Salvaging Exotic doesn't drop Dark mater anymore, not even Ecto!

[bobsort.4097]

Wiki says:

Salvaging high level exotic gear yields between 0 and 3 Globs of Dark Mater. Using a Master's Salvage Kit, the estimated average is ~0.5 globs per exotic for exotic gear level 68 or better

I had a few exotic pieces in my inventory that I didn't need anymore so I decided to salvage them to get dark mater, I used both [Master's Salvage Kit] and [silver-Fed Salvage-o-Matic] to salvage but both only dropped [Mithril Ore] and a few [Orichalcum Ore] and "one Ecto" for fun of it. I salvaged 20 pieces of rare gear and get 25 ecto from it.

All Pieces that I salvaged are level 80 as below:[Koss' Chestguard][berserker's Scallywag Chest]3x Full Set Draconic gear

My base luck is 204 and I had guild banner magic find, guild perk magic find on me too.I thought it might be my toon so changed it, no difference, changed account too and still no difference!What on earth is going on? if how dark mater is dropping is changed, how are we supposed to get those to make ascended gear?

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@"bobsort.4097" said:Wiki says:

Salvaging high level exotic gear yields between 0 and 3 Globs of Dark Mater. Using a Master's Salvage Kit, the estimated average is ~0.5 globs per exotic for exotic gear level 68 or better

I had a few exotic pieces in my inventory that I didn't need anymore so I decided to salvage them to get dark mater, I used both [Master's Salvage Kit] and [silver-Fed Salvage-o-Matic] to salvage but both only dropped [Mithril Ore] and a few [Orichalcum Ore] and "one Ecto" for fun of it. I salvaged 20 pieces of rare gear and get 25 ecto from it.

All Pieces that I salvaged are level 80 as below:[Koss' Chestguard][berserker's Scallywag Chest]3x Full Set Draconic gear

My base luck is 204 and I had guild banner magic find, guild perk magic find on me too.I thought it might be my toon so changed it, no difference, changed account too and still no difference!What on earth is going on? if how dark mater is dropping is changed, how are we supposed to get those to make ascended gear?

I still get dark matter and ecto from salvaging exotics.

Typically 20 pieces of rare will return closer to 17 ecto, so 25 was very good. Typically, 20 exotics should return 20 ecto. There are several possible explanations:

• You salvaged on a character that has a special sorting bag for crafting materials and didn't see the ecto
• The draconic armor was from a source that is flagged not to salvage (off the top of my head, I don't have any specific pieces in mind, just that I've come across a few)
• The armor was skinned draconic, but was really some other rarity
• The 25 ecto was for the 25 rare and 20 exotics and didn't get tracked separately
• Your luck was bad.

(Some of these are more plausible than others; I'm simply trying to list all the mechanics that could affect what we see.)

You'll notice the table on the ecto page shows nearly a 37% chance to get 0 ecto from rares. I don't have good data for exotics, so it's a guess that the chance of getting a goose egg from exotics might be 30%. The chance of salvaging 20 exotics and getting blanked 19 times would be around a billion to one.

Given that I'm getting ecto and dark matter from exotics, my best guess without video or screenshots is that it's some combination of the above:very bad luck plus exotics that are (for game reasons) flagged not to drop much plus something that the OP didn't notice.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I just salvaged an Exotic piece of armor and acquired 1 Dark Matter, 1 Ecto, 1 piece of Mithril, and something else, I think; maybe a Lucent Mote?

[bobsort.4097]

I believe you have misunderstood.

• I salvaged rare and exotic separately and stored material before salvaging other one. last 7 items were salvaged while I was noticing the items dropped, just for testing.
• Ecto drop was from rare, I had one ecto for about 20 exotic.
• Items were not skinned, purchased from TP or crafted.
• Bad luck is just an excuse. I tried it in two account and 3 characters.
• Wiki doesn't specify there is a difference between sources of the exotic.
• I know there are some exotic that can't be salvaged which I still wonder why would someone make so many exception in a game but none was my case.
• I asked about it in game chat, someone else too, told me that's bad luck and he tried himself just to get one Mithril ore.
• have you tried salvaging exotic recently? like after last update?
• Are you using [Master's Salvage Kit] or [silver-Fed Salvage-o-Matic] to salvage?
• Are you suggesting any specific armor piece that you recently salvaged and get dark mater, so I try the same one?
• For the sake of complete test I salvaged [Tahlkora's Coat] with [black Lion Salvage Kit] and got [superior Rune of Mercy] and 3 clothes but still no ecto or dark mater

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I salvage mine tonight. I don't remember what piece exactly; it was something from PoF, I believe.If it was a game-wide issue, I'm sure there would be many posts about it.

[bobsort.4097]

Jyden, Please read my response 2 message above you, I have tried with [black Lion Salvage Kit] too, I didn't know in game bad luck is attached to person but not to drop rate set in game! I also tried it in Silverwastes with 419% luck. Stardust dropped two ecto but no dark mater. 2 piece of exotic chest armor both level 80 both drop from central tyria also didn't drop anything other than Mithril ore

I'm sure you already know, you cannot bulk salvage exotic, and because I was testing it, I made sure to deposit material before each salvage.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Magic Find has nothing to do with salvaging.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

I'm going to skip a detailed response because the very first exotic I salvaged (after reading today's detail response) dropped two ecto.

