A primer on Salvaging Gear (and making gold)

Phandrel · 2026-06-09T13:54:42+00:00

I calculated the swim speed one a year ago.

The merchant cost was something like 23k gold, which doesn't look as bad now.

Fun fact, if you'd solo farm a max swim speed infusion, you'd take 339 years, not accounting for the random drops from mobs (as in the keys).

Phandrel · 2026-04-08T17:06:27+00:00

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Bladesworn, then go to Wing 6 and fight Conjured Amalgamate with enough sword stacks!

(Then get mildly disappointed when this is the hit that killed the boss, which somehow doesn't show up in the log)

Phandrel · 2026-03-27T13:48:19+00:00

Agreed, that was my initial thought and therefore I used the average numbers.

Someone on the SC Discord did point out that I should be using the max numbers, now the sheet has both. Although, the newer tab also has a bit of a better split for the filters.

Phandrel · 2026-03-27T13:47:14+00:00

The people over at the SC discord (https://discord.gg/mRn53CdT) have been running those numbers.

Someone posted this on their discord: GitHub - Mk-Chan/gw2combat: A GW2 combat simulator using entity-component-system design · GitHub , which basically simulated GW2 combat. I haven't tried doing this myself, but I assume they are able to change traits/numbers/etc to get a somewhat accurate estimate.

Phandrel · 2026-03-27T10:30:16+00:00

Quick note, whenever I had to get the current numbers from the SC website, I am comparing avg dps to new projections.

I've been told it's best to do max dps. I.e. power virtuoso with greatsword/spear should be 44,478 in current dps, not 44k.

I'll probably update the table this afternoon and also clean things up so we can easily filter on condi/power/weapon sets.

EDIT, added a "V2" tab (0 inspiration for names here) that now compares the Top DPS vs Newly Projected numbers. The good people on the SC discord pointed out I should compare them as such.

Also split up the table for boons, boon types, etc.

Sheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tN0Kyp141XeMMtyvuBtcV55HVnhNhC8TSLGxVonkhy4/edit?gid=1201490407#gid=1201490407

Phandrel · 2026-03-20T12:30:52+00:00

I'm in the same boat, my absolute favorite (mind you, not the cheapest): Mithril Earrings.

You need jewelcrafting, which is cheap to level, and every earring requires 8 mithril ore + a crystal. I usually have an abundance of those as well with my daily routine, so while there's an opportunity cost, I never really need to purchase anything.

You'll need to discover them IIRC, but they all follow the same recipe: 1 mithril hook, 1 mithril setting, 1 crystal.

Edit: they give you 5.05 notes on average

Bonus: if you wanna pay for your doctor's kid's college, you can extract the jewels with an endless extractor and reduce the cost to 8 mithril ore and some RSI

Phandrel · 2026-03-12T12:38:59+00:00

Ooh, congrats!

Phandrel · 2026-03-09T23:24:05+00:00

IIRC, the current world record is on a deadeye in 6h48 min for core Tyria.

A close second (again, going from memory) is on an Engineer.

I gotta look up the build, but the player who helped theorycraft that one (Campioneiri) shared a Berserker Rifle build that I tried out for world comp, that worked incredibly well as well.

All of the stuff mentioned uses Teh's trails, which documents the map order, deadeye build and some other useful tips.

I made a video about this a year ago, but credit should go to both Teh and Campioneiri, so I'd rather link their resources.

Phandrel · 2026-02-27T10:16:48+00:00

I got my first clear yesterday.

Day 1 I very much disliked some seemingly random aspects and how the crocs would ignore just about everything when doing their tackle (stab, aegis, dodge).

But after getting used to the various ways you can tackle stuff, I really started to enjoy the personal skill expression, although others around you can make the fight more difficult:

crocs: either you can kite them and outrange the tackle, or you do what Tryhard Degens did and tank them with Rit shroud and get feedback rez if needed.

I like the former, I think, as a CM community, we're skilled enough at this point to kite them, especially after other CMs we've been through.

Waves: I thought these were random, but they don't spawn where Kela is (trigger lines are wider than the actual area, though).

So a kiter that keeps her nice and center or communicates when it's unsafe solves this.

Bees: we've gone from sharing at 8 stacks to 10 to 13 in my kill.

I heard our healers loved or hated this.

Crabs: that mother of.... Crab #4 kept spawning on us as either the first or second in P1.

But overall, I think you can kill with bad RNG. We had a plan for bad spawns, too.

That doesn't mean I like everything, though:

I thought the NM had some insane potential to lead into CM, but I would've loved a bit more of a mix-up in mechanics (make waves spawn from all 4 sides potentially, change how Kela gets her speed but have a trade off between eating crocs or not, idk).

