soulbinding overused?

[apandapion]

I've occasionally gone skimming to see what the level 55s are wearing gearwise. (No, I'm not in the beta or stress test) Recently I've noticed a trend. If you look at pretty much any level 55 character, every single piece of gear except for the tabard and the shirt is soulbound. Almost all of the gear on any character I've looked at is soulbound.

Now, I understand the merits of soulbinding. Bind on equip increases the value of an item (because you can't recycle them, you need more of them. and thus the demand is higher), and bind on pick-up blocks twinking of uber items to those who didn't do whatever epic deed you needed to do to get it. But every single high-level 'usable' item binding is overuse of the concept.

Is there not a single piece of non-binding gear that a level 55 would stoop to using?

[Ruvanal]

Is there not a single piece of non-binding gear that a level 55 would stoop to using?

Not much and the trend actually is pretty well in full force by around levels 25-30. The biggest headache actually is the bind on pick up items. If the item is one that is crafted then there is not an easily practical way to make the item for trade purposes. That tends to push the highest end items into self made or ones that are found from repeated farming of certain areas. A sort of copycat of farming hell Mephisto or hell Baal or hell Pindleskin to get the best items to play with in Diablo 2.

[Tal]

This is something I was talking about on the Alliance side last night. I was lucky enough to be the only sword using mail wearer the night that Bolty found this Hanzo. (Thanks again Bolty :))This is one of the few swords that is fast speed, does decent damage, and can be equipped in the off hand. Perfect for a dual wielding warrior which my secondary alt Shalandrax is. Now that Sharanna is done using the sword I can't pass it down to her. This in itself would probably not be so bad if I could reasonably expect to pick up one on auction. But that isn't the case. With enchantment now getting its components from the break down of magical items and a large number of people stuck at the level cap for weeks means that they are buying up every blue item they can find. I'm hoping as they build up their magical components stores that this will allow me a chance to buy out another Hanzo at auction.

But yeah, I can see the reason for soulbound but think its silly that I can't trade a few of these items down at least once.

[MongoJerry]

A sort of copycat of farming hell Mephisto or hell Baal or hell Pindleskin to get the best items to play with in Diablo 2.

No, it's the opposite of D2, and I'm thankful for that. What would happen in D2 is that every new character created started having all of the best equipment for their level at every stage in the game. There was nothing special about having a Windforce, for example, because people would just assume that your amazon got it via farming with another character, via trading, or via a gift from an item-rich friend. I love that all of the fixed loot-table items are bind on pickup. That means that in order to get them, you had to actually be there when it fell and that makes such items more special.

Regarding wanting to pass hand-me-downs to other characters, you can save some of the "junk" bind-on-equip items you find as you adventure. For example, for a while, I saved a few guns for a hunter I had been planning to create. Will these items be the best items in the game for their level? No. But they still will be useful. One really can play the game with second-tier or worse items. And then when your character finds a nice bind-on-pickup item, you'll be glad and happy and other people will be glad and happy for you. It eliminates the whole "if you don't have the ultimate gear for your level, you're a noob!" and "If it's not the best item in the game for the slot, it's junk!" attitudes. And for that, I'm thankful.

[Tal]

It eliminates the whole "if you don't have the ultimate gear for your level, you're a noob!" and "If it's not the best item in the game for the slot, it's junk!" attitudes.  And for that, I'm thankful.

And yet I still get put down by some for my equipment. :)