Crafting Materials

Crafting Materials

Crafting materials come in two flavors: common and rare. Crafters such as Armorers and Weaponsmiths use items like tanned hide squares, shells, wood planks and steel ingots to create weapons and armor, among other items. You can sometimes find materials dropped by enemies, and you can also get them by salvaging other items. When you need a specific crafting material—especially something rare—your best bet is to hit the Materials Trader NPC and bring along some gold. By the same token, you can unload materials you don't expect to use at the Materials Trader and get some of that hard-earned gold back.

Runes

Runes are arcane symbols that alter the very magical nature of a piece of armor. Certain uncommon or rare found items—especially magical salvage that appears to have no other use—contain Runes that you can retrieve with an Expert or Superior Salvage Kit. You will be notified when you identify an item that contains a Rune, and if it's not one you intend to use it might fetch some gold from the Rune Trader in town. Your character can only use Runes tied to your primary profession—your Warrior/Necromancer cannot use the Necromancer Minor Rune of Curses, but can use the Warrior Rune of Minor Swordsmanship. Note that the effects of Runes do not stack—if that same Warrior/Necromancer is already using Ringmail Gauntlets of Minor Swordsmanship, using that Rune to create a Gladiator's Helm of Minor Swordsmanship will give you no benefit. http://www.guildwars.com/gameplay/combat/inventory/