mystic/BL kit
exotic = sell on TP
rare = sell on TP if it can sell for more than the price of ecto, otherwise salvage with Mystic kit
white = sell on TP if significantly higher than vendor price
low level blue/green = sell on TP if significantly higher than vendor price
all things worth <40c = salvage with basic salvage kit
everything left over = sell to vendor (green + blue/white worth >40c)

my rationale: of the crafting materials you are likely to get from salvaging, how many are worth more than 40c? sometimes mithril or hardened leather, but that’s it. likely you’ll get lower than that. so selling to vendor then buying what you need from TP would leave you with more coins.

Rares and exotics level 68 and over will drop 0 – 3 ecto. If the item is under level 68 salvaging it isn’t a good idea unless the sigil or rune attached to it is worth more than the vendor price.

Deciding what to salvage is based on what you need more between materials and/or money.

Here’s my personal salvage routine:

• I salvage all whites that do not produce leather; leather materials typically sell for less than the items you salvage, so if you want leather, you might as well use the coin to buy them
• I sell blues because they typically sell more than what you can salvage from them
• I sell greens that are under level 70 because I mix my 70+ greens in the forge, hoping to get rares (I get at least one a day), which I salvage in hopes of getting ecto (which happens more often than not); sell all your greens if you don’t feel this system is doing anything for you
• Salvaging rares (yellow) is a gamble, but I’ve been able to get ecto from them more often than not. The alternative is to see if you can sell it in the trading post for a good amount of coin. Usually, the ecto you get is worth more than the rare.
• Pay attention to the runes that come with any unwanted exotics (orange). Sometimes, the rune is worth more than the item on the TP, which should be incentive to salvage it with a black lion kit (if you have one). Otherwise try to sell the unwanted exotic on the TP if it sells for a good amount of coin.

Basic salvage kits → any non-rare/exotics
Master salvage kits and up → rares/exotics

I check the price of everything on TP before deciding. The game makes it ridiculously easy to do this. Open TP, click on sell, and it’ll list everything in your inventory. Click on them one at a time and you can see the current sell/offer prices. Compare to the NPC price and decide. Takes about 1-3 minutes for a full inventory. (Be mindful of the 10% TP fee and 5% listing fee.)

Some of the white/blue stuff sells for a lot on TP.
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24941

Do you really want to sell that to an NPC just because you’re too lazy to spend a couple minutes checking on TP? You just spent an hour or two amassing all that junk in your inventory. What’s a couple minutes more checking it on TP?

I haven’t been able to figure out a salvage vs. sell strategy yet because I haven’t found an online resource which tells me what mats I’ll get if I salvage something. The prices for materials don’t ramp up linearly with level. In terms of price, orichalcum ore > mithril ore > gold ore > copper ore > platinum ore > iron ore > silver ore. So you can’t decide based simply on the color of the item. You need to know exactly what it’s likely to salvage into.