Guild Wars 2

Transbinding Reverter/Restorer Idea
I realise that this has been suggested a couple of times, but i would like to reiterate what has been said before. Currently this is not necessary for swapping items across characters – even legendaries- as you can use the transmutation stones and splitters to do this with a small amount of drawbacks.
What is it
The Transbinding reverter/restorer would be an item that restores an items binding (soulbound or accountbound) to that of when it was originally aquired.

e.g.1 cannot be used on dungeon items because they are soulbound on acquire

e.g.2 can be used on precursor soulbound to player, due to this being soulbound on equip.
BUT WAIT – surely this means that if this came out the market would be flooded with so many items, everything would become ridiculously cheap and that would be terrible.

NOT SO
The price in the gem store will be substantially high as to deter people for using it on everyday objects. The idea is for it to be used on Crafted Weapons that take a significant amount of time and commitment to the game to acquire like Infinite light, Mjölnir, expensive precursors and legendaries ofc.

So then only expensive items will have a massive decrease in value?
No again, this price will be high enough to deter even people from using it and selling the expensive item on the Trading Post. Also if the trading post got affected by this item in a massive amount it would defeat the point of items being soulbound in the first place.

E.g. the price would have to be at least 2000 gems but probably higher.

That seems ridiculously high, will anyone buy it then? Who is it targeted to?

Well its targeted to a niche group of people, people who have spent that time and commitment to the game getting one of these items that is of significant value only to start playing another profession after equipping it to their old main or various other circumstances. The main thing that links them is that the item of significant value is on a character that is hardly played anymore therefore rendering the item mostly hidden away on a shelf, unused !
e.g. A player finally got bolt and equipped it on their thief, a week later they rediscover the elementalist and its gameplay seems much more inline with how he wants to play. The Thief is dropped and shelved played once every now and then. The bolt cannot be transferred to the Elementalist due to the weapon not being compatible with the class.

Surely thats just the player’s fault for equipping it?
Yes well he did equip it didn’t he.
BUT then again, that player just spent the last few months committed to the game playing/ grinding away for this reward …. that no longer feels like a reward to him/her. Surely we can make sure that he gained some sought compensation instead of the legendary if he wanted it?

I guess so

Well this game philosophy is to reward those who play the game, and if the reward achieved is no longer of any use to the player, does it feel like a reward fit for the player who committed this large amount of time to the game?

No probably not, but if we gave this service to everyone surely it would be abused like being used to unsoulbind dungeon runes and armour from prestigious dungeons like arah, or black lion skins?
NO because:
- the price would be high enough to deter anyone from being able to abuse the system
- this item has similar rules to that of the transmutation stones, it can only be used on armor and weapons
-skins and runes obviously do not fit into this category
But what about when you use a transmutation splitter on a item using a skin and you get the skin as a non-statted weapon after wards you ask?
Seeing as you just acquired the weapon as an account bound item, using the transbinding reverter/restorer wouldn’t do anything as you recieved it as account bound item … nothings changed.
You keep saying that there would be such a high price for this item, how will this affect what they get if they decided to sell it on the trading post as a profit?
well the idea is that they will get around 65% -75% of what you sell it for as profit after taking into account the cost of the transbinding reverter/restorer. This is so people again don’t try and abuse the system if possible and also even though they did spend all the time, soulbinding is a sacred backbone of the gw2 world that we don’t want to break but maybe stretch the muscles supporting it.
p.s. sorry for any grammatical mistakes i did try and check it through but i find i hard reading large amounts of text on a computer screen :)
p.p.s yes i have edited this post what people have said below, mostly because i realise this was more of a wall of text and i realise people probably wont read all the posts below after reading this one, i also hope this makes it more clear about what I am suggesting. i might have forgotten 1 or two points

Guess why it won’t happen ?

Money.

People spend too much on stones already, they won’t stop them.

I dont completely understand how people spending money on stones will mean that this idea cannot happen. Surely this would not decrease the amount of money people spend on stones.
All the idea is meant to accomplish, is to allow people to get some use out of items that are useless to them. This would also help the people that have items that are soulbound to characters they have deleted. To be honest I believe it would be something that could help the game, even though it is directed at a niche market.

This would be really, really useful, but only in a few situations where a transmutation stone/crystal would not do the same job.

Soulbound dungeon rune / sigil drops.
Soulbound Ascended drops (fractals, ect)

and even with the ascended drops, they are account bound on aquire and soulbound on equip. the only in-game item I can think of that you are stuck with regardless are the dungeon flavored rune / sigil drops.

and even with those, yes, you can apply them to some white / blue weapon and give them to whomever you want.

