Relic binding - unintended consequences?

[Kyniel.4706]

As a long term, committed, but ultimately casual player I am quite surprised by the decision to make relics soul bound. 

I often hear from the community, and clearly from the renewed UI cues the Devs agree, that casuals aren't performing in part because they're not even using their equipment properly - either not selecting stats or just not equipping items. This is totally fair, but it seems that they see it happen but make a naive assumption that people do this simply because they are stupid and don't know that they could equip a relic etc.

In my experience, when I'm doing this (as I currently am - I've got a bunch of relics but haven't actually used any yet) it's because the game is discouraging me from trying them out. I don't want to equip a relic only to find it's not so good on my current character and now I have to farm for a while to get the resources to get another copy to use on another character. For players who have time to play lots, the costs aren't such a big deal, but for those with less time it's a fairly large risk.

Basically, if relics had been account bound, I'd be playing around with them and having fun, instead they're just clogging my inventory and adding a red exclamation mark to my equipment UI.

Am I missing some hugely important reason for relics to be soul bound? If we want people to be engaging with these systems (and therefore performing better in group PvE content) we probably shouldn't be putting up road blocks, imho.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Kyniel.4706 said:

As a long term, committed, but ultimately casual player I am quite surprised by the decision to make relics soul bound. 

I often hear from the community, and clearly from the renewed UI cues the Devs agree, that casuals aren't performing in part because they're not even using their equipment properly - either not selecting stats or just not equipping items. This is totally fair, but it seems that they see it happen but make a naive assumption that people do this simply because they are stupid and don't know that they could equip a relic etc.

In my experience, when I'm doing this (as I currently am - I've got a bunch of relics but haven't actually used any yet) it's because the game is discouraging me from trying them out. I don't want to equip a relic only to find it's not so good on my current character and now I have to farm for a while to get the resources to get another copy to use on another character. For players who have time to play lots, the costs aren't such a big deal, but for those with less time it's a fairly large risk.

Basically, if relics had been account bound, I'd be playing around with them and having fun, instead they're just clogging my inventory and adding a red exclamation mark to my equipment UI.

Am I missing some hugely important reason for relics to be soul bound? If we want people to be engaging with these systems (and therefore performing better in group PvE content) we probably shouldn't be putting up road blocks, imho.

Because they are exotic and not ascended.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

you will be able to go for a legendary relic that works across all characters in just a few months.

Edited September 3, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Teknomancer.4895]

23 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Because they are exotic and not ascended.

There are a few exotics that account bind instead of soulbind, so they still could have done it (although for coding reasons I totally see why they wouldn't). Honestly that feels like a side effect of the "whoopsie, we forgot legendary runes existed" thing, so they threw something together at the last minute but for whatever reason chose to make the ones we're given be exotics instead of ascended. It's unclear why, given that the game throws ascended trinkets at you anyway and that's all these are. I think that if the relics had been ascended (account bound) from the start, there might have been a little less outcry.

Ah who am I kidding, there would have been complaints about that too.

[Astralporing.1957]

4 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

Because they are exotic and not ascended.

Then the question becomes why they are exotic instead of ascended.

[Danikat.8537]

I thought it was weird too. My best guess is they want relics to be easy to get but maintain some value and soulbinding them means you can't trade them endlessly. But I'm not sure.

I'm in a similar situation to you. I've only picked relics for 2 of my characters, and only 1 each because I wasn't sure what to choose and didn't want to keep changing it. The ones I've done are my guardian who I mainly use for dailies and my main character's open-world build, so the ones where I can just pick whatever sounds interesting and not worry about whether it's actually a good choice. I will choose the rest later, but it seems like a bigger decision so I keep putting it off.

[Randulf.7614]

Soul binding is a bit odd in general in a game that promotes such much account wide features and equipment

[Zebulous.2934]

Wait are they soulbound because they are exotic? Or because they are coming out of a freebie container?

Crafted exotics aren't soulbound.  I assume because we weren't originally supposed to train a single character in every crafting profession.

That free armor set from a character hitting 80 has a ton of restrictions.

Has anyone crafted a basic rune to see?  Do we craft a specific rune or do we craft another multiple choice box?

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

Wait are they soulbound because they are exotic? Or because they are coming out of a freebie container?

Crafted exotics aren't soulbound.  I assume because we weren't originally supposed to train a single character in every crafting profession.

That free armor set from a character hitting 80 has a ton of restrictions.

Has anyone crafted a basic rune to see?  Do we craft a specific rune or do we craft another multiple choice box?

Crafted exotic relics are not account bound on creation so you can sell them on the tp, pretty sure they still soulbind to your character on use.

Edited September 3, 2023 by Linken.6345

[Zebulous.2934]

How odd.  Account bound would be enough to keep them out of the tp.  That is a strange choice.

What if my current build gets nerfed?  If my current relic no longer provides benefit to my current character, I would like the option to attach that relic to a different character that could actually use it.

It sounds like equipping relics is a risk, and crafting them a hassle.  With continuous balance changes, using relics doesn't seem worth it.

[willow.8209]

On 9/3/2023 at 5:29 AM, Linken.6345 said:

Because they are exotic and not ascended.

but why are they exotic and not ascended?

