Newbie questions about salvaging

Never played this kind of game before, and it seems that all the guides and other tutorials I found are written for people that understand the basics of the concepts being explained.

I'm not sure I get the salvaging thing and I'm afraid I may have passed up some good opportunities because of it.


So far I have used salvage kits (the cheap ones) on objects I find and it seems that all it does it transform it into material that generally has a lower resale value (especially if you consider the 2g that it costs to salvage it).
It seems that only items marked as "highly salvageable" are worth the cost of salvaging, although I suppose you do need some of the materials for crafting.

My main issue is I used a salvage kit on some fancy named object, can't remember the name but something like "Bloodstained Axe Grawl Cape of Shelter" or some such, and got something of low value (piece of cloth or some such).
Now that I have read a little more about the game, it seems the name was a clue that it could yield some insignias, but I need an Expert Salvage Kit to extract an insignia? did I get this right?


What is identifying for?
- Does identifying an object raise its value so that I get the cost of identifying it back when I sell it? at the store? to other people?
- Does identifying have any value in deciding whether to salvage an object or not? (doe it contain a rune or insignia?). for example would the fact that an object has a +10 Health modifier in it indicate that it might contain a +10 Health rune so I should salvage it with an expert kit?


hope my questions make sense, I can't seem to find a good reference to learn about this stuff.

identifying:
-yes, ID'ing an object has a chance of raising its value
-yes to second point also.

now for salvaging:
there are three classes of salvaging kits in GW: basic, expert, and perfect. basic salvage kits will ONLY give you common crafting materials. expert allows you to remove runes/insignia/inscription from armors/weapons, as well as a chance to get rare crafting materals. however, there's a chance that it will destroy the item if you remove runes/insignia/inscription.

perfect salvage kits only allow you to remove runes/insignia/inscription. however, it will NEVER destroy the item while doing so.

hope i've explained it well enough for you.

if you identify an item you will see the components it has, if you then try salvaging with an expert salvage kit or higher, a menu will show with the upgrades you could salvege from it, if you salvage from an item there is a risk that it will be destroyed in the process, that is if you don't use a perfect salvage kit a perfect one will retain the object.


identifying does raise the value of an item slightly, but only if you sell it to a merchant.

so does the name of the object indicate if it contains an insignia or rune? It seems rather expensive to hit everything with an expert or perfect kit without knowing in advance.
or should use identify it even though it doesn't say unidentified?

The color of an object tells u what it will yield from salvaging white items yield only crafting materials while blue purple gold and green contain insignias & runes

yikes, I have been passing up/destroying a bunch of good stuff then!

Thanks for the answers. This forum gets incredible traffic, I got my posts answered within minutes!

one thing that hasnt been mentioned yet and brought up in op...
use expert salvage kits on items marked "highly salvageable", this will have a chance to yield 'rare crafting materials'.
if you use standard salvage kits, it will only yield 'common crafting materials'.

When using an expert/superior or perfect kit on any item, the game asks you what you want to salvage from it. Only after you id-ed the item ofcourse.

From armor: Runes, insignia, material (when applicable)
From weapons: Mods, inscriptions, material (when applicable)

Use it to learn what can be salvaged from what item.

Just because I think some of these answers have been slightly unclear I'm going to summarize it for you.

Normal salvage kit - Salvages items for regular crafting materials only.
Expert salvage kit - Salvages for your choice of either crafting materials or mods (runes/insignias for armor, mods and inscriptions for weapons).
Superior salvage kit - Same as expert, but 100 uses, rather than 25.
Perfect salvage kit - Can only salvage mods from items.

Identifying a white-named item will usually raise its value by a small amount, roughly 10%, however there is also a chance that its value will be significantly increased, sometimes up to about 80-100% extra.

Identifying items with a coloured name will reveal properties of that item that did not show up previously. For some weapons you can determine these effects without identification by equipping the item.

Once an item is identified you can use an expert/superior salvage kit to salvage some of the effects from it. These effects are also associated with a prefix/suffix in the item title, and with a salvageable component.

For example, a blue piece of armor is identified to be "survivors half digested boot of attunement," and it has health +5 and energy +2 as modifiers. The health + 5 is associated with a survivor insignia, forming the prefix of the name. Similarly the energy +2 is associated with the attunement rune, forming the suffix of the name. Both these mods can be salvaged and applied to one of your own pieces of armor, giving it the aforementioned prefix/suffix.

The same can be done with most weapon mods.

Two other notes:

There is also a 'Superior' salvage kit; it is the same as an Expert kit, it just holds more charges (100 versus 25).

And, the further into the game you get, the higher the average jump in price will be when you ID white items, sometimes almost doubling their worth (though that is rare). So, near the start of the game, you may not make back the 2g it costs you, but later on, you'll be getting an extra 10-20g per item on average.

Remember that per the use it's more expensive, but good for saving inventory space.

Just to add a bit...

At higher levels it is, on average, worth IDing all items. The average sell price will be higher by a comfortable margin than un-IDed pieces.

On some pieces there is a chance for 'rare' materials when using a Superior Salvage kit. Check the item on wiki, http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page
to see what the rare salvage is...your choice, its a cheap gamble.

Ant

It sounds like you're still in the early game. Salvaging items isn't worth a lot in the beginning. I prefer to just sell most things to a merchant early on to start getting some gold in my bag.

But, some thoughts about later on...

For runes... not all of them are worth salvaging. Many "superior" runes can be bought for 100g, while some "minor" runes can go for 1k, it depends on the class and the demand for them.

Runes that sell at the Rune Trader for 100g are usually only worth 25g if you try to sell them back to the trader. So, if you have a gold armor piece worth, say 250g, but the rune on it is only going for 100g at the trader, you're better off just selling the unsalvaged armor to a merchant. You'll have to make some visits to the Rune Trader to get an idea of prices. The same goes for insignias.

IMPORTANT TIP - Just because something has "gold" lettering, it doesn't mean it's always super valuable. I've got max attribute "perfect" purple weapons that do the same thing as any "gold" one of the exact same thing. But, people are funny and will sometimes pay more for the gold lettering.

It's also a good idea to become familiar with the upgrade components. Learn what the max values are for them because it's usually only worth trying to salvage/sell the max ones. For instance, a Sword Pommel of Fortitude... max is +30 HP. You should be able to get 5k or more for one, but if it's only +29 HP... you may stand around forever trying to get 1k, or less, for it.

All weapon mods are only worth 25g at a merchant, so be careful there.

Another thing worth keeping track of, IMO, is the prices for common crafting materials at the Material Trader. Iron Ingots and Tanned Hide Squares can go for 200g or more (per stack of 10) at the trader. Selling price is 100g less. So, if you've got an extra stack of those taking up space in inventory... 100g per 10 x 25 = a quick and painless 2.5k in the bank. You can get more selling to other players, if you have the time to stand around and spam the trade channel, but I prefer to be out killing things, so I take the fast money... most of the time.

It's a lot to learn and it takes time. The wiki is your friend, spend some time there, it pays in the long run.

You never said which game you have, Prof, Factions, nightfall, EOTN.getting items where you can change the inscription can be helpful as well.(available to Nightfall & EOTN players) It may be wise to note that "highly salvageable" inscription can come in handy for use in other items, I will usually salvage this inscription off an object i know i'll get iron ingots off of and use it on items that im fairly sure i can get glittering dust off of. from past experience i know i get alot of steel ingots off of canes so if i need steel then i go with those, where-as frost and storm artifacts can usually net me granite and glittering dust. With EOTN i use very specific materials to make all my powerstones ETC, so im more careful about what i use them on.

Prophecies only.... for now