GW2 Profits Mystic's Gold Profiting Guide I wanted to share some knowledge, so I decided to make one thorough walkthrough and just direct people here: Section A) Table of Contents  B) General Tips  C) Producing your own gold  D) Converting other currencies  E) TP Trading  F) Miscellaneous Section B ) General Tips 1) Almost always buy through buy orders and sell through sell listings. It takes longer, but it saves you gold. Also, usually, you should undercut and overcut by 1c; not all the time, but at least do it on the slow items (fast ones it can be better not to because it saves you time and 1c). 2) Grouping several gold-producing methods together makes them more effective. This saves the 15% TP tax and gives you higher profits. 3) When you buy anything, always have an idea how long you plan to hold onto it, and how much you will get from it. And be realistic. "I will buy this expecting the supply will go down in ~6 months, raising the price 1000%" vs. "I will buy this, salvage it, sell it for 20% more". 4) The decision to relist or not should almost be a willingness. Are you willing to accept less profit from a quicker sale. You would be less willing when selling long-term investments, because what's a few weeks when you've held it for so long. And you'd be more willing to sell instant profits quickly so you have the gold again to use. And be realistic. If it's a high turnover item, it's not as important to have the absolute lowest sell listing, because prices will swing often. 5) For how much gold you have I recommend different proportions of TP investments:  <100g = 100% instant profits (meaning you buy and sell in about a day)  100g - 1,000g = 90% instant + 10% long-term  1,000g - 5,000g = 80% instant + 20% long-term  5,000g - 10,000g = 50% instant + 50% long-term  >10,000g = ~5,000g instant + rest in long-term You should always keep at least ~10g+1% on hand. This is an emergency fund, in case you need to pay listing fees, or relist, or you spot a really good deal, etc. These all, of course, dependent on your preferences. Instant profits usually yield better returns over the same time period (because they compound), but there is a limit to how many you can do. There are only so many exotics to salvage, materials to craft, items to flip, etc. until you're far enough down the list of good deals that it's no longer worth your time to keep going. 6) To salvage or not to salvage? If you are looking for gold (selling the item vs. selling the material), there is usually almost no difference. I've heard you should salvage cloth because that material is worth more, but selling cloth items also get you as much more, so I say it doesn't matter. You should do the same thing to everything to save you time deciding what to do. There are exceptions such as exotics and some rare weapons (unique, greatsword, staff, dagger), so I would price-check those first. Just be sure to use the correct kit if you salvage and which ever choice you prefer is fine. Section C) Producing your own gold (farming) 1) Guild Commendations  Guild missions can be done once a week and take about 1-2 hours. Bounty, Rush, Challenge, Puzzle. Total, you get at least 2g, 8 rares, and 6 commendations. The commendations can be turned into Sentinel's Inscription/Insignia and sold on the TP for ~5g. That's ~8g/hour (@ 40s/ecto). 2) Daily Dungeons  Each dungeon path gives extra loot the first time you do it each day, whih resets at the daily reset. Easy ones: CoF 1(2), AC 1(3), SE 13, TA UF, CM 3(1), CoE 12, HotW 1, Arah (123). ~5-10g/hour.  Fractals of the Mists has tiers that you can each get daily credit from: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, and 41-50. FotM is better for account-bound loot: ascended items and fractal relics and karma, but it does give decent income as well; ~3-4g/hour.  Edge of the Mists is similar to Fractals in that it's better for karma and badges, but can also give a decent income, especially if you actually fight the other zergs. 