Curse

Stig Figger · Apr 26, 2006, 08:30 PM // 20:30

Introduction:

This purpose of this guide is to help players of Guild Wars: Prophecies decide what to do with the items (drops) they obtain upon killing monsters, with the general intent being to earn as much net worth as possible (in gold).
This guide is probably best suited for the casual PvE gamer, whether playing missions or quests or just exploring.
This guide was prepared on April 25, 2006. Future game updates may alter the relative value of certain items. Also, constant fluctuations in the market economy affect the cost and selling price of materials to NPCs. These factors may affect the ‘sell vs. salvage’ suggestions in this guide.
This guide does not list farming spots or strategies/builds, nor does it discuss the specifics of how/where to privately barter/auction, nor does it discuss how to profit from “running” or “power leveling”.
This guide relies heavily on links to GuildWiki. A big ‘thanks’ to all involved there.

Types of drops (details to follow):

Gold
Materials (common or rare)
Unmodifiable weapons (shields, focus items, wands, canes, rods, truncheons, deadly cestas)
Modifiable weapons (swords, axes, hammers, bows, staves)
Salvage armor
Other “Salvage” items (e.g. hides, half-digested food, spider webs)
Collectible items (e.g. monster parts, carvings/badges/emblems/etc.)
Insight scrolls
Keys
Dyes

Types of kits:

Identification kit (4g per use, 25 uses)
Superior identification kit (5g per use, 100 uses)
Salvage kit (4g per use, 25 uses)
Expert salvage kit (16g per use, 25 uses)
Superior salvage kit (20g per use, 100 uses)

What can be obtained by salvaging (http://www.gwonline.net/page.php?p=90):

Color classification of weapons and armor:

White
- common, generally have the lowest value/damage
- can salvage into rare materials (frequency may vary with location in the game)
Blue
- less common, generally have low value/damage
- can salvage into rare materials
- can be “precious” (higher value than non-precious version of same item)
- can be “highly salvageable” (higher chance of salvaging more materials)
- may have weapon upgrade (low quality)
- armor will have a minor rune
Purple…same as blue except:
- uncommon, generally have medium value/damage
- higher chance of having a (better quality) weapon upgrade or two upgrades
- armor will have a minor or a major rune
Gold…same as purple except:
- rare, highest value/damage
- best chance of having a (best quality) weapon upgrade or two upgrades
- armor will have a major or a superior rune
Green
- unique, best possible damage/energy
- cannot be dyed, salvaged or upgraded
- barter privately (Merchants pay only 42g for these)

General tips:

as soon as possible, obtain a belt pouch and two bags, two Runes of Holding to expand your bags, and access to Xunlai Storage
before selling or salvaging an item, first decide if you want to use it (or give it to a friend)
identify everything (you may lose a little gold in Ascalon, but the items still could be useful, precious or highly salvageable), unless you want to barter with unidentified gold items (some players want to buy unidentified modifiable weapons or armors to gamble for unlocking/salvaging rare upgrades and superior runes)
if wish to barter privately, you need to develop your own rules about how much time to spend at it vs. spending time playing/farming vs. what prices are acceptable
only barter with weapons if they are “max”
only barter with weapon upgrades if they are “perfect” or nearly perfect by 1-2 points
to determine which runes are profitable to barter with, check a Rune Trader for those that cost >500g (none of the Minor runes; for Major runes: only Vigor and Absorption)
never sell common or rare materials to Merchants, always to Material Traders; or you may try to barter privately (relatively easy to do in cities/outposts where players need materials to craft armor/weapons)
in Ascalon and Northern Shiverpeaks, use an Expert Salvage Kit only when trying to extract profitable weapon upgrades and runes; otherwise, sell items to Merchants (or use a basic Salvage Kit on those items that will yield the common material you are collecting (http://www.gwonline.net/page.php?p=90)...so decide early on what armors you will buy later in the game so you know which materials to collect)
starting in Kryta, always use an Expert Salvage Kit on items which can yield rare materials (http://www.gwonline.net/page.php?p=90); only use a basic Salvage Kit on items which don’t yield rare materials
use Superior kits only when going on long farming runs where you need to salvage most everything to preserve inventory space
never salvage Collectible Items or (non-armor) Salvage Items
when in doubt, use the following formulae to clarify whether it is best to (basic) salvage or sell (to a Merchant)…adapt as needed to consider the cost of Expert salvaging and/or private bartering:
- Variables:
  - A = how much a Merchant will pay for the item
  - B = how many units of material will be obtained by salvaging the item (salvage >10 items to estimate the average yield)
  - C = how much you have to pay a Material Trader per 1 unit of the material
  - D = how much a Material Trader will pay for 1 unit of the material
- When you are collecting materials to craft something:
  - if A > [ (BxC) - 4 ], then sell the item to a Merchant and save up gold for buying material later
  - if A is less, then basic salvage the item and keep the material
- When you do not need to collect certain materials:
  - if A > [ (BxD) - 4 ], then sell the item to a Merchant
  - if A is less, then salvage the item and sell the material to a Material Trader

