Upcoming August anniversary Sale...

[Calistin.6210]

In preparation for the upcoming anniversary sale, in which I hope there will be some nice expansion sales, I was wondering what you guy recommend to buy while it on sale to someone starting out. Looking at mostly useful items rather than cosmetic items.

For example I am tired of buying salvage kits and having several of them taking up inventory slots so which Salvage-o-matic should I buy since there seems to be three I can look into.Copper-Fed Salvage-o-MaticSilver-Fed Salvage-o-MaticRunecrafter's Salvage-o-Matic

I read bad things about the runecrafter one, as in it not worth it due to the endless extractor, and while the silver one looks nicer than the copper one is it worth the extra price per salvage?For the Endless Upgrade Extractor how hard is it to get exactly? I read you need to get it from a contract only availble from black lion chests...god I hate loot boxes...

I would like also to dump all the various gathering tools I have taking up yet more inventory space so I was looking at permanent gather tools but again there seems to be more than one kind. In fact there seems to be a huge boatload of different ones as seen at the bottom of the page here:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gathering_tool#Unlimited_Gathering_Tools

Are these just cosmetic changes is there on in particular "kind" I should be getting? I read something about some of them having faster animations or gathering more per animation or somesuch?

I need to buy both expansions but also want to get the items mentioned above, that said what other items should I be looking at so I don't go, "ah damn I should have bought that during the anniversary sale" two weeks after the sale is done?

Obviously if I can afford it maybe bank space or max size inventory bag?

Storage expanders? This seems like a must buy as I am already hitting the 250 cap on some mats.

Living world seasons?

[Ojimaru.8970]

1. If you don't have the previous Living World seasons, definitely look out for the Complete Packs of each season. By default, each is 20% cheaper than buying individual episodes, so any further discount is icing on the cake. If you want to prioritize, I would say Season 4 (current season; gives you access to the skyscale mount), then Season 3 (gives you easy access to some gear), then Season 2.
2. If you're just starting out, definitely pick up the Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic. The other two matter less, and can be effectively substituted with a Mystic Salvage Kit.
3. An Endless Upgrade Extractor Contract is a "Super Rare" drop from Black Lion chests, but can be bought on the Trading Post. Currently, the lowest sell listing is 2,600 gold. Use cases of Upgrade Extractors in general are very niche, and are primarily used for trading vast quantities of valuable Runes and Sigils. In short, for a new player, I would highly not recommend trying to get one.
4. There is currently (as of time of writing) a discount Bank Slot Expansion of 25%. This is uncharacteristic, based on the patterns over the last two years, so it's hard to say whether we'll see a discount on this item next month.
5. The different unlimited gathering tools on the Gem Store are primarily cosmetic skins. Some come with Glyphs (upgrade components for gathering tools), but nearly all of them are not worth the Gem or gold. A fan favorite is the set of Infinite Volatile Magic Gathering Tools, which grant you an average of 6 Volatile Magic per node, or about 3 silver per node. While unlikely to be on sale, I would also recommend the Skyscale Hatchling Harvesting Tool just for the quality-of-life glyph.

Advanced Salvage Kit UsageReddit user u/rude_asura did some research since the most recent change to unidentified gear, i.e. magic find no longer affects results when identifying, and shared their results in this post. To summarize their findings, which are based on Trading Post prices in April,

1. When possible, always identify gear before salvaging.
2. If you choose not to identify gear, use Copper-Fed or Basic salvage kits.
3. The best value is gained by salvaging Masterwork and Rare identified gear with a Runecrafter.
4. However, the difference is a mere 13% from using Copper-Fed and Silver-Fed, and less with Copper-Fed and Mystic kit.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

I agree with @"Ojimaru.8970"'s recommendations.