I’d love this feature as well it nothing else than for the convenience (which people will pay gems for: see unlimited harvesting tools) Otherwise I just don’t see it happening.

Look at what they just did with a thing as simple as new hairtstyles…

Gemstore.

Money, money, money.

They won’t do it if it doesn’t bring more in their pockets.

ahh sorry it took a re reading of your post to understand what you meant ;P, yeah it is part of their drive creating new products but then again look at the realm transfer’s they have a cool down on their use, and cost about 1000-1800 gems similar to what I’m suggesting. They could decrease the cooldown too a few days if they wanted or have none at all, i was thinking about the trading post when i suggested the cooldown. If there was none then they would make money

Good idea. A lot people sit on vision of the kists for example until they get that very elusive pre cursor and now dedicate their time to crafting a their legendary. Once obtained, poor ol’ vision of the mists gets get chucked in with all the old board games box you never play anymore.

Thank you ^^

I agree with this as being an option. I would go so far to say that I would personally be happy with an un-soulbinder that simply makes an item accountbound just so that I can re-use armor or weapons on other characters on my own account. I realize that takes away the option you’re suggesting to be able to sell the items, but at least wouldn’t potentially flood the market with items that other players have un-soulbound. I’d prefer a far more affordable price though than 1000-1800 gems. For a legendary, that seems fine; but for lesser exotics that you just want to give as ‘hand me downs’ to other characters, that cost would be far too expensive for me to spend. Maybe instead you could have legendary/precursor unbinders at the higher 1000-1800 gem costs, and then standard unbinders at like the cost of fine transmutation stones…where you get 25 for something like 800 gems. I’d spend money for those since I have some exotics that I’d like to give to my up and coming noobish characters.

+1 for unsoulbinding.

I’d pay for that.

I absolutely 100% disagree with unsoulbinding. It completely undermines the purpose of the action.

Sawnic.6795:

I absolutely 100% disagree with unsoulbinding. It completely undermines the purpose of the action.

I completely agree.

If anything I’d suggest tweaks to the soulbinding system, but I would absolutely oppose any way to unsoulbind any item, especially if it makes it tradeable.

Imagine the consequences – what if you could use it to unbind items that are soulbound on acquire? Suddenly you could get prestigious things that only skill can earn – like Arah gear – as a reward for farming gold.

…no, thanks.

Lasur Arkinshade.4107:

Sawnic.6795:

I absolutely 100% disagree with unsoulbinding. It completely undermines the purpose of the action.

I completely agree.

If anything I’d suggest tweaks to the soulbinding system, but I would absolutely oppose any way to unsoulbind any item, especially if it makes it tradeable.

Imagine the consequences – what if you could use it to unbind items that are soulbound on acquire? Suddenly you could get prestigious things that only skill can earn – like Arah gear – as a reward for farming gold.

…no, thanks.

I agree that this could have dire consequences if executed incorrectly, for instance the point you raised about dungeon armor.
Firstly (to Sawnic), I feel that your issue with it completely undermining the soulbinding process to begin with, I have addressed. I suggested that there should be a cooldown on the items use and the cost should be high so that this is not meerly used on cheaper gear or for gold farming. If the item was 1000 gems it was cost around 50g to use the unsoulbinder, I think this would negate most of the uses for gold farming.
The main idea for this item was for high end items that take time and ALOT of money to obtain, that are shelved away on unused characters or as i stated earlier – soulbound to deleted characters – . If the price is not high enough it could be raised to an even higher gem value, and with such a high value Arena Net would still make money from the product, and also the cool down time could potentially be removed.
And then , going back to your point about dungeon armor Lasur, all the item would have to do is return the binding to its original state of binding. This would mean that dungeon gear could not be affected and the armor would stay prestigious.
Thank you for the criticism it really helps melding this idea to be better

Just wanted to clarify one thing that didn’t seem to be being conveyed:
This item is for weapon that people spent alot of time and money creating like precursors, infinite light, Mjölnir, and legendaries that people are not getting any use of, and don’t plan to or cant.
The target audience is a niche group of people that no longer have a use for these items and would be able to get some compensation for working toward them. The price for it would be high to deter people using it for a large range of weapons and any armor (as it wouldn’t cost enough to make it worth it).
The reason the ‘unsoulbinder’ would only target a small amount of weaponry is so it would respect the trading post market, while still allowing people that have spent large amounts of time & money in game to get compensation for when that item they produced is wasted on them.
When taking into account the cost of the ‘unsoulbinder’ the compensation they will achieve by selling it or doing what ever with it will be reduced significantly but they will still get a majority of it (depending on the item).
It is not targeted towards cheap items as this will just flood the trading post with items, and they will all become ridiculously cheap.
Hope this clarifies what this item is targeted towards, thanks for your input thus far

Lasur Arkinshade.4107:

Sawnic.6795:

I absolutely 100% disagree with unsoulbinding. It completely undermines the purpose of the action.

