Binding Your Equipment

QUESTION

I've heard that I can bind equipment to my character. Why would I want to bind my gear? How does this work?

ANSWER

Binding is a pretty simple mechanic. Binding refers to making an item "soul bound." When a piece of armor or equipment is soul bound it does not leave your character upon death; it travels with you to your resurrection point. The benefit to binding your gear to your character is that you don't have to trek "naked" to retrieve your tombstone, but instead have the protection of your armor and weapon(s).

The down side to this is that you can't sell or trade soul bound items with other players. This also means that you can't list them for sale on a broker. You can, however, sell them to a vendor, but the payment you'll receive from a vendor is almost always significantly less than what you might have earned by selling to another player.

How does binding work? To bind your gear you'll need to go to a general goods vendor (you'll find them all over Telon in cities, villages and outposts). Purchase binding crystals. Each crystal has 10 charges, allowing you to bind 10 items. To bind an item, simply open your inventory and right click your crystal. When you've done this, you'll see a red exclamation point by your cursor. Hover your cursor over the item you wish to bind and right click again to bind it.

Binding is a personal decision. Many players choose to carry alternate armor sets on their mounts (mounts are soul bound by default) instead of binding their gear. Others bind crucial gear (such as a weapon) and leave the rest. Still others aren't worried about naked corpse runs, and don't mind recovering their gear along with their tombstone. But if you're anxious about being without your gear, and you don't mind missing out on any profit you might have made by selling your stuff when your character outgrows it, then binding may be the route to take.

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