Guild Wars 2

It doesn’t seem uncommon for someone to buy an item for another character and not realize it would be Soulbound on Acquire. This isn’t the game’s fault — it says in the tooltip what you’re getting yourself into. At the same time, I don’t see the advantage of having such a mechanic in place for most cases.

I can definitely understand for personal story rewards or other character-based rewards — such as deluxe edition golem banker & hero’s band — but I don’t see how this mechanic is really justified for items that can be bought with account-wide currency such as Karma, Badges of Honor, or dungeon tokens. For the most part, this mechanic only serves to punish players for making simple mistakes.

I think this problem could be heavily mitigated by making these types of items Account Bound on Acquire, and Soulbound on Use. This would go a long way to make the system a little bit more forgiving than it is right now, without having to move things into complicated menus and make UI changes.

This wouldn’t stop players from buying items they can’t use or with the wrong stats, but at least the player would have the potential option of moving it to a different character who might be able to make use of it.

Anyone know why this is the way works right now? Could this system be improved, such as the suggestion above? What kind of exceptions should there need to be to the rule if it were to change?

What items that are currently soalbound on acquire would you like changed to account bound.

anzenketh.3759:

What items that are currently soalbound on acquire would you like changed to account bound.

Orr Karma Exotics.

Rising Dusk.2408:

anzenketh.3759:

What items that are currently soalbound on acquire would you like changed to account bound.

Orr Karma Exotics.

All Karma items are bind on acquire. Why would they change that just for the Orr ones?

Besides, you can get Orr-skinned items as drops that are Bind On Equip, so you can buy/sell them on the auction house just fine.

One clarification I want to make is the items should still be soulbound on use, but start out as account bound until you equip them or use them.

Items which I think should be account bound on acquire, soulbound on use:

-Karma merchant items
-Dungeon merchant items
-WvW merchant items
-Guild Commendation merchant items (Guild Backpacks, Guild Weapons)
-Achievement Chest items? I’m not sure if there are any soulbound items that come from them anymore.

Essentially, anything that can be bought with currency in your account wallet shouldn’t be soulbound on acquire.

Items which should stay soulbound on acquire
-Personal story rewards specifically tailored to the character, but not things that come from loot bags.
-Deluxe edition Golem Banker
-Deluxe edition Hero’s Band
-Birthday Blaster

I’m not sure how I feel toward cultural items or order items, but these are mostly bought for the skins regardless.

I despise the entire soulbind mechanic. I really, truly hate it.

anzenketh.3759:

What items that are currently soalbound on acquire would you like changed to account bound.

Every item that does that.

The only items that should ever be soulbound are items that you equipped at one point. Other than that, the soulbind mechanic is silly and should be changed across the board. I see the point in having account bound stuff, but soulbinding is just awful.

Huh? I bought Orr karma equipment and they’re account bound until equipped.

Well, it seems they have changed the policy, and now will exchange Karma-type, etc. items that are soul-bound for you, if you just submit a request.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Orr-Karma-Gear/first#post4445022

Thus, no longer an issue, though sounds like a headache for CS.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Well, it seems they have changed the policy, and now will exchange Karma-type, etc. items that are soul-bound for you, if you just submit a request.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Orr-Karma-Gear/first#post4445022

Thus, no longer an issue, though sounds like a headache for CS.

This was actually the inspiration behind making this topic!

I think that a proactive solution would be better than a reactive solution. Having to force CS to refund items every time it happens is going to be a huge pain for them. Think about how much work it would be if this happened even once to every single player? That’s a lot of work that can be avoided by a one-time change to the current system. It’s a non-trivial amount of development work, but it would be a much-appreciated quality of life change — especially for new players.

Yes, well, I was very surprised to see that post. I think it’s going to be a lot of work and … well, again, I’m just surprised at that policy change.

But, it’s all good for the players, so….

Best of luck to all involved!

I am so with the op on this. Just like all the collection items you can buy now. If you could use them on another character than buys them it would be so much better than just throwing away perfectly good gear, I hate the waste but want the collection

So I got the amulet and ring from the Grenth karma vendor at first, found I could put them in my bank and transfer to my other character, so went back and bought light armor from the same karma vendor, completely missed the small wording change between the amulet/ring and the armor pieces.

Sucks because my ranger uses medium armor, so I can’t even use it. Why allow something to be bought, knowing it’s locked to that character and it’s an armor class that that character can’t use?

I tried clicking the forum mentioned above, but it goes to a forum index page, they make mention of a forum reorganisation, anyone have the info that was mentioned in that post? What ticket do we submit to get it refunded?

