Why ascended items are account-bound and Legendaries are not?

[Nabbut.7480]

Makes no sense to me... why do I have to go through difficult process to get ascended but can get Legendary by mining Copper in Queensdale or unloading a wallet? It is upside-down to what it should be.

[Zok.4956]

@paShadoWn.5723 said:Makes no sense to me... why do I have to go through difficult process to get ascended but can get Legendary by mining Copper in Queensdale or unloading a wallet? It is upside-down to what it should be.

Only the first generation legendary weapons are not account bound. All other legendary gear (weapons, armor, back items, trinkets) is account bound.

And it would take a lot of time to farm copper in Queensdale to have enough gold to buy a legendary weapon in the AH. :)

[Danikat.8537]

I think it was an oversight, which would have been too controversial to change later on.

When the game was first released ascended did not exist. The highest tier was exotic and legendaries had identical stats to exotic weapons. Both exotics and gen 1 legendaries (the only ones which existed at the time) started off tradable and then became soul bound on use, so they were equal.

Ascended equipment was added in response to players complaining that getting to level 80 and getting exotic equipment was too quick and easy and then there was nothing to aim for. (A lot of other 'end game' goals were absent in those days too, the only purely level 80 map was Cursed Shore, there was no living story, no Fractals, no collections etc.) Because ascended items were intended to be long-term goals, awarded by playing some of the hardest content (the first ascended equipment only dropped from Fractals and couldn't be crafted) they were account bound on acquire, so you had to actually earn them yourself.

When ascended weapons were introduced legendaries were upgraded to have the same stats as ascended (and Anet confirmed legendaries would always be top tier, whatever that would be) and went from soul bound on use to account bound on use, again to match ascended. But they stayed tradable, probably because by then there were dozens of legendaries for sale on the Trading Post, the idea of selling them to make a profit or buying them to skip crafting one was established among players and changing it would have left lots of people with legendaries they didn't actually want from returned sell orders, lots of other people unable to get one by the method they had chosen and both groups resentful that other people had managed to use that option by doing it before the update came along.

And that's been the case pretty much ever since - whenever and however they changed gen 1 legendaries to account bound on acquire it would upset a lot of people. I can't remember if Anet actually said in retrospect they realised it was a mistake to make them tradable at all, but that certainly seems to be their thinking with making all the later ones account bound on acquire.

[Nabbut.7480]

Thanks for the historical insight :D

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I'm not sure if ArenaNet thought it was a 'mistake' to start with Legendaries able to be traded, and thus changed them, or listened to the feedback over the years that players thought being able to just 'buy' a Legendary sort of cheapened the whole pursuit. Thus, Gen 2 Legendaries weren't able to be traded.

[DeanBB.4268]

And honestly, if you are mining copper to buy a legendary, you could use that same gold to buy all you need to make ascended. Yes, you'd have to learn the crafting and make the stuff, but you could buy your way there fairly easily.

[Deedrick.4372]

@DeanBB.4268 said:And honestly, if you are mining copper to buy a legendary, you could use that same gold to buy all you need to make ascended. Yes, you'd have to learn the crafting and make the stuff, but you could buy your way there fairly easily.

It would be cheaper to do this too. You still have to have 400 in multiple crafting for gen 1 legendary. Not to mention the map completion.

[Evil Seabass.5214]

In my opinion, Account Bound nonsense should go away. I should be able to sell whatever gear I dont plan to use. For example, I have received 4 Drakkar Hoard drops over the last few months, but I already have too many ascended weapons not being used, and I'm not a huge fan of the skins. I wish I could simply sell them on the TP and get the gold instead. Same thing goes for Exotic loot from Fractals, that stuff is account bound, which is absolutely pointless.

[Emberfoot.6847]

@Evil Seabass.5214 said:In my opinion, Account Bound nonsense should go away. I should be able to sell whatever gear I dont plan to use. For example, I have received 4 Drakkar Hoard drops over the last few months, but I already have too many ascended weapons not being used, and I'm not a huge fan of the skins. I wish I could simply sell them on the TP and get the gold instead. Same thing goes for Exotic loot from Fractals, that stuff is account bound, which is absolutely pointless.

And equally I wish I could buy it, as I have far too many chars to farm it for. Gotta say though I do understand why they did acct bind it though.

[sasya neko.1985]

well, they do have a ascended filter in the TP, not being able to buy them is a waste of resources on the TP part.

[Bursting.1976]

I got the gift of aurene from dragonfall meta yesterday and it's account bound. Would love to be able to sell it since I'm not interested in min-maxing gear, but it's not a big deal.

[Hesione.9412]

@Evil Seabass.5214 said:In my opinion, Account Bound nonsense should go away. I should be able to sell whatever gear I dont plan to use. For example, I have received 4 Drakkar Hoard drops over the last few months, but I already have too many ascended weapons not being used, and I'm not a huge fan of the skins. I wish I could simply sell them on the TP and get the gold instead. Same thing goes for Exotic loot from Fractals, that stuff is account bound, which is absolutely pointless.

If only I could buy the Tequatl skins. I only have 5 of them and do that meta every day. I want the skins, not necessarily the weapon.

[Dante.1508]

@Evil Seabass.5214 said:In my opinion, Account Bound nonsense should go away. I should be able to sell whatever gear I dont plan to use. For example, I have received 4 Drakkar Hoard drops over the last few months, but I already have too many ascended weapons not being used, and I'm not a huge fan of the skins. I wish I could simply sell them on the TP and get the gold instead. Same thing goes for Exotic loot from Fractals, that stuff is account bound, which is absolutely pointless.

100% agree.

[Ashantara.8731]

@paShadoWn.5723 said:Makes no sense to me...

Once used, they become account bound and can no longer be sold at the Trading Post.