Silver-fed vs. Runecrafter's Salvage-o-Matic

[Taylan.2187]

I just bought both of these, only to notice that the Silver-fed offers only 5% higher a chance of getting rarer mats but costs 2x as much per use. This makes it useless in my view.

Am I missing something? Otherwise IMO the costs or stats should be changed. E.g. the silver-fed could offer a 40% chance of rarer mats.

Decreasing the cost of the Silver-fed further would make the name even less fitting, and I don't really want to suggest increasing the cost of anything so IMO the rarer mats chance of the silver-fed should be increased to 40%. Having 2x the chance of rarer mats at 2x the cost makes sense, whereas the Runecrafter's retains its unique usefulness for salvaging upgrades with a 100% chance.

[Schimmi.6872]

The 5% difference is enough to make the Silver-Fed the better option for salvaging rares (> lvl 68). But atm ectos aren't very expensive and so the difference isn't very high (about 50c per rare).

[VillainZZ.8019]

Yes. You are missing every point about salvaging. Considering the following situation:

You can buy 2g of gold with just 30 cents, or buy 2.5g of gold with 60 cents, and you have fixed number of purchases. Which one do you buy?

The answer is obviously 2.5g of gold with 60 cents for every purchase, since gold is worth much more than a dollar, so neither "twice the price" nor "only 0.5g extra" matters.

[Taylan.2187]

@"Schimmi.6872" said:The 5% difference is enough to make the Silver-Fed the better option for salvaging rares (> lvl 68). But atm ectos aren't very expensive and so the difference isn't very high (about 50c per rare).

Thank you. I've been pondering on that. I'm not sure if this is mathematically correct but if the 25% instead of 20% chance of "getting rare materials" means that I have a 5% higher chance of getting ecto, that means for each salvage (with ecto possibility) I gain on average ecto_price * 5 / 100 coins, which at an ecto price of 16 silver would be 80 copper, which is greater than the price difference of 30 copper. In fact it's exactly 50c as you said so maybe you used the same calculation.

@"VillainZZ.8019" said:Yes. You are missing every point about salvaging. Considering the following situation:

You can buy 2g of gold with just 30 cents, or buy 2.5g of gold with 60 cents, and you have fixed number of purchases. Which one do you buy?

The answer is obviously 2.5g of gold with 60 cents for every purchase, since gold is worth much more than a dollar, so neither "twice the price" nor "only 0.5g extra" matters.

That's an interesting point too but it assumes that I won't deplete my coins through salvaging. I'm not that much of a farmer and nowadays mostly play WvW. After having spent lots on buying ecto to salvage it for luck, I'm actually out of coins right now, though I'm sitting on many piles of crystalline dust that I'm afraid to sell at the currently low prices. (At the same time I worry it won't go back up, or only sink further...)

[ArchonWing.9480]

The silver-fed kit has always been bad especially since you can make mystic kits. So it's only a thing if you don't have mystic stones. The point of the infinite kits is not value but for convenience that you don't have to restock + saved inventory space. You're not going to make lots of gold by squeezing value out of blue/greens anyways.

[lare.5129]

let introduce other about what we talk:we try compare Runecrafter vs Silver-Fed_Salvage

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Runecrafter%27s_Salvage-o-Matic20% chance of rarer materials. 100% chance of salvaging upgrades.Cost per use: 30

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Silver-Fed_Salvage-o-Matic25% chance of rarer materials. 80% chance of salvaging upgrades.Cost per use: 60

what is more better? my answer: I don't know

[Schimmi.6872]

@Taylan.2187 said:

@"Schimmi.6872" said:The 5% difference is enough to make the Silver-Fed the better option for salvaging rares (> lvl 68). But atm ectos aren't very expensive and so the difference isn't very high (about 50c per rare).

Thank you. I've been pondering on that. I'm not sure if this is mathematically correct but if the 25% instead of 20% chance of "getting rare materials" means that I have a 5% higher chance of getting ecto, that means for each salvage (with ecto possibility) I gain on average ecto_price * 5 / 100 coins, which at an ecto price of 16 silver would be 80 copper, which is greater than the price difference of 30 copper. In fact it's exactly 50c as you said so maybe you used the same calculation.

