I think I know where players are getting this “vendor everything” mentality. In WoW, most items that drop from bosses are “soulbound”, meaning they cannot be traded or sold to other players. If you are not an enchanter, you have no choice but to vendor or destroy these bound items. So, to put this in WoW terms, everyone in Diablo III is an enchanter. There exists an NPC in the game, known as the “Artisan Blacksmith”, who allows you to “salvage” equipment. This is essentially the option to disenchant any magical or above quality items, breaking them down into crafting materials. These materials are far more valuable than the pittances you would get from vendoring the equipment. Plus, the crafting materials are used to create more magical items, which you can then either use, place on the auction house, or salvage.
Quite often, while leveling, you’ll pick up magical items that you either outlevel by an enormous margin, are itemized poorly, or you cannot use. Salvage should ideally be used on any items that not only you cannot use, but no one else would ever want. Items that do +1 extra damage, +2 life per kill are generally considered to be poor choices, even while leveling.
There are some items, however, that I advise not salvaging, even if they seem poor at first glance. In order to save you lots of time with your next character, I urge you to save any decent experience gear that you find. Even if it’s level five, save your experience gear!
Why? Because experience gear can cut your leveling time by as much as 20%. The only problem is that you need to keep upgrading your gear or else the bonus experience won’t be enough for your current level. Having a bunch of sets of experience gear every few levels will help immensely. You don’t need to have complete sets, just a few pieces to make a difference on your next character, and the next, and the next…
The other type of gear I recommend not getting rid of is Gold Find. You’ve probably seen me mention this attribute a few times before, but it’s for good reason. This stat increases the amount of gold you come across through monster drops, chests, and other containers by a percentage. If you wear a full set of this type of gear, you could double or triple your gold acquisition rate! However, this will mean your leveling time is slower than if you were using experience gear.
Looking for more tips and strategies on how to get real money from salvaging items? I recommend picking up my guide on how to make cash with Diablo 3 gold.