3) World Bosses  Less lucrative than they used to be, but if you hear that one is going on, go there. Can take less than 5 minutes and you get 1+ rare. That's ~5g/hour (@ 40s/ecto), but obviously can't be done continuously as there's not always a world boss going on. 4) Harvesting  Ancient wood and orichalcum are the obvious choices, but there aren't very many of them.  There is also Iron ore, Platinum ore, Soft wood, Seasoned wood, Hard wood. Each of these sell for over 1s, and there are hundreds of nodes.  Some node farming guides:   http://www.gw2nodes.com   http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Node_farm   http://pwniversity.com/gw2/farming 5) Champ Trains  Frostgorge Sound. ~5g/hour.  Silverwaste chest train. 15-25s/bag x 100 bag/(hour+hour to get crests) = 7.5-15g/hour depending on if you include karma and Spirit Shards.  Regarding if it's better to open champ bags on a level 55 (and get more T4 mats) or a level 80 (and get more rare/exotics), they are too close to say one is better (source). However, I recommend doing the one you consume more materials from (if you use lots of platinum and linen, use 55. If you use lots of ecto, use 80). This will save you from selling what you don't need and buying what you do, which saves the 15% tax. Masterwork bags should be opened on a level ~55, as they can't drop rares and exotics and T2-T4 materials are almost always worth more. For exact level, check This Tool. 6) Farming Locations  Too many to list, here's a good guide: http://www.almarsguides.com/gw2/farming/ 7) Daily login rewards  After 28 days of logging in, you have 55 laurels plus other things like coins, materials, exotics, and BLSK.  As mentioned below, laurels are worth about 1g each. That's 55g+ per month. With multiple accounts, that's not a small amount.  As long as you manually log in yourself and not have a program help you, you 'should' be fine. Even still, I recommend not going past 25 accounts. Section D) Converting other currencies 1) Map Completion  Can only be used to make a legendary. My order of making a legendary for profit is: Gift of Mastery, Gift of Fortune, decide which legendary will give the most profit, Gift of Legendary and precursor. If you pick the right legendary, you can get upwards of 800-1000g profit.  To decide which one to make, you'll need to compare the cost of making each one (http://www.gw2legendary.com) to the price they sell for (http://www.gw2spidy.com). Find the top 5 or so, then hand-calculate the cost (gw2legendary calculates it as if you get a clover every time), then check the past week of sales for those legendaries and see what price they actually sell for. Take your time when decided which one(s) to make carefully - it could be the difference between 500g and 900g, so spending an hour to do this is definitely worth it.  Worth around 300g each gift of exploration, or 600g for map completion. This can take ~60 hours, 10g/hour.   http://www.gw2profits.com/forge.php?crafting_type=Legendary&order=profit1 2) Spirit Shards  Promoting T1 basic refined materials to T2, but it's very hard to convert a lot. Up to 1-3g/SP.   http://www.gw2profits.com/forge.php?crafting_type=Common  There are a lot of Mystic Forge items that use Eldritch Scroll. The non-'Mystic' ones can give ~50s-2g/SP profit, especially the ones that require dungeon tokens.   http://gw2sp2g.herokuapp.com is a decent resource   http://www.gw2profits.com/forge.php?crafting_type=Weapons  Making a legendary to sell. Requires other currencies, ~80s/SS, uses ~350 SS (see "Map Completion" above).   http://www.gw2profits.com/forge.php?crafting_type=Legendary&order=profit1 3) Karma  Beaded weapons give ~20-45s/1000 karma (but take a long time to purchase the beads).   http://www.gw2profits.com/recipes.php?order=combo1&search_name=&search_ingredients=%22sun+bead%22&limit=100&exclude=  Bloodtide linen armor (Archen Foreland, near Sorrowful WP, Bram Dawnrazer, fine Cloth Crab Grabbin' Gloves), throwing it in the MF, and salvaging the output gives ~8s/1000 karma (@ 5s/linen scrap), but takes a while to buy and MF.  Lost orrian jewelry boxes is the easiest and fastest but only gives ~3.5s/1000 karma.  Making a legendary to sell. Requires other currencies, ~25s/1000 karma, uses ~1,000,000 karma (see "Map Completion" below).   