Relics of Ulduar to stay soulbound?
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 9th 2009 at 3:00PM
A poster in the general forums today outlined his, and many others, money making strategy they'll do when patch 3.0.8 goes live:- Save up bank-tabs-full of Relics of Ulduar
- Sell Relics of Ulduar when they are no longer soulbound in patch 3.0.8
However a response by Bornakk, a Blizzard Community Manager, reads "Is there a problem? Yes sir, the data on the relics is inaccurate. While things can still change, they may remain souldbound."
So in the typical Blizzard fashion of not confirming anything outright, they have more or less strongly hinted that relics will remain soulbound in 3.0.8. So much for the money making scheme.
The other downside to this is that many people were saving up relics to give to their alts. I know that I have loads of them waiting to go to whatever alt I decide I want to gear out. So much for that too.
While we'll have to wait until we see patch 3.0.8 on the live servers apparently, I wouldn't count on this change anymore.
Filed under: Items, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
infection Jan 9th 2009 3:06PM
Good. I am exalted with Sons and I destroyed my relics the other day to make bag space (around 89). This makes me feel better now.
Eric Jan 9th 2009 3:08PM
Nooo! I was going to use my relics to turn in for rep but when I heard that they would no longer be soulbound I was going to sell them / give them to guildies (340) and started doing more dailies. Almost exalted now and will have nothing to use them for.
Clevins Jan 9th 2009 4:25PM
This is why Blizzard needs to be less coy about things like this. Come on, make the decision already and tell players. If people want to farm them and sell them, great. If they're staying BoP, then people can safely destroy them if they're exalted, knowing that they're not destroying something valuable. But quit the coy "it may do this, but it may not' crap, make a decision and tell people.
CvijaFaQ Jan 9th 2009 7:27PM
Or wait until the patch actually goes live and then do stuff like this? Game developers should have the freedom to experiment before the patch goes live.
This reminded me of a Death Knight in my guild that power leveled Blacklisting for the 2H tanking swords that won't even go live.
uncaringbear Jan 9th 2009 7:55PM
Developers have the right to experiment and make changes as they see fit. However, they should also be aware that their changes are being watched by a very active community. For me, the bigger issue is how such fundamental changes seem to be made on the fly with seemingly little thought as to the long term consequences.
This seems to be a common habit with WOTLK. Guess this is inevitable with a huge parent company breathing down your neck to get shit out the door.
Starman Jan 9th 2009 3:10PM
:'(
They should make them Bind to account.
I have a @#$% load of those in my bank waiting to help my alt.
Robert M Jan 9th 2009 3:50PM
I think you are right and had hoped that Blizz would take more liberties with the BoA system.
As someone with a load of alts that can't ever seem to get into decent gear. I level almost exclusively with greens but my main is a lock enchanter and I often solo low level instances for the shards ( I can still make a killing with brlliants) it woudl be nice if I all the boss drops were BoA so I could then send the gear to an alt that can't get a run because everyone is in Northrend.
I'm often complain about some of the challenge that gets taken out of the game, and here I know i could appear to be a hypocrit, but some of the old world stuff is great and it sucks that so many poeple never experience it. At least let them give it a go solo at 70 or 80 and be able to pass the drops to an alt so it's not completely a wasted run.
It might also help with the damn beggars that are in the cities asking for runs. A 60 might be more likely to escort someone through the deadmines if they can pick up a pair of gold-flecked gloves for their twink while doing so.
Itanius Jan 9th 2009 5:46PM
Blizzard should definitely make more use out of the Bind to Account system, and this is a perfect situation where it would benefit the player without causing havoc in the delicate server economy.
VSUReaper Jan 9th 2009 3:11PM
So what are we supposed to do with the Relics when we get exalted? I thought that was the whole idea of making them not soulbound.
IMO, make them acct bound.
M Jan 9th 2009 4:28PM
You will use them for the original purpose intended: purchasing minor buffs for use in Storm Peaks, which .. um .. will work in Ulduar, giving you just a tiny bit of a boost to a brand new and supposedly tougher instance.