---

Regarding the "advanced salvage kit usage" section: the markets have evolved since that post in April. For the vast majority of players, I'd rephrase this as:If you can afford one salvage kit, make it the Copper-Fed. If you can afford a second, make it the Silver-Fed unless you have tons of (free) mystic forge stones (as a new player, you wouldn't).

An even easier rule of thumb: sell the unID gear on the TP. IDing and salvaging takes time & effort and only adds a small amount of coin. Unless you have 5-10 stacks to process regularly, most people will have more fun by forgoing the coin and going back to doing what they like (even if it's farming). It really depends on how you value your time, whether it's worth spending much of it managing inventory.

[Calistin.6210]

Thanks for the input you two.

I have been using basic salvage kits to salavage unID green gear, fine salvage kits for unID blue gear and occasionally masters salvage kits for yellow gear. Sometimes I just sell to npc the yellow gear for silver, I always npc junk and white gear.

I have since noticed I got turned around on the rarity colors, I thought it was white, green, blue, yellow orange when actually it blue then green lol.

Hmm the world boss portal device is tempting too but on second thought might not be worth it just for free teleports.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@Calistin.6210 said:Thanks for the input you two.

I have been using basic salvage kits to salavage unID green gear, fine salvage kits for unID blue gear and occasionally masters salvage kits for yellow gear. Sometimes I just sell to npc the yellow gear for silver, I always npc junk and white gear.

Ho boy, do not sell them to vendor! If you're not going to identify them yourself, sell them on the trading post!I think that advice is solid for salvaging also - either identify and salvage, or sell unidentified on TP. That option of course absolutely eliminates any use for a permanent salvage kit, the small amount of salvage you'll do in that case will do fine with vendor-bought kits. It may however feel like you're not actually getting any fun loot, but strictly coin value will not be much worse.

Personally, I use Copper-fed for Fine and below (so white and blue) and Mystic Salvage Kit for above, after identifing the gear.

[Calistin.6210]

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@Calistin.6210 said:Thanks for the input you two.

I have been using basic salvage kits to salavage unID green gear, fine salvage kits for unID blue gear and occasionally masters salvage kits for yellow gear. Sometimes I just sell to npc the yellow gear for silver, I always npc junk and white gear.

Ho boy, do

not

sell them to vendor! If you're not going to identify them yourself, sell them on the

trading post

!I think that advice is solid for salvaging also - either identify and salvage, or sell unidentified on TP. That option of course absolutely eliminates any use for a permanent salvage kit, the small amount of salvage you'll do in that case will do fine with vendor-bought kits. It may however feel like you're not actually getting any fun loot, but strictly coin value will not be much worse.

Personally, I use Copper-fed for Fine and below (so white and blue) and Mystic Salvage Kit for above,

after identifing the gear

.

Cool and if I sell unID in TP I gather I just need to do a search to see what the going rate is?

[Linken.6345]

@Calistin.6210 said:

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@Calistin.6210 said:Thanks for the input you two.

I have been using basic salvage kits to salavage unID green gear, fine salvage kits for unID blue gear and occasionally masters salvage kits for yellow gear. Sometimes I just sell to npc the yellow gear for silver, I always npc junk and white gear.

Ho boy, do

not

sell them to vendor! If you're not going to identify them yourself, sell them on the

trading post

!I think that advice is solid for salvaging also - either identify and salvage, or sell unidentified on TP. That option of course absolutely eliminates any use for a permanent salvage kit, the small amount of salvage you'll do in that case will do fine with vendor-bought kits. It may however feel like you're not actually getting any fun loot, but strictly coin value will not be much worse.

Personally, I use Copper-fed for Fine and below (so white and blue) and Mystic Salvage Kit for above,

after identifing the gear

.

Cool and if I sell unID in TP I gather I just need to do a search to see what the going rateYou can right click any item that aint soul bound or account bound.Then select sell at trading post wait for it to fully load and you will see what people offer to both sell and buy them for.

[Ojimaru.8970]

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@Calistin.6210 said:Thanks for the input you two.