http://www.gw2profits.com/forge.php?crafting_type=Legendary&order=profit1 4) Laurels  Heavy Crafting Bag gives 3 T6 fine mats for 1 laurel. ~1g/laurel 5) Map-specific currencies  Bandit crests can be converted through Bandit Skeleton Keys ("Champ Train" above, ~15s/crest) or Bag of Stolen Goods (~40c/crest) or Sandy Bag of Gear (~20c/crest) or obsidian shards (210 karma/crest)  Geodes can be converted through Clay Pots, ~4s/Geode from T6 6) Guild Commendations  As mentioned above under "Producing your own gold / Guild Commendations", Sentinel's Inscription/Insignia is your only method. 8) Dungeon Tokens   http://www.gw2profits.com/salvage=yes (bottom of page)  Level 68+ rares to salvage for ectos gives ~1s/token (@ 40s/ecto).  Exotics and salvaging for inscription/insignia gives ~1s/token (@ 40s/ecto + 2g/inscription + 1g/DM).  There are crafting and MF recipes that call for the Gifts or Offerings. ~1-20s/Token   http://www.gw2profits.com/forge.php?crafting_type=Weapons   http://www.gw2profits.com/recipes.php?order=combo1&search_name=&search_ingredients=offering&limit=100&exclude=  Making a legendary to sell. Requires other currencies, ~25s/Token, uses 500 Tokens 9) WvW Badges  Siege equipment is the best option. ~50c/badge  Making a legendary to sell. Requires other currencies, ~25s/badge, uses 500 Badges   http://www.gw2profits.com/forge.php?crafting_type=Legendary&order=profit1 9) Guild Influence  Your only option for selling is to build Guild Catapult Blueprints. You need to go to WvW to active them and get them in your inventory. ~25c/influence Section E) TP Trading 1) Spread  Buy order low, sell listing high. The plan here is, for example, to buy items for 1g and sell them for 2g.  You should use a website (http://www.gw2tp.com/search) to help you locate where these spreads are and a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.  If you see a spread that is too good to be true (such as buy for 10s, sell for 10g), it is.   http://www.gw2profits.com/spread.php?order=type&min_total_profit=5000&min_profit=100&max_profit=500&affect=100 2) Speculating  Buy an item for cheap, wait a few months, sell it for expensive.  Limited-time items are a good bet (Living story, holidays, Gem Store dyes, Black Lion specialist weapons, etc.).  Sometimes you can predict when a common thing will go up due to an update, such as when ascended armor was coming out and people predicted T2-T6 cloth and leather to increase, because that happened when ascended weapons came out.  Stay current on recent news and general trends. The quicker you respond, the more profits you can make. 3) Crafting Disciplines  If you need to level your crafting discipline for the cheapest price: http://www.gw2crafts.net  Almost all limited-time recipes are profitable to craft, as not everyone can make them. Potent Potions, Halloween and Crown Pavilion sigils/runes, etc.  The intermediate items (components, inscriptions, etc.) are also profitable and usually have higher velocities than completed items.  A decent resource for this is http://www.gw2spidy.com/crafting/3 (and similar pages for the other disciplines). It gives a list, sorted by profit, of everything that discipline can make.   http://www.gw2profits.com/craft_everything=yes ...   This is probably the most complicated tool I made. First thing to do would be to max out your crafts (400 is enough for almost everything, but you should exclude any that are above your crafts' level)   My usual method for using it:    open it    Add / Remove professions until you get all the ones you have    Add / Remove what types of things you want to craft and their relative amounts (multiplier).    Select desired quantitiy, profit limits, velocity limits, etc.    