What to do when you find the following (and don’t want to use it or give it away):

Gold
- keep it
Materials
- save materials to craft your own armor or weapons, or
- sell Common Materials in stacks of 10 to Material Traders in cities, or
- use an Artisan to craft Rare Materials from Common Materials (unless it is cheaper to buy directly from a Rare Material Trader!), or
- sell rare materials to Rare Material Traders in cities, or
- privately barter with materials wherever armor or weapons are crafted
Unmodifiable weapons (shields, focus items, casters’ single-handed weapons)
- if they are white and from Ascalon or Northern Shiverpeaks…
  - sell them to a Merchant, or
  - salvage them with a basic kit for the materials you need
- if they are white and from Kryta or beyond…
  - basic salvage Smiting Rods, Monk focus items, Necromancer focus items, Chakrams
  - expert salvage Shields, Holy Rods, Truncheons, Deadly Cestas, Canes, Chalices, Wands, Elementalist focus items (to gamble for Steel Ingots or Rolls Of Parchment)
- if they are blue, purple or gold, identify them first, then…
  - salvage them (selectively, as above), or
  - privately barter with them (if they are really good)
Modifiable weapons (swords, axes, hammers, bows and staves)
- if they are white and from Ascalon or Northern Shiverpeaks…
  - sell them to a Merchant, or
  - salvage them with a basic kit for the materials you need
- if they are white and from Kryta or beyond…
  - basic salvage bows and staves for Wood Planks
  - expert salvage Warrior weapons (to gamble for Steel Ingots)
- if they are blue or purple, identify them first, then…
  - if they have an unpopular or low-efficiency upgrade, or no upgrade, then…
    - sell them to a Merchant, or
    - salvage them (basic on bows and staves; expert on Warrior weapons)
  - if they have a popular perfect (or near perfect) upgrade, then…
    - barter privately, or
    - expert salvage to gamble for extracting the upgrade
- if they are gold…
  - barter privately (identified or unidentified), or
  - follow the above instructions for blue/purple
Salvage armor (attire listed at http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Category:Salvage_Items)
- if it is white…
  - and from Ascalon or Northern Shiverpeaks, sell it to a Merchant
  - and from Kryta or beyond, expert salvage it
- if it is blue or purple, identify it first, then…
  - sell the intact armor to a Merchant if the rune is not valuable, or
  - expert salvage to extract the rune if it is valuable (or wanted for your own armor), and sell the rune to a Rune Trader or barter privately
- if it is gold…
  - barter privately (identified or unidentified), or
  - identify it and follow the above instructions for blue/purple
Other Salvage items (non-attire listed at http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Category:Salvage_Items)
- exchange Charr Hides for Fur Squares with Calissa Sedgewick (Collector) in Ascalon City
- sell all others to a Merchant
Collectible items
- if they are Mountain Troll Tusks…
  - trade them in at specific collectors, then sell the items to a Merchant (you get 25g per tusk this way vs. selling tusks directly for 8g each), or
  - barter privately for 12-15g each
- for all others…
  - trade them in for desired item, or
  - barter privately (in the cities/outposts close to the specific Collectors), or
  - sell them to a Merchant
Insight scrolls
- use them to gain more XP, or
- barter privately
Keys
- use them as soon as possible to get a ‘real’ reward
Dyes
- sell them to a Dye Trader, or
- barter privately