I have been using basic salvage kits to salavage unID green gear, fine salvage kits for unID blue gear and occasionally masters salvage kits for yellow gear. Sometimes I just sell to npc the yellow gear for silver, I always npc junk and white gear.

Ho boy, do

not

sell them to vendor! If you're not going to identify them yourself, sell them on the

trading post

!I think that advice is solid for salvaging also - either identify and salvage, or sell unidentified on TP. That option of course absolutely eliminates any use for a permanent salvage kit, the small amount of salvage you'll do in that case will do fine with vendor-bought kits. It may however feel like you're not actually getting any fun loot, but strictly coin value will not be much worse.

Personally, I use Copper-fed for Fine and below (so white and blue) and Mystic Salvage Kit for above,

after identifing the gear

.

Eh, not really. Based on my recent numbers (n=20,284 out of 21,000 purchased), Green unidentified gear are listed barely 1c above vendor price (1.37 silver), and have a salvaged worth of around 1.32 to 1.58 silver, using Basic-tier (i.e. Copper-Fed) and Runecrafter's, respectively. Identifying gear does increase your average results, as there is a 3% chance of getting a Rare item. But if you're only considering Greens on their own, the biggest benefit you'll get is less than 30c per item.

However, these benefits are counteracted by a number of hindrances for a new player, e.g.

1. Lack of bag and bank space,
2. The need to purchase and store multiple salvage kits, and
3. The need to juggle a bunch of materials they likely have no idea what to do with.

All in all, for a newer, or more TP-casual players, vendoring Blues and Greens isn't that big a loss as some make it out to be.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

All in all, for a newer, or more TP-casual players, vendoring Blues and Greens isn't that big a loss as some make it out to be.Indeed.

However, I still urge new players to use the TP instead of vendoring because it's a better habit to get into.

In the long run, they'll earn far more by taking the time to TP, for a modest time savings earned from vendoring instead. Veteran players will know of many exceptions, so they can adjust their rules of thumb; I like to keep the advice simpler for those just starting out. Besides not having bag & bank space, infinite salvaging kits, and new materials... they are also trying to learn a game that can still surprise veterans with its complexity.

[Calistin.6210]

I think my plan will be to salvage white, id blue gear and salvage, put green/yellow unID gear on TP guessing sometimes might be worth salvaging depending on what it sells for in TP.

Guessing exotics will depend same as yellow?

Read this eslewhere, is it still relevant?

Yellow = Check TP. If it sells for more then 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a master kitOrange = Check TP. If it sells for more then the rune and 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a black lion kit

Also I read something about opening bags on lvl 49 to 53 toons because it gives t4 mats or some such, from a silverwastes farming guide or so on youtube.

I have some mats that have reached the 250 cap already but will be getting a storage expander which I think will raise that cap to 500 if I recall right. I also will think about working on my crafting levels as I haven't touched that at all yet, will have a good look at this site which seems handy:https://gw2crafts.net/

[Calistin.6210]

Sigh....2 more days........

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

@"Calistin.6210" said:I think my plan will be to salvage white, id blue gear and salvage, put green/yellow unID gear on TP guessing sometimes might be worth salvaging depending on what it sells for in TP.

Guessing exotics will depend same as yellow?

Read this eslewhere, is it still relevant?

Yellow = Check TP. If it sells for more then 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a master kitOrange = Check TP. If it sells for more then the rune and 1 ecto, sell it. If not, salvage with a black lion kit

Also I read something about opening bags on lvl 49 to 53 toons because it gives t4 mats or some such, from a silverwastes farming guide or so on youtube.