Browser-search for 'watchwork' and exclude any that you can't make (these are the recipes only purchasable during queen's jubilee)    Browser-search for 'mists' and exclude those because they require shards of crystallized mists essences from FotM    Browse the 'Buy' list for anything unusual (such as Brick of Clay, Obsidian Shard, ascended materials) then browser-search for what it's used for and exclude anything you can't make    Browser-search for 'Recipe Required' and exclude any that you can't make (most of these are purchasable from crafting masters for karma)    Browser-search for 'Time-gated' and exclude any that you already made (it might be your daily routine to craft the Plates of plant food, so you can't make them again)    Check the summary of what it will cost you, and how much you'll get back. Keep in mind that you probably already have many of the materials, but if this is more than you are able to spend, go back and increase the '% Profit' or reduce the 'Amount to make' or reduce some of the 'Multipliers', then go back to the summary and see if that reduced the cost enough.    Have your collections tab open, start at the top of 'Buy' list, and make sure you have at least that many of every material on the list. If not, place buy orders on the TP. click the check-box when you confirm or order a material so you don't accidentally buy it twice.    Go run some dungeons or WvW or log off for the night or w/e (it depends what and how many you ordered for how long it will take to come in).    Pickup items from TP    Refine all your materials. Check the 'Intermediate' list for choices (such as refining Iron Ore into Iron Ingots or Steel Ingots)    Check the bottom of the 'Intermediate' list for unusual things you need to make (such as dowels, components, etc.), deposit all these into your bank    Go through the 'Make' list, crafting everything and clicking the check-box so you don't make too many. every 5 or so items, sell-list them on the TP (if you wait till the end, you're going to have a bad time, due to the limit on how quickly you can sell items)  Time-gated materials are usually profitable. Ascended materials, Plates of Plant Food, Grow Lamp  You collect lots of materials everywhere you go. Every now and then, you should probably go through your collections and sell things you don't need. When you do this, you have two options: sell directly to the TP, or craft them into something before selling to the TP.   Let's say you have too much Thick Leather: http://www.gw2profits.com/recipes.php?order=profit1&search_name=&search_ingredients=%22thick+leather+square%22&limit=100&exclude= 4) Precursor Crafting   http://www.gw2profits.com/precursor=yes  One thing to keep in mind: sample size. It's only a gamble if you do a statistically insignificant amount of it. With a large enough sample size, you will receive the average.  Find a precursor that sells for a lot, and the items that go into the forge to make it are cheap. Expect to pay a LOT (10,000's of gold), then sell a lot of precursors (100's). Not all at once, because you can sell the precursors as you make them, but you do need a large initial investment.  Don't blindly throw weapons back into it. Sell the expensive ones on the TP and use that cash to buy more than one cheaper one.  Some numbers I've found that others have reported (reddit's Nugkill):  1 in 128 attempts produces a precursor from exotics  1 in 782 attempts produces a precursor from rares  Average level + (5 to 12) = product's level, so an average level of 75+ is recommended (80+80+80+60 for example)  Only a level 80 product will have a chance to be a precursor. 5) Bags   http://www.gw2profits.com/bags.php?sort=sell&arrange=all  A lot of bags are profitable to buy, open, sell ingredients. This is fairly time consuming and gives less than 1s profit per bag, but a good source of cheaper materials.  The wiki has a lot of drop rates, https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Container 6) Ecto [and Inscription/Insignia] Salvaging   http://www.gw2profits.com/salvage.php?order=buy_profit&min_profit=30&affect=100&include=rareexotic  Buy level 68+ rare and exotic items, salvage, sell ectos.  