-----------------------------------

Note1: These suggestions are meant to be as general a guide as possible, to reduce the amount of time one spends researching the profitability of salvaging any one particular item. If you have empirical evidence (not hearsay) that (for example) selling a particular item is more profitable than salvaging it as per my suggestion, please reply showing the comparison of selling vs. salvaging (and show the average over at least 10 salvages).

Note2: The GWOnline.net "Salvage Items Guide" is not complete. There are more items in the game than listed there. Contact that site with updates to the list.

Note3: It is currently unknown how applicable this guide will be to drops in Guild Wars: Factions. Hopefully, most of the guidelines won't be affected. Obviously, there will be more items that are not included on the GWOnline.net "Salvage Items Guide".

Fargin Scotchsman · Apr 26, 2006, 10:17 PM // 22:17

hmm, this may be helpful, even if ur not a newr player. good job yo

Beat_Go_Stick · Apr 26, 2006, 10:46 PM // 22:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stig Figger

never salvage Collectible Items or (non-armor) Salvage Items

Not good advice. Take this bullet point out as the next one completely negates its validity. The value of salvaging collectables, such as Griffon Wings (for 4 Feathers) or Azure Remains (for 5-6 Glittering Dust), outshines the price of the collectable were you to just sell it to the merchant.

Whether or not to salvage, sell to merchant, or sell to players these collectables is a whole nother paragraph....

Otherwise, a good guide though. Nice effort put into it

Evilsod · Apr 26, 2006, 11:00 PM // 23:00

Yeah but if you happen to have picked up a Frosted Griffon Wing from Blessed Griffons people could pay 200 for them (seen people paying it in Rankor recently). So if your have spare slots and are in that region keep them, they could be worth more to other people needing collectors items than to you.

The basic advice is if your running out of space, turn it into wood (if its a staff/bow obviously). Parchment is reasonably valuable, just don't go ott and end up with over 4000 wood (i really need to clear that off my necro...). Stupid Raven Staffs.

Markaedw · Apr 26, 2006, 11:09 PM // 23:09

There is one more thing to take into account, some crafter items, such as steel and linen, cost more to craft than to buy.

capblueberry · Apr 26, 2006, 11:28 PM // 23:28

nice guide thanx

Stig Figger · Apr 27, 2006, 04:55 AM // 04:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beat_Go_Stick

The value of salvaging collectables, such as Griffon Wings (for 4 Feathers) or Azure Remains (for 5-6 Glittering Dust), outshines the price of the collectable were you to just sell it to the merchant.

I've always suspected that some collectibles would be worthwhile salvaging, but it's not apparent until you try (most of the ones I've tried, especially in the 'early' parts of the game, are not worth the cost of salvaging). This kind of information is invaluable and hard to come by, so I would be more than happy to include these exceptions once they're proven. But as I mentioned in Note1 at the bottom, please provide some empirical evidence for this (I'll take your word for it; stating you tried at least 5-10 salvages showing how much the material are worth vs. selling the items unsalvaged will be convincing). Or perhaps there is a more general location-specific rule such as "Starting in the Crystal Desert, it is more profitable to basic salvage all collectibles that you can't barter with privately"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evilsod

Yeah but if you happen to have picked up a Frosted Griffon Wing from Blessed Griffons people could pay 200 for them (seen people paying it in Rankor recently).