It's a higher chance on ectos vs. a higher chance on symbols/charms, so the ecto price is not the only thing that has to be considered.

The 50c come from a spreadsheet I created back when the runcrafter salvage-o-matic was released to compare the different salvage-o-matics/kits. As the prices are taken from the api, it should still be up-to-date: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qLrFPcTJeoM-QvYl49OwgEXHwfHVN_-R4aSKopr98xk/edit?usp=sharing

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Use Copper-Fed for Fine and lower, Runecrafter's for Masterwork, and Silver-Fed for Rares and Exotics.

[Daddicus.6128]

I use crude kits for fines and commons. I use copper-fed for masterworks. I use runecrafters for rares. I use Black Lion for exotics. I only use silver-fed for salvaging ectos into dust.

[Taylan.2187]

Does it actually pay off to salvage ectos with something better than copper-fed?

EDIT: Going by the following research, I guess it would pay off. 1.62 dust per salvage vs 1.85 which is a difference of 0.23. Even if we round that down to 0.2, and assume a dust sell price of 9 silver, that's 1.8 silver gained per salvage, which definitely offsets the 57c increased cost per salvage.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glob_of_Ectoplasm/salvage_research

Damn, I just salvaged a whole ecto stack with copper-fed. Guess we all learn from mistakes.

[Daddicus.6128]

@"Taylan.2187" said:Does it actually pay off to salvage ectos with something better than copper-fed?

EDIT: Going by the following research, I guess it would pay off. 1.62 dust per salvage vs 1.85 which is a difference of 0.23. Even if we round that down to 0.2, and assume a dust sell price of 9 silver, that's 1.8 silver gained per salvage, which definitely offsets the 57c increased cost per salvage.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glob_of_Ectoplasm/salvage_research

kitten, I just salvaged a whole ecto stack with copper-fed. Guess we all learn from mistakes.

While true, note that there are some anomalous entries in that research. The journeyman tier shows a drop. It's probably just RNG, but there are a LOT of journeyman entries.

[Roche.7491]

Suggest to get silver instead of rune.

99% you will be disenchanting basic, fine, rare and masterwork instead of exotics thus more percentage of getting a better craft material is worth it. The other 1% exotics which are only a handful, you can leave it to black lion salvage kit which will net you 50% rare material compared to the just 20% rare material from perma rune kit (more than TWICE as much) thus maximizing what you can get from your exotics.

This I think is the best method to get the best of result. Plus you will get free 100 gem or about 50-100 gold savings due to the price difference in investment.

About cost per use, Anything that’s copper difference is ignorable. Just like a cent.

[Hashberry.4510]

@Daddicus.6128 said:I use crude kits for fines and commons. I use copper-fed for masterworks. I use runecrafters for rares. I use Black Lion for exotics. I only use silver-fed for salvaging ectos into dust.

My understanding is the crude kits are the same cost as copper fed per salvage. Since you have the copper fed already, isn't it easier to just salvage all below rare quality with that?

[Daddicus.6128]

@Hashberry.4510 said:

@Daddicus.6128 said:I use crude kits for fines and commons. I use copper-fed for masterworks. I use runecrafters for rares. I use Black Lion for exotics. I only use silver-fed for salvaging ectos into dust.

My understanding is the crude kits are the same cost as copper fed per salvage. Since you have the copper fed already, isn't it easier to just salvage all below rare quality with that?

Crudes cost 32c for 25 charges. That's about 1.28c per use. Copper-fed is 3c per use, so it saves 1.72c per use. (It's also available for 28 karma from many open-world merchants, which would be basically free.)

HOWEVER, it takes space in inventory. And, you're always running out of charges, requiring a stop for more. To make it feasible, I have to permanently assign a slot in my shared inventory for one, plus a slot in each character's inventory.

So, that's a pair if trade-offs to be considered. (Sorry, I should have mentioned this in my first post.)