For "science," I then purchased the cheapest 24 exotic armor pieces I could get off the TP. I salvaged all with a silver-fed. The results:

• 20 ecto
• 11 dark matter
• (5 shaman's insignia, which was nice to help defray 8 gold in expenses)
• assorted basic mats + runes

tl;dr salvaging exotics isn't bugged; something else is causing anomalous results for the OP.What that is would be easier to discover if the OP has an open mind about what else might be happening.

---

@bobsort.4097 said:I believe you have misunderstood.On the contrary, I simply disagree with your assumption that there's a bug and hoped to help identify one of the causes. As I wrote above, I suspect a combination of things. The fact that the story has changed somewhat about the methodology used doesn't breed confidence about the evidentiary value of the testing.

As I also wrote, it's unlikely to be bad luck alone, because the odds of getting a single ecto from 20 exotics would be about a billion to one. That's possible, of course; it's just unlikely (to the tune of, well, a billion to one). Given how many people salvage 20 exotics in 1-2 sessions, there's some chance it has (or will have) happened to someone; it's just improbable the OP was that person.

[Khisanth.2948]

What was the stat on the draconic set? IIRC the ones that uses insignias that are only obtainable from salvaging such as rabid, dire, soldier, ... will not give ectos

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@"Khisanth.2948" said:What was the stat on the draconic set? IIRC the ones that uses insignias that are only obtainable from salvaging such as rabid, dire, soldier, ... will not give ectos

Ah, that could be it. I've been trying to remember what the "rule of thumb" was.

[Khisanth.2948]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"Khisanth.2948" said:What was the stat on the draconic set? IIRC the ones that uses insignias that are only obtainable from salvaging such as rabid, dire, soldier, ... will not give ectos

Ah, that could be it. I've been trying to remember what the "rule of thumb" was.

Memory is a bit fuzzy .. it was either no ecto, no insignias or both. I think there might have been a patch that followed closely from the initial one that changed the rules a bit as well.

So my own rule of thumb is simply "don't salvage things with uncraftable 'initiators'". This also extends to the LS3 and LS4 status like Seraph and Plaguedoctor.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:What was the stat on the draconic set? IIRC the ones that uses insignias that are only obtainable from salvaging such as rabid, dire, soldier, ... will not give ectos

Ah, that could be it. I've been trying to remember what the "rule of thumb" was.

Memory is a bit fuzzy .. it was either no ecto, no insignias or both. I think there might have been a patch that followed closely from the initial one that changed the rules a bit as well.

So my own rule of thumb is simply "don't salvage things with uncraftable 'initiators'". This also extends to the LS3 and LS4 status like Seraph and Plaguedoctor.

We can get ecto from some gear with uncraftable insignia|inscriptions (notably: fractal exotics only drop with such stats and, since they are also account bound, I always salvage the armor). I'll check the stats on the draconic & draconic-comparable gear I bought off the TP, in case that rules in or out something.

[Khisanth.2948]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:What was the stat on the draconic set? IIRC the ones that uses insignias that are only obtainable from salvaging such as rabid, dire, soldier, ... will not give ectos

Ah, that could be it. I've been trying to remember what the "rule of thumb" was.

Memory is a bit fuzzy .. it was either no ecto, no insignias or both. I think there might have been a patch that followed closely from the initial one that changed the rules a bit as well.

So my own rule of thumb is simply "don't salvage things with uncraftable 'initiators'". This also extends to the LS3 and LS4 status like Seraph and Plaguedoctor.

We can get ecto from some gear with uncraftable insignia|inscriptions (notably: fractal exotics only drop with such stats and, since they are also account bound, I always salvage the armor). I'll check the stats on the draconic & draconic-comparable gear I bought off the TP, in case that rules in or out something.

Oops I mean when they are the crafted versions so only draconic, exalted, whatever the medium is called and pearl. The no ecto thing only applies to crafted items. I think at the time there was some worry(not sure if the math works out) that it would be possible to generate infinite ectos essentially for free.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:What was the stat on the draconic set? IIRC the ones that uses insignias that are only obtainable from salvaging such as rabid, dire, soldier, ... will not give ectos

Ah, that could be it. I've been trying to remember what the "rule of thumb" was.

Memory is a bit fuzzy .. it was either no ecto, no insignias or both. I think there might have been a patch that followed closely from the initial one that changed the rules a bit as well.

So my own rule of thumb is simply "don't salvage things with uncraftable 'initiators'". This also extends to the LS3 and LS4 status like Seraph and Plaguedoctor.

We can get ecto from some gear with uncraftable insignia|inscriptions (notably: fractal exotics only drop with such stats and, since they are also account bound, I always salvage the armor). I'll check the stats on the draconic & draconic-comparable gear I bought off the TP, in case that rules in or out something.

Oops I mean when they are the crafted versions so only draconic, exalted, whatever the medium is called and pearl. The no ecto thing only applies to crafted items. I think at the time there was some worry(not sure if the math works out) that it would be possible to generate infinite ectos essentially for free.

So e.g. Shaman's Draconic Gauntlets?The recipe includes the insignia, gossamer thread, gossamer bolt, and ori ingots... and no ecto, so that's a plausible theory, as it could generate excess ecto if the price of insignia drops enough.

In contrast, Knight's DG requires gossamer, ori, and more thread, hardened leather, armored scales, and ecto; no one is going to salvage that for ecto.

The OP also mentioned Tahlkora, Koss, and straight-up zerker pieces, which wouldn't apply to that theory. The first is Shaman's/not crafted, the second Rampager's (craftable insignia), and the last shouldn't produce different results.

So for now, I'm sticking with my "some from column A, some from column B" theory: bad luck + some oddball mechanics + methodological gaps.