Black Lion Salvage Kit question

BLSKs have 100% chance of recovering upgrades and 50% chance of recovering rarer items.Salvage results for 17 kits on exotic armor and weapons yielded...

• 12 runes from 12 pieces of armor
• 7 sigils from 5 weapons (two of which are two-handed)
• 29 gossamer scraps
• 3 silk scraps
• 4 elder wood logs
• 1 orichalcum ore
• 3 mithril ore
• 18 dark matter
• 27 ectoplasm
• 0 insignia
• 0 inscriptions

I had thought that insignia and inscriptions were "rarer items" so, do they not drop from BLSKs or was this just a long run of bad RNG?

Depends what you’re salvaging.What are the 17 items? From dungeon vendor?Only items with the stats not craftable with t6 mats will drop the insignias and inscriptions. (Dire, Shaman, Magi, Rabid, Cavalier iirc)You also can not base your assumption to bad RNG with a sample size so small.

The only two I've seen from salvage for me is Dire and Settler's.

None were dungeon vendor but they were craftable. I did not know there was another dependency on salvaging.

Craftable insignias/inscriptions (berserker, for example) cannot be salvaged from armor/weapons. Any insignias/inscriptions that cannot be crafted (Magi, for example), however, can be salvaged, but the chance is obviously not 100%.

I thought the 'rarer items' only applied to mats.

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:I thought the 'rarer items' only applied to mats.

I believe this is the correct response as I've always received the non-craftable inscription/insignia from an exotic item(pretty much the only thing I use BLSK on).

Is the BLSK better than the Copper-fed Salvage-o-matic? The numbers make me think it is, but it is a lot cheaper than the CFSOM.

@The Dude.2958 said:Is the BLSK better than the Copper-fed Salvage-o-matic? The numbers make me think it is, but it is a lot cheaper than the CFSOM.

The Black Lion Salvage kit is the best salvage kit in the game when it comes to the %'s it recovers for you. It only has 25 uses.Copper-fed Salvage-o-matic is an unlimited use Salvage kit, you pay 3c per use, it's a Basic Salvage kit, but you'll never have to run to a merchant for kits again. You pay for the convenience of the CFSoM, not for the quality of salvage. I think you missed this point when looking at the kits.Never buy BLSK for gems, it's not worth it really.

@Haleydawn.3764 said:

@The Dude.2958 said:Is the BLSK better than the Copper-fed Salvage-o-matic? The numbers make me think it is, but it is a lot cheaper than the CFSOM.

Thanks! I'm new to the game, so trying to figure these things out. I appreciate it.

Welcome to GW2!

@The Dude.2958 said:

@Haleydawn.3764 said:

@The Dude.2958 said:Is the BLSK better than the Copper-fed Salvage-o-matic? The numbers make me think it is, but it is a lot cheaper than the CFSOM.

Welcome to Tyria!

Regarding salvaging, there are different player filosophies, but the most common use different types of kit depending on what you want to salvage.

The wiki is a great tool to find info about the game, check this article for a good breakdown of how the kits function: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Salvage_kit

Basically, since the kits cost differing amounts, they effectively have different "per-salvage" costs. Using a Master Salvage Kit (effectively costing 61 copper per use) on white or blue gear getting materials only worth 50 copper (just as an example) is of course a bad idea.

Most people I know use Basic Salvage Kit or Copper-fed Salvage-o-matic for everything Masterwork (green) or below. High level Rares are usually broken with Master-style kits for the chance to get Globs of Ectoplasm.Black Lion Salvage Kits are generally used on Exotics with a decently expensive upgrade, and usually only kits gotten for "free" (from log-in rewards or Black Lion Chests).