Keep saving them. Buy the buffs, and use them in Ulduar.
Corazu Jan 9th 2009 3:13PM
Or...they might mean what they do with Jet'ze's bell (sp?). Relics that have *already* been picked up are already soulbound, relics you pick up after the patch will not be soulbound.
Ergo, anything you stock now will be soulbound and only the relics you get after the patch will not be.
Possibly, though, with the drop rates as they are..just keeping them soulbound is probably a decent enough plan too.
zenpunk Jan 9th 2009 4:54PM
no... not 'possibly'. This doesn't make any sense at all, and Blizzard would never do it that way.
Corazu Jan 9th 2009 5:02PM
They're already doing it this way for the other items ( though they are BoP so the item can still be bound) depending on the way they have their item code - what I suggested may not even be technically possible - meaning it's either staying soulbound completely or not.
I don't see how my idea is flawed per se - it is something new, sure, but I can see how Blizzard might want to discourage the idea of farming up a bunch of mats and then selling them all.
crsh Jan 9th 2009 5:17PM
That'd only work if characters would "equip" those relics like it's a piece of gear or a weapon, which isn't the case because it's only an item like food/mats/anything.
If the remove the "bind on pick-up" part, then it's free for all (they wouldn't bind at all in any way), so if you already have them in your bags or pick up new ones, it makes no difference.
Corazu Jan 9th 2009 5:26PM
The item is still already bound to you, so it would 'work' that way. They're doing that with the bell, they're not unbinding the bell from those who got it before - so it could work this way.
Though, since it's not an equippable item, and won't be able to bind in the future, I will assume that's what you mean - then yes, but there's no reason they couldn't leave the ones farmed before the patch as soulbound.
Dominitus Jan 9th 2009 5:49PM
I was thinking the same thing, that maybe it's impossible for something to go from soulbound from un-soulbound, but I'm pretty sure back when they changed Primal Nethers the existing ones became tradeable. So it's likely that the devs just haven't concretely decided yet that they're making the change.
Codexx Jan 10th 2009 3:41PM
Every item has a name, stats, a description, and an effect that can be added in the form of a script. It would actually be MORE work to have 2 versions of the item, one soulbound and one not bound at all, then to simply remove the BoP effect and alter the description. To make two, they'd need to make a second item with a new ID and give it the same name, description, and find some way that both can be used for currency without displaying two separate tokens.
The best way to do this is simple: edit the item to remove the BoP, which will then make it a normal, tradable item. BoP items display as BoP when not in your inventory, and will be changed to Soulbound when you actually have them in your inventory, it's not a matter of unbinding old items, it's a matter of should they. Would that be something they want on the AH? If so, removing the BoP marker and editing the description to reflect that will automatically unbind all Relics.
Drakkenfyre Jan 10th 2009 11:20AM
"If the remove the "bind on pick-up" part, then it's free for all (they wouldn't bind at all in any way), so if you already have them in your bags or pick up new ones, it makes no difference."
They can still bind items to you even if they weren't BOP to begin with.
Back when they made plain letters BOP, if you had any in your bank, you logged back in to find them in your inventory, bound. People later complained about making them BOP, and that some people traded them around, so they removed the binding on them, lol.
Amaxe Jan 9th 2009 3:18PM
Well, we can buy the buff drinks in the Frost Dwarf city, which can be used in Ulduar I would guess. Once I hit exalted any surplus will go there if I can't sell.
Currently sitting on 280 of them so I can get closer to exalted (about 2/3 of the way to exalted). While it is a shame surplus won't be available to sell at the AH, it was rep that was my main concern.
I wonder if the farming that was done for Aldor/Scryer was a factor on this, and Blizzard didn't want it to become rep for gold
chuck Jan 9th 2009 3:36PM
I hope they stay soulbound. If they are tradeable, storm peaks will be swarmed with people trying to farm them. The only good thing is that there are a ton of mobs in the zone that can drop them.
I don't think you should be able to buy your way to exalted with any reputation. It cheapens the experience.