I completely agree.

If anything I’d suggest tweaks to the soulbinding system, but I would absolutely oppose any way to unsoulbind any item, especially if it makes it tradeable.

Imagine the consequences – what if you could use it to unbind items that are soulbound on acquire? Suddenly you could get prestigious things that only skill can earn – like Arah gear – as a reward for farming gold.

…no, thanks.

This is why I would suggest an un-binder that only changes soul bound items into account bound items; thus still not trade-able but it’s still on your account as that ‘prestigious’ bragging rights item that you earned. As you play the game longer, eventually you’ll tire of one character and will want to move onto another as your main character. Might as well be able to still use those items you worked so hard to get. Of course, I’m also sure with the proper programming, it could be possible to separate the unbinding of those prestigious, karma purchased, crafted ascended, or other such “skill earned” items from the unbinding of your regular drops. i.e. Allow the unbinding of regular exotics (rares) such that they can be sold to other players, while only allowing the unbinding of prestige items to go from soul bound to account bound.

CattivoUomo.7198:

Lasur Arkinshade.4107:

Sawnic.6795:

I absolutely 100% disagree with unsoulbinding. It completely undermines the purpose of the action.

I completely agree.

If anything I’d suggest tweaks to the soulbinding system, but I would absolutely oppose any way to unsoulbind any item, especially if it makes it tradeable.

Imagine the consequences – what if you could use it to unbind items that are soulbound on acquire? Suddenly you could get prestigious things that only skill can earn – like Arah gear – as a reward for farming gold.

…no, thanks.

This is why I would suggest an un-binder that only changes soul bound items into account bound items; thus still not trade-able but it’s still on your account as that ‘prestigious’ bragging rights item that you earned. As you play the game longer, eventually you’ll tire of one character and will want to move onto another as your main character. Might as well be able to still use those items you worked so hard to get. Of course, I’m also sure with the proper programming, it could be possible to separate the unbinding of those prestigious, karma purchased, crafted ascended, or other such “skill earned” items from the unbinding of your regular drops. i.e. Allow the unbinding of regular exotics (rares) such that they can be sold to other players, while only allowing the unbinding of prestige items to go from soul bound to account bound.

I still disagree with it.

Why would they make it soulbound in the first place if they’re gonna allow us to unsouldbind it?

Sawnic.6795:

CattivoUomo.7198:

Lasur Arkinshade.4107:

Sawnic.6795:

I absolutely 100% disagree with unsoulbinding. It completely undermines the purpose of the action.

I completely agree.

If anything I’d suggest tweaks to the soulbinding system, but I would absolutely oppose any way to unsoulbind any item, especially if it makes it tradeable.

Imagine the consequences – what if you could use it to unbind items that are soulbound on acquire? Suddenly you could get prestigious things that only skill can earn – like Arah gear – as a reward for farming gold.

…no, thanks.

This is why I would suggest an un-binder that only changes soul bound items into account bound items; thus still not trade-able but it’s still on your account as that ‘prestigious’ bragging rights item that you earned. As you play the game longer, eventually you’ll tire of one character and will want to move onto another as your main character. Might as well be able to still use those items you worked so hard to get. Of course, I’m also sure with the proper programming, it could be possible to separate the unbinding of those prestigious, karma purchased, crafted ascended, or other such “skill earned” items from the unbinding of your regular drops. i.e. Allow the unbinding of regular exotics (rares) such that they can be sold to other players, while only allowing the unbinding of prestige items to go from soul bound to account bound.

I still disagree with it.

Why would they make it soulbound in the first place if they’re gonna allow us to unsouldbind it?

Yeah, but it’s still your account so why even make it soulbound in the first place? It was still the player behind the character that did all the work, plus if you accidentally soulbind an item that you would prefer having on another character you can at least correct that mistake. Or in some cases with soulbound on acquire items, often times you have no use for them on that character. Some runes for instance are soulbound on acquire but are random chest rewards. It’s not like you knew you were going to get them on character x when it would be better used on character y. Furthmore, to answer why they would allow us to unsoulbind them if they were soulbound in the first place: To make money, of course. Players will spend real cash to unbind some items, so your argument is invalid.

I edited the initial post, sorry if that makes you unhappy but it shows newcomers the idea in hopefully a more clear format than a wall of text.
It also shows more specifically what i mean so people don’t keep saying the same problems.