One of the things I see frequently is the statement that one of the main ways people make money at endgame is by salvaging rares for ectos, then selling the ectos and upgrades on the TP. I had several Black Lion Trading Kits around (though mostly from my first toon, don't seem to get them any more in the last two months) and indeed, I could get several gold a day hitting the world bosses and selling ectos. It got me to full exotics really quickly after I hit 80.
Now that I've run out of Black Lion Trading kits, I went looking to figure out if I should be buying more.
From what I've found the consensus among the community is that they are only worth it for insuring you get a specific upgrade out of an item. They aren't cost effective for getting ectos. According to some of the research threads on forums and the wiki, the community has determined that you get an average of about 1.25 ectos out of a level 80 rare with the BL kit, and .95 ectos with a Mystic or Master kit. Since master kits are considerably cheaper than Black Lion, the common wisdom is to use master for salvaging rares.
But I'm wondering if it's even worth salvaging at all. With the price of ectos hovering around 30 silver, and the average rare item around 27 silver, would it make the most sense to just sell the rares, and be free of the risk of RNG giving you no ectos? I salvaged two rares today and got no ectos. Could have gotten roughly 54 silver for them, but instead wound up with about 6 silver worth of upgrades.
Upgrades throw another twist, though. If you really do get .95 ectos/rare, you should be making a little more money than just selling the rares on ectos alone, plus 80% of the time you are getting an upgrade item worth 2 to 3 silver, so salvaging with master/mystic kits would net you 3 to 5 silver more per rare. But.... I ran into at least one post where the writer seemed to be suggesting the best bet is not to sell the updgrades, but to throw them into the mystic forge. He didn't elaborate, but I expect the goal here is to go for an exotic upgrade, which will net 3 to 5 gold. I'm not sure what the chances of getting an exotic from forging four rares, but you'd it'd have to be as bad as 1/100 or worse for you to not at least break even.
Which then makes me wonder if it would be best to forge rares armors/weapons in hopes of an exotic. Since those go for twenty something silver, you'd have to get an exotic every ten rares or so to make it worth it. I get rares pretty often out of forging greens, but not sure if the chances are similar for rares to exotics.
So, anyone have some insight into these things? What do you do with your rare loot?
Now that I've run out of Black Lion Trading kits, I went looking to figure out if I should be buying more.
From what I've found the consensus among the community is that they are only worth it for insuring you get a specific upgrade out of an item. They aren't cost effective for getting ectos. According to some of the research threads on forums and the wiki, the community has determined that you get an average of about 1.25 ectos out of a level 80 rare with the BL kit, and .95 ectos with a Mystic or Master kit. Since master kits are considerably cheaper than Black Lion, the common wisdom is to use master for salvaging rares.
But I'm wondering if it's even worth salvaging at all. With the price of ectos hovering around 30 silver, and the average rare item around 27 silver, would it make the most sense to just sell the rares, and be free of the risk of RNG giving you no ectos? I salvaged two rares today and got no ectos. Could have gotten roughly 54 silver for them, but instead wound up with about 6 silver worth of upgrades.
Upgrades throw another twist, though. If you really do get .95 ectos/rare, you should be making a little more money than just selling the rares on ectos alone, plus 80% of the time you are getting an upgrade item worth 2 to 3 silver, so salvaging with master/mystic kits would net you 3 to 5 silver more per rare. But.... I ran into at least one post where the writer seemed to be suggesting the best bet is not to sell the updgrades, but to throw them into the mystic forge. He didn't elaborate, but I expect the goal here is to go for an exotic upgrade, which will net 3 to 5 gold. I'm not sure what the chances of getting an exotic from forging four rares, but you'd it'd have to be as bad as 1/100 or worse for you to not at least break even.
Which then makes me wonder if it would be best to forge rares armors/weapons in hopes of an exotic. Since those go for twenty something silver, you'd have to get an exotic every ten rares or so to make it worth it. I get rares pretty often out of forging greens, but not sure if the chances are similar for rares to exotics.
So, anyone have some insight into these things? What do you do with your rare loot?