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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe limits and possibilities of Bind to Account
by Mike Schramm 
Jun 17th 2009 at 9:00PM
Aeuis brings up an interesting point over on the forums: even though some of the items we get are called "Bind on Account" (or, more properly, Bind to Account, even though most people use BoA as shorthand) they're really not that, because you can't actually send them across factions or realms. Of course, that's pretty obvious to people who've been playing the game for a while -- Blizzard has never really encouraged cross-faction interaction at all (you can "send" items through the neutral AH, though even that is a bit of a hack, not really the intended purpose). So BoA items are actually bound to account, server, and faction.But Wyrxian is surprisingly open about "future possibility:" he does say that while Blizzard could allow us to send items between factions if they wanted us to, they also wanted to leave things open just in case the functionality came into view in the future. That doesn't mean we can expect a change in the next patch, but it does seem to mean that Blizzard is still open to the "possibility." You'd think it be tough technically (character inventories are all over the place, especially cross-server), but considering that we can now have cross-server battlegrounds, all it would probably take is a tweak to the in-game mail system. One character sends an item, another character receives it.
And really, the only possibility that might come open is just ease-of-use -- that's why BoA and Heirloom items are in the game already, and if Blizzard determines that it would be easier to have you share items between your characters' factions and servers (perhaps if they upgrade the character re-customization feature to include a faction change?), then it will likely happen sooner or later.
Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Rylka Jun 18th 2009 11:42AM
You can mail BOA items like shoulders and pets to other toons that you have. Because you can't mail to the opposite faction, you can't send them from one faction to the other.
Case in point, I send my cloth shoulders to whichever alt I am playing at the moment so they can get the XP bonus. But, since my main is Alliance, my Horde alts are out of luck until I get a Horde toon up to 80 and grind shards for more shoulders.
Docseuzz Jun 18th 2009 10:35AM
What could be a neat idea is to buy the cloth shoulders and chest pieces, and then just send them alt-to-alt as you are doing leveling sessions - just pop them on as you turn in quests - and boom +20% xp for quests (which is how you powerlevel anyway), then put on your regular gear to go back to completing your next set of quests. Now an addon that does that automatically would be good - maybe hooking into whatever is used by the few addons that 'autocomplete' quests for you....
ValPal Jun 18th 2009 10:42AM
You're better off just buying multiple sets (if you need to be powerleveling several alts at once, that is). It's not like the shoulders are worse than the regular shoulders you'd be wearing at that level anyway. And don't discount the exp you get from mobs. It all adds up (especially if you're rested - which you probably would be if you're playing several alts at once).
Rylka Jun 18th 2009 11:51AM
What I would like would be a Goblin Delivery Serve, a neutral mailbox that can ship cross faction. Sure the rates would be higher, just like the cut the goblins take in the neutral auction houses is higher than the cut the faction AHs take, but it would be worth it. Maybe you would have to go to a goblin city to send the package, but ideally it could be picked up from anywhere.
You could make the service only available within toons on a single account, but I don't see that as necessary.
All this would do is replicate what we have been doing with two accounts through the neutral AHs with the addition that you would be able to move BOA items cross faction to toons on the same account.
The main problem with opening up any kind of AH or mailing between servers is that it would aid gold sellers in moving gold between realms. This is something that Blizzard will likely never do.
But a neutral mailbox that sticks to one server won't help the gold sellers more than neutral AHs already do, so this shouldn't be a problem.
"Time is money friend." Just sounds like a parcel delivery service logo. : )
Rylka Jun 18th 2009 11:59AM
Goblin Delivery Service that is. : )
Kendall213 Jun 18th 2009 12:07PM
They will never allow you to change factions/race. Humans get a 10% rep bonus, no other class does. People would roll humans to get the rep and then switch race/faction with all that rep.
Vinna Jun 19th 2009 9:29PM
then there are the people with multiple accounts, I wish I had a way to link them together, so that the BOA stuff could go between the two (or mail could be instant instead of an hour) Blizz knows those accounts are both me, as they let me transfer characters from one account to another.
My main account has the means to accumulate the BOA stuff (mass stone keeper shards. lol) yet it's the 2nd account who has the toons who could actually use the stuff. I guess I could load up a toon on the main account with the stuff, then pay $25 and move them to the other account, but I won't do that.