Thanks

I think karma vendor items should stay soulbound on acquire because they are supposed to be a reward, if your character helps that merchant and fulfills that heart quest.

IF your alt hasnt helped that karma vendor, he shouldnt expect to get gear from him.

sacah.3481:

So I got the amulet and ring from the Grenth karma vendor at first, found I could put them in my bank and transfer to my other character, so went back and bought light armor from the same karma vendor, completely missed the small wording change between the amulet/ring and the armor pieces.

Sucks because my ranger uses medium armor, so I can’t even use it. Why allow something to be bought, knowing it’s locked to that character and it’s an armor class that that character can’t use?

I tried clicking the forum mentioned above, but it goes to a forum index page, they make mention of a forum reorganisation, anyone have the info that was mentioned in that post? What ticket do we submit to get it refunded?

Thanks

In the beginning they only had armor at the temples, and also characters had to
earn their own karma. Seems like the soulbound armor in the end is still a relic
from those days.

Karma became accountwide later, and then they put in jewlery and backpieces
at the vendors that were accountbound, but armor still is characterbound.

For the ticket, click on “support” on the top of the page and simply write what
happended and why you made that mistake and ask politely if they can help you.

good luck.

Wanze.8410:

I think karma vendor items should stay soulbound on acquire because they are supposed to be a reward, if your character helps that merchant and fulfills that heart quest.

IF your alt hasnt helped that karma vendor, he shouldnt expect to get gear from him.

There are no hearts in Orr ^^

Beldin.5498:

Wanze.8410:

I think karma vendor items should stay soulbound on acquire because they are supposed to be a reward, if your character helps that merchant and fulfills that heart quest.

IF your alt hasnt helped that karma vendor, he shouldnt expect to get gear from him.

There are no hearts in Orr ^^

In his second post, the op included heart vendor items in the list of items to be changed to ab on acquire.

Wanze.8410:

Beldin.5498:

Wanze.8410:

I think karma vendor items should stay soulbound on acquire because they are supposed to be a reward, if your character helps that merchant and fulfills that heart quest.

IF your alt hasnt helped that karma vendor, he shouldnt expect to get gear from him.

There are no hearts in Orr ^^

In his second post, the op included heart vendor items in the list of items to be changed to ab on acquire.

In the end it doesn’t really matter anymore since we have accountbound karma.
In 2012 it made some sense when the characters also had to earn their own karma
but now ..

And in the end Orr is the main problem since it now is only “confusing” when
a part of the items are accountbound and another are not because they were
added at different states of the game.

ipan.4356:

I despise the entire soulbind mechanic. I really, truly hate it.

Amen to that. Rather just get rid of soulbinding completely.

For the sake of immersion, it makes sense.

Wanze has already mentioned it. If you go help somebody on your main character and complete a heart-task, the heart vendor recognises you and rewards you for your efforts with a reward for the main character.

I also agree with Beldin though, currently the system makes less sense than it used to (when karma was soulbound).

However, on an important note, keep karma-bought items soulbound seems pretty important to me. It creates incentive to do particular tasks/control events on your alt (meaning more game-play/replayability).

Crimson Clouds.4853:

However, on an important note, keep karma-bought items soulbound seems pretty important to me. It creates incentive to do particular tasks/control events on your alt (meaning more game-play/replayability).

Soulbound on use is also totally fine for me. The thing with Orr stuff is that the
backpieces for example are accountbound on acquire and soulbound on use.

I also thought after i bought some backpieces there for other chars with my
guardian that had all WPs, that i could maybe buy an armor set for other chars
that don’t have the WPs now.
However i checked it closely before i did that because i knew that armor were
charbound in the past so i didn’t bought it.

Now if we see that the whole NPE was made to “don’t confuse players” this is a
thing that is really confusing .. and maybe also something that creates a lot of
extra work for they support.

Thanks Beldin, I’ve submitted the support ticket, see if they can help.

In reply to others, if I help a store owner in real life and saw him the next day he might gives me an apple as thanks, I can choose to give that to my friend, despite the fact my friend didn’t help that store owner. If my friend walked up to him though, he wouldn’t give him anything because he didn’t help him.
I understand why it needs to be account bound, but I think soulbound on acquire doesn’t make sense.

As far incentive for players to do particular events, it seems like a cheap way to force people to spend time in the game. There are many places and events I like spending time in GW2, Orr isn’t one of them, so why force me to grind my way there a second time instead of enjoying playing in other areas of GW2. This is what was meant to set GW2 apart from so many other MMOs, limited need to grind.