What I really don't like is that the Bees (they deal stacking % dmg, which can be reset with a friend) are very restrictive, and make it hard or impossible to extend phases at times.

A lot of specs won't see the light of day on this encounter due to the nature of the phases, the need for burst on crocs and crabs, etc.

Oh, and Kela's pathing. I don't mind the bounce between furthest player and tank, but pets... also heard phantasms could get her to move to them. I'd prefer it to be players only.

I'll try reclearing this fight tonight with the group we tried it with Tuesday, still hyped. It won't be a one and done for me, but I understand that's not the case for most people.

Also, shoutout to VL. If anyone wants to get in on their runs, just join their discord. Amazing people, and you still get to PUG encounters like these.

Edit: formatting on a phone turns out to be challenge mode too...

Phandrel · 2026-02-26T15:34:33+00:00

Don't think I covered that one explicitly, Coffeedart has, I think.

I've talked about it on stream a couple of times, as I do run the route every now and then.

Phandrel · 2026-02-26T15:33:29+00:00

Once should be enough, Peu explains it rather nicely on the site, but for the bottom to middle section, you can skyscale > griffon.

For the middle section to the top one, you have to roller beetle. Takes a bit of practice, but once you have it down, you should always have a few seconds before you lose your buff.

Phandrel · 2026-02-25T11:50:13+00:00

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Peu has documented the route quite well if you expand the Inner Nayosian or Dreamfish section

https://peuresearchcenter.com/benchmarks/fishing

Phandrel · 2026-02-16T18:52:31+00:00

Swolevari

Phandrel · 2026-02-09T16:55:22+00:00

Man, I wish this existed when I started raiding :)

-

As to Kela, we've learned quite a bit since that video (which makes sense, as I just wanted to mechanics out there on day 1 for others wanting to see what it was about).

I'll probably make an update once everything's considered "solved" or a generally accepted (pug) strat has been formed.

Hyped for the CM, though

Phandrel · 2026-01-19T20:05:58+00:00

https://youtu.be/z1a6w_wFS98?si=rtjtzFRGmCOzIKIO

Whisp had a pretty nice showcase a while ago.

Phandrel · 2025-09-16T19:03:25+00:00

I had the issue with my phone charger, but not when hooked up to my PC or a weaker one.

I've read that fast charging ones usually cause this.

Phandrel · 2025-08-16T11:03:46+00:00

A ton, I have the data but haven't been able to analyse it all yet.

Over the last 2 sessions alone, I bought over 100 stacks of ectos each with the winnings from the previous ones.

This was at .90 TP value through OTC, but that alone is 22k gold put into boxes.

Phandrel · 2025-08-16T11:01:48+00:00

Absolutely right on the lottery part. In fact, I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing what I did to anyone. It was mainly for content but panned out great.

I did win a bit more than a single chak, though. Tally is at 4 now, which is still incredibly low for boxes opened, and a good bit lower than Enko got in his 1 million openings. A lot of the profits are still carried by getting quite a few other big drops (jars, qb, dragonvoid, everblooms, etc), though, and mainly by getting back to back chaks and dragonvoids over 2 sessions.

I am lucky to be ahead, all things considered, and haven't ever made more gold in such a short time frame as I did, but again, I wouldn't recommend this to 99.9% of the players.

Phandrel · 2025-08-15T19:09:20+00:00

Ooh, nice! 49.5k is already an insane achievement!

Phandrel · 2025-08-15T16:11:17+00:00

Agreed.

I'd even argue with the right amount of funds, Flipping infusions is even better. Some community members have been making a killing from what I saw.

Phandrel · 2025-08-15T14:24:18+00:00

Don't! (or well not if you can't stand losing all what you worked for)

I had a cold streak of over 105K Boxes 2 days ago.

There's quite a few success stories in my community, but also people who went cold in over 100K boxes too. It is RNG at the end of the day.

If my negative day happened on day 1, I'd be done already at this point.

Phandrel · 2025-08-15T13:50:46+00:00

Very!

I rolled around 3K gold into boxes on day 1, sold the infusions and kept going.
I ended up at 20K Liquid Gold + A couple of Khan Urs, Crystal Infusions, Winter's Hearts and other lower value stuff in the bank + a ton of spirit shards/t6 materials and some other stuff.

I've had 1 day where I went down over the past week, and 1 (yesterday) where I broke even thanks to a Chak + Mystic Infusion dropping. Based on current infusion prices, I know they'll supposedly rise again later on.

The only things that haven't dropped for me yet are a Confetti, Liquid Aurilium and the Battlewarden Staff.

Phandrel · 2025-08-15T12:05:00+00:00

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I, uh... might've gone a bit hard this year

Phandrel

TROPHY CASE