It helps to know the drop rates:  68+ Rare with MSK gives 0.875 ecto  68+ Rare with BLSK gives 1.25 ecto  68+ Exotic with MSK gives 1.27 ecto  68+ Exotic with BLSK gives 1.66 ecto  68+ Exotic with MSK gives 0.52 Glob of Dark Matter  68+ Exotic with BLSK gives 1.00 Glob of Dark Matter  Inscription/Insignia with MSK has 42.55% chance  Inscription/Insignia with BLSK has 60.88% chance  "MSK" = Master Salvage Kit or Mystic Salvage Kit. Master is cheaper unless you have free Mystic Forge Stones from achievement chests. Free Mystic kit > Master kit >>> paid Mystic kit  For salvaging rares and exotics, you should use at least a master kit, see Luck Salvaging below for reasons  "BLSK" = Black Lion Salvage Kit  With the high price to buy gems with gold, BLSK is very rarely worth it. I made a formula for deciding when you should use BLSK:  If 1.41 x socket_sale_price + 2.66 x ecto_sale_price + 1.35 x inscription_sale_price + 5s > price_per_100_gems, use BLSK, otherwise use MSK  For a gem price of 25g / 100 gems and 40s/ecto, that means the socket and inscription combined need to sell for at least 17g25s (after TP tax).  If you have more BLSK than you are able to use, just reduce this limit until you are using as many as you are getting, but don't use all on cheap stuff or you'll regret it when you have an expensive thing and no BLSK.  Inscriptions/Insignia can drop from exotic weapons/armor with the stats of Cavalier (Tpf), Dire (Ctv), Magi (Hpv), Rabid (Cprt), Sentinel (Vpt), Shaman (Vch), Soldier (Ptv). This includes named exotics. They do not drop from crafted items (Pearl, Quaggan, Draconic, Emblazoned, Exalted), or from any of these weapons: Guild Defender, King's Remembrance, Poyaqui's Noggin, Occultist Flame, Scepter of the Highborn, Defiant Blaze, Faithful, Monsoon. All dungeon tokens except CoF have exotics that can be salvaged to get inscriptions/insignia.  Glob of Dark Matter can be worth around 1g/glob (by making ascended inscriptions/insignia). Check spidy (a href=http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/46681) before you decide which to make. Don't get into it unless you have a fair amount of Globs (21k karma to buy each recipe). Inscription require 10, Insignia require 5.   http://www.gw2profits.com/recipes.php?order=profit1&search_name=&search_ingredients=%22glob+of+dark+matter%22&limit=100&exclude=  Named rares and exotics drop sockets that are more expensive than normal, and they aren't as obvious that they do, so you can often get better profits from them.  What you need to do is first calculate what you should pay: (40s/ecto x 0.875 ecto/rare + 4s socket x 0.8 chance) x 0.85 TP tax = 32s47c max you should pay for a rare. There's also basic materials if you want to go that far. 7) Basic Salvaging   http://www.gw2profits.com/basic_salvage.php?purpose=sell&lower_limit=100  The most profitable way to max your magic find is to salvage blues and greens. (up to ~1s/item).  Average drop rates: Weapons  Long Bow / Short Bow / Staff / Trident = 1.85 Wood Logs  Scepter / Torch = 1.1 Wood Logs  Focus = 1 Wood Log  Hammer / Harpoon Gun / Spear = 0.9 Wood Logs + 0.9 Ore  Axe / Mace / Pistol / Rifle = 0.6 Wood Logs + 0.6 Ore  Shield = 0.5 Wood Logs + 0.5 Ore (sometimes give wood planks)  Greatsword = 1.8 Ore  Sword / Dagger / Warhorn = 1.2 Ore Armor  Heavy Coat = 2.45 Ore  Heavy other Armor = 1.35 Ore  Medium Coat = 3.1 Leather sections  Medium other Armor = 2.1 Leather sections  Back Piece = 2 Leather sections  Light Coat = 3.1 Cloth scraps  Light other Armor = 2.1 Cloth scraps Trinkets  Amulet = 1.5 Ore  Ring = 1.6 Ore  Accessory = 1.5 Ore  Level ranges:  Green Wood 1-20, Soft Wood 16-33, Seasoned Wood 31-48, Hard Wood 46-63, Elder Wood 64-80  Copper Ore 1-23, Iron Ore 19-55, Platinum Ore 49-62, Mithril Ore 63-80  Rawhide Leather 1-18, Thin Leather 16-33, Coarse Leather 31-48, Rugged Leather 46-63, Thick Leather 61-80  Jute Scrap 1-18, Wool Scrap 16-33, Cotton Scrap 31-50, Linen Scrap 46-63, Silk scrap 61-80  Salvage Kit info:  Crude: 2c/use, ~10% chance of promotion, ~5% chance of socket  Basic/SoM: 3c/use, ~11% chance of promotion, 20% chance of socket (use if socket > 9c)  Fine: 11c/use, ~13% chance of promotion, 40% chance of socket (use if socket > 40c)  Journeyman: 32c/use, ~14% chance of promotion, 60% chance of socket (use if socket >1s)  Master: 61c/use, ~15% chance of promotion, 80% chance of socket (use if socket >1s47c)  Free Mystic: 10c/use, same as Master (use when you get Mystic Forge Stones from achievement chests)  Paid Mystic: ~14s/use, same as Master (never use)  Black Lion: ~3g/use, ~17% chance of promotion, 100% chance of socket (use if socket + inscription/insignia > 70% of price to buy 100 gems ~10g) Section F) Miscellaneous 1) Item Storage (@100 gems = 25g)  15-slot Bag = 1g = 6s66c/space  18-slot Bag = 2g = 11s11c/space  20-slot Bag = 10g = 50s/space  Bank Expansion = 6x25g=150g / 30 spaces = 5g/space  Guild Bank 50 = 2,500x20c=5g / 50 spaces = 10s/space  Guild Bank 150 = 22,500x20c=45g / 150 spaces = 30s/sapce  Guild Bank 250 = 52,500x20c=105g / 250 spaces = 42s/space  New Character + 4×15-Slot Bags = 8x25g+4x1g=204g / 80 spaces = 2g55s/space  New Character + 4×18-Slot Bags = 8x25g+4x2g=208g / 92 spaces = 2g26s/space  New Character + 4×20-Slot Bags = 8x25g+4x10g=240g / 100 spaces = 2g40s/space  New Character + 3 Bag Expansions + 7×15-Slot Bags = 8x25g+3x4x25g+7x1g=507g / 125 spaces = 4g5s/space  New Character + 3 Bag Expansions + 7×18-Slot Bags = 8x25g+3x4x25g+7x2g=514g / 146 spaces = 3g52s/space  New Character + 3 Bag Expansions + 7×20-Slot Bags = 8x25g+3x4x25g+7x10g=570g / 160 spaces = 3g56s/space  Collection Expander: 8x25g=200g / ~349 'spaces' = 57s31c/space. Getting 1x collection expander is worth it if it saves 40+ bank spaces (or 80 spaces on a new character) 2) Websites http://www.gw2spidy.com  For the graph, you can click on the labels to turn each on/off. I like to get rid of all the averages.  You can get an idea of how many sales an item has by looking at the Sell Listings Volume. It's not perfect, but if you count every time the volume decreases, that will usually be a sale. That can help you identify at what price an item will sell. http://www.gw2tp.com is another good one, it updates more often than spidy and has different data representation. https://www.gw2bltc.com looks pretty good at managing all your sales and reporting successes. http://gw2.ninja/collections calculates cost of completing collections http://mygw2.wvwintel.com account viewer http://www.gw2bank.info account viewer http://orikaru.net/files/games/gw2/misc/bankValue.php account viewer 3) API  API is basically a website that you go to and it gives you information. Examples:   https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/items/30689 returns information about Eternity   https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/commerce/prices/30689 returns some sales info about Eternity such as lowest sell listing price   https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/commerce/prices?ids=30689,30703,30704 returns some sales info about Eternity, Sunrise, and Twilight   https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/commerce/prices?page=1&page_size=200 returns some sales info about a lot of items  Data is returned in json format which can easily be decoded into an array for easy data manipulation.  Some websites such as [url=https://github.com/rubensayshi/gw2spidy/wiki/API-v0.9]spidy[/url] and [link=https://www.gw2tp.com/api]gw2tp.com[/link] provide their own API's that make it easy to download all item prices.  If you're going to work with API stuff, I highly recommend saving the data you download instead of having to retrieve it every time you go to use it. Easier to work with and won't piss off those who provide API's.  There is too much to cover in one thread, so here's some websites that should help:   https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:2   https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/community/api   https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/community/api/Guide-to-the-Black-Lion-Trading-Co-API/page/2#post4612445 (useful to me at the time, but I think it only pertains to v1) 4) I am Evon Gnashblade  If you type "I am Evon Gnashblade" into the TP search, it will show more items per page. You can type it in again to reverse it. I think it is also undone when they apply a patch? Mostly, it stays even after you logout. That's everything I can think of. If you have find an error or have comments about this, or have suggestions, let me know!