Note that the copper and silver fed salvage kits are really for convenience. Since there is a high up front gem cost (and those gems are either bought with gold, or could be sold into gold), you need to do a lot of salvaging before you come out ahead vs buying standard salvage kits (same is true for things like unlimited harvesting tools, though some of them give extra items, so not as simple a comparison).I find that get enough black lion salvage kits from login rewards that I use it on all exotics that are not worth selling (I check the trading post if it is one I don't want - if the value of it is low, I salvage, if high, I sell). This may depend on how you play - if you do certain events and get several exotics a day, you would burn through them faster. If you are doing generic PvE or story instances, you get exotics at a slower pace.

Not all inscriptions/insignias are salvageable. If you can discover it, then you can't salvage it."Exotic armor and weapons may be salvaged for insignia or inscriptions only if the insignia or inscription is not craftable, with the possibility of receiving all of the following: inscriptions, insignias, ectoplasm, dark matter, and runes. If the exotic item's insignia or inscription is discoverable, then only ectoplasm, dark matter, and rune can be salvaged. "

@"The Dude.2958" said:Is the BLSK better than the Copper-fed Salvage-o-matic? The numbers make me think it is, but it is a lot cheaper than the CFSOM.

They're different stuff...I for one use Copper Fed for stuff up to greens (Salvage all Master....), it's good for clearing inventory of "junk". I only bought it post PoF, since it was the first time i had to buy more than 2 Salvage kits at once to clear the inventory, because of unidentified items.I use Mystic Salvage kit for rares and Fractal exotics (usually non-craftable insignia exotics, but don't have runes or sigils, so i use that one) (250 stack so it's handy, and has the same properties as the Master's Salvage Kit - the rare one)For other exotics (and fractal ones that i really neeed the stat) i use the Black lion ones.

Apparently my process for salvaging is a lot simpler than most. I use free Black Lion Kits for exotics and if I have 2 or more I use them on rares too (when I used them on exotics they kept piling up). For everything else I use a Mystic Salvage Kit.

The cost of the Mystic Forge Stones is irrelevant to me because I can't remember when I last had less than 100 of them. I know the better salvage rate for rare materials is largely irrelevant when using it on greens and blues and it costs more per use than a copper-fed (although now I'm wondering if the extra sigils and runes I get from the 80% recovery rate vs. 20% for the copper-fed counteracts that), but it's more convenient than a Basic kit because it has 250 uses.

800 gems can get me 1 copper-fed kit or about 150g, which is enough to buy almost 572 mystic kits - enough to salvage 142,912 items. According to the Agent of Entropy and Salvage Master achievements I've salvaged 22,484 items over the past 1,977 days (since starting the game). So if my maths is correct I'd need to play for 12,569 days (or 34.44 years) before it was more economical to buy a copper-fed kit.

@Danikat.8537 said:Apparently my process for salvaging is a lot simpler than most. I use free Black Lion Kits for exotics and if I have 2 or more I use them on rares too (when I used them on exotics they kept piling up). For everything else I use a Mystic Salvage Kit.

The cost of the Mystic Forge Stones is irrelevant to me because I can't remember when I last had less than 100 of them. I know the better salvage rate for rare materials is largely irrelevant when using it on greens and blues and it costs more per use than a copper-fed (although now I'm wondering if the extra sigils and runes I get from the 80% recovery rate vs. 20% for the copper-fed counteracts that), but it's more convenient than a Basic kit because it has 250 uses.

800 gems can get me 1 copper-fed kit or about 150g, which is enough to buy almost 572 mystic kits - enough to salvage 142,912 items. According to the Agent of Entropy and Salvage Master achievements I've salvaged 22,484 items over the past 1,977 days (since starting the game). So if my maths is correct I'd need to play for 12,569 days (or 34.44 years) before it was more economical to buy a copper-fed kit.

My numbers of salvages are much different than yours. Agent of Entropy says I have repeated the achievement 1,189 times, (at 200 items each time), over the past 2011 days. So my average salvages per day is 118. Your average salvages per day is 11, (22,484 items over 1,977 days). All I'm saying is that the economical break even point,(in days), can vary greatly depending on how much salvaging you do per day.