[Linken.6345]

2 hours ago, willow.8209 said:

but why are they exotic and not ascended?

Anet want you to buy for each of your character its a gold/material sink.

[babana.7521]

On 9/3/2023 at 7:06 PM, Kyniel.4706 said:

As a long term, committed, but ultimately casual player I am quite surprised by the decision to make relics soul bound. 

I often hear from the community, and clearly from the renewed UI cues the Devs agree, that casuals aren't performing in part because they're not even using their equipment properly - either not selecting stats or just not equipping items. This is totally fair, but it seems that they see it happen but make a naive assumption that people do this simply because they are stupid and don't know that they could equip a relic etc.

In my experience, when I'm doing this (as I currently am - I've got a bunch of relics but haven't actually used any yet) it's because the game is discouraging me from trying them out. I don't want to equip a relic only to find it's not so good on my current character and now I have to farm for a while to get the resources to get another copy to use on another character. For players who have time to play lots, the costs aren't such a big deal, but for those with less time it's a fairly large risk.

Basically, if relics had been account bound, I'd be playing around with them and having fun, instead they're just clogging my inventory and adding a red exclamation mark to my equipment UI.

Am I missing some hugely important reason for relics to be soul bound? If we want people to be engaging with these systems (and therefore performing better in group PvE content) we probably shouldn't be putting up road blocks, imho.

So true, I am waiting for other players to test and post builds I can copy,  I also don't want to end up carrying a bunch of relics on every one of my toon, I don't have many bag space to spare. I haven't use or open any relic box yet.

[Taclism.2406]

That's nice of you to assume its unintended.
As far as I'm concerned, that was a very conscious decision. "Something to grind" every update (more relic variety = new best in slot = spend again for the new flavour). Something that wouldnt be possible if they released legendary relics on SotO release.

[The Boz.2038]

Runes, sigils, jade bot cores; none of these are soulbound, all fit a "similar" slot and purpose as a relic, and all are exotic.

This did not have to be this way.

[Linken.6345]

20 minutes ago, The Boz.2038 said:

Runes, sigils, jade bot cores; none of these are soulbound, all fit a "similar" slot and purpose as a relic, and all are exotic.

This did not have to be this way.

And all exotics that go in the comparable slots are soulbound.

Try it with an exotic of any other trinket, backpack, weapon or armor.

Hint they will all be soulbound.

And I would love to see you remove a rune/sigil out of a exotic armor/weapon with out useing upgrade extractors, since that is what you would be able to do with relics.

Jade bot core is another system entierly dont have anything to do with the equipment panel were this is taking place.

[The Boz.2038]

26 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Try it with an exotic of any other trinket, backpack, weapon or armor.

Hint they will all be soulbound.

Untrue.

Also, black lion kits.

[Linken.6345]

54 minutes ago, The Boz.2038 said:

Untrue.

Also, black lion kits.

Oh you want to destroy the relics well you can just sell them to a vendor then.

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

3 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

And all exotics that go in the comparable slots are soulbound.

Try it with an exotic of any other trinket, backpack, weapon or armor.

Hint they will all be soulbound.

Incorrect

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forgotten_Seal

I do see what you are getting at though. It may not be apparent at first, especially given the ludicrous prices the relics commanded on the trading post on day one. But you are honestly thrown so many relics just by playing that you shouldn't be shy about binding the ones you got per character to try them out. They aren't at all rare or difficult to get if you accidently bound the wrong ones.

[Linken.6345]

24 minutes ago, Remus Darkblight.1673 said:

Incorrect

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forgotten_Seal

I do see what you are getting at though. It may not be apparent at first, especially given the ludicrous prices the relics commanded on the trading post on day one. But you are honestly thrown so many relics just by playing that you shouldn't be shy about binding the ones you got per character to try them out. They aren't at all rare or difficult to get if you accidently bound the wrong ones.

And it dont soulbind when you equip it?

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

3 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

And it dont soulbind when you equip it?

It does not.

EDIT: I am willing to be corrected in the event I am misremembering, but I distinctly remember using these from other characters before I had full ascended in the past.

Edited September 5, 2023 by Remus Darkblight.1673

[Linken.6345]

15 minutes ago, Remus Darkblight.1673 said:

It does not.

EDIT: I am willing to be corrected in the event I am misremembering, but I distinctly remember using these from other characters before I had full ascended in the past.

Looks like you are correct dident even remember these existed to be honest.

 

[godfat.2604]

There are actually quite some exotic equipment which won't become soul bound even when equipped, beside Forgotten Seal which is indeed one. So the tech is there for a long time. I think this is a conscious decision made by Anet, which is pretty typical, forcing players to farm new contents as much as possible.

I would love to see if they can change it because I also have a lot of toons and love to experiment, but it's not something I would have high hope.

Edited: Guess I'll share one. If I remember correctly, this set won't soul bind: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lunatic_armor and this weapon: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dreambound_weapons and backpack: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sclerite_Karka_Shell

Edited September 5, 2023 by godfat.2604

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

5 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Looks like you are correct dident even remember these existed to be honest.

 

It's a niche case though, your observation is otherwise consistent with how these things usually work.

[willow.8209]

there are even some less-than-exotic items that don't soulbind

for instance:
Trackless Boots - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W)