What Sets The Level For Gear In Blue & Green Unid Bags?

In a recent salvage discussion on the forum there were several posts about opening blue and green unid bags with a mid-level alt because the mid-level mats are more valuable. Yesterday I used a level 49 alt at the Lily of the Elon to open all the b&g bags a lvl 80 alt had gotten in Istan. The gear was all lvl 78-80. Today I used the same alt to open the unid bags that a different lvl 80 alt had gotten doing the Chak Gerent meta. This time I moved the lvl 49 to the bank in Divinity's Reach in case location made a difference. It was the same result though - all the gear was around lvl 80. Am I missing something? What sets the level of the gear in those bags - the lvl of the alt who gets them, the alt who opens them, the lvl of the area they are opened in, or something else entirely? As mats like linen and rugged leather are usually my worst bottlenecks when crafting ascended gear, I'd love to get more of those from salvaging loot bags if I can figure out how. Thanks

(Oh, I do know three other ways to get those mats - the Mystic Fountain, Cowrie League Chests, the appropriate gathering tool glyphs used on the appropriate maps. Currently though I'm working on the Ascended Accoutrement achievement and the gear I'm crafting needs copious amounts of rugged leather. So any I can salvage from unid gear just makes the process a bit easier.)

Unidentified Gear Bags always yield level 78+ gear. This is also noted in the wiki on these items (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Piece_of_Unidentified_Gear) quote:

The received equipment is attached to level 80 characters (item level doesn't scale with character level).

Thanks @Cyninja.2954 . Maybe it's the kind of loot bags a mid-level alt should be opening that I misunderstood. What should a mid-level bag opener be handling then?

@Chichimec.9364 said:Thanks @"Cyninja.2954" . Maybe it's the kind of loot bags a mid-level alt should be opening that I misunderstood. What should a mid-level bag opener be handling then?

The recent change with game wide Unidentified Gear bags has made some sources of bags which provide lower level gear obsolete since they were "upgraded" to provide Unidentified Gear Bags.

It is a bit more complicated now, in general loot bags which give you direct gear without the intermediate step of giving Unidentified Gear bags are still worth opening on lower level chracters. This includes but is not limited to: Bag of Gear (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bag_of_Gear), Bag of Masterwork Gear (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bag_of_Masterwork_Gear) and Champion Lootbags (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Champion_loot_bag).

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@Chichimec.9364 said:Thanks @Cyninja.2954 . Maybe it's the kind of loot bags a mid-level alt should be opening that I misunderstood. What should a mid-level bag opener be handling then?

Ah yes, I really did misunderstand what people were saying. Much thanks for the information and clarification.

As far as I know unidentified gear has always worked this way. Originally it only dropped on PoF maps, which are all level 80, and so I don't think lower level items were ever in the loot table. During the Awakened Invasion events it became possible to get unidentified gear on lower level characters in a low level maps, but even then they always dropped level 80 equipment.

I suspect the discussions you saw were actually referring to the Bags of Gear and Bags of Masterwork Gear and got the names mixed up.

@Danikat.8537 said:I suspect the discussions you saw were actually referring to the Bags of Gear and Bags of Masterwork Gear and got the names mixed up.

Yeah, I think you are right, that there was a name mix up and it was probably me that mixed them up. At age 70 I tend to be a bit absent minded which leads to getting details wrong at times. That's why I appreciate the clarification here.

@Cyninja.2954 thanks again for clearing up my confusion. I just took the loot bags my key farmer got in the level 10 personal story and opened them all with the level 49 bag opener. Sure enough, all the gear was mid-level and when salvaged, it gave up rugged leather, linen, and iron. Sweet! That's exactly what I was trying to figure out how to do. I'll be checking all the various loot bags I get to see which ones that works on. This is gonna be a fun process of exploration. :)

@"Chichimec.9364" said:I'll be checking all the various loot bags I get to see which ones that works on. This is gonna be a fun process of exploration. :)

Unfortunately, that's really still the best way: open one container on a mid-tier character and see if you get level-appropriate gear or not.There's no reliable rule of thumb that covers all the possible cases.

The closest I can offer as likely candidates for level-appropriate drops are

• Champ Bags from Core & HoT: nearly always. (Probably never: champ bags unique to PoF)
• Containers with the word "gear" or "loot" and without the word "unidentified," notably the two that @"Danikat.8537" mentions above.
• PvP|WvW reward containers that are meant to mimic drops from foes, when those foes are sub-L80 (e.g. from dungeon reward tracks).
• HoT map-specific containers ("Lost Arms" or "Recovered" from VB, AB, TD, & DS)

There are others, none of which are common enough in my travels for me to keep a mental list.

In contrast, almost all containers from PoF drop unID gear.

Thanks @Illconceived Was Na.9781 While I have an alt dedicated to running around in WvW it hadn't occurred to me to check their loot too. Your tips give some good general guidelines.