Talk: Bolt of Silk

Well, which artisan can actully make the stuff ?

Check the Artisan list -- Imbril Shadowfire 18:39, 23 October 2006 (CDT)

I added the artisan list in the acquisition section of this article. The whole article needed a lot of cleanup and clarification. -- Kirbman 17:06, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Canthan Silk Drops

I have been seeing fairly regular drops of Bolts Of Silk from Jade Brotherhood in Bukdek Byway while farming Wing, Three Blade.

Snorkasaurus 14:21, 18 December 2006 (CST)

True, but after many, many runs I've encountered them rarely..—Teknikaali

Price of Silk

Should there be a note stating that the Rare Material Trader is currently cheaper than crafting the stuff? Rare material trader is 120g per. Artisan is 250g plus 10 dust, 10 cloth... that's a touch expensive comparatively.

I think that is a note worth putting there. Maybe not include the current price, but clearly state that it's usual price use to stay below 200g, and the cost for crafting is still 250. — Stylva (talk)(contribs) 03:54, 28 January 2007 (CST)

Silk to Dust

Silk tends to have a comparatively low sale price for a rare crafting material. Since it salvages into Piles of Glittering Dust (or cloth), and dust has a high price as a result of its usage in three different highly desirable consumables (see Piles of Glittering Dust), the best use of silk (obviously dependent on prices) may be to convert it into dust for use in consumables, which can net as much as 3 to 4 times the sale price of the silk when compared to buying dust from traders. Even if the dust is subsequently sold it may net as much as twice the direct sale price of the silk.

One set of results:
--- --- --- --- ---
Silk sale price: 15 each
Dust purchase price: 230/10
Dust sale price: 120/10
Cloth sale price: 30/10

100 silk salvaged into 4xDust 42 times, 3xDust 37 times (275 total Dust), and 21 times into 3 or 4 cloth (75 total Cloth) This required the usage of 4 full basic salvage kits, costing 400 gp.

So silk worth 1500 gp when sold directly was transformed into 275 dust (6325 gp purchase, 3300 gp sale) and 75 cloth (225 sale).

Assuming the Dust didn't need to be purchased for consumables, the net value was 6325+225-400, or 6150 gp, which is a profit of 4650 gp. Even if the dust was simply sold, the net value would be 3125 gp, or 1625 gp more than the silk would render directly.

Clearly, the exact prices of Dust and Silk will vary and effect the results, as will to a much lesser sense, the exact results of the salvaging, but this appears to be a remarkably better use than direct sale if the above price relationships are even remotely true at the time of consideration. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by OBloodyHell (contribs) .

100 Spider Web (Elonian) @ 5 ea. = 500 in pocket 4 Expert Salvage Kit @ 400 ea. = -1600 You now have close to 100 silk @ 15 ea. = 1500 , so you'd be out 100 if you sold these. 4 Salvage Kit @ 100 ea. = -400

• 75 cloth sold @ 3 ea. = +225
• 275 dust which now have cost you 500+1600+400-225 = 2275. That means 10 dust cost you 83 .

The condition at which these were profitable to sell no longer holds, the sale price is at 170/10, so the trader only gives 70/10 now. Buying 275 dust at that price costs 4675, so your reward for farming 100 Spider webs, if you need the dust, is a savings of 2900 . Worth it? --◄mendel► 05:30, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

My observations are tied more to having the silk sitting in inventory when getting close to a full stack (thus needing to dump it somehow, either by sale or by trade with other users, or taking up a slot with a full stack -- assuming you're not planning to use the silk to craft armor), rather than going out and farming it explicitly for this purpose. If you're going to farm, because you want dust, better to farm dust directly somewhere that drops it or drops salvage items that turn into dust. One of the reasons I used 100 was because my silk slot had over 200 silk in it, it wasn't going to be used for armor, and the price is in the toilet. So I reduced the stack by 100 by making dust out of it. The expense of creating the silk, while relevant in the "whole cycle" sense, is pretty much irrelevant as I wasn't explicitly creating the silk solely for the purpose of using it to make dust. I just didn't have any use for it at that point, nor did I see any use coming up, so I was looking to reduce the stack size. Judging from your numbers there, it probably still paid for itself as long as I wasn't planning to sell the dust, but instead meant that I didn't have to buy it or spend the time farming dust. And as far as "the conditions", I've noticed that the price of dust has been running higher of late. 170gp seems like a lower bound, not an upper one. And I also wasn't really suggesting that one sell dust, but instead presumed that the person in question would use it in place of buying it when short for crafting purposes. More than likely, the main utility of this is that one might salvage a dozen or two bolts to make up a shortfall when making one of the consumables, rather than buying dust, or spending a bunch of time farming it. I never like farming things, it's more of a necessary chore sometimes than a desirable activity. Recycling the excess silk that I wind up with saves me from having to do that. OTOH, it does make more sense to salvage webs directly to dust using a basic salvage kit, if you already don't need more silk. I have started carrying basic salvage kits as well as expert ones, for similar reasons in regard to other things. I know people who prefer to save inventory slots and never carry basic kits, though. They do a lot less salvaging as a whole, generally, whereas I salvage anything that isn't worth selling, and often salvage things while on a vanq, rather than throwing them away.

That seems like a pretty niche use man. You happen to have silk and you need dust so you salvage it? Isn't it just enough to say that it salvages into dust then man? No distinguishing features 18:13, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Basically. --- -- (contribs) (talk) 18:15, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Farming?

In the article format update I did just now, I left out all the notes about farming because, seriously, who needs to farm this anymore? It drops so commonly and salvages from so many things that I usually have more than enough. The notes also seemed somewhat outdated, and I wasn't sure how to bring them up-to-date. If anyone else feels like doing so, go ahead. —Dr Ishmael 03:19, April 1, 2010 (UTC)