Is that because these are hard to farm or is this perhaps a FOTM effect? It may be too much work to assemble these exceptions so I covered this advice with the General Tip:

Quote:

if wish to barter privately, you need to develop your own rules about how much time to spend at it vs. spending time playing/farming vs. what prices are acceptable

Stig Figger · Apr 27, 2006, 04:59 AM // 04:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markaedw

There is one more thing to take into account, some crafter items, such as steel and linen, cost more to craft than to buy.

Duly noted. Guide edited. Thank you!

mint · Apr 27, 2006, 05:20 AM // 05:20

I would recommend selling all keys Elonian and cheaper, Shiverpeak keys too if you don't want to wait for other people to check chests for you

Slimcea · Apr 27, 2006, 05:30 AM // 05:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beat_Go_Stick

Not good advice. Take this bullet point out as the next one completely negates its validity. The value of salvaging collectables, such as Griffon Wings (for 4 Feathers) or Azure Remains (for 5-6 Glittering Dust), outshines the price of the collectable were you to just sell it to the merchant.

Whether or not to salvage, sell to merchant, or sell to players these collectables is a whole nother paragraph....

Otherwise, a good guide though. Nice effort put into it

The true merchant worth of Southern Shiverpeak collector items is 25g (similar to Crystal Desert ones). Its just that you need to run to the collector to exchange for collector items and then sell them instead.

It might be more profitable to salvage for materials though if you can sell these materials off without much effort (since most materials run @ 8g each, and 4 to 5 of them is about 40g worth).

Wacky · Apr 27, 2006, 06:46 AM // 06:46

Some (not all) whites in high level areas (and even low level areas) approximately double in merchant value if you identify them.

noblepaladin · Apr 28, 2006, 01:42 AM // 01:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beat_Go_Stick

Not good advice. Take this bullet point out as the next one completely negates its validity. The value of salvaging collectables, such as Griffon Wings (for 4 Feathers) or Azure Remains (for 5-6 Glittering Dust), outshines the price of the collectable were you to just sell it to the merchant.

Whether or not to salvage, sell to merchant, or sell to players these collectables is a whole nother paragraph....

Otherwise, a good guide though. Nice effort put into it

I usually save up all my Mountain Troll Tusks and run my warrior to the collector and trade them in for 40 collector long swords and then sell the swords at 125 each. Much better than salvaging. However, for some of the stuff that you are not farming, such as azure remains, you might be better off salvaging or selling because the run to the collector is not worth it unless you save up many collector items (i.e. a stack of 200).

TheLordOfBlah · Apr 29, 2006, 07:28 PM // 19:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wacky

Some (not all) whites in high level areas (and even low level areas) approximately double in merchant value if you identify them.

um no. who told you that?

TGgold · Apr 29, 2006, 07:54 PM // 19:54

Another hint for people in their PvE game, is while progressing, keep all of the stoen summit badges you get in the Northern Shiverpeaks, since they'll be worth 25 rather than 8 later in the game.
Also, Charr Hides can be traded for Fur Squares. So never sell them. It makes the start of the game easier if you just build up on these as you play.

If I think of any more items that you get a lot of through normal play...I'll add more.

Stig Figger · Apr 29, 2006, 11:32 PM // 23:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wacky

Some (not all) whites in high level areas (and even low level areas) approximately double in merchant value if you identify them.

Believe it or not, they do! I didn't believe you could use an identification kit on white items, but you can (on all weapons and monster armors). Sometimes the Merchant value increases by 1g, other times, it's as much as double. I tried some salvages on identified white items in Kryta -- expert salvaging was much more profitable than selling would have been, but only because material prices skyrocketed with the Factions release. I'll need some 'practice' and time to let the market 'settle down' to see how worthwhile identifying white items is...