I have some mats that have reached the 250 cap already but will be getting a storage expander which I think will raise that cap to 500 if I recall right. I also will think about working on my crafting levels as I haven't touched that at all yet, will have a good look at this site which seems handy:https://gw2crafts.net/

I highly recommend GW2crafts.net. Note the guides for leveling your crafting are broken down into leveling from 0-400 and a separate one for 400-500. You will save a lot of time and gold following the guides. HOWEVER, make sure you take advantage of crafting boosters and the guildhall crafting boost (once you have the expansions), they will save you quite a bit of money - IIRC the guild hall boost is good for 10 or 20% extra crafting experience. That works out to more gold saved.

The storage expansion only applies to materials storage - your bank slots will still only hold stacks of 250. Minor annoyance, but still buy at least one storage expansion. I have one and have been considering an additional one.

[Calistin.6210]

Yes been using gw2crafts.net site to get my crafting up. Presently have weaponsmith to 400, getting huntsman up to 400 and next will be tailer/armorsmith but maybe get huntsmans and weapons smith up to 500 first. I have been doing this but farming all my mats myself so cost have been pretty low so far.

That said it August 1st and no sales .....feelsbadman!

[Calistin.6210]

Hmm no sale on the expansions beyond the 50$usd for both that seems to be the usual deal. :/Copper fed o matic at 25% discount rather than 35% like last year.....rest at 15% discount, doesn't seem off to a good start for me! lol

[Calistin.6210]

Just bought the Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic at 25% off since it doesn't look like it will be at 35% off like last year anytime soon. Now just waiting on decent expansion discounts....looking like they will make me wait till the end of the month for that though if there any discount during this anniversary sale :/

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Discounts on expansions often coincide with big announcements. Might be some discounts around August 30th.

Good luck.

[Calistin.6210]

The PoF Preparation Pack looks interesting BUT I can't see it in the Gem Store lol nor can my wife or son on their monthish old f2p accounts. It not becuase of laws against key sale in our country either as we can buy black lion keys if we want.

The PoF prep pack is simply not showing up for any of us....smh

Anet maybe you should tell marketing that not putting the expansions on sales means that us people wanting to buy it and waiting till august 30 or the next decent sale, wont be buying items we might be interested in because you wont let us and for some reason decided not to put the expansion on sale right away.....

[Calistin.6210]

From reddit I learned:_in the pack there are character slots which are limited to two for f2p accounts so that is probably one reason you can´t buy a pack with additional slots on an f2p account

And it looks like that you need a share inventory slot for the 80 boost, and because you don´t have one you can´t buy the pack

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Instant_Level_80_Ticket_

What in hell was anet thinking.

I would buy this just for the unbreakable tools and 2 bag slot expansions but guess anet doesn't want me to support their game because we haven't bought the expansion yet or have shared inventory slots....LOL

[Calistin.6210]

Hmm I have read on reddit some others are not able to see the PoF prep pack in the gem store either and they have the PoF expansion.

[Ayrilana.1396]

If people have bought it twice in the past then they won’t see it. I’m not sure why a shared slot is required but I guess it’s how they programmed those boosts. I’d personally buy an expansion or both. If you’re enjoying the game enough to purchase this then I don’t see why not.

[Calistin.6210]

@Ayrilana.1396 said:If people have bought it twice in the past then they won’t see it. I’m not sure why a shared slot is required but I guess it’s how they programmed those boosts. I’d personally buy an expansion or both. If you’re enjoying the game enough to purchase this then I don’t see why not.

I have never bought this pack, I have a core account no expansion, my wife and boy have f2p accounts made just a month or so ago. They have never bought anything while I have bought a 1x extra bank space and 1x copper salvage o matic.We all 3 of us however do see all the other packs on sale even the ones that require you to have HoT or PoF expansion, they are just greyed out with a notice that we need the appropriate expansion to buy this item.

This lead me to believe there something odd going on as the pack is not showing up at all but I think it should be. The things mentioned above are guesses by various people about why we can buy it but like I said I am pretty sure we should still be able to see it as we do with the other packages like the exo-suit mount package for example.

Sending in a ticket seems useless as they will not see it before the sale is over, love the game but they are making it a big hassle to spend money on while we wait for the expansion to go on sale.

Was hoping a mod here, or on the gw2 reddit or even the gw2 twitter would maybe see this and look into it but so far nada so I guess it's not something important enough for them to bother with or they just don't monitor any of these three paltforms much.

[Ayrilana.1396]

@Calistin.6210 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:If people have bought it twice in the past then they won’t see it. I’m not sure why a shared slot is required but I guess it’s how they programmed those boosts. I’d personally buy an expansion or both. If you’re enjoying the game enough to purchase this then I don’t see why not.

I have never bought this pack, I have a core account no expansion, my wife and boy have f2p accounts made just a month or so ago. They have never bought anything while I have bought a 1x extra bank space and 1x copper salvage o matic.We all 3 of us however do see all the other packs on sale even the ones that require you to have HoT or PoF expansion, they are just greyed out with a notice that we need the appropriate expansion to buy this item.

This lead me to believe there something odd going on as the pack is not showing up at all but I think it should be. The things mentioned above are guesses by various people about why we can buy it but like I said I am pretty sure we should still be able to see it as we do with the other packages like the exo-suit mount package for example.

Sending in a ticket seems useless as they will not see it before the sale is over, love the game but they are making it a

big hassle to spend money on

while we wait for the expansion to go on sale.

Was hoping a mod here, or on the gw2 reddit or even the gw2 twitter would maybe see this and look into it but so far nada so I guess it's not something important enough for them to bother with or they just don't monitor any of these three paltforms much.

The easiest way is to find someone with a F2P or core account which has an empty shared slot. If they can see it then that’s likely what’s preventing you from seeing it.

[Calistin.6210]

@Ayrilana.1396 said:

@Calistin.6210 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:If people have bought it twice in the past then they won’t see it. I’m not sure why a shared slot is required but I guess it’s how they programmed those boosts. I’d personally buy an expansion or both. If you’re enjoying the game enough to purchase this then I don’t see why not.

I have never bought this pack, I have a core account no expansion, my wife and boy have f2p accounts made just a month or so ago. They have never bought anything while I have bought a 1x extra bank space and 1x copper salvage o matic.We all 3 of us however do see all the other packs on sale even the ones that require you to have HoT or PoF expansion, they are just greyed out with a notice that we need the appropriate expansion to buy this item.

This lead me to believe there something odd going on as the pack is not showing up at all but I think it should be. The things mentioned above are guesses by various people about why we can buy it but like I said I am pretty sure we should still be able to see it as we do with the other packages like the exo-suit mount package for example.

Sending in a ticket seems useless as they will not see it before the sale is over, love the game but they are making it a

big hassle to spend money on

while we wait for the expansion to go on sale.

Was hoping a mod here, or on the gw2 reddit or even the gw2 twitter would maybe see this and look into it but so far nada so I guess it's not something important enough for them to bother with or they just don't monitor any of these three paltforms much.

The easiest way is to find someone with a F2P or core account which has an empty shared slot. If they can see it then that’s likely what’s preventing you from seeing it.

Someone else on gw2 reddit managed to get word back from support and this is what they told him:

“The Path of Fire preparation pack is only purchasable if your account isn't Free-to-play. It's a little weird, but if an account was bought before the game changed to the F2P model in 2015, then your account's considered F2P until you buy an expansion.”

Dunno but seems kind of scammy to decided that those of us that bought a b2p game for real life money were going to be reclassifed as f2p after the fact because we haven't bought expansions yet.

Not a wonder no one wants to answer this in any forums or twitter as it borderline scamming people..core accounts are not f2p we bought the game as a b2p game.....even trion didn't try this kind of garbage with defiance when it went f2p....

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@"Calistin.6210" said:Dunno but seems kind of scammy to decided that those of us that bought a b2p game for real life money were going to be reclassifed as f2p after the fact because we haven't bought expansions yet.Or it's an unforeseen consequence of how they coded.

Not a wonder no one wants to answer this in any forums or twitter as it borderline scamming people..core accounts are not f2p we bought the game as a b2p game.....even trion didn't try this kind of garbage with defiance when it went f2p....

It's nothing close to a scam. You haven't been misled. You simply aren't able to purchase something that offers a package of goods for a discount.

It's annoying, to be sure. It's something that they should have considered whenever they did the code. And now that it is what it is, sure, they should consider changing things so it's not an issue.

There really are some things that companies do that are truly misleading (read about "resort fees" charged by hotels that are not resorts, to avoid taxes and make their properties more attractive in internet searches). And there are many things companies do that are borderline (like TelCos that make it hard to change your phone to another provider or gyms that let you sign up online, but you can't cancel online).

But this? this is something that hurts ANet's bottom line, rather than helps it. The reason they offer such packages is to get more people to spend gems. If core-only owners can't see it to buy, they can't choose to buy more.

So sure, call it annoying. Ask ANet to fix it. And please, try not to overuse the word "scam."

[Calistin.6210]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"Calistin.6210" said:Dunno but seems kind of scammy to decided that those of us that bought a b2p game for real life money were going to be reclassifed as f2p after the fact because we haven't bought expansions yet.Or it's an unforeseen consequence of how they coded.

Not a wonder no one wants to answer this in any forums or twitter as it borderline scamming people..core accounts are not f2p we

bought the game

as a b2p game.....even trion didn't try this kind of garbage with defiance when it went f2p....

It's nothing close to a scam. You haven't been misled. You simply aren't able to purchase something that offers a package of goods for a discount.

It's annoying, to be sure. It's something that they should have considered whenever they did the code. And now that it is what it is, sure, they should consider changing things so it's not an issue.

There really are some things that companies do that are truly misleading (read about "resort fees" charged by hotels that are not resorts, to avoid taxes and make their properties more attractive in internet searches). And there are many things companies do that are borderline (like TelCos that make it hard to change your phone to another provider or gyms that let you sign up online, but you can't cancel online).

But this? this is something that hurts ANet's bottom line, rather than helps it. The reason they offer such packages is to get more people to spend gems. If core-only owners can't see it to buy, they can't choose to buy more.

So sure, call it annoying. Ask ANet to fix it. And please, try not to overuse the word "scam."

It's called a bait and switch. We bought something, we are b2p now after the fact they have decided for the purpose of certain sales that we are not b2p but rather f2p..it pretty much the definition of bait a switch and is indeed scammy.

Now are they doing this on purpose and is it an unforeseen problem perhaps perhaps/perhaps not, this indeed could be debated. The end result however is we are being treated as f2p players that never gave Anet money to play when we actually did. They could easily fix this but they are choosing not to, this needs to be rectified.

It leaves a sour taste in some people mouths. People keep saying or defending this with, " it's an unforeseen consequence of how they coded." but truly this is a silly defense.... anyone with knowledge of coding will realize it's not rocket science to fix this.

That said I can understand loyal fans wanting to defend Anet, it's a bit of a natural reaction after all, however a really good fan of any game company wont simply excuse this kind of thing as that doesn't lead down a good road for any company..instead an appropriate response would be something along the lines of.....

I am sure Anet didn't mean to lock out core players out of this sale as they indeed did pay to play this game and are not f2p players but I can understand how it leaves a rather sour taste in core players mouths and can see how they feel it's a little scummy." or something of that nature.

Chastising players for their choice of the word "scammy" here isn't helpful and only makes you look bad and will only lead to Anet believing this situation is A OK and they shouldn't consider changing anything.

Even according to Anet themselves we are not f2p players and our accounts are not f2p accounts so yeah I think my choice of the word scammy is quite appropriate!https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/230165307-Guild-Wars-2-Account-Types-Free-Core-HoT-PoF